The first pillar collapsed.
Then the second.
Then the rest cascaded one after another—
CRRAAAAAAAAAAASH—!!
The ceiling cracked.
Sand erupted upward like a tidal wave.
And the colossus was crushed beneath tons of falling stone.
Dust swallowed the chamber.
The students regrouped outside the collapse zone, coughing and shaken.
Nathan panted. "D… Did we win?"
Ethan sprawled on the sand. "If we didn't, I'm retiring."
Seraphina wiped dust off her hair with extreme irritation. "This is a disaster."
Adrian laughed. "We're alive! That's good enough!"
Elara stood next to Merlin, eyes softening.
"You guided all of us."
Merlin exhaled.
"I just knew the trick."
She nudged his shoulder lightly.
"You knew more than that."
Before he could answer—
The exam sigil glowed again.
The arena dissolved into light.
The world reformed around them—
Not with sand, not with forest, not with ruins—
but with silence.
An endless, echoing silence.
