The arena came apart.
There was no other way to describe it—the sound that erupted from the stands when the referee raised his hand was not the sound of any previous finish. Not louder exactly, though it was louder. Not more sustained, though it sustained through everything that followed. Different in kind—the specific sound of an arena that had been waiting for something and had received it exactly as promised, the expectation that had been building since before Jelo walked out of the tunnel finally finding its release point and releasing completely.
The Aurelius sections were uncontained.
