[Imperial Capital, Angelis]
Rein's golden boots hovered mid-air, the wind thrumming around his frame as golden runes shimmered with every pulse of mana. He rolled his shoulders, as if brushing off dust before a spar. The sky above was caught between light and dark, golden rays clashing against a spreading tide of obsidian mist.
Nyxar stood tall across from him, the demon's body wrapped in abyssal armor that bled tendrils of black smoke into the air. The swirling vortex of shadows behind him made it seem like the void itself had come alive.
For a heartbeat, silence. The world held its breath.
Then—
BOOM!
They lunged.
Fists met.
Mana collided.
Light and shadow clashed.
The air split with the shockwave of their first exchange—so loud it cracked the barrier between dimensions. An entire kilometer-wide space was instantly cleared around them. Buildings quivered below, glass shattered, birds fled, and S-rankers on the ground dropped to their knees from the sheer pressure.
A noble screamed, "Wh-What was that?!"
An officer gasped, "I-I can't even follow their movements…"
Noah's eyes widened, watching from afar.
"Their speed… their pressure… this isn't just power. This is mastery. I still have a long way to go."
[In the Sky – Battle Begins]
Rein grinned as he dodged a jagged spear of blackness that spiraled toward him.
"Is that it, scary name demon boy? I've seen better from my first-year students."
Nyxar's voice growled, vibrating like gravel and thunder.
"Call me boy again, and I'll rip that smug tongue from your skull!"
Rein snorted, spinning mid-air as golden chains burst from his hand, wrapping around a shadow scythe Nyxar conjured.
"Ooh, scary. Did your mother name you Nyxar? Sounds like a rejected brand of black lipstick."
"YOU INSOLENT MONGREL!"
Nyxar's aura exploded—shadows becoming a massive serpent of darkness, lunging for Rein with rows of teeth made from void.
Rein merely pointed.
"[Temporal Severance]."
Time twisted.
The serpent froze mid-air—frame by frame—then snapped in half as if reality itself had been edited.
Nyxar reeled.
"You can manipulate time?!"
"Just enough to make you feel old and slow." Rein replied.
Shadow Prince Seth clenched his jaw, watching from afar thought:
"Tch…If I hadn't escaped last time, this old man would've beaten me to a pulp..."
Enraged, Nyxar slammed his hands together.
"[Domain Expansion: Abyssal Dread]!"
A massive dome of darkness expanded, swallowing the world into a void of flickering purple and black. The air was no longer breathable. The light was devoured. Even thoughts felt heavier, as if the fear within your heart was being whispered into your soul.
Rein chuckled and tapped the brim of his hood.
"[Domain Expansion: Radiant Epoch]."
Golden light erupted, piercing the void. The clash of domains didn't cancel each other—it created a war zone. Half the sky was bleeding darkness, the other bathed in timeless gold. Space fractured where they met.
Inside the domain, reality twisted.
Rein was suddenly everywhere and nowhere.
He blinked behind Nyxar.
"Nice Domain. Did you borrow it from a horror house?"
Nyxar snarled, tendrils whipping toward him.
Rein twisted his wrist—
[Temporal Echo].
He rewound himself, dodging the strike before it even happened. In the next instant—FLASH!—he appeared above Nyxar, his palm glowing with blinding radiance.
"[Chrono Lance]!"
He brought it down—time and light fused into a compressed spear, punching Nyxar through his own shadows.
BOOOOM!
The demon crashed into the mountain range far beyond the city, the land caving in from the impact.
But…
The shadows crawled up.
The mountain shook—then exploded.
Nyxar emerged, bloodied but laughing.
"Good! I haven't bled in centuries. Now you'll see it—[Primordial Fear]!"
Suddenly, fear itself took form. The space around Rein curled inward, and even the sun seemed to dim. Screams echoed from invisible mouths. Spectral claws tore at reality.
"You can't escape fear, hero!"
But Rein simply yawned.
"I have five kids in my class who failed their exams. That's real fear."
And then—he vanished.
A second later—WHAM!—Nyxar was sent hurtling across the sky with a fist to the jaw.
Both stood again in the sky—panting, the battlefield around them reduced to floating debris and unstable space. Their domains still clashed, growing unstable.
Rein's golden coat was torn, his eyes serious now.
Nyxar's chest heaved, the air thick with his corrupt mana.
"This has been fun," Rein said, voice low, eyes narrowing. "But I think I'll end this."
********
NOAH'S POV
Far away from where Headmaster and Nyxar were currently fighting. I stood near a broken debris infront of me stood Seth—Shadow Prince.
The shadows writhed ahead of me.
A cold wind swept through the broken pillars and cracked stones beneath my feet. Lightning crackled faintly around my boots as I took a step forward. My grip tightened on the hilt of my blade.
Across from me, Seth—the Shadow Prince—hovered, a cloak of living darkness rippling around him like smoke with a will of its own. His eyes filled with shadows locked onto mine, sneering with familiar arrogance.
Just like before. Just like that day.
But this time... I wasn't the same.
"Tch," he spat. "Look at you. Last year you were crawling at my feet. What, you learned a few spells and suddenly think you're a warrior?"
His voice was smooth, but I could hear the tightness in it. He could feel it—my aura. My power. My resolve.
I smirked.
"No, Seth. I don't think I'm a warrior."
I drew my blade.
"I am your executioner."
[Flashback - A Year Ago]
I remembered it all too well.
My body broken.
My breath shallow.
Olivia lying wounded behind me, and I couldn't do anything—nothing but scream as Seth's shadows danced around me like vultures.
