The arena was rebuilt, polished, and humming with anticipation. It looked wider now though, much wider. Three banners of three kingdoms flapped above: Woewyn's crest, the blazing Sunspire emblem, and the obsidian mark of the Kargath Dominion.
Zaro shot out of a pillar of flame—literally rolled out—and landed with both arms raised like a rockstar who tripped but played it off.
"WOOOOEEWYNNN—WELCOME BACK TO CHAOS!!"
The crowd exploded.
Zaro paced with exaggerated swagger.
"In this corner—FROM SUNSPIRE—THE FIRE DEMON HIMSELF, RHEON VARKUS!"
Rheon cracked his neck, sparks flickering across his shoulders. Heat radiated from him like a furnace proud of itself.
"And from the KARGATH DOMINION—our lovely metal suit menace—GRAVITY SPECIALIST ZENRO KHAIL!"
Zenro's suit hummed with runes. When the visor opened, his eyes were calm, cold, calculating.
"And in the last corner…"
Zaro swept his cape dramatically and pointed behind him.
"Our prince. The one who traumatized a colosseum. Damon. Vale."
The crowd screamed so loudly the arena shook. Damon didn't wave. He just adjusted his gloves and breathed out, quiet.
Daichi barked once from the stands, wagging his tail like this was a family outing.
Zaro raised a hand.
"Three warriors."
He brought it down sharply.
"NO alliances allowed. NO rules. NO mercy."
A thunderous— BWOOOOOM!
"BEGIN!"
Rheon ignited instantly. Flames spiraled around him, red shifting to orange, orange to white, white to blinding blue.
"BLAZEBIRTH—FIRST ASCENT!"
Zenro clicked his gauntlets together.
"Gravity Construct: Compaction Field."
Damon sighed.
"…They're announcing attacks again."
But the fire and gravity hit first.
A tornado of solar flare fire slammed toward Damon from his right.
A crushing gravitational pulse collapsed toward him from the left.
Damon made a dome of light in hexagons around himself.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion threw him backward across the arena into a stone wall. Dust swallowed him.
Nyra stood instantly.
"Damon!!"
Thessa's eyes widened, but she forced calm.
"He's fine."
Thorpax leaned forward, knuckles white. "He better be."
Bravira muttered, "If he dies again, I swear I'm dragging him back by his hair."
Varnex hissed. Draven put a hand on his shoulder.
"Control yourself. Not yet."
Zaro cupped his mic dramatically.
"Oooooh the prince got LAUNCHED! SOMEONE CHECK IF THE WALL SURVIVED!"
The dust settled. Damon stood up. He looked mildly annoyed.
Above him, Rheon and Zenro were already clashing, fire and gravity twisting the sky. Damon watched them for a moment.
Then he leapt up. Straight into their fight. Time seemed to slow before they turned towards him.
Rheon roared, "SECOND ASCENT—SO—"
Zenro shouted, "Gravity Throne—"
Damon appeared between them like a quiet thought.
"Must you always say your attacks…"
He flicked his wrists.
His blades appeared—black hilts, gold veins.
"…please be quiet."
Two clean slashes.
SHAAAAK — SHAAAAK
They both thought "What...just happened?"
Both men were thrown back, blood spraying in elegant arcs. Bodies smashing grounds like a beat.
The colosseum erupted.
Zaro screamed into the mic,
"OH MY ETERNAL ONE—HE JUST TOLD THEM TO SHUT UP!?!? AND THEY LISTENED WITH THEIR SPINE!!"
"Is he taking this match seriously?" Thorpax asked "Surely he had a chance to create a stronger attack, his blades weren't even lit."
"He's trying to figure out a way to beat gravity that bends light." Bravira explained sternly.
"I never took you for a smart one." Thorpax taunted.
She flared.
Rheon wiped blood from his mouth, furious.
"You want to see real fire—FINE!"
His body expanded. Flames engulfed him.
His flames swelled from a controlled devastation to continental destruction in seconds.
Zenro wasn't far behind.
His suit cracked open, revealing inner layers of darker plates.
"Graviton Core—Full Unlock."
Gravity warped.
A circle of bent light formed around him.
Nyra whispered, "Oh no…"
Thessa exhaled sharply. "It's happening again."
Damon froze as a pulse hit him.
Then his muscles bulged grotesquely, then shrank. Then grew twice as large and then shrank again.
Veins of light crawled under his skin as he fell to one knee.
Daichi howled, "NO NO NO DON'T PURGE HERE—DAMON—DAMON!!"
Bravira lurched forward but Thessa grabbed her arm. Strong.
"Let him. He needs this. Besides...we cannot interfere."
Damon's jaw clenched.
His bones cracked like branches.
"Come on… come on…" he hissed.
"Natsuki— hates big guys… keep it togetherrr…"
Zaro whispered into his mic "Folks… our prince is experiencing every gym transformation in seconds."
Rheon cracked his neck. Zenro adjusted his gauntlets. Damon staggered forward, purge already shaking under his skin, muscles tightening in long pulses.
The two opponents exchanged a tiny nod.
Nyra exploded up from her seat. "ZARO! THEY'RE TEAMING—!"
Zaro panicked. "I—I didn't see anything! Without proof I can't do a thing!"
Queen Thessa forced Nyra back down with a hand on her shoulder.
Damon lifted his head, purge twitching through him, and Zaro mouthed helplessly, "I can't help you."
Rheon's flames hit first, Zenro's gravity right behind it. Damon tried to guard, but a purge spike threw off his timing and both attacks slammed him across the arena, carving a long skid through the stone.
Nyra yelled, "They're hitting him during a purge!"
Zaro groaned, "I KNOW—BUT IT'S TOO LATE TO STOP IT—!"
