Three weeks later.
The arena bell rang.
DAN.
Two seconds later, it rang again.
DAN.
The crowd blinked.
Those who had leaned down to grab their drinks missed the fight entirely.
At the center of the arena lay the Steelback Gorilla, a massive beast infamous for its impenetrable hide, face-down in the sand. It wasn't dead, but its arms were dislocated, its body completely paralyzed. Standing up was impossible.
Standing over it was Hope.
He didn't wave at the crowd.He didn't smile at the sun.
He simply turned toward the stands, searched for the empty seat where Lypin usually sat, and let out a quiet sigh.
"She didn't come again today," Hope murmured. "It must be bad."
He looked down at his hands. They were calloused now.
From holding the scythe.
"Too slow," he whispered. "This arena business needs to end soon."
"WINNER! HOPE!"
The announcer's voice sounded tired. Not because the fight was bad, but because the outcome had become predictable.
Hope walked toward the exit.
He no longer walked like a prisoner.
He walked like he owned the place.
As he passed, the guards stepped back. Even the other gladiators in the tunnel pressed themselves against the walls to make room for him.
Deniz was waiting, holding a water flask.
"That's a new record," Deniz said, checking his pocket watch. "Four seconds. You didn't even use your scythe."
"This was the fourth Gorilla," Hope replied flatly as he took the water. "After watching the first one, their weaknesses were obvious. They're a top-heavy species. Victims of poor natural engineering."
"You know you're terrifying, right?" Deniz grinned, but worry flickered in his eyes."The Barons are losing their minds. No one bets against you anymore. The gambling economy is collapsing because of you."
"Good," Hope said. "Maybe if I stop being profitable, they'll let me go."
"Or," Deniz lowered his voice, "they'll erase you."
The Baron's Private Chamber
Baron Vexor slammed his fist onto the mahogany table.
Wine spilled across the kingdom's most expensive map.
"He must die!" Vexor roared."Do you have any idea how much gold I lost today? My new monster, Steelback, was neutralized in seconds! People don't bet on whether he'll win anymore, they bet on how many seconds it'll take!"
Across the table, three other Barons sat in the shadows.
"We can't kill him openly," one of them hissed."The people adore him. The 'Romantic Rebel.' If we execute him, we'll spark a riot."
"Then let it be an accident," Vexor sneered."Arenas are dangerous places. Traps malfunction. Weapons break. Floors… collapse."
He pulled out a small vial from his robe. Inside, a sickly green liquid glowed.
"A new toxin. Extracted from Swamp Wyverns. A single drop locks the muscles. No escape. No analysis. Just standing there, waiting to be killed."
"And the opponent?" another Baron asked.
Vexor smiled cruelly.
"Razor Mantis. Fast. Starving. And immune to poison."
The Next Day
The atmosphere in the arena was different.
Heavier.
The crowd felt it. Cheers mixed with uneasy murmurs.
The sand had been freshly raked, but the pattern was… wrong.
Hope stepped onto the field.
He felt it instantly.
The moment his boots touched the sand, vibrations crawled up his legs.
Pressure plates beneath the sand. Sections B-4, C-7, and D-2.
He looked across the arena.
The gate opened, and a creature twitched its way out.
The Razor Mantis.
A biological nightmare of blades and chitin. Its mandibles clicked as drool dripped from its mouth.
"BEGIN!"
The Mantis charged.
It was blindingly fast, a blur of green and steel.
Hope didn't move.
He stood completely still atop an ordinary-looking mound of sand.
"Move, damn it!" Deniz shouted from the tunnel.
The Mantis leapt, scythe-like arms raised to tear Hope's head off.
At that exact moment, Hope stomped his foot.
Not on the pressure plate.
But on the hinge of a hidden trapdoor beneath the sand.
[Skill Unlocked: Structural Dismantling]
CLICK.
The trapdoor didn't open.
Instead, the spring mechanism under extreme tension snapped.
The metal plate bent upward with catapult-like force.
BOOM!
The plate erupted from the sand, slamming into the airborne Mantis's soft underbelly.
The creature screeched as it was flung uncontrollably into the air.
