The Pavilion reeked of iron and ash. Smoke curled from shattered braziers, mingling with the stench of opened guts. The nobles who still lived pressed against walls and columns, some vomiting, some sobbing, others staring blankly as though their minds had broken.
Kael stood in the center, bathed in blood. The storm of blades that had obeyed his will now circled him in lazy arcs, each shard dripping scarlet, humming faintly as though eager for more.
And then silence—terrible, breathless silence.
The last abomination's body twitched in pieces across the marble. The nobles dared to hope it was over.
But Draven knew better.
He lurked near the ruined dais, his face pale, sweat slicking his brow. The monsters were gone, his "triumph" reduced to a massacre that had spared none of his allies. The Guild's robes lay shredded across the hall, their wearers torn apart, crushed, devoured. Not even Karren had survived—her headless corpse slumped in a heap where the creatures had fed.
His power base had been slaughtered before his eyes.
And the man responsible, the governor himself, was now staring at him.
Kael stepped forward. The storm of steel moved with him, blades hissing through the air. His voice was low, lethal.
" For what have you caused all this, Draven? To line your pockets?"
Draven swallowed hard. He forced a sneer, though his knees shook. "You think this changes anything? You think killing a few test subjects—"
"Test subjects?" Kael's roar shook the glass panes overhead. "You call the slaughter of my hall a test? You dare belittle the lives you've thrown away?"
His storm lashed out. One shard of metal zipped past Draven's cheek, slicing deep enough to spill blood.
The Guildmaster staggered back, clutching the wound, eyes wide with fury and fear. "You can't kill me, Kael. You know the Guild's reach. If I fall, Nexus burns with me."
Kael's gaze hardened. "Then let it burn."
The nobles gasped.
Draven snarled, desperation breaking through his facade. From his sleeve he pulled a vial, crimson liquid swirling within. He downed it in one swallow. His body convulsed, veins darkening, muscles bulging grotesquely as alchemical power tore through him.
He looked up, eyes glowing sickly green. His voice twisted, guttural. "You think me cornered? No, Kael. You've only forced me to stop pretending."
The marble beneath him cracked as his transformed strength surged.
Kael didn't flinch. "You've made your choice."
The steel storm tightened around him, blades aligning into spears that shimmered in the braziers' dying light.
"Now face me."
—
From behind the barrier, Jade's gaze sharpened. The frost dome held firm, Amara clutching Niamh's sleeves so tightly her knuckles had gone white. Lio leaned against the barrier, trembling, watching the two titans at the center of the ruined Pavilion.
Selene did not cower. Her hands were steady, her breathing even now, her gaze locked on the man standing at the center of the blood-soaked hall. Others shook, cried, turned away — but she did not.
Because she knew Kael.
Not the governor, not the commander, not the storm of steel the world feared — but her husband. Her mate. She had seen the man at his weakest and his fiercest, and she had never once doubted the outcome of a battle he set his will upon.
A faint, fierce smile curved her lips, even as the marble cracked under Draven's roar. "End it, Kael," she whispered, her voice carrying through the chaos.
Niamh glanced at her sharply, startled by the certainty in her tone. But Jade's gaze flicked briefly toward Selene, and he understood — that kind of conviction wasn't born from arrogance. It was the unshakable truth of one soul knowing another.
Kael did not look back, but the storm of blades flared brighter, as if he had heard her.
And Jade… Jade stood calm, silver eyes unblinking. He did not cheer for Kael, nor pity Draven. He only watched, silent and calculating, his hands never straying from the flow of frost around those he protected.
For this was no battle of heroes. This was power against corruption, steel against poison.
And the Pavilion would be their stage.
—
Draven lunged first, moving faster than most eyes could follow. His claws, blackened and sharp, raked toward Kael's chest.
Steel intercepted with a shriek, sparks bursting as claws met blades. Kael shifted his stance, his storm of weapons curving to encircle his foe.
Draven snarled, slamming a fist into the ground. Marble shattered. Shards flew up—and Kael's metal seized them, fusing them into spikes that reversed back toward Draven.
The Guildmaster roared, his mutated body tearing through two, three, four of the spears. But the fifth pierced his shoulder, driving him to one knee.
"You are nothing without your tricks," Kael spat. His voice thundered across the bloody hall. "Alchemy built on corpses, lies, and fear. You have no strength of your own."
Draven wrenched the spear free, blood hissing as it splattered the marble. His grin was twisted, manic. "Strength? Look around you, Governor. The nobles you swore to protect lie dead. Your hall is drenched in their blood. And what of the boy you prize so highly?"
His gaze flicked to Jade, sneering. "I'll tear him apart before your eyes."
The barrier shuddered violently as Jade's frost pulsed outward, like a predator's warning. Selene gasped. Lio grabbed Jade's arm, holding tight.
Kael's eyes went dark. The storm contracted into one massive blade, jagged and gleaming like a greatsword forged of every shard of steel in the Pavilion.
"Touch him," Kael chuckled, "and he will not leave enough of you for worms."
Kael's words weren't a threat, they were the truth . Because Kael knew, he knew even he was probably not a match for him. Jade was too calm , always calm. Even when he had came out of a C-ranked gate,he was calm. He had heard of his deeds with the Silent Raven and the ash rats, he was calm even then.
The boy was an anomaly, too strong for his age and it was one of the reasons why he decided to give him one of the tournament quotas. Kael dared to think there was nobody on the surface of Nexarion capable of matching the boy under the age of 30.
