'The pieces... the pieces...'
The pieces couldn't be himself and the three others, although he probably would have to manipulate them at some point, a game of Domain couldn't be played with only four pieces.
Suddenly, Ryu's gaze glowed. The wind and the clouds were moving differently in relation with one another. Logically, this made little to no sense. The clouds should be relying on the wind to pick and choose the direction of their flow, but in this case that wasn't happening.
'Could it be that the pillars are both the grid lines and the pieces?'
When Ryu observed again, he found the reason for the clouds moving in opposite directions. The wind would cause a slight shift in the pillars, causing it to move in a certain direction. The result would be the wind pulling in one direction and the pillars pulling in another. What was especially odd about this was that the clouds seemed to be an anchor of sorts, almost to the point that Ryu hadn't been able to tell that the pillars were moving at all in the first place.
It was a three level system. The wind was one, the pillars were two, and the clouds were last. By shifting one, changes would result in the next.
This layer of complexity was easy enough to manage, simply direct the wind in the opposite direction of where you wanted the clouds to go and as anchors, the clouds would shift the pillars into the position you wanted.
However, what was more troublesome was the fact that the wind seemed to have a set pattern of flow. Changing it in one region wouldn't end there, it would lead to a cascade of complicated events down the chain.
If Ryu wanted to move the pillar to his right further to the right, it would require taking into account six layers of movement. He could only seem to directly manipulate the wind and clouds on the pillar he stood on himself, which meant if he wanted to shift a pillar on to his right, he would need to account not only for his layer of movement, but the cascade of events down it.
One could see how easily overly complex this would become. By the time he wanted to manipulate a pillar hundreds or even thousands away from him, the number of convoluted variables he would have to deal with were ridiculous.
As though this wasn't enough, if he also had to contend with the others trying to shift the wind and clouds as well, the headache would be a supreme one. Of course, that wasn't the only problem to contend with, because even if the three were far out of their depth and didn't even realize what kind of trial they were in, they would still be doing one very important thing...
Moving!
Geniuses wouldn't just remain idle and wait for something to happen to them. They would definitely try to force the issue and pick a direction to rush toward.
Ryu suddenly grinned, his gaze cold. 'Interesting...'
The only question that remained was how did he "win" this game. So what if he could manipulate the pillars, how would that help him crush the opposition?
Once again, that answer lied within the pillars.
You won in Domain by cornering the King, a situation where there were no viable movements left. If he saw the pillars as grid lines, it wouldn't be impossible to force this, he just needed them into a functional dead end.
Ryu's eight trigram diagrams appeared once again, spinning faster and faster.
"There's no time to waste, I'll crush all three of you at the same time."
Ryu's hair fluttered, the sharpness of his gaze seemingly seeing through all things.
...
Iroh reacted about as Ryu had expected. After several moments of looking around for clues, he realized that he wouldn't find anything and picked a direction to charge toward.
It wasn't just him who made this choice, but Zovaes as well. Zovaes could tell that there was something up with this region, but he was also sharp enough to know that he wouldn't be able to figure it out in a short time just staying in place.
The difference was, while Iroh ran in a completely straight line, Zovaes' movements were more erratic. Sometimes he would go forward, sometimes he would backtrack, sometimes he would move to the left or right, and sometimes he would stop entirely.
Of them all, the only one who didn't move at all was Juno. He seemed to have sensed something was off and he quickly began to deduce what was happening. But in an irony of all ironies, it was precisely because of this that he was the first to fall.
Juno's gaze suddenly sharpened, but it was too late.
The pillars around him shifted ever so subtly before suddenly accelerating. Before he could guess what was going on, the pillar beneath him suddenly gave way. His heart leapt into his throat as he tried to quickly react. He thought that maybe it was wrong of him to stay in place for so long, maybe what the Sky God was testing was decisiveness.
Unfortunately, the moment his pillar gave way, there was no longer another chance.
Iroh, who was zipping forward at the fastest speed, didn't seem to realize what was coming for him, but there was no doubt that he would be the next.
He seemed to sense something in the final moment as well, but Ryu's timing was too perfect. The instant his foot landed on the pillar, the world collapsed around him. He tried to leap to the next, but a powerful force sucked him downward.
The most difficult of the three was definitely Zovaes. His movements were completely erratic. However, that was only a matter of perspective.
If he suddenly entered a region with very few options, how erratic could he be?
Zovaes didn't know how it happened, but he suddenly found himself in a corner with only a few options before him. He suddenly hesitated, not knowing which direction to go in, but that likewise sealed his fate.
The pillar beneath him collapsed and he never got the chance to make a choice.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three geniuses fell into a wheat field all at once, their eyes wide.
What had just happened?
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