By midnight, Silas had finished reinforcing the Conductive Weave gloves with the Jahgred fluid coating. The leather had darkened to a deep, light-absorbing matte black, completely devoid of reflection under the flickering shop bulbs. When Caine pulled them on, a sharp, searing heat immediately bled into his palms—a agonizing reminder of the liquid's volatile dampening threshold.
Caine flexed his fingers through the burning sensation, pulled his sleeves down, and walked back to the Section 4 Auxiliary dormitories through the quiet, rain-drenched perimeter streets.
When he pushed open the door to Squad 4's lounge, he found Jax and Lyra still awake, sitting around a low table covered in tactical diagrams, energy-density maps, and frame-by-frame combat footage of Darius's previous arena matches.
Jax looked up, his eyes bloodshot from staring at the projection. "Caine! Where have you been? Lyra's been breaking down Darius's golden barrier patterns for four hours."
"How does it look?" Caine asked, setting his gear bag on a chair and taking a seat beside them.
Lyra tapped her stylus against the table, freezing a holo-frame of Darius in mid-combat. A thick, shimmering golden sphere surrounded Darius's body, deflecting a barrage of heavy explosive spells without showing a single fracture.
"Darius's core ability is called Aegis Radiance," Lyra explained, her tone heavy with tactical precision. "It isn't just a physical barrier. It operates on a dual layer: the outer layer deflects kinetic pressure, while the inner layer converts light energy into a reactive shockwave. If you hit his shield with standard light output, it feeds his aura and triggers an automatic counter-blast."
"Which means standard crystal weapons are useless against him," Jax grunted, leaning his chin on his heavy fists. "My thermal barrier can hold off his longsword strikes for maybe thirty seconds max before my core overheats. After that, it's all on you two."
"Darius relies entirely on the assumption that every attack against him carries light energy," Caine said softly, his dark eyes reflecting the cool glow of the tactical screen. "He doesn't know how to defend against pure, unlit mass that doesn't leak into the air."
"Are you sure your hands can take it, Caine?" Lyra asked, her gaze drifting down to his wrapped wrists with a faint trace of worry. "Thorne is watching you like a hawk now after that sensor read of 12. And Darius isn't just fighting for merit credits tomorrow—Section 1 wants to erase us to prove the hierarchy stands."
Caine stood up, walking toward the balcony window that overlooked the glowing perimeter wall. Past Gate 7, the dark purple wasteland hummed with distant, dangerous energy—the place where he had spent two years perfecting his hidden density in silence.
"Let them try," Caine said, his voice quiet and steady as his fingers curled into tight fists inside his pockets. "Section 1 thinks the Academy belongs to them because of their bright light. Tomorrow, we show them what happens when the light hits a solid wall."