Chapter 11 : Realisation
Kael nearly lost sight in one eye.
Sol's Avatar lashed out—a curved horn slicing the air, searing with crimson Crownlight. It didn't make contact, but the heat did. His cheek sizzled, skin blistering as Kael vaulted backward, gauntlets glowing like dying suns.
Another breath. Another clash.
Flames tore in every direction.
And still, Sol wouldn't break.
He kept dodging the heatwaves. Letting Kael sear the ground until the metal warped beneath them. Sol didn't want to win. He wanted Kael to overextend.
Kael gritted his teeth, spinning left—just in time to see Veyna slam into the arena wall.
Soahc's reverse-Crown surged behind her, writhing. Veyna rolled up, coughing. She fired another bullet—but it reversed mid-air again, freezing in place before exploding outward as an icy burst.
She cursed. Kael did too.
Something's off.
They were losing the rhythm. Not from lack of strength. But from being separate.
His eyes flicked from Sol—drenched in Avatar haze—to Soahc, who was now climbing onto the wall like a twisted insect, whispering nonsense and grinning as if he already saw the end.
This isn't the point of it they want to survive anywhere there needs to be reliance.
Kael realised it without them speaking sol and Soahc had done that exactly.
They want us disjointed, Kael realized. Sol isolates. Soahc distorts. Together they break formation.
Veyna fired again. Another bullet frozen mid-air.
"Veyna!" Kael shouted. She looked up.
"We switch!"
She didn't question it. Just trusted it.
That's all he needed.
Kael leapt, light swirling around his feet, and shot like a comet across the arena—straight toward Soahc.
The moment he crossed Veyna's line of sight, he fired a flare blast toward her, lighting the ground between her and Sol.
A makeshift smokescreen.
Veyna dove through it, vanishing into the haze.
The opponents blinked—just for a moment—but that moment was enough.
Kael landed hard, gauntlets buried in the ground.
Soahc tilted his head. "Ah. You brought the sun."
"Seems you did a number of Veyna" He replied.
He surged forward—fast and burning.
This time, he didn't aim for his body like Soahc anticipated. He aimed for the distortion itself.
Every punch radiated photons—weaponized light that bent through Soahc's inverted aura. The strangeness worsening , trying to wrap around Kael's thoughts, but he focused.
Not on rage. or Soahc for that matter.
But on Veyna.
She'd reappeared behind Sol—her Voltarm reassembled with a new enchantment, one she hadn't used before. A flicker sigil on the barrel. She was blinking from angle to angle—dodging instead of aiming.
She's adjusting, Kael realized.
Good.
So would he.
Soahc swung his arms again, but Kael sidestepped—lowered his stance—and let himself burn hotter.
The gloves shimmered white.
His skin peeled.
His Crown flared.
Light poured through his gauntlets in radiant streams—pure stellar fusion forcing Soahc to backpedal for the first time.
Behind him, Sol bellowed. A shockwave. Veyna dodged it mid-air, landed on a bent pillar, and fired three rounds—all aimed off-target.
Sol scoffed—until the third one curved, bouncing off Kael's heatwaves and slamming directly into his chest plate.
His Avatar shattered.
"NOW!" Kael roared.
He threw his hand upward—launching a solar flare into the dome's ceiling. It burst like a flare-star, filling the arena with blinding corona.
Veyna didn't need sight.
She was already mid-dash—closer than anyone realized— sliding beneath the burst to strike Sol's thigh.
He dropped to a knee.
The Sol who had seemed so impenetrable screamed, not from pain but from confusion.
Kael drove a punch into Soahc's gut as he was caught off-guard distracted by the lightworks Kael set up.
"I had the rhythm! I—I had it!"
No flourish. No photon trick.
Just raw, star-powered brutality The reverse-Crown finally dimmed and the whispers wavered.
Veyna stood beside Kael now, chest heaving, Voltarm empty but glowing.
Sol knelt, clutching his leg. Soahc staggered back, wild-eyed and laughing through bloodied teeth.
Kael didn't speak right away he just looked at Veyna.
She gave a nod the kind that meant: I hear you.
Not just orders or tactics now but trust.
This was their tempo now.
The battle was now over with Kael and Veyna victors
The arena cooled. Smoke drifted like ghosts across the cracked floor.
Kael exhaled.
Then came the voice that cut through it all, laced with smoke and spite.
"…Wasn't supposed to go like that," Soahc muttered, wiping blood from his lip, eyes jittering. He wasn't laughing anymore. Just smiling thinly, like something had soured behind his teeth. "I had the rhythm. I did. The inversion—should've—" He stopped, blinking, like a part of him was still spinning inside the chaos. "You broke it. You bent it back."
Kael looked at him, but said nothing.
Soahc's eye twitched.
"You shouldn't be able to do that."
Sol spoke up. "Give it up Soahc they won fair and square and besides we all need to work together in the future anyway this was just for experience"
Somewhere above, behind the shimmer-glass observation platform, a thin figure had been watching.
Arms crossed. Brow furrowed.
Instructor Verdan. Cold, sharp, always present when he didn't need to be—but always watching for those who'd survive, not just win.
He made a note on a glowing slate, then spoke without turning.
"They're forming faster than I expected."
Behind him, a second figure leaned against the wall—older, dressed in a longer coat marked with two Crown-seals. Deep bags under his eyes. Professor Ulreth.
His voice was low, gravel-worn.
"Verdan, we have a problem. Verdan didn't turn. Ulreth pressed on. "The northern Deathzone we detected breach flickers. Veil-signatures. It could be a Veilstalker."
Verdan tapped his fingers. "Could be. Or it's residual static."
"It isn't static," Ulreth said. "We both know what Stalker feed feels like. The rhythm of it—it was off. It's real."
Verdan finally turned, slowly. His face unreadable. "You're telling me this now?"
"I sent the report three hours ago. You didn't read it."
Verdan glanced down at the arena again—Kael and Veyna still standing, catching their breath, while medics approached. "We have Trynarch guests arriving tonight to observe the Regalia trials. You want me to cancel over a maybe?"
Ulreth stepped forward, quiet but firm. "I'm saying it's not safe."
Verdan exhaled sharply through his nose. "Safe?" He turned fully, voice cool. "This is Centralis. Safety isn't the point."
"No, but containment is," Ulreth replied. "If that thing slips by while half our Crowned are in death zone pits—"
"We'll reinforce it."
"You're playing too close to the edge."
Verdan didn't answer. His gaze returned to Kael.
"He bent a reverse-Crown into form. He stabilized a rhythm inside inversion. That's what I'm watching."
Ulreth sighed. "And if a Stalker eats half the academy while you're clapping?"
Verdan didn't blink. "Then maybe the wrong ones survived."
Below them, Kael glanced up—just faintly sensing the weight of eyes.
Something in his chest stirred.
He didn't know why. But it felt like something just shifted. Like a beat had skipped, somewhere deep in the world's tempo.
And something was listening.