Dee narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she redirected another blow from Teresa’s blade with her guandao. The strike seemed simple at the outset but was more purposeful than it first appeared. The blow itself was not even meant to hit, though it did hold enough strength to do real damage in case it did. Instead, its purpose was to drive Dee towards a certain position several strikes later. As soon as she figured out the sequence of events that would lead to her loss, Dee disengaged further than was necessary to avoid the next blow, just to break the chain of events.

The whole battle had been weird. It had only taken a couple of seconds for both of the combatants to realize that the other one could predict their actions to an extent. Neither was entirely sure how the other one did it or how far they could see, but just that knowledge changed the nature of the fight. When both of them knew what was about to happen, the combat was a constant stream of false starts and attacks that stopped halfway. If the opponent knew exactly what was going to happen, then there was no room for surprises or feints. This fight was all about trying to pressure the opponent into a position where those predictions would not matter.

On one hand, an observer might think both of them to be lacking skill because their attacks were never completed and many open chances were not taken even when blatantly given. On the other hand, this was the most skill demanding battle Dee had ever been in because she had to be able to think so far ahead and take into consideration what her opponent would do knowing exactly what Dee was doing. That’s why the fight was so full of stops and false starts, and plans were put into action and discarded as soon as they began. It was also obvious to Dee that her opponent had more experience with this sort of thing. What kept Dee in the fight was the fact that she was a psion and could think further ahead and think of different scenarios faster than her opponent.

Another thing that made the fight weird was the fact that both of them were relying on their weapons to fight. Teresa, of course, used her large sword, while Dee used a combination of a guandao and the dark pearls and gems that either floated around her or were secreted around her clothes. Normally she would use those hidden weapons to try and surprise her enemies, but in this case her opponent always knew when they were coming, so they were used mostly as throwing weapons to buy time and space. Another use for them was to drive Teresa towards a more favorable position from Dee’s perspective, either by breaking her rhythm or by forcing her to dodge a certain way.

Both of them had more powerful abilities than just swinging their weapons around, but the tone of their fight had been set after those first few seconds when they realized their similarity. Now they both just wanted to fight someone like themselves to hone their own skills. It was also a matter of pride in a way to try and see how far they could go without resorting to those other abilities. The only true exception was Dee’s Domain that she had used just to simply even the odds a little. No matter how outstanding Dee was for her rank, it didn’t change the fact that Teresa was bordering on the famed thirteenth rank and thus was much more powerful than Dee. Dee’s Domain narrowed that gap to an extent. Not to the extent that they were equal, but at least Teresa had to make an effort.

When they had faced off for the first time, Dee had known she would not be able to compete with the woman using the same weapon. Teresa had so much more experience with the sword, and could overpower Dee in a straight up match of strength, that Dee had to change her approach a little. If operating with the same rules would not work, then she had to play by different rules. The guandao gave her reach and she could use both ends of the weapon to attack, in addition to her extra weapons.

Still, it was something of a testament to how much of an exception Dee was to her rank that she could even try to match Teresa in a straight up fight. Teresa was obviously physically stronger just by the virtue of her higher rank and thick ki, but Dee was a freak of nature due to her own physical strength and wasn’t falling so much behind that she could not compete with the other woman at all. On the other hand, Dee was faster due to her blessing being pushed to its limits, but Teresa wasn’t so much slower that Dee could beat her just thanks to speed alone. Teresa wasn’t a speed-focused fighter, but she was fast enough purely on the merits of her rank.

Despite the complexity of the fight, the mind games were coming to the end. Teresa was using more and more power as time passed, and Dee was forced to try and match her just to keep up. The problem was that Dee would not be able to keep up for too long at this pace. She was already fighting at her full capacity without utilizing her more exotic techniques, but Teresa’s power was still going up. Just now Dee had made a mistake, and her slightly overextended attack had destroyed a large chunk of a nearby hill as the power inside her weapon had surged forward. All that power had been completely wasted, instead of remaining contained in her weapon.

‘Any more help you can provide?’ Dee sent a silent message to Croestia.

Croestia had been increasing Dee’s strength and speed for a while now, and couldn’t go further. ‘I’m afraid not. I’m giving you everything I’ve got.’

