Chapter 101: The Abyss
Kael remained on one knee as blood steadily pooled beneath him.
Every breath he took felt heavier than the last.
His body screamed in protest after everything he had forced it through since his battle with Zion.
Even so...
His eyes slowly lifted.
Several meters away...
His worn sword lay where he had abandoned it earlier in the fight.
Kael stared at it for a moment before forcing himself to stand.
His legs trembled violently beneath him, but he refused to fall.
One slow step.
Then another.
Each movement left bloody footprints across the ruined arena.
Across from him...
Auriella quietly watched.
She had expected the battle to end the moment she landed her previous attack.
Yet...
Kael was still moving.
Seeing him continue toward his sword, Auriella’s expression remained unchanged.
Without hesitation, she rushed forward.
Her scythe cut through the air as she appeared before Kael, bringing the massive blade down toward his neck.
Before the attack could connect—
A black spike erupted from Kael’s shadow.
It shot upward without warning, aiming directly for Auriella’s torso.
Her eyes widened slightly.
She immediately twisted her body in midair, narrowly avoiding the spike.
Before she could regain her balance—
Two more spikes erupted.
This time...
From her own shadow.
Both attacks surged upward simultaneously, forcing her to abandon her original trajectory.
Auriella’s gaze instinctively dropped to the ground.
Only then did she notice it.
A thin stream of Darkness Mana connected Kael’s shadow to her own like a black thread stretched across the battlefield.
The moment her shadow entered its range...
It became another point of attack.
Auriella immediately spun her scythe.
Clang!
The first spike shattered against its blade.
She shifted her footing.
The second narrowly missed her shoulder.
The third collided head-on with the shaft of her scythe before exploding into countless fragments of Darkness Mana.
She landed smoothly on both feet.
The instant she looked up—
Kael was already standing on the opposite side of the arena.
His sword had returned to his hand.
Auriella’s eyes narrowed.
Something was different.
Very different.
She had observed Kael throughout the entire tournament.
Every technique he copied...
Every stance...
Every movement...
She knew exactly where each one came from.
Each originated from a first-year student.
Each had someone she could trace it back to.
But...
The stance Kael was using now...
She had never seen it before.
His grip.
The positioning of his feet.
The way his Mana circulated throughout his body.
Everything about it was unfamiliar.
It was unlike the Celestial Star Art.
Unlike Beastkin combat.
Unlike Hulk’s techniques.
Unlike Zion’s swordsmanship.
It belonged to something else entirely.
For the first time since the battle began...
Auriella felt something she rarely experienced.
Primal fear.
A quiet instinct warned her that allowing Kael to complete whatever he intended would be dangerous.
Only one thought entered her mind.
"End the fight."
Immediately.
Without giving him another opportunity.
Auriella vanished.
She accelerated toward Kael at breakneck speed, her scythe leading the charge as she aimed to cut him down before he could move.
Kael remained perfectly still.
His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword.
"I doubt my body can bear the use of this technique..."
He thought.
His muscles had already reached their limits.
His Mana Circuits felt as though they would tear apart at any second.
Even so...
There was no hesitation in his eyes.
"But I really need to win this fight."
He slowly raised his blade.
Then, almost in a whisper—
He spoke.
"Third Form..."
"Celestial Moon Style..."
"Lunar Eclipse."
The instant the words left Kael’s mouth...
The world around Auriella disappeared.
Darkness swallowed her vision.
There was no sky.
No arena.
No audience.
Nothing.
Only an endless black void.
Her ordinary eyesight had become completely useless.
Only the Eyes of Ruin continued functioning, allowing her to distinguish the flow of Mana within the darkness.
Even then...
Her instincts screamed a single warning.
Danger.
Without pausing to think, Auriella threw herself sideways.
A brilliant white slash tore through the darkness where she had stood only an instant earlier.
Although she had reacted in time...
She hadn’t escaped completely.
The blade carved across her right shoulder.
Blood burst into the air.
The terrifying force behind the strike exploded outward.
The concussive shockwave alone launched Auriella across the battlefield.
She crashed violently into the arena floor before rolling several times.
Her grip loosened.
The scythe slipped from her hand midway through the tumble before skidding across the broken arena.
Dust rose around her.
Only after several more rolls did her body finally come to a stop.
For several seconds...
She remained motionless.
Then she slowly pushed herself back onto her feet.
A sharp pain surged through her injured shoulder.
She instinctively pressed her hand against the wound, attempting to slow the bleeding.
Her breathing had become noticeably heavier.
Still...
Her gaze never left Kael.
He remained standing on the opposite side of the arena.
Perfectly still.
Almost unnaturally so.
Auriella’s violet eyes immediately activated again.
She carefully examined him.
Then she noticed something strange.
The countless weak points surrounding Kael...
Were increasing .
One after another.
The number continued increasing at an alarming rate.
