The Grand Coliseum thundered with the voices of over a hundred thousand spectators on the day of the Triennial Youth Tournament finals.
Banners of the Three Great Families snapped in the wind while massive projection crystals hovered above the arena, broadcasting every moment to cities across the continent.
The caster's voice rolled through the amplification arrays like thunder.
"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the pinnacle of our generation, the finals we have all waited years to witness!"
Half the crowd erupted immediately.
"First, the undefeated heir who carries the unbreakable will of Hero Kael Veyne himself, the Crimson Princess, ELARA VEYNE!"
A towering pillar of pure crimson flame exploded on the eastern platform.
Elara stepped through the fire as though it were a curtain, silver-white hair flowing like molten moonlight, crimson eyes sharp and proud. Her black-and-red coat flared behind her, and the Veyne sections shook with ecstatic cheers.
"And her opponent," the caster continued, voice rising to match the tension, "the untouchable enigma who has dominated every stage with flawless, terrifying precision, the psychic prodigy of the Voss Clan, KAIROS VOSS!"
A guide led Kairos to the edge of the western gate by the elbow, then released him.
He walked the remaining distance alone, slow, deliberate steps, hands relaxed at his sides, the black blindfold sealed tightly over his eyes.
The moment he appeared, the coliseum split into rival roars.
"Voss! Voss! Voss!" chanted one half.
"Veyne! Burn him down!" answered the other.
Over the past six years, doubt had long been replaced by fervent belief.
The world had watched the blindfolded boy rise through every tournament and exhibition, halting attacks he should never have perceived, crushing opponents without taking a single step.
They had watched Elara burn through every obstacle with perfect, inherited flames, beautiful, ruthless, unstoppable.
Two marked children. Two living claims to the ancient prophecy.
The rivalry had become legend, and the crowd had chosen sides with passion.
The caster's voice reached fever pitch.
"Crimson Sovereign versus Apex Psyche! Perfect inheritance versus the marked anomaly! Who is the true chosen one? The stage is set!"
The reinforced barrier dome shimmered into existence, strong enough to contain city-shattering force.
Kairos stepped onto the central platform, guided solely by the subtle currents of mana in the stone beneath his feet. He stopped at his mark and waited.
Across from him, Elara's mana signature blazed exactly as he had memorized it over countless battles, fierce, proud, unyielding.
He knew its rhythm better than his own heartbeat.
But he had never seen her face.
Today, that would finally change.
The referee stood between them, raising a glowing flag.
"No killing blows. Surrender or knockout ends the match. On my mark…"
A hush fell over the coliseum.
"Begin!"
Elara struck first, as everyone expected.
Dozens of crimson flame lances tore across the arena in a deadly storm. Infernal Cascade twisted mid-flight, each lance hot enough to melt reinforced stone.
Kairos remained perfectly still.
Every lance froze three meters from his body, flames guttering out as though drowned in invisible water. Absolute Stasis held them captive, then extinguished them completely.
The Voss half of the crowd exploded in approval.
Elara's mana flared hotter with irritation and excitement. She answered immediately with a barrage of her own, forcing Kairos into motion for the first time in the tournament.
Close-quarters combat erupted in a blur of crimson and silver. Elara propelled herself forward on bursts of flame, mixing precise, searing strikes with point-blank explosions.
Kairos read every shift in her mana flow, every intent thread forming before it became action, dodging and countering with devastating psychic shocks that cracked her guards and drew first blood.
The competing chants grew deafening, shaking the very air.
Elara's coat tore at the shoulder. Blood stained her sleeve. Her breathing came harder, but her core burned only brighter.
With a sharp cry, she summoned Crimson Lotus Prison. A massive, multi-layered bloom of soul-searing fire closed from every direction like a living trap.
Kairos sensed the heat pressing against his psychic field. He took one calm step forward, and the entire structure trembled under his will.
Mind Collapse compressed the lotus inward until it became a harmless sphere that dropped to the arena floor with a dull thud.
