Damon woke up with the faint flow of Eterna humming beneath his skin. He moved to the wardrobe, pulling on the streamlined combat cloth—a deep black, shot through with faint electrical-blue lines along the seams.
He wore black bracers on his forearms; they hummed with energy, the lines glowing as if they followed the shape of his veins. His gaze settled on his left wrist. Natsuki's bracelet glowed softly, the only colour not crafted by Woewyn's light. It didn't clash with his black wear; it completed it—a small, constant anchor in the chaos.
If anyone saw him, they saw a disciplined prince ready for war. But he knew the truth: he was just a boy, dressed to move like the power he hoped to control.
Daichi, now shrunk to a large, manageable wolf size, lounged at Damon's feet inside the transport vehicle. Cythera sat opposite him, while Bravira occupied the seat beside the pilot, her posture military-stiff.
"The Trineum Festival is Woewyn's oldest tradition," Cythera began, her voice calm. "Three kingdoms, three heirs, and one endgame mission."
"But before that," Bravira cut in, her voice low and uncompromising, "students from Woewyn battle one another. The winner earns the right to represent us at the final mission."
Damon leaned forward. "And you expect me to participate after three days of training?"
"From what you showed us yesterday," Cythera said, a hint of admiration in her tone, "you are operating at the highest of the Aegis stage. That makes your participation mandatory, like it or not."
Daichi nudged Damon's hand with his wet nose, a silent offering of support.
Bravira turned, fixing Damon with a gaze that held all the cold seriousness of a battlefield general. "You will not fail us, Prince. If you do, your training will not be simple instructions, but my... torture."
Damon swallowed. It wasn't an empty threat. He was genuinely scared.
The transport glided silently to a halt.
Damon stepped out and stared up. The arena was vast, an enormous tech dome settled within the natural Woewyn stone, its metal floor polished to a mirror shine. It was like the gladiators' colosseum of Old Earth, but built for gods, not men. People were gathered in the circled rows, yet they looked small in number compared to Woewyn's sheer massiveness.
"Woewyn's so big," Damon murmured. "The people here look small compared to their size."
"Other people are watching from the projection screens," Cythera explained.
As he walked toward the entry gates, Damon saw her. High up in the main tier, sitting in the Royal box. His mother. Two guards stood beside her. Her posture was regal, but her eyes were only for him. Nyra was beside her, waving her arm with an exaggerated, cheerful motion that made Damon smirk.
He walked through the gate and into a room filled with other contestants. Silence dropped as they all turned to him. Damon met their stares neutrally; they eventually turned back to their prep.
A staff member entered. "This year is going to be different. The first match is not a team match in the usual sense. It's a two-versus-two match."
Damon turned to Cythera. "Will you be participating?"
"I'm a tutor for a reason, Damon. My ability far surpasses yours."
Near the corner, a girl tensed visibly at the announcement. "Not a team match... I'll be the first to get knocked out and disgrace my family's name. I must get a good teammate." Her flustered apology drew a few stares.
The arena lights flared to life in a violent pulse of violet-blue, and a hush swept over the crowd. A shadow rose from the centre platform. Then—BOOM.
A pillar of flame shot upward, exploding into sparkling dust. And out of the smoke swaggered Zaro Kindell, his voluminous afro moved in the sparkling particles, his coat flaring behind him.
He tapped his crystal amplifier once. Thump. The entire metal stadium vibrated. Zaro grinned, wide and chaotic.
"WOOOOOEWYNNNNN—! ARE YOUR HEARTS AWAKE?! ARE YOUR SOULS SCREAMING?! LEMME HEAR YOU!"
The crowd erupted. Zaro put his hand dramatically on his chest.
"Mhm. That's what I like. Pure chaos. Tastes like home. Now LISTEN UP, you bright little sprouts of the future—because this year… ohhh this year… we're BREAKING TRADITION! This year… we start with BLOOD-PUMPIN', SKILL-CRACKLIN', HEART-STOPPIN' TWO ON TWO!"
"First, the disciplined anchor of the Earth Element, her attacks hitting like tectonic shifts— Selin Arvale!" Selin, looking lean and trained, walked to the center, her face neutral and focused. "And her partner, the searing heat of the battlefield, look at the fire dancing on that bicep bangle—it's Verik Solborn!" Verik entered with a confident stride.