Her eyes narrowed.
Only one conclusion presented itself.
"He’s unconscious..."
She thought.
"But still standing."
She muttered quietly.
Despite losing consciousness...
His body had never collapsed.
Instead...
It remained standing with his sword still raised.
The arena fell into complete silence.
Even the spectators had stopped cheering.
Everyone simply stared at the battlefield.
No one understood what they had just witnessed.
Auriella slowly bent down and retrieved her scythe from the ground.
She adjusted her grip before once again facing Kael.
The Darkness Mana surrounding him remained strangely calm.
Neither of them moved.
For only a brief moment...
Everything became still.
Then—
The Mana surrounding Kael began moving again.
Like a tide awakening from its slumber.
Kael’s eyes suddenly snapped open.
Auriella froze.
Those weren’t the crimson eyes she had been fighting throughout the tournament.
There was no trace of red remaining.
Instead...
Only an endless abyss stared back at her.
Eyes so dark they resembled a bottomless void.
Even someone possessing the Eyes of Ruin found herself disturbed by that gaze.
For the first time since entering the arena...
Auriella felt genuine unease.
Yet she didn’t hesitate.
She immediately rushed toward Kael once again, gripping her scythe with both hands.
If whatever had awakened inside him was allowed to continue...
The battle would become even more dangerous.
Auriella’s scythe descended with all of its power.
The strike carried enough force to split the arena apart.
Yet...
Kael calmly raised his sword.
Clang!
The edge of his blade met the tip of her scythe.
The impact echoed throughout the stadium.
Auriella’s eyes widened.
Kael hadn’t merely blocked her attack.
He had stopped her fully powered strike with only the edge of his sword.
Without changing his expression...
He pushed her weapon aside.
His figure blurred.
Only a trail of Darkness Mana remained where he had been standing.
Auriella immediately turned.
Kael was already behind her.
A series of unfamiliar attacks descended one after another.
Each strike flowed into the next with frightening precision.
They weren’t techniques Auriella had ever seen.
Nor were they copied movements from any of the first-year students she had observed.
She barely managed to block them.
Each collision forced her farther backward.
As she defended herself, her Eyes of Ruin remained fixed on Kael.
The countless weak points surrounding him continued disappearing.
Thousands...
Dropped into the hundreds.
The hundreds...
Rapidly became dozens.
Every exchange reduced them further.
Auriella attempted to evade the next slash.
Before she could move—
Kael suddenly appeared directly above her.
She felt an overwhelming pressure descend from above.
Darkness Mana surged around his sword.
The blade rapidly expanded.
Its shape changed.
The sword transformed into an enormous mallet of condensed Darkness Mana.
Kael swung it downward.
The attack perfectly replicated Hulk’s devastating overhead strike.
Auriella’s instincts screamed.
She immediately used Vanishing Step.
Her figure disappeared just before the massive blow landed.
The instant the mallet struck—
BOOM!!
The arena exploded beneath the impact.
Stone shattered in every direction.
A massive crater appeared where the attack landed.
The protective barrier surrounding the stadium cracked violently.
Another deafening explosion followed.
The barrier completely collapsed.
Fragments of Mana scattered into the air.
The entire stadium shook from the force of the strike.
High above the battlefield...
The spectators instinctively grabbed onto their seats as the tremor spread throughout the arena.
Even while suspended in midair after narrowly escaping...
Auriella drove the end of her scythe into the arena floor to steady herself.
Her breathing had become uneven.
She slowly lifted her head.
Her gaze locked onto Kael once again.
The remaining weak points around his body continued disappearing.
One hundred...
Ten...
Then...
Zero.
Not a single weak point remained.
Darkness Mana erupted around Kael once more.
The entire battlefield disappeared beneath another sea of black.
His Aura-like Darkness Mana pressed heavily upon the surroundings.
Even Auriella felt its crushing weight.
She remained rooted where she stood as Kael slowly walked toward her.
Each step echoed across the ruined arena.
Only then did she notice it.
A strange symbol had appeared on his forehead.
His abyss-like eyes stared directly at her.
There was no emotion within them.
Only endless darkness.
It was as though he wasn’t looking at an opponent...
But at something entirely different.
Kael stopped directly before her.
The pressure surrounding him forced Auriella lower.
He slowly bent down.
Then gently lifted her chin with one hand.
"You have such..."
"Beautiful eyes."
An eerie, cold voice escaped Kael’s mouth.
It was completely unlike the voice she had heard throughout the tournament.
He quietly observed her glowing violet eyes.
At that moment...
Auriella understood.
The person standing before her...
Wasn’t Kael.
"I can’t help..."
"But want them for myself."
Kael continued softly.
His hand slowly moved toward her eyes.
Only then did Auriella truly see him.
His abyss-like black eyes...
Black blood tears slowly running down his face...
And the sadistic smile spreading across his lips.