The domain pressed down on every surface of my body simultaneously.
It wasn't painful... but it was damn annoying.
Just like the way deep water presses, not in one place but everywhere at once, finding every gap and sitting in it with patient, total authority.
My next step was slower than the one before it.
I noticed it instantly.
'...I'm at least twelve times slower.'
Seran hadn't moved yet.
He was standing at the center of his rebuilt domain with both hands raised and his pale green eyes tracking me through the light sitting in every particle of air between us.
Well... he probably didn't have to move at all.
The domain was doing the preliminary work for him, degrading my output steadily, feeding him my exact position in real time, eliminating every variable that had been working in my favor for the entire match.
He looked, for the first time since walking onto this platform, completely calm.
"...Different, isn't it?" he asked, his lips curling up into a mocking smile.
