Chapter 49: Spiral Beyond the Real
The final stage had changed.
No longer the squared platforms of the previous rounds — this was a coliseum of shifting stone, layered with ancient runes and floating pylons that pulsed with light. The arena recognized what was about to happen.
This wasn't a battle between competitors.
This was a collision of foundations.
Aruun Templar, the prodigious heir of the Steel Will Sect, stepped forward. He was armored in ethereal plates, each etched with divine martial script. His gaze was steel, his aura a pillar that reached skyward like a mountain refusing erosion.
The crowd fell to silence.
Then came the echo of steps.
Kai entered alone. Calm. Barefoot. Shirtless. Wind swirling around him in unnatural eddies.
No weight accompanied him, and yet the air tensed with every movement.
His golden eyes swept across the audience, then settled on Aruun.
He spoke not just to his opponent — but to all of them.
"You all will witness history here."
A ripple moved through the crowd.
Kai raised his hand — fingers curled as if grasping at something unseen.
"I've walked through the edge of existence. Seen what lies beneath the veil. I will not climb to the peak. I will become the formless spiral above it."
"Reality Apex – Formless Spiral."
Then—
The world broke.
No flash. No explosion. No roar.
Just sudden, absolute silence.
The arena seemed to stop being.
Light bent, twisted, then reversed, swallowing in on itself. A spiral formed behind Kai — colorless, void of logic, as if the fabric of reality was being drawn into a singularity. It wasn't just energy.
It was everything refined, condensed, and now released.
The crowd couldn't breathe. Even Martial Kings in the audience instinctively activated defenses. A Martial Saint watching from the upper stands stood from his seat.
Kai's body glowed with silver and violet threads of condensed KI, rotating around his core. His form was fluid and fixed, flickering between presence and abstraction — like a man and an idea at the same time.
Aruun took an involuntary step back. Sweat beaded on his brow.
"…What are you?" he muttered.
Kai didn't answer.
He just stepped forward — and with that movement alone, space rippled like fabric hit by a stone.
The fight began.