The second half began.
To Phantom XI… it felt like the first.
They stood on the field, confused. Disoriented.
Kaien turned to Ash. "What's the score?"
Ash frowned. "Isn't it… kickoff?"
Nico looked around. "Wait. Where's Lyra?"
Lyra was on the bench—but didn't remember being subbed out.
Coach Dimas's voice came through Kaien's comm:
> "Listen. This is the Recursion Half. Your minds have been wiped of the first half. The enemy remembers everything. You remember nothing."
Kaien's heart pounded.
They were starting blind.
---
Shadow Reign's Advantage
Shadow Reign moved like they already knew the outcome.
Their passes were perfect.
Their positioning—surgical.
They anticipated every mistake Phantom XI was about to make—because they'd seen it already.
> In the first half… which now only existed to them.
Raze danced through defenders with a smirk.
He wasn't just attacking. He was reliving.
Every Phantom weakness was now a pattern.
---
Phantom Breaks
Within five minutes, the score was 3–1.
Ash missed a counter. Nico fumbled a trap. Even Kaien, usually sharp, hesitated.
> Every second guessed moment was punished.
Kaien fell to one knee. "This isn't a match. It's execution…"
---
Lyra's Resistance
On the bench, Lyra clutched her shard.
It pulsed faintly.
Then suddenly—violently.
She gasped.
> Her vision blurred—and she remembered the first half.
Not all of it. But the emotion. The score. The surge when Kaien shattered the field.
Her mind resisted the recursion.
She stood.
> "Coach—I can sync memory to rhythm."
Dimas raised an eyebrow. "You'll burn out your shard."
"Then I'll burn it for them."
---
The Spark Returns
Coach nodded.
Sub.
Lyra entered the field.
The crowd roared.
She touched Kaien's shoulder mid-run—and suddenly:
> A rush of vision, sound, memory.
Kaien gasped. "I remember… the goal."
Ash blinked. "I remember the time skip."
Lyra was bleeding from the nose, but her voice was steady.
> "We don't need the full past. Just the parts we fought for."
Kaien's pulse surged.
"Then let's fight again."
---
Kaien's Awakening: Blade Pass
Kaien closed his eyes mid-sprint.
He saw the field—not in space, but in consequence.
He curved his foot over the ball—not to pass to Ash or Nico, but to a possibility.
The pass cut across four defenders like a blade of wind.
Ash was already there.
Goal.
3–2.
---
The Match Tilts
Shadow Reign paused.
Raze looked up.
> "They're remembering. That shouldn't be possible…"
He clenched his fist.
> "Then we'll go deeper."
He triggered his shard again—and the entire field turned inverted.
Gravity warped. Color bled. Fans screamed.
Even the ball started flickering in and out of existence.
---
Time Fracture Begins
The final 10 minutes.
One minute in the real world = ten seconds in match time.
Memories loop and fray.
Players glitch in and out of presence.
It wasn't football anymore.
It was a war between truth and rewrite.
And Kaien was done playing by rules he didn't choose.
He spiked his shard into the ground.
A surge of white light erupted.
> Final Form: Arcbreaker Phase – Kaien unlocks Chrono Instinct.
Time slowed.
Not universally—but selectively.
Kaien could now pick one action every 30 seconds and make it absolute—immune to Catalyst effects.
---
The Final Goal
88th minute.
Ball at Kaien's feet.
One chance.
He blinked—and saw every future of this play.
Miss.
Foul.
Offside.
And finally—Goal.
He stepped into that future—and made it real.
Passed to Ash.
Ash volleyed.
> Goal.
3–3.
Final whistle.
Draw?
No.
---
Tiebreak Rule: Arcana Trigger
Announcer voice:
> "As this is a second-round Catalyst Tier match, and due to time disruption, the tie will be resolved with a Shard Duel Penalty."
Five players from each team.
No keepers.
No goalposts.
Just one-on-one Shard Duels.
The first to land three successful strikes wins.
Raze steps forward.
Kaien meets his eyes.
> "Let's finish this."
The stadium fell silent.
Not from fear.
Not from awe.
But because sound itself fractured.
This was no longer a match.
It was a Shard Duel.
A psychic penalty.
A soul-on-soul strike.
Kaien stood on the left.
Raze on the right.
The field between them shimmered with glowing glyphs — a battle court drawn in Arcana light.
---
Rules of the Duel
> One strike. One memory.
First to three successful hits wins.
Each hit must bypass the opponent's Arcana barrier — a reflection of their strongest belief.
"Begin."
Raze moved first.
---
Raze: Memory Collapse
He activated his shard with a single snap.
Kaien's mind convulsed.
> A vision slammed into him — a twisted memory:
Coach Dimas screaming. Phantom XI crumbling.
Kaien missing the shot.
Team walking away.
"You'll never be a leader," Raze's voice echoed, not from his mouth, but from Kaien's own thoughts.
A blade of shadow struck across the duel court—
Point One: Raze.
Kaien blinked as blood dripped from his lip.
Ash shouted from the bench, "That wasn't real, Kaien!"
"I know…" Kaien whispered. "But it felt like it was."
---
Kaien: Echo of the Real
Kaien touched his shard.
He didn't try to erase fear.
He leaned into it.
He summoned the moment he stood in the rain outside his father's grave.
No team.
No game.
Just silence.
From that, he stepped forward.
A clean arc of silver light surged from his foot.
Memory solidified.
Point One: Kaien.
---
Round Two: Raze Breaks the Timeline
Raze's next strike was brutal.
He shattered the boundary between what happened and what could have happened.
Kaien saw his team falling.
Lyra crying.
Ash disappearing mid-match.
> "You don't protect people," Raze murmured. "You just delay the moment they give up on you."
Kaien's hands trembled.
He tried to counter—but his swing shattered into smoke.
Point Two: Raze.
---
Kaien Unlocks Memoryblade
Kaien knelt.
His shard pulsed wildly.
Inside… was not just a memory.
It was everyone's.
Lyra's rhythm.
Ash's stubborn hope.
Nico's nervous jokes.
Even Dimas's quiet belief.
He realized—
> "I don't have to fight alone in here."
He inhaled.
And when he moved—it wasn't with speed.
It wasn't even with strength.
> It was with trust.
Kaien struck again.
And his barrier took the form of Phantom XI's shared dream.
Point Two: Kaien.
---
Final Round: All-In
Raze gritted his teeth.
He screamed, "YOU SHOULDN'T EXIST!"
Dark chains rose around Kaien.
A final nightmare.
Kaien alone. Forgotten. His name erased from the Arcana Cup's history.
Raze's blade came crashing down—
But Kaien's eyes glowed.
He didn't swing.
He stepped forward.
> Past the chains.
Past the fear.
Into the memory they'd made together.
He whispered, "I do exist. And I carry more than myself."
With a final motion, his foot traced a shining sigil in the court—
Point Three: Kaien.
---
Victory
The duel field shattered into motes of light.
Raze collapsed, breathing hard.
The announcer's voice rang:
> "Winner: Phantom XI."
---
Aftermath: What They Can't Steal
Kaien helped Raze up.
"You fought well," Kaien said.
Raze spat blood, but smiled. "You're more dangerous than you look."
He turned toward his own team.
Shadow Reign had lost.
But Kaien felt no triumph—only a deeper fire rising.
Ash clapped his back. "You alright?"
Kaien nodded. "Yeah. But this Cup… it's only getting stranger."
From above, the Archmage of the Cup watched silently.
The next round would not just bend memory—
> It would twist reality itself.