The continent was bleeding.
Obsidian cracked like old skin, violet light seeping from the wounds. The sky-sea above had frozen mid-crash (waves suspended in perfect, impossible arcs, fish trapped in crystal droplets). The hollow moon leaned so close its indigo breath fogged the air.
Six warriors stood on the edge of annihilation.
Vanessa waited at the center, spear planted like a gravestone. The ribbon at her waist (pure white, no longer fluttering) hung perfectly still, as though even the wind feared to touch it.
Tyrone's voice was gravel and smoke. "Clock's bleeding out. One minute. We take the ribbon, or we don't go home."
Lihanna's answer was a nod (slow, deliberate, royal). Her new hair moved like living void, strands tipped with ultraviolet fire. The nodachi was gone, lost in the abyss, but her hands remembered its weight.
They moved.
Raijin opened the dance.
He slammed both palms together. Lightning crowned him (a halo of white-hot storms that split the frozen sky-sea). "THUNDER GOD DESCENT!" A thousand bolts screamed toward Vanessa in a single, world-ending lance.
She caught the lead bolt between thumb and forefinger. Crushed it. The rest detonated harmlessly against her aura (abyssal essence drinking the storm like wine).
Evelyn followed before the echo died.
Twin thunder serpents erupted from her sword-pistol (one coiled around the blade, one around the barrel). "STORM FANG!" They lunged (faster than sound, faster than thought).
Vanessa stepped through them. The serpents froze mid-strike, scales crystallizing into black glass. A flick of her spear. Evelyn was pinned to the continent by her own lightning (veins glowing obsidian, body arched in silent agony).
Kamaki blurred in from the blind spot.
Blood-flame roared from his fists (dragon-shaped, jaws wide enough to swallow moons). "BLOOD DRAGON EMPEROR!" He punched (the dragon roared).
Vanessa sidestepped. Elbow to spine. The impact cratered the continent fifty meters deep. Kamaki's regeneration stuttered (black veins crawling across his skin like spiderwebs of nullity).
Felicia rose above the chaos.
Phoenix wings spread (pale blue fire turning the frozen waves into steam). "INFERNO REBIRTH – FINAL FLIGHT!" She dove (a blue sun falling, wings trailing comets of rebirth).
Vanessa walked through the heart of the sun. Her hand touched Felicia's forehead (gentle, almost tender). The flames inverted (sucking inward, collapsing into Felicia's own chest). She fell (wings ash, body smoking, eyes wide with the realization that fire could be erased).
Tyrone and Lihanna moved as one soul in two bodies.
Tyrone teleported (three shadow-clones erupting from the void, scythe spinning a vortex of black fire). Lihanna vaulted over him (hands empty but dangerous, ultraviolet light coiling around her fists like liquid moons).
Vanessa spun her spear.
A perfect circle of abyssal force exploded outward. The clones shattered into smoke. Lihanna's punch bent around her like light around a black hole.
She caught Lihanna's wrist mid-strike. Twisted. The ultraviolet light screamed as it was wrenched from her veins (coalescing into a sphere of pure night that Vanessa crushed in her palm).
Tyrone's scythe came from behind (void-fire howling).
Vanessa backhanded it. The blade cracked (a hairline fracture running from tip to hilt). Tyrone flew (shadow-fire guttering, crescent mark bleeding violet blood that hissed into steam).
The fallen rose on trembling legs.
Raijin's lightning crown flickered (half the bolts dead). Evelyn's thunder serpents were shackles now, binding her to the ground. Kamaki crawled (blood-flame reduced to embers). Felicia's wings were gone (only smoldering feathers left).
They threw everything.
Raijin's last bolt (a dying star). Evelyn's final bullet (thunder made solid). Kamaki's blood-flame dragon (a flickering ghost). Felicia's phoenix tear (a single blue flame that refused to die).
Vanessa absorbed it. Her aura swelled (abyssal essence turning the continent into a singularity).
