The raging blizzard continued to engulf the arena.
Snow and ice swirled through the air while freezing winds howled across the battlefield. Visibility had fallen to almost nothing, reducing even nearby crystal formations to vague silhouettes hidden within the white mist.
Within the heart of the storm, Alex moved cautiously, extending his senses outward to monitor the surrounding mana fluctuations.
Then he felt it. A tremendous concentration of mana was gathering somewhere ahead.
His eyes narrowed. 'A Tier-6 spell.'
Alex wasn't surprised. Someone like Evelyne would never allow him to wrest control of the battlefield without responding.
His sharp hearing caught a faint voice through the storm.
"
The moment the words reached him, a sense of danger surged through his mind. Then every crystal across the arena illuminated.
One after another, then all at once.
Even beneath layers of frost and snow, pale radiance shone from within the crystals. The light spread rapidly across the battlefield like an invisible network connecting every crystal together.
A faint crystalline hum echoed through the arena. Inside the stands, spectators stared at the glowing lights piercing through the blizzard.
"What is that?"
"Why are they glowing?"
The resonance intensified. Then suddenly—the entire battlefield exploded.
Crystal spires, crystal shards, and countless other formations shattered simultaneously.
A deafening chain of detonations erupted throughout the arena as thousands upon thousands of razor-sharp crystal fragments burst outward in every direction.
The white blizzard was instantly filled with streaks of shimmering light.
Crystal shards tore through the storm like countless blades, carving paths through the swirling snow as they accelerated outward at terrifying speeds.
From above, the battlefield looked as though an entire sea of crystals had detonated at once. The sheer scale of destruction was staggering.
Under normal circumstances, the spell would have been even more devastating.
The freezing environment created by
Even so, the sheer amount of crystal spread throughout the battlefield remained terrifying.
What had once been terrain had become ammunition, and Evelyne had detonated all of it.
Wave after wave of glittering fragments erupted through the storm, shredding everything in their path as the blizzard itself trembled beneath the cascading explosions.
The frozen battlefield had become a killing zone.
Every direction became dangerous, every gust of wind carried deadly shards, and every crystal formation became a source of destruction.
Even Alex's control over the blizzard faltered momentarily as the endless chain of explosions tore through the arena.
And somewhere within that chaos, countless crystal fragments were racing toward Alex from every direction.
The raging blizzard didn't last forever.
Under the relentless bombardment of crystal detonations, the dense white mist gradually began to thin. Shockwaves repeatedly tore through the storm, scattering snow and frost across the battlefield.
As visibility improved, the true nature of Evelyne's spell became apparent.
The shattered crystal formations hadn't simply exploded.
Anything struck by the fragments became a secondary detonation point. Crystal shards embedded themselves into the terrain, debris, and even other crystal fragments before erupting moments later into fresh bursts of razor-sharp shrapnel.
In an instant, the battlefield transformed into a self-propagating storm of crystalline destruction.
Gasps spread throughout the audience as spectators finally understood the horrifying nature of the spell.
Within the chaos, Alex's figure blurred repeatedly as he dodged clusters of incoming shrapnel. Even with his reflexes, avoiding every detonation was becoming increasingly difficult.
The battlefield itself had become hostile. Every crystal fragment carried the potential to trigger another explosion.
Without hesitation, Alex thrust a hand toward the ground.
"
Massive walls of ice erupted around him and connected together within seconds, forming a heavily fortified bunker.
The crystal fragments slammed into it from every direction.
Explosions erupted continuously across its surface. Shards detonated against the outer layers, sending cracks racing through the frozen structure.
The entire bunker trembled under the assault.
Yet before the damage could worsen, fresh mana surged through the ice. The bunker continuously repaired itself.
The audience quickly noticed.
"His walls are regenerating!"
"How much mana does that guy even have?"
"That shouldn't be possible!"
Normally, maintaining such a defense under constant assault would drain a mage's reserves in minutes.
Alex, however, was anything but normal. If there was one thing nobody in the tournament could compare to him in, it was mana recovery.
The mana he spent reinforcing the bunker recovered almost as quickly as he used it.
As a result, a strange stalemate emerged: Evelyne's crystal storm continued without pause. And Alex's defenses continued rebuilding without pause.
Both competitors were effectively using Tier-6 magic, yet neither appeared willing to yield even a single step.
For the first time since the battle began, Evelyne's overwhelming offensive failed to achieve any meaningful result.
Meanwhile, within the shelter of the ice bunker, Alex remained calm.
Both of them knew that, sooner or later, one of them would have to make the next move.
The question was who would move first.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
Among the distinguished guests in the VIP section, a silver-white-haired handsome man watched the battle in silence.