Dee’s weapon was blown back out of position purely due to the higher power contained in Teresa’s attack. Luckily Dee had seen that coming and allowed her body to move in the same direction, correcting the vulnerability. ‘Then the only way to keep going is to increase the suppression of my Domain.’ Dee thought with a sigh. The problem was that the more power she used with her Domain, the quicker she would run out. Her Domain had a powerful effect, but it also drained her power rather quickly.

Teresa frowned a bit as she felt her own abilities weakening thanks to Dee’s Domain suppressing her. Unknown to Dee, that suppression also affected Teresa’s ability to see what was coming. Her foresight was something she had gained thanks to her heritage and thus was considered an ability to be suppressed by Dee’s Domain. Luckily for Teresa, the effect was minor. Even though she had relied on the inherited ability to see the future when she had been younger and weaker, she no longer needed the ability do so. She had been through enough fights and experienced enough difficulties that she could now see what was coming even without the ability. It was just that without the ability she was simply making an educated guess and it was not a sure thing anymore. Without her ability, someone could theoretically still catch her by surprise. That said, the difference between their respective strengths was large enough that her ability was only slightly affected, not completely suppressed.

‘Maybe in the future her young opponent could do better? No, in the future she will almost certainly do better. And that future might not be as far off as I might think.’ Teresa thought to herself. Almost simultaneously with the increased suppression of the Domain, Teresa sensed another change in the pace of this fight. ‘She tried to hide it with the more obvious effect from her Domain. Clever girl. Not clever enough though.’

A pair of invisible hands had reached towards Teresa, not trying to strike at her, but merely trying to disrupt her balance. Those invisible hands were swept away by a pair of almost identical hands made of blood red energy. Only one pair of hands was visible for the observers, but the two of them knew better. “I see. This is about as far as you can go without using your other abilities. Not bad, but there’s still room for improvement. I think we’ve gotten what we can out of this battle. We could try pitting our more destructive abilities against each other, but I doubt the Five Winds would appreciate us destroying their city, and the outcome would not change. I have enough power to withstand anything you throw at me, and unlike you, I will not run out. Your Domain can’t change that. This one is my victory.”

Teresa emphasized her words by sheathing her sword. Something that caught the other Crimson Witches by surprise. Teresa was not known for holding back or ending things until they were truly finished. This went against everything they knew of her. What they didn’t realize was that Teresa was eagerly expecting the fight that would come the next time the two faced. She had a sneaking suspicion that fight would help push her over the threshold of rank thirteen, and she would not spoil that future fun by being too eager here. She could hold back, it was just that usually she didn’t care to.

Dee gave a small sigh and allowed her weapons to vanish. “Agreed. This is my loss. You still had a lot more strength you did not use. I have one method I might be able to use to win if we were going all out, but I would have to aim to kill in that case. Neither of us would benefit from that.”

Teresa gave a small chuckle. “I think you’re underestimating me just a tad.” She moved closer to Dee and used her ki to pass on a silent whispered message. “Let me tell you a little secret. You’re not the only one with a Domain here. Your Domain might be more impressive, especially in the future, but I barely even touched mine.”

The woman that founded the Crimson Witches was the example all the others strived towards. That person had been the first one to use the blood of her enemies to perfect the techniques they now all trained in, and one of the things she had achieved was creating a Domain that endlessly drew power from the blood of all the enemies she had slain. After that person died, only one other Crimson Witch had managed to achieve the same, and that was Teresa. The difference was that unlike Teresa, the founder had been a gifted nobody that had achieved success due to perseverance and dumb luck.

Teresa had her own talents. She would still be powerful even without the teachings of the Crimson Witches, and that was something that further brought her apart from the others. That and the fact that she had not lucked into her success. She had planned meticulously and taken the best parts of their teachings to achieve the perfection of those techniques. Those were the things that had made her into a monster in the eyes of even the other Crimson Witches. Despite their differences, the founder and Teresa had something in common. They both realized that the victorious person was not the one who could bring out the most explosive strength, but the one standing at the end. Both of their Domains had been built on the concept of endurance. And that was what they embodied. Now Teresa was trying to move beyond the limits set by the founder.