She raised her spear.
The six were slammed to the obsidian. Bones cracked. Auras extinguished. The continent groaned (cracks spreading like spiderwebs toward the horizon).
Vanessa looked down at them (eyes soft, almost sad).
VANESSA "You were magnificent. But every story ends."
She reached for the ribbon (to end the test herself).
KAMAKI (voice a broken whisper, blood bubbling) "…now…"
From the rubble, a blood-flame tendril (Kamaki's last spark of life) lashed out. It wrapped the ribbon. Yanked.
The silk tore free.
Time stopped.
The ribbon floated in the air (white against the black hole sky, glowing like a fallen star).
Vanessa's eyes widened (first crack in the abyss).
VANESSA "…Clever boy."
The gravity released.
Six warriors collapsed (exhausted, broken, human).
Tyrone and Lihanna were closest (but spent). Tyrone's hand twitched (shadow-fire dead, fingers trembling). Lihanna's arm reached (ultraviolet light gone, blood dripping from her nails).
The ribbon drifted downward (slow, mocking, within reach).
The continent cracked in half. The sky-sea resumed its crash (waves falling upward in slow motion). The hollow moon leaned closer, its indigo breath fogging the ribbon.
Tyrone and Lihanna's eyes met across the void (no words, only a shared heartbeat).
The ribbon fell.
A single white thread in a universe of black fire and frozen screams.
Tyrone's fingers twitched (shadow-fire dead, only muscle memory left). Lihanna's arm stretched (ultraviolet light extinguished, only will remaining).
They were inches away.
But inches were galaxies when you were broken.
Raijin's eyes snapped open.
Lightning crackled across his shattered crown (one bolt, half-dead, but alive). He moved (not teleport, not speed, refusal).
Evelyn was already there.
Her thunder serpents (once shackles) shattered into chains of pure storm. She launched (sword-pistol discarded, bare hands reaching).
The ribbon spun in slow motion (caught in the crosswind of six dying auras).
Raijin's hand closed first.
SNAP.
The ribbon tore from the air.
Vanessa's spear froze mid-swing. Her abyssal aura collapsed (black hole inverting, sucking itself into nothing).
A single system voice echoed across every dimension:
"RIBBON SECURED. TEST CONCLUDED. WINNERS: RAIJIN & EVELYN."
The continent healed. The sky-sea unfroze. The hollow moon receded (its indigo breath fading like a sigh).
Vanessa lowered her spear. For the first time, she bowed (slow, graceful, proud).
VANESSA "Well done. You broke the abyss with hope."
Raijin and Evelyn collapsed beside the ribbon (hands still clasped around it, lightning and thunder coiling together like lovers).
Tyrone laughed (hoarse, broken, free). Lihanna smiled (small, exhausted, real).
The six were alive.
CUT TO – VRASNIA CENTRAL ARENA –
Portals yawned open across the shattered continent. The survivors stepped through (bloodied, burned, victorious).
The stands exploded.
Toto's voice cracked over the feeds: "THE IMPOSSIBLE HAS HAPPENED! RAIJIN AND EVELYN—THE STORM CHASERS—HAVE TAKEN THE RIBBON! THE FESTIVAL IS OVER!
The VIP chamber erupted.
Kazimir stood (slow clap, golden eyes gleaming). "Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."
Riah's hands flew to her mouth (tears streaming). Neve screamed (a sound of pure joy). Jessie's jaw unclenched for the first time in hours (a single nod of respect).
The crowd chanted: "STORM! STORM! STORM!"
Raijin and Evelyn were lifted onto shoulders (lightning crown flickering back to life, thunder serpents coiling in victory).
Tyrone and Lihanna watched from the sidelines (leaning on each other, too exhausted to stand alone).
TYRONE (grinning through blood) "Told you we'd go out swinging."
LIHANNA (voice soft) "We didn't lose. We lived."