Dominus put the spear away and closed his eyes. A silver lining covered his entire body, one that was barely visible to the eye but could be felt by anyone close enough. It was heavy. Heavy to wield, heavy to be around, heavy to feel. The fact that pressure could be so thick it became visible was an astonishing feat that very few people were even aware was possible. Dominus'' bloodline ability was perfect immunity to pressure and an ability to control it to a degree that was frightening so it was natural he could manipulate it like this... And yet, there existed a far more frightening existence than even him that had to be mentioned when discussing pressure experts. A man who was born with an affiliation for every single pillar but wound up betrayed by his own brother who took everything from him. In a fit of rage, after losing his cultivation and all his numerous affiliations, the betrayed brother wove the pressure emanating from him into a cloth that draped over him as he tore his brother in half after a gruelling war. He became the template for the top floor of the pressure pagoda that circulated throughout the world but no one could ever beat his simulated ghost. Even Dominus couldn''t do it and he''d tried numerous times. Dominus was only really just copying what he''d seen on repeated attempts against the top floor of the pagoda despite the fact that he was born with all the necessary tools to become a master himself. He really just couldn''t do it. He even sought out the man in question but he was down and out, slumming in rat infested alleyways and eating leftovers from the trash. Naturally, in this state, the man refused to give out tutelage and just wanted to be left well enough alone. He''d gotten his revenge, and he was happy about it, but life just hadn''t worked out for him after. Dominus had to begrudgingly give up and keep practicing on his own. Strides were made but perfection was not achieved. Still, although he could never be first in terms of mastery, he was definitely top 10 at least. Like with his arts, he wouldn''t be able to show it off properly in this body, but the level he could muster was still enough for a demonstration against these kids. More than anything, he was hoping Sadie and the mimic would pay attention to this as they would have to learn this themselves one day. Either on their own or with Dominus cracking the whip behind them every step of the way. If you wanted to exist in the upper echelons of cultivators, a grasp of this pressure trick, no matter how basic, was necessary.


    The ground around Dominus cracked and sunk slightly and yet the water surrounding him didn''t pour into the hole. The water from the whirlpool actively avoided Dominus and curled around him like his aura was repelling it. A gust of wind passed through where Dominus was standing as he vanished on the spot.


    BANG


    Enyo went tumbling backward and rolling through the whirlpool until she smacked into the opposite wall and crashed back down onto the floor. Bellona looked back to where her sister had been standing originally and Dominus had taken her place with one arm behind his back and his pinkie finger on his other hand extended. Enyo staggered to her feet and there was a hole that had been punched through her armour and stomach roughly the same size as Dominus'' finger. "What''s wrong? I just poked you a little." After his demeaning jab, both verbally and physically, Dominus made a ''come hither'' gesture with his pinkie. Bellona kissed her teeth and boosted her physical traits with magic to try and one up Dominus and punch him in the face for being insufferable. Dominus'' pinkie was repositioned and halted Bellona''s fist in its tracks. She tried pushing back but she might as well have been trying to topple a mountain for all the difference it made. His finger went beyond immovable and was exerting so much force passively she was actually being pushed back. Dominus lightly pushed his pinkie forward and the next thing Bellona saw was her own fist come hurtling into her face, temporarily knocking her own lights out. She landed on her rear and her head spun from the dizziness. "You can consider that payback for all the times you punched Ares. Hurts, doesn''t it? Remember that the next time you go around slugging innocent people." Dominus disappeared again and reappeared in front of Enyo. She raised her hands to guard herself but Dominus didn''t move.