Elara landed lightly in front of him, eyes blazing.
"You've gotten stronger," she admitted through gritted teeth. "But you're still hiding. Still refusing to face me with your own eyes."
Kairos's voice was low and steady, carrying easily over the crowd. "You have no idea what I've been waiting for."
He raised both hands to the blindfold.
The entire coliseum fell into breathless silence, every chant and every shout swallowed by anticipation.
Elara's mana flow stuttered for the first time he had ever felt.
"Do it," she challenged, voice fierce yet edged with something almost like curiosity. "Show the world why you believe you're the chosen one."
His fingers closed on the silk. Silver psychic energy surged around him, denser and sharper than anything the crowd had seen before.
With a single motion, he pulled the blindfold free.
It fluttered to the arena floor.
Light flooded his eyes for the first time in eleven years.
The overload struck instantly. Mana particles blazed like countless stars, every current and thread burning into his mind with overwhelming clarity.
Blood trickled from his nose, but he held it back through sheer will.
His vision stabilized, and the world came into focus.
He saw everything.
The vast coliseum in vivid color. The sea of faces divided by loyalty yet united in awe.
And across from him, Elara Veyne.
Silver-white hair flowing like liquid moonlight. Sharp crimson eyes widened in genuine shock. A streak of blood on her pale cheek. The torn coat revealing the fierce, athletic lines he had only ever traced through mana echoes.
She was beautiful, fierce, proud, exactly as the blazing signature in his mind had always promised.
Kairos smiled, small and almost wondering.
"So that's what you look like."
The crowd erupted louder than ever, both sides stunned by the historic moment.
Elara recovered first, flames roaring higher around her.
"Enjoy the view while it lasts, Voss. I'm ending this now."
She raised both arms, pouring everything into her strongest technique, Judgment Sovereign.
It exploded outward, transforming the arena into a crimson hellscape of endless, regenerating flames. Heat warped the air itself, and soul-burning fire pressed in from every side.
The Veyne supporters screamed in triumph.
Inside the domain, the pressure was crushing. Kairos's new sight drank in every detail, the flow of each flame current and every weak point in the regeneration cycle.
Blood flowed more freely from his nose now. The overload was building fast. He had minutes at best.
But it was enough.
Silver psychic energy flared around him in a visible storm, pushing back against the inferno. He stepped forward through the flames.
"Now," he said quietly, voice cutting through the roar of fire, "we fight for real."
Elara's eyes widened as their powers clashed at full intensity. Psychic force crushed walls of flame while crimson fire burned through psychic barriers. They traded peak blows.
Blood flew, stone shattered, and the barrier dome spiderwebbed under the strain.
Neither yielded an inch.
Then the sky itself answered.
A cataclysmic boom shook the foundations of the coliseum. Purple-black fissures ripped open overhead.
Corrupted mana cascaded down like violet blood. The barrier dome flickered and cracked in places. Alarms wailed across the city.
Projection crystals flashed emergency crimson.
DUNGEON BREAK CONFIRMED.
MULTIPLE RIFTS OPENING WORLDWIDE.
REBIRTH SIGNATURES. CATASTROPHIC LEVEL.
Panic swept the stands as spectators scrambled for exits.
High above the largest rift, a colossal crimson eye opened in the void, ancient, hateful, and fixed directly on the arena below.
Elara's domain collapsed in an instant. Kairos's psychic field vanished with it.
Both fighters stood frozen amid the settling dust, battered and bleeding, staring upward.
Elara was the first to speak, voice low and shaken.
"It actually happened. Right now."
Kairos bent slowly and picked up his blindfold from the floor, but he did not tie it back on yet.
He looked at her one last time, memorizing the face he had fought for six years without ever seeing.
The silver mark on his collarbone burned like fire. Her inherited flames pulsed in instinctive answer.
The prophecy had come alive in the worst possible moment.
And for the first time, neither of them knew which of them, or whether both, Fate had truly called.