The arrangements for the duel were simple. They were to meet and fight it out in an abandoned desert with lots of open space to prevent collateral damage.
The time for the duel had easily been set aside and many surveillance spells were cast by countless people for them to watch.
Although there was no stadium or crowd, thousands were watching.
Keith stood still while cracking every bone in his body. His neck popped when he moved it side to side. His spine did too when he twisted it. Every joint and even the individual joints in his fingers popped as Keith prepared himself.
'That's a lot of joints he's popping. Same guy who one shot me in the previous loop. This time he'll go easy on me and I can get a lot more info. I wonder though, I get that he's some kind of Alien but why do all the aliens look so human? I can't really question this pattern anymore, considering I got isekaid. Oh well.'
Kiseki just stood there. Watching Keith pop all his joints. He thought it was frankly ridiculous that the being that instantly destroyed him so leisurely prepared for what would be an easy fight in this way. Before, he didn't do this before punching him.
"So who's attacking first? There isn't exactly a set time for when this duel begins."
Keith stopped moving. He looked at Kiseki with a blank expression and then pointed his finger at him.
'DANGER!'
Kiseki immediately spread his feet and lowered his body. The slash passed over his head slightly grazing his hair that had flung up.
'Invisible slashes.'
Kiseki inserted his hand into the ground before lifting the ground up causing a wave of debris to fly towards Keith. Kiseki began creating various sharingan simultaneously to hide among the flying debris and to keep the debris floating in the air.
Keith emitted a burst of red light that pushed away all the floating rocks and stones. Kiseki was right behind him and attempted to kick him his head with a flying roundhouse kick. Only for his leg to get grabbed and yanked towards Keith as he punched his balls amplified by some kind of black lightning.
Kiseki flew away only for gravity to suddenly increase and smack him in the ground. Kiseki was unphased by the extremely powerful attack to his crotch.
'I'm so glad I took a page from those Shaolin monks and trained my weak spots with repeated strikes.'
He immediately got up from the ground despite the increased gravity and prepared to block any attacks. But Keith just stood there waiting for him to do something.
'I'm not so weak that he isn't even pressured to attack me, right?' Kiseki thought to himself. Before he tilted his head as if shrugging his shoulders, 'Well he did one shot me.'
About a thousand sharingan flew up into the sky and stared at Keith. They all exploded in a burst of red light and blood as the space around him took on an illusory property.
He was locked down as the space around him was no longer a valid physical space. A perfect barrier that attacked the very integrity of physical reality created by sacrificing the sharingan he created.
He sacrificed another thousand sharingan to manifest an imaginary sword that would cut his minds image of its own body. Causing pain without physical damage as any physical attacks couldn't cross the imaginary reality that imprisoned Keith.
Keith clapped his hands swapping their places.
'What the!'
"Not bad. That barrier actually stumped me for a moment. It's rare for me to see something that very little of my repertoire can deal with. An barrier of nonexistent space that nullifies the laws of physics and therefore cannot be passed. It's a very elegant power."
Kiseki stepped through his imaginary barrier.
"Thank you for the recognition. Anyways, try this."
Kiseki sacrificed all the sharingan that he had reserved for his fight completely converting the entire space they were in from reality to illusion. Kiseki ran his finger through the air as the color was stripped of the air leaving a blank light grey streak in the air. They both no longer appeared as normal looking people but as artistic caricatures of themselves with bold colors and thick black lines.
"This is my world now."
For the first time Keith changed expression. He had raised an eyebrow.
"This is awfully familiar. Yet it's very different."
Kiseki crossed the distance and punched Keith right in the face. Keith rubbed his face that felt a little sore even though no bruise was visible in their current artstyle.
"Our strengths are equal in this illusory place. If you want to win you better use all your cards."
Keith stomped the ground with his foot... Nothing happened. He gave a wide smile showing all his teeth.
"This is very interesting! Let's see what works in this world of yours."
Keith gripped the air and pulled towards him crumpling the space between them. Kiseki lost his balance as sky manipulation pulled him forwards before he simply erased the ground.
They both began falling in a void as the sensation of rushing air from below began to cover them.
Keith reached out into the air and the entire space began distorting again.
'You're not doing that again.'
Kiseki reinforced the illusory space to resist whatever method was folding it like fabric.
The fight continued with both of them engaging in hand to hand combat with Kiseki drawing in all sorts of platforms, objects, and tools while Keith used sky manipulation to step in the 'air' of the illusory void.
"Just how many abilities do you have!"
"Enough for limitless application. I've had enough of this illusory space."
His hands came together like a flower. The Padma Mudra.
"Domain Expansion: Clarity of the Black Sky"
The illusory space was replaced by darkness. A black tower spread from Keith's feet as an orange sky manifested itself from a bright white sun behind his figure. Far below trees and greenery shrouded in darkness spread and black tilted skyscrapers bloomed from the ground.
(Image)
Kiseki had an expression of disbelief. Before he felt restricted.
'I can't move?'
He tried to speak but even his tongue was stuck.
'Oh so that's what it is.'
A rush of information flooded his brain. Not useless information but a sure hit information package that explained the rules of the domain.
Keith had already left and began ascending the black buildings of his domain.
He started moving his body again.
'I can't let him get higher than me!'