The first spark ignited when Noctis's aura shifted from a calm white to a silver glow as sharp as blades, shredding the air around him. He didn't move like a novice student; he lunged like a human projectile breaking the sound barrier, leaving behind a deep fissure in the stone tiles of the courtyard.
The Master raised his right hand with lightning speed and shouted with a voice that shook the foundation: "Gravity Field: Free Fall!"
Suddenly, the air above Noctis grew ten times heavier, as if a mountain had collapsed onto his shoulders. The ground shattered beneath Noctis's feet from the intense pressure, but here his cursed ability intervened: "Absolute Luck." In the moment his back should have bent and broken, Noctis's foot slipped on a broken stone in an illogical manner, causing his body to tilt at an angle that allowed him to escape the center of the pressure's gravity, lunging forward through the gravity field.
The Master's eyes widened in shock: "How did he escape?!"
Noctis gave him no time to think. He reached him in the blink of an eye, his fist charged with the energy of "Magic Medicines" that had begun to burn through his veins. He aimed a direct strike at the Master's face, but the latter activated his defensive ability: "Gravity Shield!"
Noctis's fist collided with a transparent purple barrier, and the impact produced a shockwave that shattered the windows of nearby buildings. Noctis was screaming from both pain and power, blood beginning to trickle from his nose, yet he did not retreat. He began unleashing a torrent of consecutive punches, each one hitting a weak point in the shield by a strange "coincidence" that only happens with him.
"Die... you old man... DIE!" Noctis's voice was laced with the echo of strange Aether energy.
The Master, trying to maintain his composure, began to feel Noctis's unnatural pressure. He gathered his purple aura in his left hand and struck the ground: "Gravity Reversal: Repulsive Pulse!"
The earth exploded beneath Noctis, sending him flying ten meters into the air. But while in mid-air, Noctis pulled out a small hidden dagger. Due to his "luck," the blade caught a reflected ray of sunlight that blinded the Master for a single moment.
Noctis seized that second, adjusting his posture in the air as if swimming, then dove downward like a hawk toward the Master's neck.
The Master sensed real danger; the boy before him was no longer his student, but a monster feeding on death. The Master unleashed his full power, and dense purple auras began to coil around his body like dragons:
"You have crossed your limits, Noctis... If you want death, I shall grant it to you by the authority of my rank!"
The Master lunged toward Noctis in the air, and the two collided in a violent clash, where orbs of gravity and silver sparks flew in every direction, turning the Academy courtyard into a raging hell.
The atmosphere suddenly ignited with a suffocating Aetheric pressure, as if the air itself began to shrink. The Master took a step back, then said in a moment of combat:
"Domain Expansion: Eternal Gravity Orbit!"
In a flash, a black aura exploded from the Master's feet, expanding with staggering speed to form a giant dark dome that swallowed both Noctis and the Master. From the outside, the dome looked like a sphere of absolute darkness through which no light or sound could pass—an impenetrable wall preventing any being from entering or exiting until the domain's owner decided to end it.
[Inside the Domain]
Noctis suddenly found himself in a completely strange world. The grass and Academy buildings were gone. He stood in a vast void resembling outer space, a sky studded with distant stars, and massive shattered stones floating everywhere around him.
But the problem wasn't the scenery; it was the "rules." Inside this dome, gravity toyed with Noctis's body; at times he felt he weighed tons and couldn't move a finger, and at others, he floated weightlessly, losing his balance entirely.
"In my domain, I am the center... and I am the law," the Master said, walking through the air with steady steps, while the floating stones around him began to glow and move at his command like guided missiles.
[Outside the Domain]
Kealen ran frantically toward the courtyard after placing Ilthra's family in a safe place, but he froze in his tracks when he saw the majestic sight. In the center of the courtyard stood a massive black dome, its surface rippling like dark liquid, standing proudly as if a black hole had settled in the heart of the Academy.
At that moment, Janiero appeared panting, terror filling his face. He shouted, pointing at the dome:
"Kealen! Get back! The Master has released his 'Domain'! It's over... No one comes out of that dome alive if the Master decides so. Noctis is trapped in the Master's world now, where no luck or coincidence can save him!"
Kealen stood stunned, placing his hand on the cold surface of the dome, trying to hear anything from inside, but the silence was absolute.
