The courtyard was no longer a training ground.
It was a battlefield.
Half drowned in fire, half swallowed by void, the world bent beneath two wills that refused to yield. The crowd had been forced back against the walls, their faces pale with terror and awe. Overseers debated stepping in, but none dared. Not yet.
This was something more than a spar.
It was a birth.
Veyron roared, his flames surging high enough to lick the sky. The heat was suffocating, stone cracking, banners igniting in the rafters. He became a furnace, his body a living conduit of flame.
"I'll burn through you, Kael!"
Kael staggered, knees trembling, but the abyss didn't relent. Shadows poured from him in jagged waves, devouring sound, light, even the rhythm of the world itself. For a heartbeat, nothing existed but stillness.
Then — the silence cracked.
A scream tore from Kael's throat, though no sound left his lips. Instead, the abyss lashed outward, swallowing the courtyard in a dome of absolute quiet. Flames flickered and vanished, consumed as if they had never been. The world dimmed, light itself bending toward him.
Veyron didn't falter. He grinned, eyes blazing like molten gold. "Yes! Show me everything!"
He unleashed his full resonance. The ground beneath him split, molten rivers spilling across the courtyard as a sunburst erupted from his chest. The flare seared the void, forcing it back, light clawing into darkness.
A duel of absolutes.
A sun against an abyss.
The collision was cataclysmic.
The dome of silence imploded as the sunburst detonated. A shockwave blasted outward, tearing tiles from the roofs, shattering windows, and flinging trainees like ragdolls. Overseers raised barriers, their runes cracking under the strain.
In the center of the crater, Kael and Veyron stood — barely.
Kael's arms shook, blood streaking down from his ears and nose, his body trembling under the abyss's hunger. Veyron's skin blistered, steam rising from his shoulders, breath ragged but fire still flickering in his eyes.
For a long, unbearable moment, they just stared at each other through the haze.
Then, as one, both collapsed to their knees.
The crowd erupted in chaos — shouts, gasps, some cheering, others terrified. Darius cursed under his breath, torn between fury and awe. Rynna gripped her blade as if Kael were a monster barely caged. Jorek was already scribbling notes with frantic devotion. Serran simply whispered, "Balance has shifted."
And above them all, Ashen Vox leaned forward, his lips curling into the faintest smile.
"Yes," he murmured. "The abyss awakens."
But before silence could reclaim the arena, one voice cut through — loud, burning, unbroken.
Veyron, still on his knees, head tilted back, laughed.
It was raw, guttural, but alive.
"Kael Ardyn… from this day forward… you're mine. My rival. My fire exists to burn your shadow."
Kael lifted his gaze, eyes still haunted by the abyss, and for the first time… he smiled.
The courtyard would never forget it.