A stillness had settled over the arena.
Not silence, not with flame roaring, stone cracking, and mana humming from every fractured leyline, but a kind of suspended tension. As if even the storm itself was holding its breath.
At the center of the battlefield, Kairo Vale and Cael Soren stood ten meters apart, eyes locked.
They had been clashing seconds ago.
Now?
They simply waited.
Because across the field…
The final prelude battle had reached its peak.
Freya Vale vs. Dalron Vex.
She was breathing hard, blood trickling down her arm from a deep graze. Her coat was half burned away, revealing the shimmering crest of her family insignia—the twin phoenixes etched into her combat wear.
Opposite her stood Dalron bloodied, burned, but not bowed.
His gauntlets were cracked, his knuckles bruised from repeated impact, and yet he stood with the same weight as a fortress.
Between them, the air twisted.
Freya's Ascension Flame was fully active now, her phoenix aspect's wings beating in pure elemental cadence, fire rippling with silver-violet hue. Each breath she took pulsed with controlled heat that didn't scorch, but concentrated.
Dalron slammed one foot down.
The Earth Rhino behind him bellowed.
Then, it changed.
The spectral rhino's skin cracked, and from within came glowing red veins of magma core, its final phase, the Seismic Titan Form.
"Alright, girl," he said. "Let's finish this properly."
Freya took a breath.
"One round. No second tries."
From a nearby stone column, Kairo stood, arms folded.
The lightning koi hovered over his shoulder, still sparking lazily.
He watched his sister.
Carefully.
Quietly.
Beside him, Cael remained expressionless, though his head tilted slightly.
"You're letting her fight alone."
Kairo didn't look at him. "She'd kill me if I interfered."
"…That's not the real reason."
Kairo finally turned, voice low.
"Because if I step in right now, I'll stop holding back."
Cael smiled faintly. "Good."
Back at the center of the Freya–Dalron battlefield, the duel exploded into motion.
Dalron charged first, his rhino roaring forward with each step earth earth-shattering with every hoof strike. He slammed his gauntlet into the ground, and an entire chunk of arena floor lifted into the air, tilting like a continent dislodged.
Freya didn't run.
She flew.
Her phoenix wings beat hard, flames trailing behind her like war banners, and she spun upward just as Dalron's earth wave lunged toward her.
Then
She dove.
Fire surged around her body like a comet sheath, twisting into the shape of a phoenix dive spiral, the silver core of her flames now visible purer, sharper, too hot for the dome to process in real-time.
Dalron raised both arms, bracing for impact.
Freya didn't strike him directly.
Instead, she detonated mid-dive.
The phoenix flame exploded into a spiral storm around him, turning the ground into white-hot slag and searing away layers of his armor.
Dalron roared part pain, part defiance and burst through the flames with one last swing of his magma-infused gauntlet.
Freya met him head-on.
Fist to fist.
Her Ascension Flame condensed into a single burning point around her knuckles.
The impact shook the dome.
CRACK.
Dalron's gauntlet shattered.
His knees hit the ground.
He coughed then smiled, through blood.
"You're the real thing."
He collapsed.
"Combatant Dalron Vex eliminated."
The colosseum didn't cheer.
They were too stunned.
Freya stood in the center of a molten crater, shoulders heaving, hair scorched, and wings flickering faintly behind her.
She turned to where her brother stood.
Kairo gave her the smallest nod.
Just once.
Cael stepped forward.
"Your sister is impressive."
Kairo cracked his neck.
"She's always been."
Cael extended a hand outward.
The mana between them thickened.
"Then let's not dishonor her effort."
"Shall we finish this?"
Kairo stepped down from the ledge.
The koi above him coiled tighter.
The air began to dry.
Above, Elira felt her heart skip.
"Here it comes," she whispered.