Chapter 102: The End of the Tournament
Gazing into Kael’s soulless eyes...
Auriella felt genuine fear for the first time since stepping onto the arena.
Those eyes...
They weren’t the eyes of someone driven by battle.
Nor were they the eyes of someone consumed by rage.
They were completely empty.
Like a bottomless abyss that had swallowed every trace of humanity.
Without thinking...
Her instincts took over.
Her eyes suddenly glowed an intense violet.
Mana erupted around them, forming a brilliant purple ring that slowly expanded around her.
The pressure released by her eyes instantly spread across the surrounding area.
Kael, who had been standing directly before her, suddenly stopped.
His body jerked violently.
Thin cuts appeared across his shoulders, chest and arms as though invisible blades had sliced through him from every direction.
Blood slowly trickled down his body.
Instead of attacking...
Kael calmly stepped backward.
One step.
Then another.
Until he stood outside the range of the purple domain.
Only then did he stop.
An amused smile slowly spread across his face.
"Oh..."
"So you can open a simple domain."
"Good for you."
Kael said in mock praise.
His voice carried an eerie calmness that made the words feel even colder.
Across from him...
Auriella remained inside her domain.
"Hah..."
"Hah..."
She panted heavily.
Opening the miniature domain had consumed an enormous amount of Mana.
Combined with everything she had endured throughout the battle...
Even standing had become difficult.
She slowly forced herself upright while keeping her glowing violet eyes fixed on Kael.
Despite the distance between them...
She refused to lower her guard.
Kael began walking again.
Not directly toward her.
Instead...
He slowly circled the outer edge of her simple domain, carefully observing it from every angle.
There wasn’t the slightest hint of urgency in his movements.
Almost as though he had encountered this sort of ability countless times before.
"You are quite gifted."
He finally spoke.
"Opening a simple domain at this age."
"That’s why I always hate..."
"...humans who possess the Eyes of Ruin."
His words caused Auriella’s expression to change.
"Human..."
She quietly repeated.
There was obvious confusion in her voice.
The way Kael had spoken...
It was almost as though he wasn’t referring to himself as one.
Kael paused for only a brief moment.
Then he chuckled softly.
"Oh..."
"A slip of the tongue, I see."
"I guess it’s time to end this fight."
He casually stretched one arm toward Auriella.
Darkness Mana immediately surged forward like a tidal wave.
Countless streams of black energy twisted through the air before converging upon her.
Auriella immediately moved.
Using the openings shown by her Eyes of Ruin, she narrowly avoided the first wave of attacks.
Another stream followed.
Then another.
Kael never stopped advancing.
Each step he took was accompanied by another surge of Darkness Mana aimed directly at her.
The attacks came relentlessly.
Auriella dodged one.
Slipped past another.
Twisted around a third.
Yet every successful dodge only led to another attack immediately replacing it.
She searched desperately for an opening.
Any opening.
Her Eyes of Ruin continuously analyzed Kael’s movements.
Weak points appeared...
Then disappeared before she could exploit them.
Every possible counterattack vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.
For the first time during the tournament...
Her eyes only showed opportunities to evade.
None to retaliate.
Kael continued walking forward with slow, measured steps.
Never rushing.
Never hesitating.
Patiently forcing Auriella farther and farther backward.
Until...
She found herself standing at the very edge of the arena.
Auriella’s breathing grew increasingly uneven as she stood at the edge of the arena.
Her grip around the handle of her scythe tightened.
Her glowing violet eyes never left Kael.
Even while she remained on the defensive, the Eyes of Ruin continued analyzing everything before her.
Then...
She noticed something strange.
Kael’s Mana...
Was disappearing.
His reserves were falling at an alarming rate.
Each attack consumed more than the last.
The Darkness Mana surrounding him had visibly begun to thin.
Yet...
The dreadful pressure emanating from him continued to grow.
The lower his Mana became...
The more terrifying his presence felt.
It was completely contradictory.
By all logic, someone whose Mana was nearly exhausted should have been getting weaker.
Instead...
Kael’s Aura only became more oppressive.
Even Auriella found it difficult to breathe beneath its weight.
Her brows furrowed.
"Something isn’t right..."
She thought.
"Why does he feel stronger the less Mana he possesses?"
Her Eyes of Ruin focused entirely on Kael.
For a brief instant...
His figure flickered.
Like a distorted image.
The next moment—
He appeared directly beside her.
His movement had been so sudden that even her enhanced perception almost failed to follow it.
His sword was already moving toward her throat.
Auriella instinctively leaned backward.
The blade narrowly missed her neck.
A few strands of silver hair drifted through the air where the sword had passed.
Only then did realization strike her.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The terrifying pressure.
The unnatural fluctuations.
The strange feeling surrounding Kael ever since his eyes had changed.
Her lips slowly parted.
"Demonic Mana..."
Auriella muttered.
Kael’s smile widened.
"I guess we have a winner."
He quietly declared.
