By the time the sun bled out behind the academy walls, they were already in the courtyard.
No one had suggested it. No one had needed to. One from All had simply turned left instead of right at the residential block entrance, and when he glanced back, Elara and Riku were already following — Elara's staff in hand, Riku's sleeves already rolled up, his fingers trailing faint mist in the cold air. The image of Shizuko's two-fingered sword grip didn't need to be mentioned. It lived behind all three pairs of eyes like a splinter that wouldn't come loose.
The courtyard sat at the far edge of the residential block, ringed by tall stone pillars that looked like the ribs of something ancient and long dead. No lights. No instructors. Just the bruised purple sky overhead and the low, constant hum of hundreds of Anym signatures bleeding through the walls around them — every student in the building restless, charged, none of them sleeping either.
"I couldn't even sense her," Elara said finally. She drove the end of her staff into the stone. A crack split outward from the impact, thin and sharp as a sigh. "She was just — there. Like she'd always been there and I'd simply forgotten to notice." She looked up, and for the first time since One from All had met her, she didn't look confident. She looked furious at herself. "I hate that feeling."
"Good," One from All said, stepping into the center of the courtyard. "Hold onto it. That's exactly what's going to make you dangerous." He looked between them both, his red eyes catching the last trace of dying light. "The combat season isn't a duel. It's going to be chaos. So tonight — no holding back. We fight each other like we mean it."
Riku exhaled slowly. Something in his posture shifted — the nervous energy settling into something quieter and colder. He had spent the walk back watching the way Levi moved in his memory, frame by frame. The precision of it. The economy.
"Fine," Riku said softly.
He raised his hands. The moisture in the air answered instantly.
The fight didn't begin with a shout. It began with a ripple — and then the night came alive.
Riku flicked his wrist, and instead of a wave, a thin, high-pressure blade of water shot toward One from All's neck while simultaneously sending a spray of freezing mist toward Elara to obscure her vision. The water was moving fast enough to cut through steel.
One from All didn't move until the last second. He swiped his hand through the air, and a small patch of black void swallowed the water blade whole. But he wasn't the only target. Elara swung her staff in a wide arc, the sheer force of her movement blowing the mist away.
"Don't ignore me!" Elara yelled. She slammed the tip of her staff into the ground.
The earth didn't just break; it exploded. Jagged pillars of stone erupted from beneath One from All's feet. He leaped into the air, spinning to dodge, but Riku was already waiting. Riku slid across the stone floor as if he were skating on ice, summoning three more orbs of water that spun like saws. He launched them upward, aiming to trap One from All in mid-air.
One from All narrowed his eyes. He decided to test what he had learned today. Instead of using his void to attack, he tried to project his "Presence." He focused on the heavy, lead-like feeling Yami Sensei and Shizuko had used. He let his Anym leak out of his skin, not as a blast, but as a weight.
The air around One from All hummed. Riku's water saws slowed down as they entered a five-foot radius around him. It was like they were moving through thick syrup. Riku gritted his teeth, his face turning red from the effort of pushing his magic through the invisible wall.
"My turn," Elara grinned. She saw the opening and charged. She didn't just swing her staff; she funneled her Babylon magic into the wood until it glowed a dull, dangerous orange.
She leaped, bringing the staff down with enough power to split a mountain. One from All met her head-on, his hands coated in the black ink of his void. When the staff hit his hands, a shockwave rippled through the courtyard, cracking the stone pillars and sending Riku sliding back.
For a moment, they were locked in a stalemate. Elara's raw, destructive power pushed against the bottomless hunger of One from All's King's Magic.
"You're both getting faster," One from All noted, his red eyes tracking Elara's movement while sensing Riku repositioning behind him.
Riku didn't hesitate. He saw them locked together and seized the chance. He raised both arms, and a massive spiral of water rose from the courtyard's drainage system, forming a Great Serpent. The serpent roared—a sound of rushing rapids—and lunged at both of them.
One from All gave a sharp exhale and expanded his void. A massive dome of black energy erupted, swallowing the water serpent and pushing Elara back. She caught herself on her staff, breathing hard, but her eyes were glowing with excitement. For the first time, none of them looked terrified of their own power; they looked like they were beginning to enjoy it.