But Hope wasn't finished.
As the stunned Mantis crashed back down, Hope walked toward the section of the floor where Baron Vexor's toxin dispersers were hidden.
He looked up at the VIP box.
Vexor was watching, wearing a smug grin.
Hope smiled back.
"Big mistake," Hope whispered.
He kicked the toxin emitter, bending the pipe inward instead of outward.
The gas didn't spread into the arena.
It was redirected into the internal maintenance shafts.
Straight into the ventilation systems beneath the VIP boxes.
A pale green mist began leaking from the grates in Baron Vexor's booth.
In the arena, the Mantis tried to stand.
Hope approached.
He didn't use his scythe.
He placed his hand on the creature's exoskeleton.
"Your armor plates," Hope said calmly."They don't look that secure."
CRACK.
He pulled.
The Mantis's main armor plate ripped free like a loose lid.
The creature shrieked and stumbled back in terror, curling into a ball in the corner of the arena, refusing to fight.
Hope turned to the announcer.
"It's retreating," Hope said. "Next."
Above, Baron Vexor clutched his throat.
His face turned purple.
Paralyzed by his own toxin, he fell from his chair.
Guards rushed in, calling for medics.
Hope watched the chaos with cold, analytical eyes.
"Toxin successfully redirected," he noted."Efficiency: one hundred percent."
That Night – The Cells
"You tried to kill a Baron," Deniz whispered, pacing back and forth in Hope's cell."You poisoned a noble."
"I didn't poison anyone," Hope replied, lying on his bunk, tossing a small stone into the air and catching it."I fixed a pipe. Where the gas went afterward is a matter of airflow dynamics. Not my department."
Deniz stopped.
He looked at Hope with a mix of fear and pride.
"You've changed, Hope. You're not just surviving anymore. You're… punishing them."
"Lypin is waiting," Hope said. The mockery was gone from his voice."I promised her. Every day I spend here is a delay. If I don't reach her, she could get hurt."
From the shadows of the adjacent cell, NO9 spoke.
"The exit plan is ready, Architect. But after the Negra incident, security has doubled. We need a massive distraction."
"We need the ground to shake," Field added, studying his newly corrected map.
"It will," Deniz said."Tomorrow."
Final Day
The sun didn't rise.
Dark storm clouds filled the sky.
The arena was beyond capacity. People sat on stairways, clung to walls.
The King stood on the royal balcony.
He wasn't seated.
He leaned forward over the railing, eyes burning with anticipation.
The announcer's voice trembled.
This wasn't just a fight.
It was history.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! CITIZENS OF THE KINGDOM!"
The roar was deafening.
"FOR WEEKS, ONE MAN HAS MOCKED OUR TRADITIONS! DEFEATED ALL OUR CHAMPIONS! NONE OF US EXPECTED SUCH POWER! HE IS AN ARCHITECT! ONE OF A KIND! BUT TODAY—TODAY HE FACES TWO LEGENDS!"
The eastern gates opened.
Steam poured out. Not just steam, but blistering heat.
The sand near the gate turned to glass.
"FROM THE VOLCANIC PITS OF THE SOUTH! THE HELL WOLF! SCORCH!"
A giant man stepped out.
His skin was coal-black, cracked like cooling lava. Magma seemed to flow beneath his flesh.
He wielded a glowing hammer, leaving burning footprints with every step.
The crowd screamed in terror and delight.
"AND FROM THE FROZEN PEAKS OF THE NORTH! THE SOUL-FREEZING WOMAN! ZERO!"
The western gate opened.
Iron bars froze instantly.
The temperature dropped twenty degrees.
A woman floated out, hovering inches above the ground on a disc of ice.
Her skin was pale blue. Her hair long and white.
She wielded two daggers made of absolute-zero ice.
"THE TWIN LEGENDS! FIRE AND ICE! NATURAL DISASTERS OF THE ARENA!"
Silence fell.
The central gate creaked open.
"AND STANDING AGAINST THEM… ALONE… THE DUNGEON JANITOR… HOPE!"
Hope stepped out.
Between Scorch's heat and Zero's cold, he looked small.
