It was the beginning of the twelfth round, and neither fighter had moved.

They were both fighters that preferred to react to the opponent's first move, analyzing the situation and contemplating all possible counters. When you have two fighters that fight like this, it creates a stagnant state, each as ready as can be, but neither wanting to act first, afraid that they'll open themselves up to an unforeseen trap.

That's what normally happens.

"Neither of us wanna make a move, huh? Hahahahahahahahah, that's awkward! We can't be hesitating, we must act for the sake of our species'!" Lakshmibai sat on the ground, crossing her legs. "That's what I'm gonna do."

There was a pull, a feeling like everything was getting pulled toward Lakshmibai in a metaphysical sense. It was as if she were the axis which all things spun around.

"Muladhara."

A red aura began generating around Lakshmibai as her clothes vanished, the human's legs transmogirfying into red stone.

"Svadhishthana."

An aura of orange wrapped around Lakshmibai as wings of water formed from her tailbone.

"Manipura."

A yellow aura was next, accompanied by Lakshmibai's torso turning into a mass of fire.

"Anahata."

Next in the mix of energies was a green one which was partnered with Laksmibai's two arms turning into six that were invisible due to being composed of air.

"Vishuddha."

A blue aura appeared as Lakshmibai's head and hair were now a flowing mass that retained a vague resemblance to Lakshmibai's original visage made of sky blue energy, akasha, also referred to as many other names such as aether, the most fundamental energy that comprises all things.

"Ajna."

Indigo energy manifested and an eye of the same color grew on Lakshmibai's forehead.

"Sahasrara."

The last energy was violet and what it was paired with was a same colored light coming from the crown of Lakshmibai's head, resembling a crown or halo.

The being that stood back up was an embodiment of the fundamentals of reality, physically, mentally, conceptually, and beyond. Despite being factually human, all couldn't help but look at Lakshmibai as if she were a god.

"What's this transformation? Lakshmibai looks really different, to put it stupidly simply."

"It's The Seven Chakras, special energies that exist in living beings that people can learn to control for various powers." Gautama explained. "It is a powerful ability that few can use, not due to lack of inherent capability, but due to the difficulty in doing so."

"How many people who can control their chakras can transform like that?"

"I've never seen such a mastery that would be required for a metamorphosis like Lakshmibai is displaying before. This is a first."

"I'm guessing that means I shouldn't bother asking what to expect from Lakshmibai's chakra powers."

"She likely has achieved powers that chakra users could only fantasize about."

"You're getting my hopes up." Anansi said without any energy. He was still depressed about the current situation both the gods and humanity are in.

"It's time to go! I'm so sorry I have to do this! I'm gonna mess you up!" Lakshmibai' personality kept changing.

In response, Ādi-Buddha's lips parted for the first time and spoke in a voice that was calm, soft, yet deep, "Five Elements Mountain."

From the firmament above, a mountain fell down as the most dangerous farfrotskie, crashing down atop Lakshmibai and burying her. The heap destroyed a large chunk of the fort and made the air rage in a shockwave.

A paper talisman appeared on the mountain, the phrase 'Om Mani Padme Hum' scrawled on it. The seal created was a powerful one, turning the mountain into a prison that made famous fetters like Gleipnir seem as useful as a water piece of paper being used to stop a meteor.

A monkey with a golden staff in the audience recognized the technique. The monkey king Sun Wukong had experienced a weaker version of it, Gautama Buddha sealing him away and stopping his rampage in heaven after he had defeated armies of deities. Wukong was one of the strongest beings alive, far from a slouch, so the seal's power was not to be dismissed.

It was a seal that shouldn't have failed so easily.

Cracks formed in the mountain, spreading and growing. It shook, bits breaking off in rock slides that slid down and broke apart the surrounding fort. A flex was all Lakshmibai needed to cause the entire mountain to burst, the pulverized remains shooting in all directions like bullets that perforated the battlefield and plinked off of Ādi-Buddha's golden body.

Lakshmibai floated out of the crater that remained from the mountain's fall, entirely unharmed.

Ādi-Buddha remained undemonstrative, while Lakshmibai was ever emotional.

"You're so strong, it's scary! That mountain didn't do shit! I feel bad for you. You're gonna need something better than that!" The Rani of Jhansi started that group of sentences quivering in fear and ended it with her tongue striking out while she did the devil horns with all six of her hands that most of the audience couldn't even see.