...
...
The hall trembled. Nobles cowered. Amara buried her face in Niamh's shoulder, and still Jade's calm silver gaze never moved.
The storm was about to break.
Draven's body bulged further, skin splitting as he howled. Kael raised his blade of steel, stance like a mountain rooted in blood.
And with a roar that shook Nexus, the two clashed.
Steel and alchemy collided, the shockwave ripping through the Pavilion and shattering what little beauty remained.
The true battle had begun.
Steel and alchemy collided, the shockwave ripping through the Pavilion and shattering what little beauty remained.
Columns cracked like brittle bones. Shards of glass rained down from the ceiling as chandeliers finally gave way, crashing into the pools of gore below. The nobles who had not yet fled screamed anew, clutching their ears as the raw force of two titans clashing battered their senses.
Kael pressed forward, his greatsword of steel carving arcs through the air, each swing guided by lethal precision. Sparks erupted as Draven met him blow for blow, his alchemically mutated claws cutting deep grooves into the blade, his body grotesquely swollen, veins crawling beneath his skin like black serpents.
The ground beneath them groaned, then ruptured, sending tremors through the Pavilion floor.
Behind the frost barrier, Selene's breath quickened—not in fear, but in fierce exhilaration. Her eyes blazed with pride.
Niamh gripped her hand harder, her face resolute. She murmured prayers under her breath, words trembling but determined.
Jade's expression never shifted. His gaze tracked every movement, every exchange, committing the patterns of Kael's Magnetarch Dominion to memory. His silver-white hair glowed faintly in the storm of shattered light, and though his calm unsettled Lio, it also steadied him.
"Don't look away," Jade said softly, his voice cold but oddly gentle. "This is what power looks like."
Lio swallowed hard, pressing closer. He nodded, even as his small hands shook.
—
Draven roared, his form growing more grotesque with every passing moment. His flesh split, revealing cords of pulsing black muscle, ichor spilling across the marble. His claws swiped in a frenzy, gouging great scars in the floor and walls.
"You can't stop me, Kael!" he bellowed, his voice half-beast, half-man. "I am evolution itself!"
Kael's response was a wordless roar, his blade surging with gathered momentum. He swung in a wide arc, the storm of fragments condensing into the edge of his strike. It met Draven's claw mid-swipe—
—and severed it clean.
The mutated limb flew across the hall, slamming into a column with a wet crack. The nobles shrieked as it twitched grotesquely before falling still.
Draven staggered, his howl shaking the rafters. Yet instead of faltering, his body convulsed and a new arm burst forth, larger and more twisted, the wound knitting with obscene speed.
Kael's eyes narrowed. "This is not evolution. It's corruption."
Their blades and claws met again. The impact sent a wave of force that rattled the barrier Jade had erected. Frost spiderwebbed outward, creaking under the pressure. Selene gasped—but Jade merely lifted one hand, reinforcing the dome with another pulse of power.
The frost shimmered, stronger than before. "Stay calm" Jade murmured. "Nothing will touch you."
Selene looked at him for a long moment, her heart squeezing at the calm determination in his small face. Too old, too composed for his years. She brushed his silvery hair with trembling fingers before pulling back, letting him focus.
.....
The Pavilion was no longer a hall of politics. It was a battlefield.
Kael pressed Draven back step by step, his storm of blades cutting deeper, faster. Draven's movements grew wilder, more desperate, each strike leaving splatters of ichor across the floor.
Still, his grin widened. "You can't kill me, Governor. My body is beyond death. Beyond—"
Kael silenced him with a thrust, his blade spearing clean through Draven's abdomen. Black blood erupted in a fountain, spraying the floor.
The nobles gasped. Selene's chest swelled. Jade's eyes sharpened.
But Draven only laughed. His flesh writhed around the wound, sealing it shut as his claws raked forward. He seized the blade, ichor sizzling against the steel, and yanked Kael closer.
"Beyond you."
He opened his mouth—far too wide, jaw splitting—and spat a torrent of corrosive bile.
Kael twisted, dragging his storm into a shield. The bile sizzled against the steel, eating holes into it instantly, smoke filling the air with acrid stench.
For the first time, Kael's stance shifted under the pressure.
Selene leaned forward, voice sharp and commanding. "Kael!"
At her cry, his strength surged anew. The fragments of his storm shivered, then spun faster, burning like meteors as they ignited with raw magnetic force. He pushed Draven back with a roar, cleaving through the stream of bile.
The two men locked eyes across the gore-soaked battlefield.
Kael's gaze was iron, unyielding.
Draven's was wild, desperate.
And then—Draven smiled, sharp and hideous.
"Then let us both fall."
He slammed both hands to the ground. The runes tattooed across his flesh flared, burning black. The marble floor erupted, and from the fissures crawled more horrors—half-formed beasts, shrieking in madness, tearing at anything within reach. Nobles screamed as they were dragged down, shredded before the barrier could be reached.
Kael's eyes widened. "Damn you—"
But before he could move—Draven's body erupted in light, his flesh splitting apart, his form warping into something larger, darker.
The true monster was emerging.
—
From behind the barrier, Jade's silver eyes narrowed. His frost pulsed stronger, wrapping tighter around those he protected.
And Selene… Selene never broke her stare.
Her voice, soft but unshakable, rose above the screams and carnage.
"Finish him."
.....