"Challenging them—the prodigal son of the High Winds, that handsome, cocky grin belongs only to my brother from another monster, Jaro Fenwick!" Jaro waved broadly. "And partnering him, the fluid terror of the sea, wearing the royal battle fit with devastating grace—give it up for Ciela Wistmere!" Ciela entered, composed and royal.
Zaro finished his hype speech and turned serious. "Remember this rule! Fight to let your hearts out, yes—but no killing. Break that rule, and you will be executed where you stand... BEGIN!"
Jaro started with a smile toward Ciela, his voice carrying, "Don't let my team down, Ciela. I cannot tolerate disgrace."
He immediately created gusts of wind, fast and powerful, whipping the air toward Selin and Verik. Selin reacted instantly, slamming her foot down. Earth Eterna shot up, pulling a jagged boulder from the metal floor for cover.
Verik dashed over the boulder, fire igniting on his fists and feet. "Watch my back and I'll watch yours!" he yelled.
"Deal," Selin replied.
Verik targeted Ciela, but she flowed, using a low-level Water Eterna link to the floor to move like a controlled, shifting liquid.
Selin launched earth spheres with sharp spikes at Jaro, who used a gusting wind tornado to push himself up and send a dense wind attack back at her.
Selin's skin shimmered, reinforced by Earth Eterna—she was inside an 'earth suit.' Jaro, arrogant as always, quipped, "My my. You're going to be trouble. Nevertheless."
Jaro launched wind strikes so thin they were almost invisible, sharp as razor wire. Selin crossed her arms in an 'X' form. The cuts tore through the earth suit, drawing blood, but she grit her teeth and reinforced her suit.
Damon watched. "They're good."
Cythera spoke in agreement, "Selin is low Aegis, but her defense is nearly unbreakable."
"That explains why she's currently on defense," Damon noted.
"Jaro is at the middle level of the Aegis stage. Verik is in the Blaze stage but on the higher end, and so is Ciela," Cythera clarified.
Ciela used her water mobility to lift herself into the air, raining attacks down on Verik. She created a flexible water sword and shoved the water she'd used to lift herself into small, fast-spinning discs aimed at Verik. He punched them away, fire striking water, but one slipped past and hit his gut. He groaned.
While Verik was distracted, Selin made her move. She focused her Eterna into her feet, not just for defense, but for projection. With a guttural roar, she sent a compressed wave of stone through the ground, forcing a towering, sharp Earth Blade to erupt right where Jaro was airborne.
The blade surprised him. Jaro, arrogant and focused on offense, had ignored the potential for earth to move quickly. He reacted a half-second too late, the blade clipping his side and sending him spinning with a cry of pain.
"THERE IT IS!" Zaro screamed. "The tank isn't just a shield, folks! Selin Arvale just surprised the King of the Winds. Anyway, that's what happens when you skip leg day!"
Selin didn't hesitate. She used the earth beneath her to push herself upward, landing a punch directly on Jaro, sending him crashing down with a loud thud that kicked up a cloud of dust.
Verik took a whip across the back from Ciela's sword. He endured the pain, used fire from his foot to momentarily stop himself, dashed forward, and kicked Ciela directly into the arena wall. The kick landed, knocking the air from her lungs. They waited for the five-second count.
Ciela only stirred at the count of two, rising bloodied. "I'm not anywhere near done," she declared.
She raised her hands. This time, the water Eterna took time to gather. It was heavy, floral-scented, and shimmering. It took several seconds to fill the area. The air pressure dropped noticeably as she compressed the vapor.
Verik and Selin staggered into defensive stances.
Zaro yelled: "Oh hell naw—someone turn the fog machine off! I can't see JACK!"
Verik, seeing Ciela's slow, deliberate compression of the fog around them, knew they were finished if he waited. He let out a primal scream and focused all his remaining energy. The fire on his fists and feet expanded, not as an attack, but as a pure, desperate defense against the air. He was turning the atmosphere into a furnace.
