The arena floor was a cratered wasteland.
Glass shards from the melted sand crunched under Kaelen's boots as he walked to the center circle. The air smelled of ozone and burnt flesh—Seraphina's flesh.
Kaelen didn't look at the crowd. He didn't look at the scoreboard where his name flashed in red. He looked at the golden figure hovering twenty feet above the ground.
Rian Valerius. The Golden Son. The construct of the Church.
Rian floated with his arms spread, bathed in an aura of artificial divinity. His white-gold armor hummed with the stolen power of the [Divine Injection]. He looked down at Kaelen with the pity of a god viewing an insect.
"You came back," Rian's voice boomed, amplified by the holy mana. "I thought you ran away to cry over your broken doll."
"I don't cry," Kaelen said, his voice low, carried only by the wind. "I calculate."
He raised his Mithril Sword. It wasn't shining silver anymore. It was dull, coated in a layer of matte black residue—the physical manifestation of his killing intent.
"Calculate?" Rian laughed. "Calculate this."
Rian pointed a finger.
"Judgement Ray."
A beam of condensed light, thicker than a man's torso, fired from the heavens. It was instantaneous. There was no travel time.
BOOM.
The ground where Kaelen stood evaporated. A cloud of dust mushroomed into the air.
"And so the rat dies," Rian sneered, turning to the crowd to accept his applause.
But the dust swirled.
A figure burst out of the smoke, moving not away from the blast, but through the superheated trench it had carved.
Kaelen wasn't dead. His uniform was smoking, his skin red, but he was sprinting.
[System Alert.]
[Passive: Pain Suppression (High) Active.]
[Skill: Null-Breaker Stance.]
"You missed," Kaelen roared.
He launched himself off a piece of jagged debris, leaping into the air. He couldn't fly, but his [STR 25] legs gave him the verticality of a missile.
Rian blinked, surprised by the speed. "Filth!"
Rian summoned three Holy Orbs and fired them like cannonballs.
Kaelen didn't dodge. He swung his sword in mid-air.
PING. PING. PING.
[Technique: Mana Sever.]
He vibrated the blade, shattering the structural integrity of the spells. The orbs dissolved into harmless sparks.
Kaelen reached the apex of his jump—eye level with Rian.
"Get down here," Kaelen snarled.
He slashed.
Rian didn't block. His [Holy Aegis] flared automatically, a hexagonal wall of hard-light appearing between them.
CLANG.
The sword struck the shield. The vibration of the Null-Breaker rippled through the barrier. Cracks appeared.
But it didn't break.
'Rank A barrier,' Kaelen realized as gravity took hold and he began to fall back to earth. 'The Null-Breaker can't shatter Rank A without more force. I need weight.'
Rian smiled behind the cracked shield.
"Nice try," Rian mocked. "But you can't reach heaven with dirty hands."
He raised both hands. The sky darkened as massive circles of magic formation layered over the arena.
"Spell: Rain of the Seraphim."
Hundreds of light-spears materialized in the air.
"Die."
The spears fell like rain.
Kaelen hit the ground running. He zigzagged through the bombardment. Explosions rocked the arena, turning the floor into a chaotic hellscape of flying stone and blinding light.
He was fast, but the coverage was too dense. A spear clipped his leg. Another grazed his ribs.
[-150 HP]
[-80 HP]
Blood soaked his tattered uniform. Kaelen stumbled, rolling behind a slab of concrete just as three spears impaled the ground where his head had been.
He sat there, breathing hard. His health was dropping. His stamina was burning.
In the VIP box, Inquisitor Silas leaned forward, his blind eyes tracking the chaos.
"He is losing," Silas whispered. "He refuses to use the Abyss. He will die a stubborn heretic."
Kaelen looked at his sword. The edge was chipped. The Null-Breaker style had limits. It relied on physics, and Rian was defying physics.
'I can't win playing by their rules,' Kaelen admitted to himself. 'I can't be the Swordsman. I can't be the Hero.'
He looked at the VIP box. He saw Silas. He saw the trap.
If he used Dark Magic, the Church executed him. If he didn't, Rian killed him.
'A trap is only a trap if you care about the consequences.'
Kaelen remembered Seraphina screaming under Rian's boot. He remembered Toby crying in the cage. He remembered his father's sword stuck in the gate.
The rage wasn't a hot fire anymore. It was a cold, absolute void.
"System," Kaelen whispered.
[Yes, Host?]
"Unlock the limiters."
[Warning: Inquisitors are present. Abyssal Energy will be detected.]