"The First Precept Broken."

The Buddha spoke again, and an immaterial attack, one imbued with the ability to instantly kill a target, fired at Lakshmibai, but in her current form, death in its conceptual form was something she had transcended, making the attack entirely ineffectual.

"Death!"

Lakshmibai fired her relic repeatedly at speeds far faster than any other firearm, releasing an incursion of black energy bullets. Normally, Ādi-Buddha would let the projectiles pelt his form and bounce right off thanks to his durability, but the Buddha could sense that the dark shots were not normal. He could sense the feeling of death on them to such a potent degree that it was clear they could kill him, or anyone else, with a single touch. Even the likes of Yahweh would not be safe.

"The Eighth Precept Broken."

A new golden light appeared and began molding into a shape around Ādi-Buddha that stopped the black bullets. The chromatic construct began to grow larger, forcing Lakshmibai away as it began expanding to a size that it was crushing more of the fort.

The light became mass and a city sized golden palace of absurd opulence that could match the Empyrean sat in the middle of the country sized fort, Ādi-Buddha inside.

The palace was a defensive ability that could even completely block attacks from the likes of Amaterasu, and from inside Ādi-Buddha could still fight. Part of the palace's defensive power was the numerous layers of different abilities infused into it. It could reflect attacks, erase them, teleport them away. Layer after layer of defense so even if one failed, another could handle the oncoming threat. The beyond infinite number of shields would require even Yahweh to make an effort to overcome them.

Lakshmibai, through her Vishuddha chakra, manipulated the ambient akasha across existence, reforming it to create a massive sphere above the palace that had the same composition as the building, including all its shields.

Ādi-Buddha immediately understood that, because Lakshmibai somehow understood the palace's abilities and knew how to create an object that could replicate them, it meant that Lakshmibai had some method of acquiring information she didn't already have.

The orb smashed into the palace, the barriers clashing and shattering. The building was crushed, the sphere breaking apart in the process.

The golden rubble wobbled and was pushed away as Ādi-Buddha stood up out of the wreckage, his body covered in cracks.

The Buddha looked up as the Sun was blotted out by what looked like a black cloud. The dark blob seemed to grow larger, though it was actually getting closer. It was a hail of more death bullets, so dense in number that they formed a splotch of black in the sky.

The shots made the ground into a trypophobic's nightmare, filling it with holes as Ādi-Buddha ran out of the way, crushing more of the fortress under foot.

Lakshmibai flew in front of him, gun at the ready.

"The Second Precept Broken."

The musket teleported to the giant palm of Ādi-Buddha, the Buddha's hand about to close on and crush the armament.

Acting fast enough that it was once again clear Lakshmibai knew what was going to happen ahead of time, akasha formed a disembodied hand around the musket and flew away with it before Ādi-Buddha could crush the firearm.

The flying hand began firing the musket to send another blizzard of bullets, Ādi-Buddha having to run again while the Rani began charging an attack. An orb of earth the size of a city formed above Lakshmibai, the sphere surrounded by a tornado of flame.

Water formed around Ādi-Buddha's legs and then froze, briefly halting the giant's movements. The blazing orb launched at Ādi-Buddha while the bodiless hand fired another swarm of instant death bullets, putting the living statue between a flaming rock and deadly place.

"The Third Precept Broken."

The bullets and the burning boulder changed course unnaturally, heading towards their new target, Lakshmibai.

Manipulating the air, Lakshmibai redirected the projectiles as they flew, sending them back towards Ādi-Buddha.

"The Seventh Precept Broken."

Music began to play, an upbeat song like for a party or celebration. Lakshmibai felt compelled to focus on the music, the sounds grabbing her brain and seeping in. She lost focus for long enough that she lost control of the winds and caused her death bullets and flaming orb to go off course and fly in random directions, missing Ādi-Buddha and hitting the barrier.

Lakshmibai grabbed back control of her head, but the music proved an ever present distraction.

"The Fifth Precept Broken."

Lakshmibai felt drunk. Her mind was swimming as she suddenly wanted to vomit. Along with the music, it was an ordeal just focusing on what she wanted to, let alone form cohesive thoughts.