Damon pushed himself up, breath sharp, limbs unsteady, purge still flickering through him.
The combined force felt like standing between two large trains moving. The searing heat of Blazebirth fusing with the crushing depth of Gravity Crush.
Damon choked on a mouthful of blood and dust, his vision momentarily flickered. The Purge, trying to force the growth, seized his muscles in a violent spasm, making him drop his guard and absorb the full impact of their attacks.
It wasn't just a physical hit, it was a systemic shock that tore through his ability to even think. He was forced to focus purely on survival, not offense.
The crowd stared.
The generals of both opposing kingdoms stared.
Queen Thessa quietly sighed.
Zaro whispered into his mic, "…Someone please help Draven, he's losing the battle against Varnex's core strength—"
Varnex roared again, dragging Draven another two steps like an unwilling sled.
"I WILL NOT WATCH A PRINCE BE ASSASSINATED MID-PURGE!"
Draven wheezed, "CAN—SOMEONE—ANYONE—GRAB—HIS—LEGS—?!"
Rheon and Zenro didn't wait.
"Blazebirth!"
"Gravity Crush!"
Damon steadied himself and, despite everything. He managed a small, irritated smile.
The purge got to its peak and Damon rose. Slowly. Calmly. Stronger. Much stronger.
Rheon charged, a solar storm in human form.
"THIRD ASCENT—CATACLYSM FORM!"
The heat alone melted some sections of the arena.
Damon vanished. Reappeared behind him. Grabbed Rheon by the throat—threw him upward.
Far upward. Rheon tried stabilizing but Damon was already above him. Light spiraled around Damon's hand—
"I'll end this quickly. Lightbreaker. First strike."
He slammed Rheon downward.
KRRAAAAAAAACK!!
The nearest moon—it cracked and fractured on impact.
Zaro screamed, "DID HE JUST…USE A MOON…AS A PILLOW!? SOMEONE PUT UP THE MOON SCREENS!!"
Rheon still twitched, embedded in the fractured moon's surface. Damon raised his other fist.
"Lightbreaker. Second strike."
He slammed it again. Rheon tore through the land of the moon. He collapsed into the second moon that formed large webcracks on impact.
The other kingdoms kings stared at Thorpax.
Thorpax sighed. "I'll fix it later."
Damon grabbed Rheon, at least the broken left of him and took him back to Eternum's ground, the arena.
Zenro hovered in air, horrified but determined.
"GRAVITON SINGULARITY!!"
A black dome formed.
Gravity bent light itself—curving Damon's beams away.
The entire colosseum felt its pull.
Damon stepped forward. One step. Two steps. The gravity crushed the floor but he didn't stop.
Zenro gasped. "Wh—what—!?"
Queen Thessa turned to Bravira "How can he do that?"
"It has something to do with the purge he just had but...I don't know."
Cythera crossed her arms, her eyes fixed on the spectacle. "Zenro's Graviton is designed to use his little eterna to apply the force of a thousands of tons on a body except his own. Damon absorbed the mirror version of himself before, so he's stronger, which triggered the purge he just had."
"But that made him strong physically. Did you see how his muscles where moving?" Nyra asked.
"That's the point. His muscles and bones have been compressed because he doesn't want to look large." Cythera explained.
Thorpax nodded. "So he's not resisting the energy of the field; he's resisting the force."
"Yes. He's now physically denser and stronger than the force Zenro is capable of generating. To Damon right now, Zenro's singularity feels like a headwind."
Damon walked in the singularity like it was water. Unbothered, his expression was blank. He grabbed Zenro's arm and crushed the metal.
Zenro screamed. "How can you walk through this? Noone of our age should be able to!"
"I guess I'm older then." Damon crushed the other.
Then kicked him downward into the arena with enough force to crater the steel.
Zenro coughed blood, suit sparking as he tried to drag himself up on broken arms.
Rheon crawled back, barely able to move.
Both wounded. Both defeated.
Damon stood over them, blades ready.
His aura filled the arena like a second sun.
Both men froze.
Damon spun his daggers and light flared as a final attack formed—
He stopped. Blinking. Lowered his daggers.
"Yield," he said softly.
He swallowed "…please."
Silence.
Rheon nodded instantly, terrified.
Zenro bowed his head.
The arena erupted.
Zaro threw his mic into the sky.
"HE SAID PLEASE AND THEY SAID YES LIKE THEY WERE SIGNING A CONTRACT!!"
Damon crouched and light gathered in his palms.
Soft. Warm. Healing.
He touched Rheon's chest and Zenro's suit and light flowed into them, knitting wounds, sealing fractures, soothing pain.
The crowd fell quiet.
Thessa watched, a hand over her heart.
Nyra smiled softly.
Bravira exhaled in relief.
Daichi wagged his tail proudly.
Damon lifted both opponents—one over each shoulder—and carried them toward the healers.
Not as a conqueror but as a prince. As Damon Vale.
Damon handed the last unconscious fighter to the healers and exhaled, shoulders finally relaxing.
That was when the air changed.
A cold ripple swept across the arena — thin, sharp, familiar to only one person.
Draven's eyes snapped toward the sky.
"…No. It can't be—"
A voice drifted through the wind. Soft. Amused.
"So that's how it is."
Damon froze.
He felt it — not eterna, not aura, but intent brushing against his mind.
His breath hitched.
In the next heartbeat, the presence vanished completely.
Damon shot upward in a blink, wind spiraling under his feet as he scanned the sky, eyes searching, pulse racing.
Nothing.
Just empty air and fading echoes.
Draven was already in the air. Floating still, jaw tight, fists clenched.
Damon moved slowly, floating beside him.
"Did you feel that…?" he asked quietly.
Draven didn't look at him.
"…Yeah," he murmured.
But his eyes weren't on the sky.
They were on the shadows.