She gave a small smile. It would be a great opportunity for her to learn by facing someone like Dee when Dee finally had the ability to truly match her. That’s what she wanted. “It’s too bad you didn’t take the bet I offered.” She stated as she moved further away from Dee.

Teresa had playfully suggested betting the Living Mountain on their little spar, but Dee was not stupid enough to do that. She had known her chances of winning were not high, especially when the fight was not to the death. “I told you, I have no right to make such a bet. The mountain decides where it goes. It’s not my property or a trophy to be passed around. There’s a reason everyone calls it the Living Mountain.”

For some reason Dee flashed back to some of the cheesier novels she had read while she was younger where brash men bet the fates of women on such things, ignoring the will of the woman in question completely. This wasn’t the same of course, but the similarities did bring a small smile to her. “Besides, I’m not into sucker-bets.” She finished off.

Despite her small smile, the fact was that she had lost. They might have stopped before the loss truly happened, but they both knew better. So did everyone observing. Dee didn’t lose very often, partly because she didn’t pick fights she couldn’t win, so when she did lose it was a moment to take note of. Luckily she was not too prideful to take such losses, and didn’t try to justify it. Instead, she would try to learn from it.

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As far as their eyes could see, all that was around them was fire, molten rock, and ash. The ground was covered in grey ash with the occasional streams of lava flowing around like creeks and rivers. What passed for trees were burnt charcoal with flames in the place of leaves. Interestingly the flames were not consuming the trees; they were just there as if that was the place they belonged. An occasional spirit of flame flitted around every now and then, and they could sense an elemental or two in the surroundings.

“Welcome to the Plane of Fire.” Dee’s draconic voice declared, waking Nyx and Moirai from their daze. The trio was already wearing the items that would allow them to survive in the elemental planes, in this case protecting them from heat and flames while providing them with breathable air.

The first elemental plane they had picked was the Plane of Fire, for the simple reason that they had access to a source of extreme heat near to their homes. The smithies the Five Winds had prepared were connected to a dormant volcano. While the volcano might have been dormant, that didn’t mean the place was lacking in lava or extreme heat, which is what they needed. It had still taken them full two weeks of Dee carrying them through the Astral Sea before reaching their destination. Luckily they didn’t get hungry and tired while in the Astral Plane, and according to the information Dee had inherited from Xinglong, they didn’t even age. Not that it mattered since all three of them were immortal.

All of them carried a veritable mountain of supplies for their trip as they didn’t know how long they would be here and it was unlikely they would be able to find much in the way of food or drink on this particular plane. Planes of water or life might be different, but even at the very border of the plane as they were now, there was nothing but ash and heat around them. And things would only get worse as they went deeper towards the center of the plane. The supplies were of course inside storage artifacts, or in Dee’s case Croestia.

Nyx closed her eyes in concentration for a moment. “The power is still too thin here on the edge. The two of us would gain from taking in the power here, but in a limited fashion. We need to go closer to the core areas to really make gains.” She referred to herself and Moirai, as she wasn’t entirely sure what Dee required here. Of course, the closer to the core areas they got, the more dangerous it became.

“We suspected as much. Hop off.” Dee gave her dragon form a small shake, and the two Meilin jumped to the ash-covered ground and immediately used their power to float above the hot ground.

There was another reason besides convenience for choosing this particular plane as their first destination. Dee had certain advantages when it came to the element of fire. Her resistance to it was not quite equal to that of death, shadow, and light, but it was still one of her strongest resistances as it was the easiest to train. What really gave her the advantage was her own flames. She changed shapes to her kitsune form and concentrated.

She had done some tests before, but one of the reasons they were here was so that Dee could master the kitsune ability to turn completely into fire. Normal kitsune gained the ability at certain rank soon after gaining their flames, but Dee’s flames were a little different from normal, to say the least. The abundant fire energy around her was the best facilitator for this ability. She had turned into flames before, but only for a very short time and she couldn’t argue that she was in full control the entire time. Now she was trying to gain full control over the ability. She was also curious about the way the elementals would react to her fiery form.

With some effort, Dee succeeded in turning her entire kitsune body into the black flames. The feeling was weird in a profound way, and both Nyx and Moirai felt the wrongness practically oozing from her. The ground around her was already nothing but ash, but it felt anything she would step on would be destroyed if she wasn’t careful in controlling the flames. The trio waited for an hour to see if Dee could maintain the transformation, and at least here on this plane, she could. That was the benefit of being here. This plane at least didn’t reject her form like the material plane would.

