Preparing everything for me to leave the next day didn't take long. I left Luna at Hogwarts after breakfast and made sure everything that I'd need was inside my pocket. After that, I tried to see if there was a difference between opening the Door from my world and Luna's and found out that opening it from Luna's would increase the cooldown to almost two years.
I wondered why that was, considering both worlds shared a 'permanent' connection, but I figured that I'd need to travel to more worlds to understand how the cooldown calculation worked properly.
Leaving that thought to be explored on the other side, I went back home, said my goodbyes to my parents, Xeno, and Doni, and promptly turned to the closest door.
"This is the Doorway that heralds all of the beginnings! Who's opening brings forth the new era! Open! Heavenly Doorway of Transmigration!"
I opened the Door and stepped to the side, letting Doni pass through unimpeded.
I sighed as I sent a halfhearted wave at everyone left and stepped through after him.
"Really? Your training grounds in Australia?" Doni said, looking at me with a supremely unimpressed face.
"Please, as if it wasn't obvious you'd try something like this the second I stopped to think about it for more than a minute," I rolled my eyes.
"Huh? How was it obvious!?" He asked incredulously.
"Doni, the reason people go along with your 'manipulations' is because they either don't know you or because they're too scared to think about it for more than a moment," I stated calmly. "I learned about your reputation before I met you, and you haven't acted like that at any point since then, so I could only assume you were just bullshiting to get what you wanted without people complaining."
"Heh, busted," he chuckled. "But why do this, then? We could be in that world together now!"
"Sorry, but I have to learn to do this on my own. I need to be able to stand by myself without other people's help," I said, staring him down. "And that means I can't let you come with me this time."
"Hoh?" His eyes gleamed in excitement. "You can't let me? Does that mean you plan on stopping me?"
His entire demeanor changed, from annoyance at not getting what he wanted to being caught to the excitement for the combat to come.
I couldn't say I didn't feel the same, I had trained for months for a moment like this, and I wanted to see how I'd compare with Doni while going all out.
"Yes, yes I am," I said, and with a strategic placement of Wind Runes on my joints I launched myself at breakneck speeds in his direction.
He casually leaned back to evade my punch, but he didn't expect my elbow to suddenly accelerate and hit him in the face.
His surprise at the solid hit I landed on him gave me time to jump back so I avoided his instinctual retaliatory kick.
"Well, you have improved," he said, massaging his jaw. "But are you ready for this?"
He slowly drew the sword on his back, letting it casually hang by his side as he waited for my answer.
I focused on my arms and legs, adding carefully separated Runes to each before looking at him with a smile.
I knew from our previous spars that trying long-range attacks on him would be pointless without my Authority active, and the range I'd need for my spells to actually hit was too close for him to not easily take advantage of. So, at least when fighting against him without my Authority active, I had to play the role of Punch Wizard.
It wasn't all that bad, as I needed more experience with combat in general.
And it wasn't like this stage of the fight would last long anyway.
Doni took my smile as confirmation and immediately launched himself toward me, appearing almost instantly by my side, his sword halfway into a slash.
I instinctively blocked with my arm, activating three of the Runes on it and hearing the satisfying *CLANG* of his failure to cause any damage.
He jumped back and looked at his still vibrating sword in confusion before looking at me.
"What the hell was that!?" He asked, firming his hold on his sword to make it settle down.
"I told you that my Runes could do more than just basic elemental attacks," I told him with a shrug. "I just used them to stop your attack and redirect its momentum back to you."
He grinned viciously and disappeared from view.
I instantly used my Wind Runes to propel me forward, barely escaping his sword swing as it cratered the spot I had just been on. I tried to pivot into an attack but I was too slow, his sword hit my midsection like a freight train and sent me skipping away.
I slowly got up to my feet, warily watching as Doni casually waited for me to recuperate.
He was much faster than the last time we sparred, which went to show just how much he had been holding back at that time. But now? Now he wanted an actual fight, no holding back, especially when we hadn't even activated our Authorities yet.
I'd be the first to do it, I knew, but I still had some tricks up my sleeves to use beforehand. And what better target than him?
I added more Runes to my hands and feet, layering them without stacking by leaving small gaps between each other.
With an explosion of movement and the sound of a jet engine, I was suddenly above him, my left hand angled upwards as I activated the Runes in my palm and accelerated downward at the fastest speed I could manage.
This was the only way for me to keep up with Doni's speed in this state, layering Wind and Fire Runes in my soles and palms to mimic a jet engine. But even with the weeks I had to train this technique, it was still almost impossible to control with any kind of precision.
It all happened in a fraction of a second. The change between deactivating the Runes in my feet and activating the ones in my palm instant.
Doni was still fast enough to react to it, using the flat of his blade to block my punch. The Runes in my fist bathing him in a tornado of fire.
But his grin only widened in response as he broke our stalemate, swinging his sword and heaving me away, letting me see that his clothes were only slightly singed.
And then I was hit on the back of the head, strong enough that my face cratered the ground.
As I slowly got back to my feet, again, I decided that this was his sign to get on with it. And with a sigh, I looked up at him and activated my Authority.
"I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.