[Inside the Domain - The Battle Continues]
The Master shouted, waving his hand downward: "Meteor Fall!"
Suddenly, dozens of massive stones lunged from the top of the "space" toward Noctis at terrifying speed. Noctis was staggering due to the shifting gravity, but the effect of the magic pill began to boil in his blood. With a primal scream, the silver aura of "Luck" erupted from his body to resist the domain's pressure.
Due to his suicidal luck, the stones began to collide with one another before reaching him, creating a chain of explosions that Noctis exploited to jump from one rock to another, heading toward the Master in the heart of that dark space.
"Your domain is strong... but my luck is stronger than your laws!" Noctis roared, charging his fist with enough energy to shatter a mountain, lunging toward the Master who began to realize that this fight would drain his soul before his body.
The atmosphere inside the "Eternal Gravity Orbit" dome turned into a raging inferno. Noctis was staggering, his body trembling under the weight of gravitational pressure that nearly crushed his bones. He looked at the Master, who floated with the calm of a ruler governing his own universe, then reached his trembling hand into his pocket.
Noctis pulled out a whole handful of red magic pills... not one or two, but a quantity sufficient to kill an Aetheric elephant. Without hesitation, he swallowed them all in a moment that made the Master's heart stop for a second from sheer shock.
"You madman!" the Master shouted, his voice shaking the floating stones of the domain. "You are a dead man now! No human body can withstand this much polluted energy... You will die before you even touch my robes!"
Noctis spat blood from his mouth, a hysterical laugh etched on his face, while his veins began to bulge in a dark black color, pulsing under his skin like snakes.
"Death? I already died when I saw Ilthra's cold body... Today, I will carry my soul in my hand and strangle you with it!"
Suddenly, the unexpected happened. Due to the "Absolute Luck" ability working at the highest peak of despair, Noctis's body did not explode; instead, the massive energy began to fuse with his cells in a miraculous way. A terrifying phosphorescent green light emitted from his pores, and his body began to change "360 degrees."
His hair grew long and turned the color of ash, tattered wings of black aura sprouted from his back, and his eyes turned into two emeralds glowing with a demonic green light. Noctis had surpassed the limits of the Third Level in a moment of madness, reaching the state of a "Human Demon"—a being standing on the edge between humans and monsters.
The pressure of the domain shifted suddenly. The black dome began to crack from the inside due to Noctis's new presence.
The Master realized the games were over, and his life was now the wager. He stripped off his upper robe, revealing tattoos on his chest that began to glow with celestial light. The Master shouted with a voice that shook the corners of space:
"Soul Level: Embodiment of the Gravity Guardian!"
From behind the Master's back, a massive spiritual entity emerged—a giant transparent colossus wearing armor of pure energy, holding a shield representing cosmic weight. The Master enveloped his body with this spiritual armor, and every movement he made caused a tear in the fabric of the domain itself.
"If this is the form of your demon... then behold the soul of the Master!" the Master said, his voice amplified by the spirit.
The "Demonic" Noctis lunged with a speed the Master's eyes could not track, leaving behind burning green lines. Noctis's fist collided with the soul shield, and the impact resulted in an energy explosion that shredded the floating stones around them, turning them into fine dust.
Noctis attacked with savagery, tearing through the air with claws that had become like talons, while the Master parried and redirected concentrated gravity strikes capable of crushing steel.
The domain transformed from a "gravity orbit" into an absolute "slaughterhouse." Noctis, having lost his human features, no longer moved like a human; he darted through the dark space like a green spark that defied the laws of physics.
Noctis lunged toward the spiritual "Gravity Guardian" surrounding the Master. Instead of a normal punch, he used his claws, dripping with poisonous green Aether, to slash the air. By "Absolute Luck," his claws found a microscopic gap in the soul armor, tearing away a portion of the Master's energy as he roared with a sound like a beast's growl.
"Do you think your soul will protect you?" Noctis snarled, then suddenly disappeared.
Noctis appeared behind the Master in a fraction of a second. Raising his hand high, a mass of concentrated green aura formed into a giant blade. "Demonic Skill: Aether Slasher!" The blade swung down, but the Master was ready.
The Master turned, crossing his hands in front of his chest, commanding the massive spirit behind him to raise its shield.