Sweat poured down Verik's face, turning instantly to steam. He was trying to evaporate a royal's worth of water Eterna with sheer will. He took one step, then another, teeth gritted, every vein pulsing—he was burning himself alive.
The mist around him began to writhe, collapsing into nothingness. The water in Ciela's floating orbs evaporated before they could be triggered. The floral fog was gone.
The arena floor was clear—but Verik staggered, his legs giving out beneath him. He collapsed onto the metal floor, barely conscious, skin scorched and exhausted from the sheer energy dump.
Selin was left standing alone.
"Two on one now!" Zaro roared, the hype gone, replaced by a tense edge. "Verik is down! Can Selin hold the line?!"
Then, from the dust cloud where Jaro had fallen, a wind exploded. It was a chaotic, beautiful vortex that sucked the remaining moisture from the air and solidified Jaro's focus.
He rose, his clothes shredded but his eyes blazing. Wind Eterna pulsed around him, clearing the air completely. He glanced at the collapsed Verik and sneered.
"Took him long enough," Jaro quipped, adjusting his bicep bangle. "Well, Selin. The distraction is over. Let's finish this with some real power."
Ciela rejoined him, her own wounds ignored, the royal battle suit now shimmering with concentrated water. They were going to combine their elements.
Jaro raised a hand, creating a dense, fast-spinning vortex of wind. Ciela compressed a massive wave of water and fed it into Jaro's vortex. The result was terrifying: a high-pressure, bladed Hurricane of Liquid Shards, designed to choke and drown Selin alive.
Selin knew she couldn't defend against the sustained force. She took a chance, using the earth around her feet to launch herself high into the air, screaming for her downed partner.
"VERIK! NOW!"
She didn't need a verbal reply. Trust was enough. Selin used the last of her unspent offensive Eterna to form two massive, reinforced Earth Pillars beneath Verik, launching him skyward.
Verik's eyes snapped open. He was wounded and staggering, but his will was pure. He didn't just light his feet; he let the fire engulf his entire body. Ignite completely.
He roared, falling like a roaring comet, a screaming blur of red-hot Eterna descending upon the Wind-Water combined attack.
Zaro lost his composure, screaming with pure hype: "OH HE'S IGNITING HIS WHOLE BODY—THIS BOY IS A COMET!"
The Meteor Punch slammed into the Hurricane of Liquid Shards. The collision was a blinding explosion of steam and sound. Ciela screamed as the heat negated her water shield, and Jaro screamed as the force pushed his wind shield to the breaking point.
When the dust settled, Verik lay half-buried in the arena floor, his body smoking, but Jaro and Ciela were still standing, battered but ready. The Meteor Punch had failed to end it.
Selin landed hard beside Verik, forcing him upright. He was staggering, bloodied, but his hand found hers. They were in sync. "Now," Selin gasped, her voice raw. "The final strike."
She raised her right arm, and with painful effort, pulled the earth Eterna from the floor, coating her entire forearm and fist in a giant, jagged, condensed Earth Hammer.
Verik heard her cry, ignoring the screams of his body, placed his flaming left hand directly on the back of the hammer. He didn't just heat it; he channeled his residual fire, superheating the stone from within until it glowed with a terrifying, white-hot orange Ki.
They ran forward as one, the Dual Breaker strike aimed at Jaro and Ciela. Jaro, still confident, raised a triple-layered wind shield. Ciela formed a thick water-armor.
The Dual Breaker hit.
The Earth Hammer shattered Jaro's wind shield instantly. The internal superheat turned Ciela's water armor into a blinding explosion of steam. The combined force was too much. Both Jaro and Ciela were slammed into the boundary wall, unconscious before they hit the ground.
Silence.
Then—
Zaro Kindell grabbed the mic, his voice hoarse with respect. "Woewyn… we have a winner! Against the odds, the elemental teamwork of Selin Arvale and the blazing will of Verik Solborn prevail!"
Damon watched Selin pull the collapsed, smoking Verik to the side, both victorious and broken. He whispered to Cythera, "They won't be able to stand again for a week."
Cythera nodded, her face impressed. "That is the cost of victory, Damon. Now you see the quality of what you must beat."
Damon thought, If this is Aegis... then what the hell is Sovereign?