"I don't care," Kaelen said, his eyes turning entirely black. "Let them look."
He stood up.
He dropped the Mithril Sword.
Rian, hovering above, saw Kaelen surrender his weapon. He laughed.
"Finally accepted your fate?" Rian called out, preparing one final, massive spear of light. "Kneel, and I might make it quick."
Kaelen walked out from behind the cover. He stood in the open, arms hanging loosely at his sides.
Black smoke began to curl off his shoulders. It wasn't the subtle mist of a skill. It was thick, viscous darkness that dripped onto the ground like oil.
The temperature in the arena plummeted. Frost formed on the glass shards.
"I accepted my fate a long time ago, Rian," Kaelen's voice changed. It layered over itself—human and monster speaking in unison.
He raised his left hand. The [Sin Eater].
The black smoke coalesced into a massive, spectral claw hovering over Kaelen.
Rian's smile faltered. "What... what is that?"
"That," Kaelen pointed, "is your receipt."
[Skill: Abyssal Sun (Unbound).]
[Mode: Black Hole.]
Kaelen clenched his fist.
The darkness didn't shoot out. It pulled.
A gravity well of pure void formed in Kaelen's palm.
Rian screamed as the air was sucked out of his lungs. The holy light surrounding him—the light that kept him floating—was dragged violently downward.
"No! My magic!" Rian flailed, trying to fly up.
But light cannot escape a black hole.
The [Abyssal Sun] swallowed the photons. Rian fell.
He crashed into the sand ten feet in front of Kaelen. The impact shattered his white-gold armor.
Rian scrambled backward, coughing, trying to summon his sword. "Guards! Help! He's a demon!"
The Inquisitors in the stands jumped the rails, drawing their weapons. "Heresy! Kill him!"
Kaelen didn't look at them. He looked at Rian.
He used [Shadow Step].
He appeared on top of Rian, pinning him to the ground.
"You like crushing people?" Kaelen whispered, grabbing Rian's face.
The Inquisitors charged across the sand. "Stop! In the name of the Light!"
Kaelen ignored them. He activated [Sin Eater].
"Devour."
He didn't just drain mana. He drained the [Divine Injection].
Rian shrieked as the artificial core the Church had implanted in him was ripped out through his pores. Golden light flowed into Kaelen like water, turning black the moment it touched his skin.
[Ding!]
[Consuming Artificial Divinity (Rank A).]
[System Mutation Active.]
[Converting Holy Energy to EXP...]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Current Level: 15 (Tier 1).]
The shockwave of the level-up blasted outward.
BOOM.
The charging Inquisitors were blown off their feet by a wall of pure force.
Rian lay beneath Kaelen, gray and withered. His hair had turned white. His eyes were dull. He was alive, but he was empty.
Kaelen stood up. He was glowing—not with light, but with a terrifying, violet aura.
He turned to the Inquisitors who were scrambling to their feet.
Silas stood at the edge of the arena, his face pale.
"You..." Silas pointed a shaking finger. "You are the Enemy."
Kaelen walked toward the VIP box. He stopped at the barrier. He looked up at the camera broadcasting to the entire Kingdom.
He held up his hand, wreathed in violet flame.
"I am not the Enemy," Kaelen declared, his voice echoing through every speaker in the city.
"I am the Solution."
He pointed at the withered body of Rian.
"The Church gave him power. And he used it to torment the weak. I took that power back."
He looked at Silas.
"If that makes me a villain... then hail the villain."
The crowd was silent. They were terrified. But then, a single voice shouted from the cheap seats.
"HAIL KAELEN!"
It was Vex.
Then another voice. "He saved the boy! Rian tried to kill him!"
Then another. "The Church rigged the fight!"
The mob mentality shifted. They didn't care about Light or Dark. They cared that the underdog had eaten the golden boy alive.
"HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!"
The chant grew deafening.
Silas looked at the crowd. He realized he had lost control of the narrative. If he killed Kaelen now, he would make a martyr.
Silas lowered his hand.
"Retreat," Silas hissed to his men. "We will deal with him in the shadows."
The Inquisitors backed down.
Kaelen stood alone in the center of the arena, bathed in the violet glow of his power, listening to the crowd chant his name.
[Ding!]
[Quest Complete: The Grand Finals.]
[Rank Achieved: 1st Place.]
[Reward: The Key to the 7th Door.]
[Reputation: The Abyssal Sovereign (Mythic).]
[Warning: The Church of Light has declared a Holy War against House Vance.]
Kaelen closed his eyes and let the darkness settle.
The Tournament was over. The War had just begun.