The air shimmered on his left.
Snowflakes drifted on his right.
Scorch laughed, the sound like grinding stone.
"So this is the Architect?" he boomed. "He's tiny!"
Zero said nothing.
She simply stared, eyes devoid of life.
Hope looked at Scorch.
Then at Zero.
He closed his eyes.
[Architect's Vision: Active]
The world became chaos.
Red thermal waves radiated from Scorch.
Blue entropy waves from Zero.
"Thermal variance detected," Hope analyzed."Subject A: 1200°C. Subject B: -180°C. Distance between subjects: 40 meters."
Hope opened his eyes.
He smiled.
Not his innocent smile.
He was excited.
"You two aren't a team," Hope said, his voice cutting through the silence.
Scorch frowned. "What?"
"Fire and Ice," Hope explained, summoning his scythe."You think you cover each other's weaknesses. But scientifically… rapid expansion and rapid contraction create the most destructive force in nature."
He pointed the scythe at the ground between them.
"Thermal Shock."
The King leaned forward.
"Kill him!" the King shouted.
Scorch roared, slamming his hammer down.
"I'LL MELT YOU INTO SLAG!"
A wave of lava surged toward Hope.
Zero snapped her wrists.
"Flash Freeze."
A storm of ice spears hurled toward him.
Lava from the left.
Ice from the right.
Hope stood in the center.
The crowd screamed.
He waited.
Until the lava was ten meters away.
Until the ice was ten meters away.
Then he slammed his scythe into the ground.
[Skill: Structural Manipulation – Earth Wall]
Not one wall.
Two ramps.
One facing Scorch.
One facing Zero.
The lava hit the ramp and launched upward.
The ice hit the other and launched upward.
Hope crouched.
Above his head, the elements collided.
TISSSSSS.
Not a fire explosion.
A steam explosion.
Superheated steam.
The instant interaction of extreme heat and cold created a pressure wave that shattered the sound barrier.
BOOOOM!
Hope surged forward.
Green light flared as he moved.
A massive crater lay in the center.
And at its edge stood Hope, unscathed.
He looked at the two stunned, wounded legends slowly rising.
"Terrible synergy," Hope said, brushing dust from his shoulder."Has no one taught you thermodynamics?"
Silence.
Hope raised his scythe.
"Now," he said. "Let's finish this."
He stepped forward.
Before his foot touched the ground—
The sky shattered.
As if made of glass, struck from within.
CRRRRAAASH.
Purple lightning struck the arena, right between Hope and the Twin Legends.
The impact dwarfed even Thermal Shock.
Everyone, even Hope, was thrown off their feet.
In the smoking crater stood a figure.
Not human.
Not monster.
Humanoid, yet indescribable.
Terrifying energy radiated from its body.
It looked at Scorch and Zero.
Waved its hand casually.
The Twin Legends slammed into the walls like dust.
Then it turned to Hope.
Tilted its head.
"An Architect," the being spoke.
Its voice wasn't sound.
It was a vibration inside every mind.
Hope gripped his scythe.
His instincts screamed.
[WARNING: UNKNOWN ENTITY. LEVEL: ???. THREAT: INFINITE.]
Hope ignored the rules and moved beside Lypin.
"Hahaha, incredible," the being laughed."An Architect trying to protect a Starfallen. How amusing."
Guards surrounded the entity.
"Who are you?!" the King shouted.
The being laughed.
Stars trembled.
"I am no one to you, Great Human King. Father Killer."
"Watch your words, you filthy jester!" the King roared, yellow mana flaring across the arena.
"Don't worry," the being chuckled."I won't fight you now. You've shown me something very interesting."
"I can't wait to see what comes next."
The being ignited into flame, dissolving into smoke.
"Grow stronger, Architect. The Void will come for you soon."
And just like that, it vanished.
Leaving behind a ruined arena.
A horrified kingdom.
And a silence louder than any battle.
Hope turned to Lypin.
She was trembling, clutching her chest.
"Hope…" she whispered."What did it call me?"
Hope looked at her slowly.
"Starfallen," he said.
"…What's a Starfallen?"