Unlike many of the nobles around him, he had shown little reaction throughout the match. His attention remained fixed on the stage, calmly observing every exchange between Evelyne and Alex.
As the remnants of the white mist gradually dispersed, his eyes narrowed. His gaze wasn't on Alex. It was on Evelyne.
For the briefest moment, he noticed a faint curve at the corner of her lips. The expression was so subtle that most people would have overlooked it entirely. But he knew better.
A look of surprise flashed across his face before slowly giving way to amusement.
"What?... Interesting."
As Evelyne's uncle and one of the few members of the Crystelle family who understood her well, he knew that both Evelyne and her father rarely displayed their emotions openly.
To outsiders, they appeared cold, distant, and almost emotionless.
But that wasn't entirely true. Their emotions simply manifested far more subtly than most people's, and only on rare occasions.
Which was why the faint smile he had just seen left him genuinely astonished.
His gaze shifted toward Alex, and a small chuckle escaped him.
"So you've finally found someone interesting."
Until today, he had never seen her show the slightest interest in anyone or even anything. Yet now, despite how subtle the expression had been, he was certain of what he had seen.
For the first time in a very long while, Evelyne was genuinely enjoying herself.
And somehow, that realization made the outcome of the battle far more interesting than before. Because when the Crystelle princess became interested in something, she rarely held anything back.
◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆ ◇ ◆
Back in the arena, Evelyne suddenly stopped attacking. The crystal detonations ceased, and an unnatural calm settled over the battlefield.
Alex's expression tightened. He couldn't see through the ice walls, yet his instincts warned him that something dangerous was coming.
Then two voices reached him.
The first was Aurora's. For once, there wasn't a trace of playfulness in her tone. "Alex. Brace yourself."
The second belonged to Evelyne, her calm voice carrying clearly across the arena.
"Don't disappoint me."
Alex narrowed his eyes and dismissed the damaged ice walls surrounding him.
At first, he saw nothing unusual. Then a faint rainbow radiance emerged in the distance. The sight was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.
A chill ran down his spine.
Because he knew instinctively that whatever Evelyne was about to unleash would be far more dangerous than anything she had shown so far.
The rainbow radiance continued to intensify.
At the center of the battlefield, countless crystal fragments rose into the air and converged toward a single point. Layers upon layers of crystal compressed together, their innumerable facets folding inward as though space itself were collapsing.
Even from a distance, Alex could feel the instability contained within it. Violent mana fluctuations rippled through the air while faint distortions twisted the space around the crystal mass.
For the first time in a long while, Alex genuinely felt a threat to his life.
"Fuck."
The curse escaped before he could stop it. If that thing exploded, winning the match would be the least of his concerns.
Without hesitation, he issued a command.
'System. Increase mana capacity.'
He had accumulated over four million SP precisely for situations like this.
A familiar sensation surged through his body as his mana pool expanded dramatically. Alex ignored the system notifications and focused entirely on the growing crystal singularity.
At the same time, he began constructing a Tier-7 spell.
The temperature throughout the arena plummeted.
Snow and frost spread rapidly across the battlefield as pale blue mana gathered around him in overwhelming quantities. The sheer concentration of power caused countless spectators to shiver despite their distance from the stage.
Then Evelyne spoke.
"
The crystal mass trembled as the space around it visibly distorted. The compressed crystal matter collapsed even further upon itself before erupting into a dazzling bloom of prismatic light.
The arena's protective formation immediately activated at full power, yet the barriers still trembled violently beneath the strain. Several spectators instinctively rose from their seats as a sense of danger swept through the stadium.
At that exact moment, Alex completed his spell.
"
It was as though the frozen underworld itself had descended upon the battlefield.
A wave of supernatural cold surged outward, engulfing the advancing singularity. Frost spread rapidly across the rainbow crystal mass while layers of pale ice consumed the distorted space surrounding it.
The brilliant prismatic light dimmed.
Cracks spread throughout the singularity as the impossible cold penetrated deeper and deeper into its core. Then, with a sharp crystalline fracture that echoed across the arena, the entire construct froze solid.
The battlefield turned white.
Most spectators failed to understand what had happened. One moment the arena had been filled with overwhelming mana pressure and blinding rainbow light; the next, everything had vanished beneath a world of frost and silence.
When the frost finally settled, only two figures remained visible.
Alex stood at the center of the arena with an ice sword resting lightly against Evelyne's neck. The crystal mage had already lost consciousness, her body supported by his arm before she could collapse onto the frozen ground.
The silence lasted several seconds before the referee finally recovered from his shock.
"Winner... Alex Blanc of Star Shine Academy!"
The stadium exploded.