Saint Academy

The dormitory halls of Saint Academy buzzed with nervous tension. Students whispered behind closed doors, prepping strategies, speculating matchups, and praying quietly. The semi-finals were here—and only four teams remained.

Team 1 sat in perfect silence.

Ronan Varell leaned against the wall, arms folded, his eyes closed in deep meditation. His sword lay across his knees, pulsing faintly with radiant Divinity. Calliston Drae adjusted her bowstring with mechanical precision while Thorne Kaol checked the edges of his gauntlets, his face set like stone. They weren't nervous. They weren't eager. They were ready.

Elsewhere, Team 2 tried to appear composed, but the dread was plain. Valyn Crowe's fingers tapped erratically against his forearm, bright solar flares occasionally flickering along his knuckles. Jet Ryn ran sprints in the hallway, his chrono boots whining with time-stressed gears. Eris Vonn sat still, her eyes vacant, whispering illusions to herself. None of them spoke. They didn't need to.

Team 12 was focused, but anxious. Cassia Mourn practiced short bursts of her Thunder Flow with her spear—each jab followed by a shockwave crackling the tiles under her feet. Eliro Thorne stared at her modified cryo rifle in cold silence, checking calibrations. Theo Shaw stood tall, quiet, calculating. Only one person was on his mind: Damien Gray.

And Team 11—still the underdogs. Damien, Zeke, and Amara stood just outside the combat arena gates, suited up and tense.

"I'm not scared," Damien muttered.

"Good," Zeke replied, cracking his knuckles. "Because I am. And I fight better when I am."

Amara exhaled, eyes on her wrist device. "Something's wrong with the Academy grid. I keep picking up irregular Divinity pulses—too chaotic to be from the tournament system. I tried telling the instructors, but they waved me off."

Zeke frowned. "Glitch?"

"No," Amara whispered. "Something's... wrong."

Damien placed a hand on her shoulder. "Then after we survive this fight, we make them listen."

Location: Academy Library – 3:13 AM

Damien awoke in silence.

He sat upright, confused. He was no longer in his dorm. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor of the ancient section of the Academy library.

Around him, glowing symbols pulsed faintly across the bookshelves. The air was heavy, thick with something unseen. A shadow moved behind a pillar—too quickly to follow.

Then a voice.

"You bleed now to bloom later. The darkness inside you isn't a curse. It is the key."

Damien spun, but saw no one.

The books on the shelves rattled. A single tome fell to the floor. It opened on its own. Damien stepped forward, but before he could reach it, the world snapped black—

He jolted awake in bed.

Arena Alpha – Semi-Finals Begin

The arena thundered with the sound of clashing energies.

A booming voice declared, "SEMI-FINALS! TEAM 1 VS TEAM 2, TEAM 11 VS TEAM 12. BEGIN!"

Massive walls split the arena, separating the two battles.

Team 1 vs Team 2

Valyn Crowe's hands surged with solar flames, releasing a volley of radiant bolts. Ronan Varell intercepted, his blade cutting through the solar flares with impeccable precision.

"You rely too much on flash," Ronan said.

"You rely too much on silence!" Valyn roared.

But Ronan moved in a radiant blur—closing the distance and slashing across Valyn's chest. Solar shields cracked. Valyn collapsed.

Meanwhile, Calliston Drae released an arrow shimmering with gravitational weight. Eris Vonn cast a distortion field around her, but the arrow bent time and space, crashing through the illusion and pinning Eris to the ground.

Jet Ryn sped around Thorne Kaol, leaving afterimages. But Thorne planted his massive construct shield, grounding himself.

"You can't outrun the inevitable."

Thorne activated his gauntlet. The floor beneath Jet shifted. Gravity increased tenfold, dropping him like a rock.

Team 1 stood victorious, untouched.

Team 11 vs Team 12

Cassia Mourn dashed forward, her spear lightning-charged. Zeke met her head-on, flames bursting from his fists.

Their clash lit up the arena like a thunderstorm.

Cassia spun, her Thunder Flow spear slicing a shallow cut across Zeke's chest.

"You hit like the sky," Zeke grunted, blocking another strike. "Let's see if you can handle the sun."

He flared, conjuring a Phoenix flame form behind him. It screeched, launching a wave of heat. Cassia backflipped, slammed her spear into the ground, and released a thunder burst that shattered the tiles.

Across the field, Amara Veyne sprinted through a hailstorm of ice bullets. Eliro Thorne hovered on a tower of cryo-constructs, firing from elevated angles.

Amara calculated every angle in real-time, ricocheting off walls, sliding under debris. She launched a mini EMP pulse from her wrist, disrupting Eliro's scope.

Eliro fired blind—and missed.

Amara closed the gap and launched a concussive blast from her device, knocking Eliro off his tower.

Meanwhile, Damien and Theo stood still amidst the chaos.

"I told them to keep your friends busy," Theo said. "This is between us."

Damien cracked his neck. "I'm not the same as before."

"You're still a mistake."

Theo charged first. His Uriel-level Divinity ignited, his aura exploding with golden fury. Damien ducked the first blow, countered with a left jab—but Theo caught it.

Then came the real pain.

Theo drove his fist into Damien's ribs, lifting him off the ground.

"Still soft."

Damien coughed blood, trying to retaliate, but Theo blocked and retaliated again—a brutal uppercut followed by a side-kick that sent Damien crashing into the wall.

"I'll end this quickly. You don't belong here."

Theo raised his hand, Divinity swirling upward.

"Celestial Archon Descent."

The sky above the arena opened. A spectral archangel silhouette formed behind Theo, glowing and massive, aiming down with burning spears of light.

Damien, bloodied and breathless, fell to his knees.

A faint pulse of purple shimmered in his veins—but faded quickly.