    …


    …


    …


    Eventually, the pressure got to Enyo and she swung her fist at nothing. Dominus had vanished again. It was just a simple blink, but by the time it ended and her eyes reopened, Enyo was in mid-air after having been blasted straight up by yet another pinkie jab. Dominus had gone low under her punch and poked another hole in her stomach with enough force to raise her into the air. At the apex of her ascent, Dominus appeared standing on top of her back and lifted his foot. He slowly brought the tip of it back down and poked another hole in Enyo who was sent plummeting down back to earth. She crashed into the floor but managed to push herself up again. When she rose, she came face to face with Dominus once more. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results, then Enyo had probably gone insane as she raised her guard once more. She willed herself not to give in this time and force Dominus to attack her. If she could slow him down with her Shrine''s barrier and counter, then he would be the one getting punished. She''d let him set the tempo before by falling for his ruse and going after him. To her dismay, Dominus next move was impossible to comprehend. He moved his pinkie forward... Slowly. Slow as a snail. ''Like he had arthritis and was trying tp push a doorbell'' slowly. he was blatantly mocking her, but she ignored it and summoned the Shrine barrier. Dominus'' pinkie shattered it effortlessly and kept advancing towards its prey. Enyo knew better than to let it hit her, so she retreated a few steps back... But the distance between her and the pinkie hadn''t decreased. Dominus was following her and calculating the exact distance between the pinkie and her at all times. In other words, her death was coming and she couldn''t stop it. It was such a pathetic, slow death that frustrated her to no end but what could she really do? She couldn''t block it, she couldn''t escape it, and if she attacked he would probably just kill her on the spot. There was such a massive difference in strength that he could force her to accept an end as embarrassing as this. She launched an Aletheia but it simply fizzled on contact with his finger so Enyo had nothing left up her sleeve. She wanted to punch the bastard at least once but, when she tried moving towards him, Dominus retreated at the perfect speed to prevent her from gaining any distance towards him. Regardless of what action she took, the only thing that didn''t change was the ever shrinking distance between her and the finger that was now about three inches away from her. The pressure mounted as it drew closer and she felt the crushing sting of defeat closing in. Enyo gave up on trying to stop it in conventional ways as that obviously wasn''t going to get her anywhere, and instead figured she might as well go for broke. If there was one thing she''d learnt from the two occasions in which Dominus had popped up, it was that he liked teaching people in round-a-bout ways. In that case, she would try to learn her own lesson here. Truth be told, she was jealous of the ability the mimic learned. It was a defensive technique at the end of the day so she wanted to be able to do it to. Learning it wouldn''t even be redundant as there would probably be types of magic that could bypass her barriers which was where this would come into play. There was no better time to learn the technique than now as she was being exposed to a significant quantity of tangible pressure constantly. She could feel her understanding of the concept deepen substantially the closer the finger got so she made sure to make use of Dominus the same way everyone else was doing. Not making use of the resources available to you was foolish, that was one of the rare ideals Enyo and Ares both shared. they still frequently debated about pretty much everything else though...


    Naturally, being made use of was precisely what Dominus was after from the start. Sure, having an affinity for the holy pillar meant Enyo had a resistance to mental attacks, but that didn''t mean she had an immunity to it. Using pressure to catch or redirect mental attacks, although extremely difficult, was in fact possible. It was such a minor thing, and whether learning how to manipulate pressure just for that was worth it or not was debatable. But cultivator''s usually had a reservoir full of niche little tricks like this hidden up their sleeve. You never knew when an ability like this would come in handy but, when it did, you would always be grateful for having learnt it. Plus this was step one of learning to manipulate pressure like Dominus was currently doing, so the sooner someone started practicing the basics the better. Enyo placed her hand in front of the pinkie and twisted it to try and throw his aim off but the only thing that happened was Enyo''s palm having a hole poked into it. Attempt number one had been a complete failure. Dominus could tell she''d learnt something from the mistake and kept up the pressure. She went up for round two but her failure was even worse this time as Dominus felt even less resistance than before. Did she regress and get worse before getting better? Dominus certainly hoped that was the case otherwise he would be seriously disappointed. Enyo took a deep breath and went for a third go around. Exactly the same thing happened and her hand now had three holes neatly poked into it in a triangular shape. Dominus was one more attempt away from just smacking her head into paste and moving on because this was starting to get annoying. he didn''t have eternity to sit around and baby someone who couldn''t even do this much with the level of support he was providing. He even briefly thought he was wrong about his assessment of Enyo... At least that was up until he saw what she did next. She''d clearly understood a smidgen of something from her last attempt, he could see the spark in her eye, but he couldn''t have possibly predicted the stunt she was about to pull on him. Enyo raised her own pinkie and started moving it towards Dominus who''s brain almost exploded with anger when he couldn''t sense any pressure whatsoever. He thought she wasting his time... He continued believing that up until his finger touched her nail and he found himself buried in the wall of the Training Field the very next second. He calmly stepped out of the wall and looked down at his missing finger as he analysed the situation. Back when his finger touched Enyo''s nail, he felt an overwhelming amount of pressure explode onto him out of nowhere... But how did she do it? She wasn''t anywhere near talented enough with pressure to conjure an amount that preposterous in a split second. Unbelievably, it seemed Enyo had created her very own trick with pressure that even Dominus didn''t quite get. If he''d been paying attention, and not underestimating her based on the first three attempts, he could have seen it in detail with Omniscience... This was his comeuppance for being lazy. He was impressed though. Enyo had once again proven she was a prodigy worthy of her current rank and assessment so he retracted his earlier rage and apologised in his head.


