The applause for saving Toby felt hollow.
Kaelen handed the shivering boy to the Academy medics. He didn't smile at the cameras. He didn't wave to the crowd. He watched Toby's stretcher disappear into the tunnel, ensuring Vex was shadowing them from the rafters.
"Keep him safe," Kaelen whispered into his comms stone. "If anyone gets within five feet of him, remove their hands."
"Understood, Boss," Vex's voice crackled back. "Now get to the viewing deck. The main event is starting."
Kaelen walked up the stairs to the participant balcony. He leaned against the stone railing, looking down at the bloodstained sand where he had just humiliated the Executioner.
The arena was being cleaned. Magic sweepers scrubbed away the acid and the Chimera guts.
The announcer's voice boomed, trying to regain the hype after Kaelen's grim victory.
"And now! The moment you've all been waiting for! The Second Semi-Final!"
"In the Gold Corner... The Golden Son... RIAN VALERIUS!"
The crowd roared. It was a sound of desperate adoration. They needed Rian to be the hero. They needed to believe that the boy who ate sins was the villain, and the handsome noble was the savior.
Rian walked out. He looked different.
His armor was new—white gold, etched with glowing runes of the Church. He didn't carry a sword. He floated slightly off the ground, buoyed by a visible aura of white light.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed.
'I ate his talent. He should be a Null. How is he flying?'
[System Analysis.]
[Target: Rian Valerius.]
[Mana Core: Artificial (Unstable).]
[Source Detected: Divine Injection (Rank A).]
"The Church," Kaelen realized, gripping the railing. "They didn't just back him. They rebuilt him."
"And in the Blue Corner..." The announcer hesitated. "...The Fallen Princess... SERAPHINA LIONHEART!"
Seraphina emerged. She didn't float. She marched. Her uniform was torn from the dungeon, her staff chipped. But her eyes burned with the golden fire of the [Solar Tyrant].
She walked to the center of the arena and pointed her staff at Rian.
"You stole everything from me," Seraphina shouted, her voice amplified by her mana. "My dignity. My rank. My life."
Rian laughed, floating ten feet in the air. "I stole nothing, Seraphina. I simply threw away a broken toy."
"Fight!"
BOOM.
Seraphina didn't wait. She slammed her staff into the ground.
"WRATH OF THE SUN!"
A pillar of golden fire erupted from the sand beneath Rian. It was the same move she used to melt the Iron Wolf.
Rian didn't dodge. He raised a hand clad in a white gauntlet.
"Holy Aegis."
A hexagonal barrier of hard-light formed instantly. The fire crashed against it and dispersed like water against a rock.
"Is that it?" Rian sneered. "Kaelen taught you some new tricks, but you're still just a battery."
He snapped his fingers.
"Divine Ray."
Lasers of compressed light shot from his fingertips.
Seraphina rolled, the beams scorching the sand where she had stood. She was fast—her stats boosted by the dungeon grinding.
She returned fire, casting [Light Bolts] in a rapid-fire spread.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Rian blocked them effortlessly with one hand while yawning.
"Boring."
Kaelen watched from the balcony, his knuckles white.
'He's not casting spells,' Kaelen analyzed. 'He's channeling raw power from an external source. It's sloppy, but it's overwhelming. Seraphina can't win a DPS race against a generator.'
"Kaelen!" Seraphina screamed his name as a laser clipped her shoulder, spinning her around.
She looked up at the balcony. She looked for orders.
'Tell me what to do. Tell me how to win.'
Kaelen looked at her. He saw the fear creeping back in.
"Don't look at me," Kaelen whispered, though she couldn't hear him. "Look at him. Use your hate."
Seraphina gritted her teeth. She remembered the Iron Garden. The Princess is dead.
She stopped running. She planted her feet.
"I am not a battery!"
She grabbed the crystal on her staff and crushed it.
[Skill: Tyrant's Sacrifice.]
[Effect: Converts 50% HP into Mana.]
Her aura exploded. The golden fire turned crimson. She screamed, channeling a torrent of energy that looked less like magic and more like a solar flare.
It hit Rian's shield.
CRACK.
The Holy Aegis splintered. Rian's eyes widened. He actually fell back, his feet touching the sand.
"You bitch!" Rian shrieked, his composure breaking.
The crimson fire burned his white armor. For a second, just a second, Seraphina was winning.
But Rian reached into his tunic. He pulled out a silver cross.
Inquisitor Silas, watching from the VIP box, nodded once.
Rian crushed the cross.
[System Warning.]
[High-Energy Event Detected.]
[Spell: Judgment of the Seraph (One-Time Use).]
A massive, spectral sword of light materialized in the sky above the arena. It was thirty feet long, radiating pure, suffocating pressure.
"Kneel!" Rian roared.
He brought his hand down.
The spectral sword fell.
Seraphina looked up. She raised her staff to block, but she knew. It was too much.
BOOM.
The impact shook the entire stadium. Dust and light flooded the arena, blinding the cameras.
When the dust settled, a crater scarred the center of the ring.
Seraphina lay in the middle of it. Her staff was shattered. Her clothes were burned. She was trying to crawl, dragging her body across the glassed sand.
Rian walked over to her. He was unharmed, protected by the spell's backlash immunity.
He placed his boot on her back.
"See?" Rian looked up at the balcony, locking eyes with Kaelen. "Broken."
He applied pressure.
Seraphina screamed.
"Yield!" The referee shouted, running forward. "The match is over! He wins!"
Rian didn't lift his foot. He ground his heel into her spine.
"I said kneel," Rian whispered to the sobbing girl.
Kaelen didn't scream. He didn't jump over the railing.
He turned around and walked away from the balcony.
Vex appeared from the shadows next to him. "Boss? Where are you going? He's going to cripple her."
"The medics will stop him," Kaelen said, his voice completely devoid of emotion. "If I intervene now, I get disqualified, and Rian wins everything."
He walked into the dark tunnel leading to the locker rooms.
"Is that it?" Vex asked, appalled. "You're just going to let him do that?"
Kaelen stopped.
He punched the concrete wall.
CRACK.
His fist buried itself in the solid stone, spiderwebs of fractures spreading out for meters. He pulled his hand back, his knuckles bloody.
"Vex," Kaelen said, his back to her.
"Yeah?"
"Go to the betting window."
"And?"
"Bet everything. The gold. The estate. The dungeon loot. Everything."
Kaelen turned around. His eyes weren't just violet anymore. The pupils had turned into vertical slits. The [Sin Eater] was vibrating, sensing the overwhelming [Wrath] its host was generating.
"Bet it all on me."
"And tell the announcer to skip the intermission."
Kaelen drew his Mithril Sword. The blade turned black instantly, responding to his killing intent.
"I'm going to kill him. And I want the whole world to watch."