The dark, vaulted tunnel connecting the Theory Amphitheater to the arena was as cold and damp as a corridor walked by gladiators marching to their deaths. Vane tried to hide his irregular, tense footsteps among the heavy, rhythmic thuds of the leather boots from the hundreds of vassals around him.
When the massive iron doors at the end of the tunnel swung open with a mechanical creak, blinding sunlight and the thick, throat-burning scent of ozone violently hit his face.
The Obsidian Arena was a colossal death pit carved into the mountain, its floor paved with smooth, black basalt stones. The moment Vane and the other Basic Theory students stepped through the gates, they all paused simultaneously, as if hitting an invisible, heavy wall.
The arena was not empty.
The moment Vane stepped into the arena, he felt a wave of scorching heat hit his face and the ground trembling beneath his feet.
While the vassals and lesser houses were struggling with theory classes and practicing behind closed doors, the aether arts training hour for the Special Wing—the Pillars—had long since begun. Vane felt his breath catch as he stared at the unbelievable scene unfolding on the black stones.
In the center of the arena, Prince Julian was practically dancing in the air with his longsword blazing with golden-yellow flames. Opposite him stood Lord Theron, the colossal heir of the Fifth Pillar. Every time Theron slammed his aether-heavy war hammer into the ground, the black stones rippled like liquid, creating localized earthquakes that swept people off their feet. Yet Julian was not crushed beneath that overwhelming force; with arcs of flame swung from his golden sword, he melted the massive boulders rising into the air in a matter of seconds. Every swing of the blade created a deafening explosion that sounded like thunder, scattering pure, searing light.
In the stands on the sidelines, Lady Kaelia and the other Pillar heirs watched this destructive beauty calmly, as if it were a mundane show, with aether spheres orbiting around them.
Among the vassals frozen at the tunnel exit, Vane's eyes locked onto Julian's golden flames.
In his deep, purple eyes sprouted a toxic emotion he had never tasted before, one that twisted his stomach: pure, burning envy.
The same blood flows in our veins, Vane thought, clenching his fists so tightly his nails bit into his palms. We are the seed of the same father. He possesses a radiant, invincible power that tears through the sky. Aether bows to him, glowing around him like a halo. This is my birthright. This is the life stolen from me, forbidden to me. His soul was being gnawed by the cold grip of jealousy. Why must I crawl like a mud rat in the shadows while he shines like a sun? He wanted to hold that golden sword, even for a single second, to feel the intoxication of that absolute power in his veins. If he had possessed that power, his mother wouldn't have died bleeding on that wooden floor. Maybe... maybe they would be in the palace they deserved, together.
Vane shook his head, tearing those poisonous thoughts from his mind and quickly composing himself. Jealousy will get me nowhere, he scolded himself. He felt the heavy, rusted dagger sleeping silently in the depths of his mind. Instead of crying over a fantasy, my sole focus must be using what I have in the best way possible and forging it into the sharpest weapon.
"You've stared enough, worms!" Professor Vance's mechanical, metallic voice sliced through Vane's thoughts like a sharp knife. "Stop daydreaming. That power does not belong to you, and it never will. Move to the eastern corner of the arena. Move!"
The vassals timidly made their way to the farthest corner of the arena, into the shaded area, like mortals terrified of stepping onto a playground of gods. Vane blended into the crowd and walked with them.
As Elian trembled walking beside him, he looked at the center of the arena with envious, desperate eyes. "That right there is the biggest difference between us and them," Elian whispered helplessly.
In the eastern corner, they arrived at an isolated training ground much smaller than the destruction zone where the heirs fought.
"Unleash your souls!" roared Professor Vance, after arranging the vassals in a perfect half-moon shape. "If you cannot command your aether, it will command you. Materialize!"
That shaded corner of the arena lit up with pale, weak sparks of aether. They were leagues away from the dazzling majesty of the Pillars in the center. The soul weapons of the vassals looked more like work tools; plain swords, crude iron shields, blunt hammers, heavy axes, and bulky crossbows. Rather than a spiritual power, it was no different from the weapons inventory of a standard army.
Vane swallowed hard. The big moment had arrived. I wonder what the reactions will be, he couldn't help but think. He reached into that dark, cold well in the depths of his mind and summoned his soul.
The freezing coldness of heavy, dead metal appeared in his right hand. Between his palms rested that ugly dagger, its tip broken off, covered in a thick layer of brown rust. Even amidst the pale, weak lights of the surrounding aether, Vane's dagger looked as repulsive as a piece of scrap iron pulled from a dump. Not a single trace of light, not a single wave of energy. It bore only rust and the heavy silence of death.
When a few students around Vane saw the weapon in his hand, they stepped back in disgust.
Soon enough, that disgust turned into a chorus of crude laughter.
"Look at that!" shouted a deep, predatory voice. The crowd instantly parted in two.
Caelum, the bull of House Taurus, vassal of the Third Pillar, stepped forward with his massive, two-handed axe glowing a fiery orange with aether energy. The savage, bloodthirsty smirk on his scarred face was locked directly onto Vane.
"The palace bastard brought his own tombstone to the battlefield!" Caelum roared. His voice was so booming that it even caught the attention of the Pillar heirs who had just finished their duel and were resting in the center of the arena. Prince Julian, his sword now extinguished, was looking directly toward them.
