Saint Academy

The golden form of the Celestial Archon Descent thundered down from the heavens like divine wrath incarnate.

A second passed.

Then another.

Then came the detonation.

A blinding column of golden fire roared across the arena, scarring the floor with a holy crater. Rubble and fractured tiles flew through the air, smoke curling like serpents. The arena trembled beneath the impact. Silence followed. Deafening silence.

Spectators in the viewing dome stood frozen. No cheers. No gasps. Just the ringing silence of disbelief.

Theo Shaw stood at the edge of the blast, sweat trickling down his brow. He lowered his hand. "It's done," he muttered.

Zeke screamed from across the battlefield. "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

Amara's breath caught in her throat. Her screen lit up with abnormal readings. "Something's wrong..." she whispered.

Suddenly, a ripple formed in the space just in front of Theo.

A whisper of black.

A hiss of entropy.

Then:

BOOM.

A black-purple streak shot from the tear in space, a fist wrapped in void crashing directly into Theo's jaw. His entire body lifted off the ground and crashed into the arena wall with a thunderous crack.

The crowd erupted into chaos.

"HE'S ALIVE!"

"THAT'S DAMIEN GRAY!"

"WHAT... WHAT WAS THAT?!"

From the dissolving void portal, Damien Gray stepped into the battlefield. His body still bore faint scars from Theo's beating, but dark tendrils of violet energy coiled gently around his arms. His eyes shimmered faintly—an unnatural silver-violet. Beneath his feet, the ground warped just slightly.

The announcer's voice came through, cracked and shaken. "AND DAMIEN GRAY... HAS AWAKENED HIS DIVINITY!"

The Fight Reignites

Theo snarled, wiping blood from his lips. "You should be dust!"

Damien rolled his shoulder. "I get that a lot."

With a burst of speed, Theo lunged, time fracturing around him as he activated Chrono Lock, trapping Damien in a slowed-down moment.

But Damien vanished.

Void Step.

He reappeared behind Theo, spinning into a brutal sidekick to Theo's ribs, sending the older boy sprawling.

Theo coughed violently. "Your rank... you're still Zadkiel..."

"Yeah," Damien smirked. "But the Void doesn't care about rank."

Theo raised a hand, summoning a beam of compressed light.

Damien's hand glowed with chaotic purple. He met the beam head-on, activating Echo of the Void.

The beam struck his palm—then was re-fired back at Theo, distorted, unstable, roaring with void entropy. It tore across the arena and forced Theo to leap away.

He landed, breathing hard. "You're a mistake!"

Damien's fists surged with Null Veil Surge. He rushed Theo, trading blows with the chrono brawler, each impact laced with void disruption. Theo's speed was unmatched—but his rhythm was breaking. Damien was unraveling his pattern.

Theo reeled back to launch another time-laced strike.

Damien activated Singularity Drive.

For ten seconds, he became untraceable.

Theo swung—and hit nothing.

Damien's afterimages danced through space, shadow-clones of his strikes following half a beat later.

One—two—three hits landed.

Theo crashed backward into the arena wall, his armor fractured, his body trembling.

Meanwhile...

Zeke clashed with Cassia Mourn, her thunder-dancing spear slicing arcs of lightning. She moved like a storm, but Zeke's fists—each charged with fire and divinity—met her head-on. Flame phoenixes circled his shoulders.

Cassia lunged, but Zeke grabbed her spear mid-spin, twisted, and slammed her into the ground.

"You're flashy," Zeke panted. "But I burn brighter."

Amara faced Eliro Thorne, the ice sniper perched above a ridge of crystallized cover.

Amara ducked behind cover, muttering calculations. Eliro's shots were perfect.

Too perfect.

Amara used her Predictive Flow to see future paths, then flipped a coin-sized scanner into the air.

Bang. Miss.

Bang. Miss.

She jumped from cover and launched a short-range EMP glyph—blasting Eliro's scope offline.

Then she sprinted through a storm of ice.

Eliro blinked—and Amara stood in front of him, pressing a blade to his throat.

"Checkmate," she whispered.

Back to Damien vs Theo

Theo bled from his nose and lip, his light dimmed.

Damien stood tall, energy waning but fists clenched. "You lost the moment you underestimated me."

Theo roared and charged with a final strike.

Damien met him mid-air.

Fist to fist.

Void met Light.

A shockwave erupted.

When the dust cleared, Theo was unconscious on the floor.

Damien stood tall.

Victory

The arena roared with disbelief.

The announcer yelled: "TEAM ELEVEN... HAS ADVANCED TO THE FINALS!"

In the viewing dome, three hooded figures from the Holy Council leaned forward.

"This one... he's touched by the Void."

Another nodded. "We must keep watching."

Beyond the Walls...

In the shadows beyond Saint Academy, cloaked warlocks watched through an enchanted mirror.

"He awakens... just as the seal begins to crack."

"Let the Saints play their games. Soon, the real war begins."