His sword continued toward her.
At that exact moment—
Far above the arena...
Cairo’s expression suddenly changed.
His eyes sharpened as he sensed the overwhelming surge of power erupting from below.
Without saying a word...
He vanished from the side of the Student Council President.
Almost simultaneously...
Nine other students moved alongside him.
The ten figures instantly surrounded the battlefield from every direction.
Each of them radiated immense Mana as they prepared to intervene.
Yet...
None of them moved another step.
It was as though an invisible force had rooted them where they stood.
Cairo frowned.
No matter how hard he tried...
His body refused to obey.
His gaze immediately shifted toward the center of the arena.
His expression turned deadly serious.
Below...
Kael had also stopped moving.
His sword remained suspended inches away from Auriella.
Time itself seemed to have frozen around them.
Auriella, who had already accepted death as the only possible outcome...
Lost consciousness before the blade could ever reach her.
Her body slowly collapsed toward the shattered arena floor.
The Darkness Mana filling the battlefield suddenly became completely still.
Kael’s head slowly turned.
His abyss-like eyes looked toward the side of the arena.
Standing there...
Was a man wearing a blindfold covered with intricate rune symbols.
A faint smile rested upon his face.
"I think your time is up."
Xavier said calmly.
Still smiling as he looked directly at Kael.
The moment Xavier finished speaking...
The overwhelming Darkness Aura that had blanketed the entire arena vanished.
It disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
The crushing pressure that had weighed upon everyone instantly lifted.
The thick veil of Darkness Mana receded, revealing the battlefield once more.
Kael’s body swayed.
The abyss-like darkness within his eyes disappeared.
His sword slipped from his hand.
Without another word, he collapsed onto the ruined arena unconscious.
Not far away...
Auriella also remained unconscious where she had fallen.
Xavier slowly lifted one arm toward the sky.
His voice echoed throughout the silent stadium.
"And we have a winner..."
"Kael Draven!"
For a brief moment...
The audience remained stunned.
Then the students, unaware of everything that had just transpired, erupted into deafening cheers.
The stadium shook with excitement.
To them...
The tournament had simply come to an incredible conclusion.
However...
The atmosphere inside the VIP section was completely different.
Not a single person spoke.
The expressions of those watching had all become unusually solemn.
Garrick was the first to break the silence.
"Don’t tell me that boy signed a contract with a demon, because we just witnessed Demon Possession."
He said with a deep frown.
Master Crawford slowly shook his head.
"He didn’t sign a contract."
"I would have immediately noticed if he had."
He replied before turning toward Madam Voss.
"What do your eyes see?"
He asked.
Madam Voss kept her calm, stoic expression as she continued observing the arena.
"Xavier seems to be up to something."
"It’s unlike him to step in like this."
She replied.
Her attention shifted toward her unconscious daughter.
Then...
Back to Kael.
Her eyes lingered on him for several moments.
"What game are you playing, Draven?"
Madam Voss thought silently as she watched the aftermath unfold.
Below...
The healing mages hurried into the arena.
They carefully lifted Auriella onto a stretcher before escorting her toward the infirmary.
Kael, however...
Was approached by an entirely different group.
Members of the Academy’s Disciplinary Committee surrounded him.
Without a word, they lifted his unconscious body and escorted him away from the battlefield.
Watching from nearby...
Cairo’s expression remained cold.
His gaze never left Kael.
He looked as though he wanted to cut him down where he lay.
Yet...
He made no move.
He simply watched the Disciplinary Committee escort Kael away.
Farther up in the stands...
Stella remained unusually quiet.
Charlotte watched the scene unfold before finally asking,
"Why are these guys in black escorting Kael out?"
"Because of the Demonic Mana he possessed."
Stella replied casually.
Charlotte frowned.
She found it difficult to believe what she had just heard.
Lyra folded her arms.
"But I didn’t sense anything from him."
"If he signed a contract, I would have sensed it."
She stated.
Lyra continued observing Kael as he was escorted away.
"Even they can’t sense any trace of Demonic Mana from the boy either."
"It was a temporal Possession or something else entirely."
Lyra speculated.
She then turned her attention toward Xavier.
"But why is Xavier here?"
"He rarely bothers himself with this kind of stuff."
Lyra continued.
Her eyes suddenly widened.
"Unless—"
Stella interrupted before she could finish.
"He’s special."
She answered in her usual monotone voice while continuing to watch Kael disappear from the arena under the escort of the Disciplinary Committee.
No further explanation was given.
The tournament grounds slowly returned to normal as the spectators began leaving their seats.
The arena itself remained heavily damaged from the final battle.
For many of the students...
It had been the most unbelievable First-Year Tournament they had ever witnessed.
From Kael’s impossible climb through the rankings...
To his battle against Zion...
And finally...
His shocking victory over Auriella Voss.
No one present would forget what they had seen that day.
It was quite the dramatic ending to the 1st Years Tournament this year.