Interestingly, her fiery form had returned to her original kitsune appearance. No scales, no horns, no extra legs and even the more wolfy features were minimized. ‘This is a little freaky.’ Croestia commented.

‘Where are you?’ Dee asked with a great deal of curiosity. The magical item could not be a tattoo or color on her ears this time, and she certainly wasn’t wearing a pendant either.

‘Inside you, I think. I’m seeing what you see. Interesting experience. Usually I see all around you. This will take some getting used to.’

“Well then. Let’s see what’s closer to the core of the plane.” Nyx prompted noticing Dee’s mind was already wandering and not focused on her transformation.

“Agreed.” Dee replied. She had half expected that her voice would sound similar to crackling flames like the Anshar representative, but perhaps disappointingly she sounded entirely normal.

The Plane of Fire had most certainly never seen a combination this odd flying through the heat and fire filled skies before, a kitsune made of black flames and two diminutive squirrel people that were most certainly not from around here. The further they traveled, the rarer the ash-covered earth became. Even the ground became made of what looked like solidified flames, and that extended to everything else. Interestingly the whole place became livelier, but every animal, being, and plant was made of pure fire and flames. The trio also started sensing the presence of increasingly powerful elementals around them. Not to the extent of being a danger to them just yet, but still stronger than before.

As the number of elementals increased, it became obvious they were being avoided. Even the more feral elementals that acted on pure instinct moved away as soon as the trio came close enough to be sensed. To be exact, it was Dee they were avoiding. The few times they had gotten close to an elemental before it ran away, that elemental would just lay on the ground with their head bowed and eyes closed, as if waiting for judgement.

“Next time, could we start off closer to the core?” Nyx demanded a little crankily after almost a full month of travel. The Plane of Fire was big and traveling over it took time. Despite the artifacts protecting them, the trip wasn’t exactly comfortable. The heat might be reduced by the enchantments, but it was never below the annoyingly hot level. They could hardly just lay on the ground made of flames either, so they had to rest in shifts on platforms created from their own power. Such things didn’t make for the most comfortable of experiences. Nyx had also had enough of the ever-present ash getting into her food.

“Hey, I’m just glad the portal worked this well on our first attempt. Despite the crystal of fire element, the goal was vague at best. Besides, you’re the one who keeps saying the power around you is not pure enough yet. Getting greedy are we?” Dee countered with a fiery grin. Unlike the others, she felt right at home here.

Nyx hid her embarrassment with a small cough. “Well, you can’t argue the fact that the purer the force gets, the more beneficial it is to us.”

“I wouldn’t dream of arguing such things. I know very well why we keep going deeper, and will continue until the artifacts are no longer enough to protect you and Moirai.” Dee joked, though with more than a grain of truth.

Surprisingly Moirai was having a better time than Nyx. She had always preferred heat and warm weather, unlike her mother. Granted this was a little excessive, but it still bothered her less. “I think we’re starting to reach the limits now that you mention it. I’m starting to feel the effects. Less as heat and more as actual burning. We’re also entering the territories of elementals that are actually intelligent and might be dangerous in this environment.”

Nyx noticed Dee looking almost longingly towards the core of the plane. “You know, you can keep going. We discussed this before we came here. The seer came through and gave us a way to get in contact if things go pear shaped. We are not weak and can defend ourselves for a while. You go do what you must while we start absorbing the power around us.”

Dee gave a long sigh. “Well, let’s at least find a territory of an especially powerful elemental. I’ll make sure to make clear how bad it would be if something were to happen to you too. The elemental can then keep the others away.” Dee had a sneaking suspicion that she knew at least part of the reason the elementals went so far out of their way to avoid her. They were almost immortal here in their home plane, and if defeated elsewhere would simply return. Her flames, on the other hand, were perfectly capable of bringing true death to the elementals that rarely had to face that danger. And this plane would not be able to protect them.

“Agreed.” Nyx nodded. “I want to go as deep as possible. We can go on for a couple more days, as much as I will hate the heat.”