She managed to gather her thoughts enough to activate her third eye. Lakshmibai's Ajna chakra was what allowed her to access information, such as the immediate future, or information about the properties of certain things. It was the ability Lakshmibai had been using to stay a step ahead of Ādi-Buddha and understand how his powers worked. The third eye was essentially a lesser version of Yahweh's omniscience, granting Lakshmibai close to all information she could ask for.

"The Fourth Precept Broken."

Ādi-Buddha's ability unleashed an effect on Lakshmibai that would cloud her information searching, replacing truths with lies.

Searching for how to clear her mind, Lakshmibai was given the answer that she needed to deactivate her auras because Ādi-Buddha's negative effects infused themselves into the auras. Trusting her power, she deactivated her auras and returned to her normal form, only for the intoxication and distraction from the music to remain.

Lakshmibai realized she had been duped.

"The Sixth Precept Broken."

While Lakshmibai fell, as did Death now that the hand holding him was gone, two holes opened up as if in the air itself below Lakshmibai and Death, revealing rows of sharp teeth and a dark abyss. It was a mouth, opening up in the fabric of reality and spacetime itself to a realm of destruction, where both the existent and nonexistent can't remain without being decimated.

There wasn't enough time to reactivate all her chakras, Lakshmibai had to choose the one that could save her and turn things back to her favor.

"Any mercy to spare? Is there enough space in your heart for mercy?" A bloody, beaten, bullet hole riddled Lakshmibai was in tears, slumped against a broken wall at the side of a dirt road. She struggled to see anything but inside of a gun's muzzle, the gun held by a British soldier.

Her rebellion had failed. She tried to free her home, to protect it from the British Empire, but she failed. Failed her people, her husband, her son.

"Mercy is a right afforded to humans. You are a savage. You look human, but you're a savage."

"We bleed the same color!" Lakshmibai growled. "We have families, loved ones! What makes us different? Don't you feel anything for us, for others?"

"You can imitate us, but you are godless heretics. I waste my time talking to you like you understand me any better than a monkey does."

"You call me and my people so many names, but you don't even know us." Lakshmibai spoke with confusion. "How do you come to these beliefs?"

"I heed my country and her divine word, unlike you ingrates."

"And you just believe them blindly?"

"Civilized beings have faith in their betters. As I said before, you are ingrates."

Finally, everything made sense to Lakshmibai. The sticking point that made it a struggle to understand the motives of her enemies was resolved.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"Why're you laughing?"

"I fi-fi-haha, I figured it out! Y-hehehe-you, you're a gun!"

"What?"

"You're a gun! You don't feel anything! You don't think! You just exist to hurt the things your owner tells you to! That's what you soldiers are! You exist to help your masters commit atrocities easier! You're guns!"

"Shut up! You dare condescend to me! To the British Empire!"

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

"Shut the fuck up!" A bullet fired into Lakshmibai's shoulder.

The pain itself was unremarkable considering all the other wounds she had, but a wave of confusion overcame Lakshmibai again.

The soldier got angry. He shot her, not to kill, but to hurt her, as an attempt at making her upset. He wasn't acting as an avatar of his empire's will, pragmatic and indifferent.

He felt.

But, yet he still couldn't empathize with Lakshmibai.

The Rani couldn't understand how this soldier and his cohorts could feel like any other humans, yet feel nothing when oppressing the Indian people.

Myrthe gone, Lakshmibai realized there was no room for understanding. Lakshmibai wore her emotions on her sleeve for all people, but her despots cherry picked when to feel.

"Are you happy, living the way you do?"

The gun barrel was shoved in Lakshmibai's face again. "I am."

"I think you may be right, there is something that makes you and I fundamentally different, but it's not our races."

Bang.

Before she and her weapon could fall into the obliterative maws, Lakshmibai rekindled her Sahasrara chakra, her aura and crown of violet returning.

Lakshmibai was done holding back so much to pace herself.

The mouths vanished, they were unmade while Death warped to Lakshmibai's hands.

The Sahasrara chakra was the gateway for achieving a state of oneness with all of totality. It was limited in its scope, but it allowed for precise manipulations of reality.

The other chakras reactivated and, returning to her elemental form, Lakshmibai posed with pride. Humanity clamored with elation. The people of Jhansi never wavered for a moment in faith in their queen.

