The coliseum trembled as the fissures overhead widened into jagged wounds across the sky.
Corrupted mana rained down in thick violet streams, hissing against the failing barrier dome and turning patches of stone black.
The once-deafening cheers had become a tide of screams as spectators surged toward the exits, trampling one another in blind panic.
Projection crystals blared the same emergency message on endless repeat:
DUNGEON BREAK CONFIRMED.
EVACUATE TO DESIGNATED SHELTERS.
ALL AWAKENED PERSONNEL REPORT TO DEFENSE POSTS.
Kairos and Elara stood motionless in the ruined arena, weapons of flame and psyche still flickering around them.
Blood dripped from Kairos's nose. The overload from his uncovered eyes gnawed at the edges of his mind, yet he kept them open, drinking in the chaos with newly restored sight.
Above the largest rift, the colossal crimson eye blinked once more, slow and deliberate, before the void around it began to churn.
A roar split the heavens.
Deeper than thunder. Older than mountains. The sound rattled bones and shattered glass in the upper boxes.
The rift tore wider.
A massive claw emerged first, black scales edged in violet corruption, talons longer than a man was tall. Then the head followed, serpentine and crowned with twisted horns, eyes burning with ancient crimson fury.
Wings unfurled next, blotting out the sun as corrupted mana swirled around them like living storm clouds.
A true primordial dragon, one of the reborn horrors that had nearly ended humanity a thousand years ago.
Its gaze swept the coliseum before locking onto the two bloodied youths at the center.
The dragon's voice rolled through every mind like grinding stone.
"Marked ones. Both marked. The cycle begins anew. "
Elara's flames flared instinctively, forming a blazing mantle around her.
"If you're here to talk," she shouted upward, voice steady despite the blood on her lip, "save your breath."
Kairos wiped his nose with the back of his hand, silver eyes narrowing. The dragon's mana flow was a torrent, ancient and vast, layered with intelligence and memory.
He could see every scale and every pulse of corrupted energy beneath.
The dragon reared back, wings spreading wide. Corrupted mana gathered in its maw, preparing a breath that would erase the lower stands and the hundreds of trapped civilians still scrambling there in a single blast.
It inhaled.
Kairos moved.
He dashed forward in a blur of silver psychic energy, faster than the crowd could track.
Absolute Stasis erupted in a massive curved wall directly in the path of the gathering breath, reinforced by every ounce of focus he could spare.
The dragon exhaled.
A torrent of void-fire slammed into the stasis barrier. The impact shook the entire coliseum, cracking the arena floor beneath Kairos's feet.
He skidded back several meters, boots carving furrows, blood spraying from his mouth as the overload spiked violently.
But the barrier held, just long enough.
The breath attack deflected upward, carving a smoking gouge through the sky instead of the stands.
Hundreds of lives were spared in a heartbeat.
Elara was already airborne.
She launched herself on a pillar of flame, coat streaming behind her like wings.
"My turn," she called down, not a request but a declaration.
Crimson lances formed in a spiral around her, dozens evolving into hundreds.
Infernal Cascade: Heavenly Descent.
She drove the storm straight into the dragon's exposed neck while it recovered from the breath. Flames exploded against scales. Several pierced through, searing ancient flesh.
The dragon roared in pain as violet corruption flared to seal the wounds.
It swung its massive tail toward her mid-air.
Kairos was there.
Mind Collapse seized the tail mid-swing, compressing the corrupted mana within it. The appendage crumpled inward with a sickening crunch, forcing the dragon to stagger.
Elara landed beside him, breathing hard but grinning fiercely.
"Covering me now, Voss?"
"Someone has to keep you alive long enough to lose properly later," he shot back.
She snorted.
"Then keep up."
They moved as one, years of rivalry forging perfect, unspoken coordination.
Elara drew the dragon's attention with sweeping flame arcs and precise lances, forcing it to rear and expose weak points. Kairos exploited every opening.
Stasis locked joints, psychic barrages shattered scales, collapse techniques crushed wings and limbs.
