The arena had not fully recovered from other matches
Space still carried faint scars.
Fragments of compressed energy lingered in the air like memories that refused to disappear.
And yet, the next confrontation was already being prepared.
Merito stepped onto the battlefield first.
As always, his presence was quiet.
Not oppressive in the traditional sense.
Not overwhelming like Mark's speed or Vladimir's flames.
But unsettling in a deeper way.
As if reality itself hesitated to acknowledge him.
Opposite him stood Sarah.
Her expression was more composed than before.
After her defeats something had changed in her perception of power.
She no longer viewed her ability as simple destruction.
She had begun to understand something deeper.
That destruction was not just an outcome.
It was more deeply
It was a process of rewriting existence
The judge raised his hand.
"Begin."
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Then Merito moved.
A single step forward.
That was enough.
The space between them disappeared.
Not compressed.
Not folded.
Simply erased.
Sarah's eyes narrowed instantly.
Her instincts screamed.
She did not defend.
She reacted.
A sphere of destruction formed around her body, but this time it was different.
More controlled.
More precise.
Instead of spreading outward, it stabilized around her like a living boundary.
Merito's nullification touched it—
and for the first time—
it did not fully disappear.
A faint ripple passed through the battlefield.
Merito's gaze sharpened slightly.
"That's new."
Sarah did not answer.
She was not focused on him.
She was focused on herself.
On the destruction she was now consciously shaping.
For the first time, she was not releasing her power.
It was she who designing it
Merito extended his hand.
The concept of distance between them collapsed again.
Sarah felt her perception fracture.
For an instant, the idea of "her position" became unstable.
But instead of resisting, she adapted.
Her destruction shifted inward.
Instead of affecting space outwardly, it began targeting the process of nullification itself.
A dangerous idea.
One even she had not fully mastered.
Merito paused.
That was the first time he hesitated.
Not because he was injured.
But because something fundamental had changed.
Her destruction was no longer just an attack.
It was beginning to behave like a system that learned from what was being erased.
The battlefield became silent.
Sarah took a step forward.
"This isn't just destruction anymore…"
Her voice was calm.
"…it's correction."
She raised her hand.
The destructive energy around her condensed into a single point.
Not bigger.
Not stronger.
it was more accurate
She released it.
The attack did not travel through space.
It defined a new version of space
where Merito's nullification was incomplete.
A paradoxical strike.
A contradiction forced into existence.
Merito's eyes widened for the first time.
The void around him reacted instinctively.
It expanded.
It rejected the incoming correction.
But Sarah was no longer the same fighter who had faced Tiago.
She had learned.
Destruction was not about power.
It was about something
understanding what could be removed without breaking the system itself.
The two forces collided.
Not explosively.
Not violently.
But as competing interpretations of existence.
Merito's nullification attempted to deny Sarah's attack.
Sarah's destruction attempted to define Merito's denial as something that could itself be altered.
For a brief moment—
the battlefield froze.
Then both powers collapsed simultaneously.
A strange silence filled the arena.
No damage remained.
No winner was visible.
Only two exhausted figures standing at a distance from each other.
Sarah lowered her hand slowly.
Merito exhaled once.
A rare gesture.
"You've improved," Merito said quietly.
Sarah nodded.
The judge observed the remnants of the battlefield carefully.
His expression remained neutral.
After a long silence, he spoke.
"This battle ends in a draw."
A ripple moved through the spectators.
This was different from the previous draws.
Not caused by overwhelming equality.
But with mutual limitation
Each had reached the boundary of their understanding.
Merito turned slightly.
"If this continues," he said calmly, "one of us will eventually overcome the other."
Sarah responded without hesitation.
"Then it's good we stopped here."
Neither showed dissatisfaction.
Only acknowledgment.
As they left the battlefield, Andrew observed silently from afar.
A faint seriousness appeared in his eyes.
Sarah's evolution was accelerating.
Not through raw power.
But through conceptual understanding.
The same path William was walking—
just in a different direction.
And that meant something dangerous was approaching.
But not in the tournament.