But Satou had been practicing these abilities far longer than Richard had been using Chrono-Break. And unlike Richard's technique which burned life force borrowed from Chronus, Satou's nightmare domain was sustainable, drawing power from the fear and terror it generated.
The nightmare realm won.
Suddenly Richard found himself fighting in a space where normal rules didn't apply, where his three centuries of combat experience became partially obsolete because the environment itself was hostile and intelligent and working to kill him.
His ten-second foresight showed him futures, but they were nightmare futures—twisted, impossible, contradictory. He saw himself dying a thousand different ways simultaneously. Saw Satou attacking from directions that didn't exist in normal three-dimensional space. Saw his own fears made manifest and given killing intent and physical form.
