The arena had fallen silent—so silent that even the wind forgot how to breathe.
Miss Yaomie, her celestial eyes shimmering with the weight of authority, raised a hand and declared,
"Without further delay… let the final battle commence."
Her words rippled through the field like divine law. The Time Pulse activated—time itself quivered. The wind seized, halting mid-drift, suspended like frozen silk.
Across the battlefield, Vibe and Nagant locked eyes.
For a brief instant, the world was still.
Then—
Vibe vanished.
Not in a blur.
Not with a sound.
Just… gone.
Nagant flinched. His battle sense screamed, but his perception couldn't keep up.
He could read the rhythm of speed, but Vibe's movement broke every principle he understood. She moved beyond logic—beyond prediction—a rhythm that existed outside time's breath.
Each head of the clans watching from the crystal balconies blinked or turned their heads instinctively, but none saw her vanish.
Only the echo of her step remained—an aftersound of divine silence.
Then—
Boom.
A burst of invisible force exploded across the courtyard.
An eight-year-old boy standing at the boundary was hurled backward, not by a strike—but by the mere gesture of Vibe's eyes.
The air rippled like shattered glass as Vibe reappeared, her aura flickering like molten starlight.
Nagant gritted his teeth. "Tch… so this is your rhythm?"
Before he could finish, the two clashed.
A flash—then another. The entire field fractured under the pressure of their collision. Wind and power refused to mix; the elements themselves rebelled.
The school buildings surrounding the field began to tremble. Windows imploded, towers cracked, and the sky above bent inward, collapsing under divine pressure.
Across the nation of Enchantate, panic spread. People fell to their knees, trembling as the ground split open and mountains roared like ancient beasts.
Clouds dispersed, revealing a sky no longer blue—but white, trembling with radiant energy.
Their duel became a planetary calamity.
"Is this… the end of the world?" voices cried across Chante, the planet trembling beneath their feet.
From the heart of the chaos, a white aura rose like a pillar—
a symbol of the clash between two fates too powerful for mortals to witness.
Then—
The earth cracked.
Nagant crashed into the planet's core, the impact fusing lava and rock into a storm of molten fury. Vibe descended slowly through the debris, her silhouette divine, her expression cold yet sorrowful.
She landed before him—
Nagant's body bloodied, bruises painting his form, crimson spilling from his mouth and temple.
For a heartbeat, all was still.
I ran toward Nagant—my pulse wild, my breath unsteady—when the air itself split apart.
A presence emerged—vast, divine, ancient.
A goddess descended from the heavens, her radiance swallowing the battlefield. Her very voice carried authority that made entire nations bow.
"Cease."
The command wasn't sound—it was law.
And in an instant, every living being on the planet fell still—their bodies lifeless, frozen in reverence.
All, except… me.
For some reason, I didn't bow.
Her voice pressed on my mind like a mountain, yet I stood—barely.
The goddess turned, her eyes endless and merciful yet unyielding. "You resist?"
She approached, and with a motion as soft as breath, placed her hand upon my shoulder.
My mind twisted, reality blurred.
Her name echoed faintly through my consciousness:
Haishi—the 12th Servant of the Demi-God of the Lost Realm.
I clenched my fists. "If you're here to judge me… then come!"
The ground shattered beneath us.
My punch connected with her divine form—
She smiled.
"Are you satisfied with your attack?" Haishi asked, her tone almost kind.
"Now… it's my turn."
She tapped my shoulder lightly.
Thud.
The world folded. Space warped.
I was sent hurtling—beyond the sky, beyond the stratosphere—
until I crashed into a star.
The flames licked my form. My vision blurred.
I forced myself to rise, my breath trembling.
But as I did—something deep within me… awakened.
The star trembled.
From within the cosmic blaze, a roar unlike any sound ever heard shattered the silence of the heavens.
A crimson and navy blue aura spiraled around me, my heart syncing to something ancient—
something primal.
The scene blurred between divinity and destruction as the light swallowed the void.
And thus began the awakening…
Disruption of Sound