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    Dominus decided to attack Enyo again and see if he could make her repeat her last attack. Curiosity compelled him so he disappeared and showed up behind Enyo as he went to poke her again with his other pinkie. Even if he lost both when all was said and done, it was a sacrifice worth taking in order to understand what had happened previously. Enyo didn''t turn around but, instead, summoned the Shrine''s barrier behind her and Dominus scoffed. He assumed she fluked on the first attempt and needed more time to learn whatever it was she was doing. It was understandable. Disappointing, but understandable. He was peeved at having gotten his hopes up only to have them squashed but Enyo''s performance had been acceptable so he let it go. She invented something new and that was no small feat. Dominus was only annoyed because he wasn''t getting a chance to see it first hand. His finger pierced the barrier and he expected to poke a hole through Enyo''s head next, but for some strange reason his entire arm was missing... Eh? Oi... You can do that? Since when? Why have none of the other holy pillar cultivators done that before?! Are they all stupid or is this woman actually seriously special?! That''s actually absurd... Fuck me, I''ve created a real monster... Man I''ve gone and done it now... My wife warned me not to meddle with talented people too much... I should have listened. Is this ok? I mean... I can''t exactly undo it... Ah hell. For the first time in his life, Dominus regretted teaching someone. He''d maybe taken one step too many and he''d indirectly created a real problem in Enyo. As for what happened... Enyo''s control over pressure was, quite frankly, garbage. It was some of the worst control Dominus had ever seen, meaning she could never keep it stable. It would just wildly spring about before dissipating. He knew that from her first three attempts at blocking his pinkie and that was what she needed to learn above all else, ''control''. Or, well, that was Dominus had assumed she would try and learn... Her actual approach was far stupider and somehow far more ingenious. The simple explanation was that she ''controlled'' the pressure by trapping it in a barrier... The pressure couldn''t escape and just kept mounting as Enyo threw more and more inside the barrier. When Dominus'' finger touched the barrier Enyo had hidden on her nail, he''d popped the barrier which then unleashed all the rampaging pressure in a counterblow. The same was true of the Shrine barrier she summoned but it was a much larger barrier that could contain more pressure. When his finger pierced it, his arm was drowned in the pressure that escaped out of it and was crushed into paste. Basically, Enyo had learned how to turn her barriers into pressure traps that detonated when they were broken. Barriers were supposed to be a defensive art... And yet here Enyo was, summoning barrier after barrier and flinging them at Dominus who was sweating nervously. Defensive cultivators were truly problematic for weapons experts and he''d just unintentionally created his own worst nightmare... How was anyone supposed to deal with this without magic? Any close range attacks would be met with instant retaliation before they could even reach Enyo. Of course Dominus was still strong enough to deal with this now, but if one day Enyo got stronger... What a blunder Dominus had made. But was it really his fault? No other defender aspect cultivator had ever done this before so Dominus had just assumed it couldn''t be done. Were Enyo''s barriers really that much more resilient than everyone else''s?! What a freaky woman... Luckily she hadn''t yet mastered this and there were areas to improve upon otherwise this would be seriously annoying. If Enyo ever trapped herself in a cube of barriers like this how was anyone supposed to assail her? And it''s not like her barriers weren''t incredible to begin with. Enyo might seriously be able to stick exclusively to barriers and make it work. It was already proven that she could shape them thanks to White-Gold Pitying. If she could imitate her sister and summon a barrier meteor for instance... Dominus felt a chill creep up his spine. He wasn''t sure he would be able to deal with that in his current state. His Movement art wouldn''t break the barrier and the meteor would crush him. Plus if he tried to attack it head on the pressure would just delete him from existence. Enyo''s new ability was actually really frightening. No defensive oriented cultivator should have this much offensive potential, it was a serious breach of the norm.


    Still, Dominus wasn''t going to take these two batterings lying down. A single arm was still enough for him to clear everyone out. He''d had enough fun with these two sisters. He hadn''t taught Bellona anything yet but he could always do that after when she was fully developed. She was still better off sticking to a supportive role for now, so Dominus used his ludicrous, pressure-boosted speed to kill her before she could blink. The kill was so fast even Enyo hadn''t seen it happen and summoning a barrier to defend her sister had been literally impossible for her. Enyo knew she was next but she was ok with it. She''d gotten a lot out of this fight, more than she could have ever imagined she would, so she braced herself for her inevitable end.