He found his opportunity, Vane calculated. His heart was beating as if it would shatter his ribcage, but his mind had settled into an ice-cold clarity. Julian is watching him. He wants to spill my blood at the Prince's feet to grab Julian's attention. Professor Vance did not intervene. On the contrary, he slightly narrowed the spinning lens in his mechanical eye and clasped his hands behind his back. This wasn't a school; it was a slaughterhouse where the weak were brutally culled.
"Professor!" Caelum yelled, never taking his bloodshot eyes off Vane for a second. "I would like to show our new friend how our soul weapons are used in practice. Since he arrived late to the Academy, he doesn't know what to do or how to do it!"
The students quietly backed away like wild dogs catching the scent of fresh blood, forming a wide circle of death on the black stones around Vane and the colossal Caelum.
A thin, mocking line appeared on Professor Vance's lips. "No lethal blows, Caelum. Just... show him the basics."
From right behind Vane, Elian's trembling voice could be heard: "Vane... I hope you ran a lot on that farm..."
"I was more of the sitting type, Elian," Vane replied, maintaining that dangerous calmness in his voice.
Caelum raised his axe to shoulder height, taking a heavy battle stance. Vane rapidly scanned his mind. Right now, I just need to figure out his stance and his attack pattern, he thought. He visualized the human anatomy movements that the old Kael, who had trained him on the farm for years, constantly lectured him about and ordered him to watch. Don't look at the enemy's eyes; look at their shoulders and their supporting leg.
"You can begi-" Before the Professor could even finish his sentence, Caelum let out a feral roar and lunged forward.
He's determined to end this in a single strike, Vane read the situation. My priority must be to dodge this heavy attack, not block it. Without blinking, he focused on the giant's planting leg and the twisting angle of his waist as he prepared to strike. Caelum had shifted all his weight to his left leg, and the axe was coming from the right.
RIGHT! lightning flashed in Vane's brain, and instantly, using all the frail flexibility of his body, he dropped to the ground and rolled in the exact opposite direction.
The massive mass of the axe cleaving the air missed the spot where Vane had just stood, raising a powerful gust of wind and chipping the black ground.
"Lucky bastard!" Caelum hissed in anger.
As Vane quickly gathered himself and stood up after the roll, he could still feel his entire body trembling with adrenaline. Kael... he thought, remembering the old assassin. He was currently alive thanks to the man who killed his mother. At least for now...
This is a huge opportunity to test myself in a real fight, Vane thought. He saw Caelum's momentary opening as the giant struggled to pull his axe, which had gotten stuck in the stones on the ground. Gripping his rusted dagger tightly, he darted toward the behemoth.
But in the millisecond Vane was about to swing his dagger at Caelum's exposed flank, a demonic smirk appeared on the giant's scarred face.
Right then, the massive boy suddenly unsummoned his giant axe that was wedged in the ground back into his soul, only to rematerialize it in his raised hands in the span of a single heartbeat.
TRAP! Vane's mind screamed. He suddenly found himself facing a bull whose hands were perfectly gripped around his weapon, ready to strike.
"End of the line, you little bastard," Caelum hissed. He swung the airborne axe directly at Vane's chest with a terrifying momentum.
Vane tried to analyze the boy's body angle again, but it was impossible. Even if he tried to dodge based on body mechanics, Caelum was extending the attack's area of effect by directing the aether energy overflowing from his massive axe.
Everyone in the arena, even the Pillars watching from afar, looked at Caelum with a shocked expression. Even if what Caelum did wasn't an absolute "Aether Art" like the heirs used, forcing raw aether out of a weapon was a rare Aether Emission technique that required great skill and years of training. It was far too advanced for a vassal.
"Vane! No!" Elian shouted in sheer terror from the crowd.
With absolutely nowhere to run, Vane gritted his teeth, turned his rusted dagger sideways, and supported it with both hands right in the path of the axe, shielding his chest. Just, don't break... please, he prayed internally.
Vane shifted all his body weight to his weak legs, locked his arms, and exactly then, the massive axe burning with aether struck dead center on that rotten-looking, rusted dagger.
Everyone around thought this was the end for Vane. While some whispered, Now there's going to be blood everywhere, a few of the more squeamish students covered their eyes with their hands.
CLANG!
The violence of the collision produced the expected metallic sound, but what followed was an absolute nightmare. Vane's body began to writhe in unimaginable pain. An alien, scorchingly hot current rushed from his hands gripping the dagger, into his arms, and straight into his chest. And a fraction of a second later, a small-scale, deafening explosion occurred at the point of impact.
A shockwave swept across the arena. Vane was thrown to one side of the arena, while Caelum, as heavy and armored as a bull, was blasted entirely to the other side.
Everything happened so fast, so violently, that Vane couldn't even process what had happened to his body, or what had just exploded.
Crashing his back violently against the black stones, Vane's consciousness rapidly sank into darkness. Right before he passed out, with his blurring vision, he could see only two things: A silver-haired girl in the crowd, standing with weird glasses on her face, seemingly recording everything with absolute focus... And Golden-haired Prince Julian, looking directly at him from the far end of the arena, wearing a fleeting, rare expression of pity.
And then, everything went black. Vane surrendered himself to the embrace of darkness.