It exploded all at once.
Uro twisted the sky—
space folding like cloth—
Ryu fired again—
a condensed blast tearing forward—
Yuta surged in—
blade cutting through the pressure—
And Takeru—
stepped into it.
No hesitation.
No pause.
Four forces collided.
Impact.
Shockwaves ripping the ground apart—
buildings cracking—
air distorting under the weight of it all—
Uro descended—
sky bending around her—
Ryu grinned wider—
energy building again—
Yuta tightened his stance—
And Takeru—
raised his hand slightly.
"…Understood."
Then—
all four spoke.
"Domain Expansion."
The world shattered.
Space fractured—
layered—
colliding realities forcing themselves into existence at once—
Uro's sky warped into a boundless distortion—
Ryu's pressure condensed into raw destructive space—
Yuta's domain surged outward—
And Takeru—
Malevolent Shrine.
The shrine manifested—
vast—
ominous—
without barrier—
overlapping everything.
The domains didn't break.
They didn't cancel.
They clashed.
A four-way tug of war.
Space screamed.
Reality stretched—
pulled in four directions at once—
Then—
it stopped.
Not resolved.
Locked.
A perfect deadlock.
Silence.
Then—
everything changed.
The domains remained—
but—
Nothing activated.
No techniques.
No cursed energy output.
All of it—
frozen.
Angel's earlier logic echoed faintly in memory—
but this was beyond that.
A rule.
A consequence.
Until one domain overpowered the others—
Nothing could be used.
Takeru lowered his hand slightly.
"…Restriction confirmed."
Yuta exhaled once.
"…Yeah."
They both turned slightly.
Not toward each other—
but away.
"…Can't do that."
Takeru said calmly.
"…Gotta wait."
Yuta nodded.
"…Same, Tak."
They didn't move to fight.
Didn't force anything.
Because they couldn't.
Across from them—
Ryu blinked once.
Then—
to everyone's surprise—
He turned his head away too.
"…Hah."
A small grin.
"…Guess dessert's on hold."
Uro hovered above—
eyes narrowed—
watching—
waiting—
"…So this is how it plays out…"
Four domains.
All active.
None winning.
And four fighters—
forced into stillness.
Waiting for the first crack.
Because the moment one side won—
Everything would begin again.