That helplessness…
That fury…
It burned inside me, even now.
[Back to Present]
"Let's see if you're as loud when I rip your soul out," Seth snarled, and his shadow surged, engulfing the platform in total darkness.
I activated it immediately.
[Domain Expansion: Light's Embrace]
BOOM.
Golden radiance burst outward in all directions, slamming into the encroaching darkness. The ground beneath us cracked as two opposing domains warred for dominance—light against shadow, time against silence.
"This isn't a rematch," I growled.
"This is your end."
He came at me. Fast.
His blade—obsidian with red veins—clashed against mine, and the force sent shockwaves through out the city. Lightning surged from my arm. Wind danced around my feet. Sparks of time magic slowed his strike for a fraction of a second.
Just enough.
[1st Form – Shadow Strike]
A slash of shadow laced with light struck him across the chest. His body twisted unnaturally as he rebounded.
"You're using my own element?" he barked, blood spilling.
"Bastard."
"You taught me plenty when you beat me. Shame you couldn't teach me humility."
We exchanged a flurry of attacks.
[ 2nd Form – Gale Dance]
I blurred through the air like a storm, my sword slashing in arcs too fast to follow. Wind howled. Thunder boomed. He barely kept up, shadows shielding him—but they frayed under the pressure.
He spat blood.
"You… You're using light, time, and shadow?!"
I warped behind him.
[Warp Step] → [Flash Bomb]
He screamed, blinded—
[Dark Surge] —I felt his claws slice into my ribs.
Pain.
But not like last time. Not crippling.
I caught his wrist mid-swing.
"You're not faster. You're not smarter. And you're not stronger."
I hurled him into the stone pillar. It shattered behind him.
From afar, I could feel it—Headmaster Rein watching.
Just for a heartbeat, his mana flared slightly.
He's surprised, I thought.
Seth rose, coughing blood.
His shadows twisted madly, licking the floor like hungry beasts.
"I won't be humiliated… by a human child!"
He screamed—[Crown of Shadows] activated.
A massive shadow crown hovered above him, and tendrils erupted from the earth. Each one shaped like a weapon—a scythe, a blade, a whip.
I stood still.
Then stepped forward.
[3rd Form – Phantom Edge]
I blurred. One slash.
The shadows hissed and screamed, but I was no longer within them—I was behind them.
The tendrils fell, cleanly severed.
Seth gasped.
"You… you're not just mimicking power," he muttered. "You're becoming me."
"No."
I raised my blade.
"I'm becoming more than you."
He roared—his domain expanded.
He wanted to end this.
So did I.
I whispered.
[4th Form – Umbra Eclipse]
My sword gleamed black and white. A yin-yang of light and shadow fused into one slash.
We charged.
We clashed.
Reality tore around us. The clouds above split open, and time itself shivered. A rippling crater formed under our feet.
Seth collapsed to one knee, panting. Blood ran from his nose and mouth.
[From the sky, Nyxar glared.]
Seeing Seth fall behind, again, his lip curled.
"Hmph. That pathetic brat calls himself royalty? He's losing to a mortal child."
Even as Rein drove his fist into Nyxar's stomach, he muttered,
"Honestly, the kid's a monster now."
Seth screamed, refusing to accept it.
He launched everything.
All his power. All his shadows.
Seth raised both arms to the heavens, his cloak stretching unnaturally wide, becoming a swirling cyclone of darkness. The clouds above twisted into a vortex, as if the very sky bowed to his will.
"This ends NOW!"
The shadows beneath his feet split open like a gaping maw, and from the void emerged writhing tentacles of pure abyssal energy, each dozens of meters long. Jagged mouths formed on some of them, others carried the shape of cursed weapons. They twisted in madness, seeking to consume all light, all hope.
A pillar of black light surged into the sky, as if the world itself was being turned upside down. Shadows bled into reality, coating everything around in midnight hues. The air grew cold. Heavy. Time itself seemed to freeze in fear.
[Shadow Cataclysm]
An apocalyptic spell that brought forth a storm of nightmares, merging all of Seth's hatred, malice, and power into a sentient mass of destruction. It wasn't just an attack—it was a curse aimed at the world.
And it was coming straight for me.
I exhaled.
My grip tightened.
And then... I lifted my blade.
The wind stopped.
Time paused—just for a heartbeat.
Lightning shimmered across the edges of my form, while a divine glow pulsed from within my chest. My mana flared, pure and wild, rippling across the ruined battlefield like the breath of a god.
I whispered softly—
"Fifth Form..."
The sword in my hand began to glow.
A soft, pale light at first.
But it grew.
And grew.
Until it rivaled a star.
The hilt trembled. The air around me shimmered. Space warped. Golden threads of light, silver streaks of time, crackling veins of lightning, and soft pulses of wind all surged into the blade, fusing into one—creating a radiant core that pulsed with the energy of an entire battlefield.
The storm above seemed to pause in reverence.
"Celestial Void."
I slashed.
And the world responded.
A massive arc of energy exploded from my blade—neither pure light nor shadow, but something beyond. It was as if the heavens had cracked and spilled their essence into my strike. The arc was lined with stardust, its center pulsing with gravitational force, distorting the air like a collapsed sun was hidden inside it.
The ground split open, tearing a chasm beneath me.
A ring of blue-white light expanded outward from my feet, disintegrating debris, vaporizing leftover shadows with a melodic hum.
The Celestial Void flew upward—
And met the Shadow Cataclysm head-on.
The collision was not sound. It was silence.
A vacuum formed at the point of impact.
Then—
BOOOOOM!
–To be continued..