"Soul Technique: Cosmic Compression!"
When Noctis's green blade collided with the soul shield, no explosion occurred; instead, there was "absorption." Gravity around the shield increased to the point that light itself began to bend. Noctis felt his arm being pulled violently toward the center, his bones making horrific cracking sounds.
But the "Demonic" Noctis did something insane. Instead of retreating, he used his other arm to stab himself in the chest, detonating a massive amount of the aura stored within his body from the pills. The explosion resulting from this suicidal act created a counter-thrust that shattered the "Cosmic Compression" and sent the Master reeling back through space for a distance of a hundred meters.
Noctis gave the Master no chance to regain his balance. He lunged after him, unleashing a series of "resonant" punches against the spiritual shield. Each strike released a green shockwave that bypassed the shield and reached the Master's body directly.
The Master, spitting blood inside his spiritual armor, realized that Noctis was literally burning his life away every second.
"You are burning your soul, boy! You will end before you kill me!"
The Master shouted, thrusting both hands forward, as massive arms from the "Gravity Guardian" spirit reached out to seize Noctis by the waist and neck.
"Dark Fourth Level: Spacetime Crush!"
The spiritual arms began to squeeze Noctis's demonic body with a force capable of grinding a small planet. Noctis's green skin began to crack, and black blood leaked from his eyes. But at that critical moment, Noctis's eyes ignited with an unprecedented green glow.
By "Luck," one of the large floating stones in the domain exploded due to the Master's excessive pressure, and a sharp shard from it flew to strike the eye of the spirit (the shield) at its fatal weak point.
Noctis exploited this minor glitch, broke free from the spiritual grip, and gathered all his auras into his right hand, which transformed into a massive claw of pure demonic energy.
"Ilthra's... revenge... begins now!"
Noctis lunged, piercing through the soul armor, his hand reaching for the Master's real chest, while the Master raised his palm to release a direct gravity pulse toward Noctis's head.
The two were in a "mutual kill" position; Noctis's hand millimeters from the Master's heart, and the Master's palm fully charged to blow Noctis's head apart. Everything in the domain fell silent for a moment, as if time itself stopped to witness the end.
Time stood still in that critical moment inside the domain; the demonic hand of Noctis had pierced the soul armor and nearly touched the Master's heart, while the Master's palm touched Noctis's forehead, charged with gravity energy capable of erasing his existence.
Suddenly, the collision occurred.
The pent-up power from both sides exploded simultaneously, creating a "critical" energy shock the Academy's history had never witnessed. Blood sprayed, and the sound of breaking bones mixed with the roar of demonic energy and the howl of gravity. Death was a hair's breadth away for both, were it not for the fabric of the place beginning to tear.
"Domain Break!"
With a sound like the shattering of a mountain of glass, the black dome crumbled and vanished into the air. Two of the Academy's most powerful masters lunged toward the courtyard, using their legendary auras to absorb the explosion's shockwave. One cast a spacetime binding spell around the collapsed Master to save him from certain death, while the other pounced on Noctis, whose body began to collapse and lose its demonic form, catching him firmly before he fell as a lifeless corpse.
Silence reigned for a second... but it was the calm before the storm.
Suddenly, the ground shook beneath their feet, and a massive explosion occurred—its source was neither Noctis nor the Master, but came from nowhere. Amidst the rising dust and smoke, the shadow of a mysterious figure appeared, surrounded by an aura of majesty and terror. With a speed that even the masters' eyes could not track, the mysterious stranger delivered a lightning strike to one of the masters, sending him flying a great distance, then snatched Noctis's exhausted body from the other master's hand in the blink of an eye.
The mysterious figure paused for a moment, looking at everyone with a gaze full of disdain from beneath his mask, and said in a deep, cold voice:
"Goodbye, fools... This boy belongs to us now."
With a graceful movement of his fingers, the mysterious figure wove a magical portal in the air made of intertwined threads glowing with a dark purple hue. They were complex magical threads weaving the very fabric of time and space.
The mysterious figure entered the heart of the portal with Noctis, and as soon as they crossed, the threads vanished suddenly as if they had never existed, leaving behind stunned masters, a shattered courtyard, and a friend (Kealen) standing in the midst of the destruction, wondering