The academy was mourning.
The courtyard where Shadow Xenon had fallen was sealed off, cracked stone frozen in time like a scar the world refused to heal. Students stood in silence. No cheers. No whispers. Just heavy air.
Reflexo knelt where the clone had died.
The blood was gone.
The shadows had faded.
But the feeling remained.
Kaiser stared at the ground, jaw clenched so hard it trembled. "He fought gods… and died like it meant nothing."
Zento's voice was hollow. "No. It meant everything."
Renox stood behind them, unusually quiet.
Then—
The sky split.
Not violently.
Not loudly.
Reality simply… opened.
A circular portal formed above the courtyard, edged with absolute darkness. No runes. No magic circles. Just pure, controlled shadow.
Everyone looked up.
The air pressure dropped.
Executors appeared.
Three of them.
Silver-eyed. Untouched. Their armor hummed with erasure energy.
Students screamed and scattered.
An instructor shouted, "ALL DEFENSES UP—!"
Too late.
One Executor raised its hand—
And froze.
Because something stepped out of the portal.
A single figure.
Black cloak.
Purple strips.
Mask untouched.
No wounds.
No blood.
No fatigue.
Shadow Xenon.
Reflexo's breath stopped. "That's—"
Kaiser staggered back. "NO… THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE—"
Zento whispered, "Then who… who died?"
Shadow Xenon landed softly on the broken stone.
He looked down.
At the place where the clone had fallen.
For half a second—
The shadows around him stilled.
Then he looked up at the Executors.
Calm.
Uninterested.
"So," he said quietly.
"You finally finished fighting my shadow."
The Executors reacted instantly.
"TARGET CONFIRMED — ORIGINAL ENTITY."
"THREAT LEVEL — UNDEFINED."
"ERASURE AUTHORIZATION — MAXIMUM."
They attacked.
The first Executor struck with a blade meant to erase existence itself.
Shadow Xenon moved.
Not fast.
Perfect.
He stepped aside.
The blade passed through afterimages.
Shadow Xenon placed two fingers on the Executor's wrist.
The Executor collapsed.
Its entire arm disintegrated into harmless dust.
No explosion.
No sound.
The second Executor fired a suppression wave capable of shutting down realms.
Shadow Xenon walked through it.
His cloak fluttered.
Nothing else happened.
"Your suppression works on fear," he said calmly.
"I abandoned that long ago."
He drew his sword.
One clean motion.
The second Executor split in half—armor, core, existence—cleanly, silently.
The third Executor hesitated.
That hesitation was its death.
Shadow Xenon appeared in front of it.
The Executor looked down.
Its core was already gone.
Shadow Xenon held it in his hand.
He crushed it.
The battlefield fell silent.
Students stood frozen.
Reflexo's chest burned.
Kaiser dropped to one knee.
Zento couldn't speak.
Shadow Xenon turned back toward the portal.
More Executors watched from the other side.
He spoke—not shouting, not threatening.
"You saw the clone."
"You measured it."
"You prepared for it."
His aura expanded slightly.
The portal trembled.
"Now understand this."
He looked straight through dimensions.
"That was not me."
The Executors retreated.
The portal sealed itself.
Shadow Xenon sheathed his blade and finally turned toward his team.
Reflexo stood, tears in his eyes. "You… you fought them already."
Shadow Xenon nodded once.
"They were not worth arriving damaged."
Kaiser laughed shakily. "BRO… WHAT ARE YOU?"
Shadow Xenon walked past them.
As he passed Reflexo, he spoke quietly.
"Strength is not proving you can win."
"It is deciding when you don't need to try."
He stopped.
Looked at the place where the clone died.
"That shadow protected you."
"Honor it by surviving."
Then he walked away.
The academy would remember this day forever.
Not as the day Shadow Xenon died—
But as the day they learned:
They had never seen him fight at all.