The dragon thrashed, destroying more of the coliseum with each movement, but it was losing ground.
Elara flew higher, flames condensing into a single blazing spear above her head.
Judgment Sovereign: Crimson Verdict.
The weapon grew massive, radiating heat that melted stone below.
Kairos felt the overload reaching its limit. Blood flowed freely now, vision blurring at the edges.
He reached inward, brushing against the power he had never dared unleash fully.
Dominion Mindscape stirred. Vast, hungry, ready to overwhelm everything in a radius that would include the entire coliseum.
Not yet.
He pulled back from the brink, redirecting the surge into a final, focused Neuroshock Barrage targeted at the wound Elara had opened.
Flesh tore. Bone cracked.
The dragon's movements slowed.
Elara hurled the spear.
It struck dead center.
Scales shattered. The spear buried deep, exploding in a column of soul-burning fire that lit the sky crimson.
The dragon roared, a sound of real agony, and crashed sideways into what remained of the upper stands.
One wing hung broken. Black blood poured in rivers.
It locked eyes with them again.
You delay the inevitable.
With a final surge, it beat its remaining wing and launched skyward, trailing corruption and blood. It vanished into the largest rift, the colossal eye watching until the tear sealed behind it.
Silence fell over the ruined coliseum.
Then voices rose, raw and desperate, from the survivors.
"Kairos! Elara!"
Both names, together.
Elara landed heavily beside Kairos, flames dimming. Her coat was half-burned away, skin blistered in places, but she stood tall.
Kairos finally tied the blindfold back on.
Vision returned to familiar psychic sense. The overload eased instantly, though exhaustion crashed over him like a wave.
Elara noticed.
"You held it longer than I expected."
He leaned on his knees, catching his breath.
"Had to see that thing clearly."
She looked up at the closing rifts, expression grim.
"That was just one. And it ran."
Kairos straightened.
"Means more are coming. Stronger ones."
A fleet of royal airships descended rapidly, golden hulls bearing the obsidian lightning crest of the Thorne Imperial Family, the undisputed rulers of the continent since the end of the Great War.
The Thorne bloodline had held the throne for a thousand years, their storm dominion elevating them to imperial rulers while Voss and Veyne remained the most powerful ducal houses among the traditional Three Great Families.
Leading the fleet was the crown prince himself, Cassian Thorne, twenty-one, heir to the empire and already whispered to rival the emperors of old.
Tall and blond, his hair caught the fading light like strands of captured sunlight. His presence carried the weight of restrained power, faint arcs of lightning dancing across his black-and-gold imperial coat without sound or effort.
His personal flagship hovered above the ruined arena, ramp lowering with military precision.
Cassian stepped out, boots touching down lightly amid the debris. Residual corrupted mana in the air hissed and dissipated at his approach, as though even the void feared his lightning.
He surveyed the destruction, the dragon's blood still steaming, then turned sharp storm-gray eyes on the two bloodied finalists.
"Well fought," he said, voice calm but carrying effortless authority. A faint smile touched his lips. "A primordial dragon driven off by two youths. The empire owes you both a debt."
Elara bowed slightly. Protocol demanded it from a duke's heir to the crown prince.
Kairos nodded, exhaustion plain but posture unbowed.
Cassian's gaze lingered on them a moment longer, assessing.
"Reports confirm simultaneous breaks across every major city. This is no accident. The prophecy has begun in earnest, and sooner than any of us predicted."
He turned to his guards.
"Secure the coliseum. Evacuate survivors."
Then back to Kairos and Elara, tone shifting to command. "You two, with me. The main rift cluster is forming over the palace district. We need every blade capable of wounding a dragon."
Elara glanced at Kairos.
He met her gaze through the blindfold now, but the memory of her face lingered.
"Ready when you are," he said.
Cassian allowed a faint, approving smile.
"Good. Let's hope your rivalry survives long enough to serve the empire."
As they boarded the flagship, smaller rifts flickered open again across the horizon.
The dragon had been only the harbinger.
The true war was just beginning.