    "Segregation!"


    Dominus'' eye twitched when he saw the massive barrier spawn in front of him. He could only hazard a guess as to how much pressure was bubbling away inside that thing. If he carelessly popped it, it would wipe out this entire section of the Field for sure. Dominus opted not to do that and instead just walked through the barrier...


    …


    …


    …


    Everyone was flabbergasted, but none more than Enyo who couldn''t wrap her head around what she''d just seen. Her jaw dropped and Ares, who was enjoying the show inside his head, chuckled at the sight. Dominus had a bevy of tricks he''d created and he was still only scratching the surface of stuff he could do, so he gave everyone a little taste of the future. He wouldn''t go into detail or explain it properly but what he''d just done was essentially turn his body into a mental attack. It was a clever way of getting around some defensive arts and had a few other uses too. he could teach that some other time though, as now he wanted to play with the jellyfish and get a closer look at the Duo because he had a sneaking suspicion about them. He ran up to Enyo who summoned a dome-shaped barrier around her.


    BANG


    Enyo''s head exploded into pieces as Dominus'' foot shot through it. He didn''t go through the barrier like before. What he''d done was drill into the ground to bypass the barrier before resurfacing on the other side and launching his attack. He''d done it so fast Enyo didn''t have time to react, but that was on purpose. Dominus was done with Enyo for now so she could take a seat on the side-lines. Lest these people forget, Dominus was in charge here. If he wanted anyone dead, they would die. They were foolish if they thought taking an arm meant anything when he''d practically gifted it to them. If anything, the smartest creature here was the seashock atrocity because the second Dominus killed everyone blocking his path, and thus turned his attention to the beast, it started trembling like a baby. The cloudy eyes shook and the jellyfish retreated somewhat, abandoning the mimic and moving closer to its summoners in a bid to have them help it defend itself. Magic, and some highly sensitive creatures, were very adept at sensing danger, and Dominus was the grim reaper as far the jellyfish could tell. It knew it was outmatched and outclassed so it instinctively drew back. It would still fight, it had too, but it wouldn''t be happy about it. like the Biome Eagle, this magic had a personality. It was possible, and sometimes developing a personality could be beneficial. Giving an art sentience could manifest all sorts of benefits, but it didn''t happen altogether too often. The jellyfish was understandable but it really was odd how quickly it happened with the considerably weaker Eagle. Maybe seeing a Stoat the very first time it was summoned actually really mattered? Magic was incredibly strange sometimes...


    Dominus stepped deeper into the whirlpool and took a good long look at the Lighter Duo. He could see them well enough for Omniscience to do its job now that he wasn''t being pestered by the trio and he immediately caught sight of what he was looking for. That weirdo is still experimenting like this? I''ve been dead a while but that creep is still roaming around even now... How''s a guy like that not been hunted down yet? Is everyone in the upper domains asleep or something? Dude''s a raving lunatic and they''re just letting him run amok? Should have killed him myself back before I committed suicide. Still, I wonder why he came to Sheryashka... Maybe he was actually being chased by someone and had to really lay low for a while. Then again, there''s no way in hell that quack ''laid low''. Probably has something to do with that Riddlemyd in Xasca I bet. I don''t recall anything like that back when I was living here. These two should have potential off the charts in that case. I''m not gonna teach these two, though, because that''s not the avenue they should take... They might be the most interesting people here, actually... "HEY! DUMB AND DUMBER!" With a shout, he caught the attention of the Duo that were muttering to themselves about how to proceed with dealing with the lunatic heading toward them. They paused briefly, looked at one another, and yelled back in sync.


    ""WHAT?""


    "I HAVE TWO WORDS AND ONE PIECE OF ADVICE FOR YOU. FOLLOW ARES." Dominus didn''t elaborate further and instead turned to face the jellyfish. The atrocity had been relatively un-showy thus far and not really launched any major attacks. Probably because it was hesitant to catch any allies with a stray hit. It also didn''t really view the mimic as a threat worth going all out for when Dominus was right around the corner, meaning it had saved basically all its energy for this fight. It still had no hope for the upcoming bout but at least it could go all out and display its power for the sake of its non-descript masters. Seashock atrocity was still a combination art utilising the reading rites pillar at the end of the day. Dominus was the only person with the right to act so cocky before it, but it wanted to remind everyone else why it should be feared. This jellyfish wasn''t going down without a fight!