No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered;
I took up the runes, screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there."
Feeling the power of my unleashed Authority coursing through me, I let the Runes on my body fade away as I prepared myself for the next stage of the fight.
Instead of activating any of his Authorities, Doni attacked, appearing in front of me with his sword mid-swing.
Only to be violently pushed back by a tornado of fire.
Differently from my deactivated Authority, I didn't need to apply my Runes before activating nor focus on how they should react, with just a thought the Runes would follow my commands to the letter.
Of course, knowledge of how to use each individual Rune was needed for me to be able to do it, and even then, it took trial and error to find out how to actually make it happen. But the end result was an almost instinctual application of any Runic Arrays I used enough during training.
In this case, a basic array consisting of a circle of palm-sized Wind Runes surrounding a slightly larger Fire Rune, letting the wind feed and guide the fire into a fiery tornado strong enough to actually leave Doni with a few burns on his body.
"Should have known that'd be a bad idea," Doni laughed. "But I didn't think your fighting style would change so much by just activating your Authority."
I shrugged, "I'm not good enough with my Runes yet to do things like this without my Authority active."
"Figures you'd go all-in on magic the first chance you got," he snorted, resting his sword on his shoulder as he faced me.
"I hereby swear, I forbid the existence of things I cannot cut!"
And then the fight got serious.
I wasn't expecting Doni to activate his Authority this soon after I did mine, but I guess he got tired after months of waiting for it.
Neither of us said anything, we just waited for the other to make the first move. Doni holding his now "Invincible Sword" with his Silver Arm. And me, focusing on my next course of action.
It didn't take long for Doni to get tired of waiting and attack, his form blurring toward me just as his sword grew larger.
I apparated to his previous spot just as he was about to hit me, activating the Runic Arrays I had left behind and springing my trap.
The first was for defense, the full version of the technique I used to block and redirect momentum at the start of the fight. Doni cut through it as if it wasn't even there.
The second was a mix of Water and Earth, activating when he stepped on it and turning the ground into sticky mud, momentarily slowing him down enough for my third one to come into effect.
A rain of Lightning hit him, firming him in place and evaporating any piece of debris in his immediate area.
This array was something I made just for Doni, based on my previous experience sparring with him. The Earth and Water array beneath him served as a way to ground and conduct the lightning through the Lightning and Water array on top. I already knew I could harm him with Lightning even without my Authority active, so with that plus the array magnifying the effectiveness even more, I was confident that I had him.
I instinctually apparated further back, saving myself from being skewered by the dozen or so swords that appeared where I was standing.
Unfortunately, the distraction was enough for me to stop feeding magic to my Lightning, letting Doni escape the mud.
But he wasn't unscathed, lightning burns covered his upper body except for his silver arm, his breathing was labored, and his non-silver arm hung limply at his side.
"So, that good enough for you?" I asked, preparing to apparate away in case he decided to continue his attack.
"Yeah, this was fun, but hopefully you get more Authorities so we can have a better fight next time," he said, letting himself fall to the ground and dispersing his Authority. "Still, it was a nice way to get a stalemate."
"Stalemate?" I raised an eyebrow at his position as I approached him.
"We both know that if I used any of my Authorities besides my Silver Arm you'd be done for," he snorted. "I use Man of Steel and you can't harm me, Divine Confusion and you can't do anything at all. I could have used Iron Stampede, I guess, but then I wouldn't be having fun."
"Well, then thank you for leaving at a stalemate and not making me eat more dirt than I already did today," I sighed as I sat down beside him.
"Heh, your mom is gonna be pissed at us for this, isn't she?" He said.
"She's starting to get used to me being a Campione, so maybe not?" I responded hopefully.
Doni looked at me incredulously for a moment before laughing. "We're fucked."
"Yep," I chuckled.
The next day, I was with my parents and Doni in my house, doing the final checks so I could finally go to a new world and get my sword.
My mom wasn't that pissed about our fight, although she did cut Doni's access to my father's cooking.
Not that I thought it'd take, as my father and Doni instantly started planning on using Andrea to smuggle food out the second my mom got out of earshot.
Everything in place. I said my goodbyes, recited the incantation, and quickly stepped through the Door, closing it just as fast to avoid any temptation of following me on Doni's part.
On the other side was what looked like a traditional Japanese dojo, filled with men in black kimonos sparring against each other.
A tall, muscular man was on the far side of the room. He wore an eyepatch and a white haori with jagged edges over his black kimono. He had spiky hair with small bells attached to the tips and a thin scar running down the left side of his face.
And then I realized that everyone had stopped their training and they were all looking right at me, the man with a vicious grin filled with bloodlust on his face.
"Uh, hi? I'm looking for a sword and some training?" I said/asked.
A/N: And so the new arc starts!
The original plan was for Doni to win, until I realized any way he had of doing so would make the fight "not fun" for him. So he gives Alex the "win" with the knowledge that it was very much given to him. Seriously, most of Doni's Authorities hard counter Alex at the moment.
What did y'all think?
Also, massive thanks for all the well wishes and especially to my supporters for letting me take a few days off work without going into debt, y'all are awesome!
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