"I'm the best! I'm the best! I'm the best, you can suck my ass! Best, best, best, I'm the best!"

Lakshmibai did a little dance but Ādi-Buddha didn't wait and watch.

Ādi-Buddha came full sprint at Lakshmibai, plowing through any walls of the fort that were in the way.

Lakshmibai did a pose with a finger from each of the six of her translucent hands pointing at Ādi-Buddha, manipulating the fabric of reality that made up the golden giant's body. Ādi-Buddha's body was wiped away from existence, seeming to vanish in a blink.

Rubble kicked up from Ādi-Buddha's dash hit the ground, making the only sound when there was otherwise silence due to the surprise at the golden man's disappearance. The silence ended when humanity hurrahed again, cautiously considering how much it takes to keep the gods in this tournament down, but hurrahed nonetheless.

"Ādi-Buddha's gone! They're definitely not dead, but damn!"

"Lakshmibai is definitely among the most powerful combatants in this tournament. Her mastery of chakras is something she must have spent her entire life and afterlife dedicated to mastering. The fact that she's also a strategist of the highest caliber and seems a master of all trades is a testament to human capability." Gautama Buddha praised.

"Do you think that capability is enough to defeat Ādi-Buddha?" Anansi asked.

"No."

"You didn't even hesitate. Any reason in particular or is it a feeling?"

"I simply understand the depths of Ādi-Buddha's power. He is a bottomless pit. There is no limit to him. As long as Lakshmibai holds any semblance of restriction by any definition, she cannot win."

"How do you know that Lakshmibai's power can't also be limitless?"

"Because she is still bound by emotion, as much as I hate to say it."

"I thought you believed that emotions were important."

"I do, but…Ādi-Buddha's an exception. When it comes to Ādi-Buddha, his dispassion is his source of strength, and the weakness of his enemies."

Lakshmibai noticed something in the corner of her eye. She looked directly at it. The white speck in the air was barely there, to the point that Lakshmibai thought she might be an optical illusion.

Lakshmibai was about to squint and focus her vision, but that became unnecessary because the dot grew. It inflated like a white balloon that the Rani was ready to pop, twisting reality where the colorless object was to erase it. The sphere warped, morphed like a blob, but never tore, never broke, only shifting but remaining intact like rubber.

The orb kept expanding, even as Lakshmibai fired death bullets at it that did nothing. The white thing wasn't alive, it was likely some kind of barrier, but the Rani of Jhansi couldn't say for sure since her third eye's information gathering was still hindered by Ādi-Buddha's falsehood ability from earlier.

"Is that thing Ādi-Buddha?"

"No, that is his cocoon. He is transforming. Buddhas like us possess three forms, collectively called Trikaya. What we've been watching is Ādi-Buddha's Nirmāṇakāya, his mortal form. He is currently entering his divine form, Saṃbhogakāya."

"I'm guessin' you gotta kill all three to keep him down."

"You are correct."

Lakshmibai transmuted akasha to create another of the same sphere she created to destroy Ādi-Buddha's defensive palace, the one with the same properties as said palace. Like a colossal bullet, the orb became a projectile that collided with the cocoon that had finished its growth and was now twice the size of the average person.

The orbs met and the unending series of defensive abilities the golden one was wreathed in activated from the impact, built in counters of all kinds targeting the chrysalis. At the same time, Lakshmibai warped reality to try and erase the cocoon again while firing beams of fire, water, earth, air, and akasha at the ball of white, combining everything she had to maximize the damage.

If Lakshmibai could destroy Ādi-Buddha before he finished building his new body, it would hopefully take the Saṃbhogakāya form out without having to fight it and allow her to skip to the final form.

But, the cocoon didn't cooperate.

The barriers failed, the nigh-immutability of the stark pupa forcing the defenses of the golden globe to break and the whole structure to fragment and plummet to the devastated fortress below.

The offensive was a failure, and the womb finished gestating.

Lines formed in the orb, the object blooming as parts of it spread out into petals, forming an oversized lotus, upon which stood a ten foot man with a body that was made of light in a rainbow of colors.

"Oooo, pretty." Lakshmibai enjoyed gazing at the colorful new form of Ādi-Buddha.

The light being spoke.

"The Ten Realms: Naraka."