"Again!" Elara commanded, and the three-way clash resumed with even more intensity.
They moved like blurs under the pale moonlight. Elara's staff was a constant threat, shattering the environment with every miss. Riku was the tactician, using his water to create traps and slippery surfaces, forcing the others to watch their footing. And in the center, One from All was the black hole, the anchor that forced them to push their Anym to the absolute limit just to stay standing.
While they sparred, a figure watched from the shadows of a stone pillar. The trio froze as a sudden, sharp chill filled the air—a presence that felt familiar yet distant.
Kael stepped into the faint light. He had his arms crossed, looking at the mess they had made of the courtyard with a look of pure annoyance.
"Who invited you?" Elara snapped, her staff still smoking from her last attack.
Kael ignored the question. He walked over to the spot where Elara's last stone pillar had crumbled into dust. "Babylon magic isn't a hammer, you loud girl. You're trying to force the earth to move, but Babylon is about summoning the concept of the foundation. You aren't hitting the ground; you're calling the ground to rise."
Elara squinted at him. "How do you know anything about Babylon magic?"
Kael didn't answer. He reached out a hand, and for a split second, the air around him felt strangely similar to Elara's. He didn't use a staff. He just tapped the air with one finger.
A spike of obsidian, perfectly smooth and sharper than any spear, shot out of the ground with terrifying speed. It stopped exactly one inch from Elara's throat. The precision was so absolute it made her heart skip a beat.
"Focus on the 'Root,'" Kael said, his voice cold. "Stop thinking about the impact. Think about \the birth of the stone. If you keep swinging that stick like a club, you would be eaten before you can even scream."
He pulled his hand back, and the spike vanished into dust as if it had never been there.
"Wait," One from All stepped forward, his void-stained hands still pulsing. "You use Babylon magic too? Are you related to her people?"
Kael turned his back to them, heading back into the shadows. "People use different names for the same power. What I use is my own business. Just make sure you don't die during the combat season. It would be a waste of a good training spot."
"Hey! Answer me!" Elara shouted, but Kael was gone. He didn't run; he just seemed to melt into the darkness of the academy walls, leaving no trace behind.
The courtyard went quiet again. Elara looked down at her hands, then at the spot where Kael had tapped the air. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tried to remember the "feeling" Kael had described. She didn't swing her staff this time. She just touched the ground with her fingertips.
Rumble.
A small, perfect pillar of stone rose up. It wasn't jagged or broken. It was solid, dense, and radiated a much higher level of Anym than her previous attempts.
"He's a mystery," Riku said, walking over to join them, his clothes soaked from his own magic. "But he's strong. Maybe even as strong as that white-haired boy."
"Maybe, or maybe not just more experienced" One from All said. "But we have one day left. Kael told us to focus on the 'Root.' Riku, your water is getting sharper—I felt it cutting through my aura at the end there. Elara, you're finally summoning instead of just hitting."
He looked at his own palm. The black void was calm now, but he could feel it growing. Every time he saw someone stronger—Yami, Shizuko, Levi, Kael—his King's Magic seemed to evolve, trying to match the pressure. He realized that he wasn't just training his power; his power was training him.
"Tomorrow is the last day of the wait," One from All said, his voice echoing in the cold night. "The day after that, the 'Combat Season' begins. We don't just pass. We survive."
They stayed in the courtyard for hours more, continuing their battle royal. They practiced fighting two-on-one, then every-man-for-himself, pushing their endurance until their muscles screamed. They learned the rhythm of each other's magic—how to cover Riku's flank while he prepared a large spell, and how to stay out of the way of Elara's wide staff swings.
Under the strange stars of a world that wanted to break them, they transformed. They were no longer just three students who happened to meet on the first day. They were three anomalies, three monsters in training, and for the first time, they felt like they were finally starting to wake up.
As they finally walked back toward the residential block, exhausted and covered in dust, One from All felt the weight of the card in his pocket. It didn't feel like a threat anymore. It felt like an invitation.
The storm wasn't coming. They were the storm.
End of Chapter 9