The sky above the courtyard twisted with unnatural clouds—crimson lightning flashing from nowhere, warping the stars into jagged smears of light.
Kaito stood on unsteady feet, his body battered, his mana reserves waning—but the Echo of Arcanum pulsed in his hand, responding to his resolve.
Across from him, Liora Venn burned with power not his own.
The VeilHeart's energy swirled around his body, ethereal threads of violet and obsidian weaving into his limbs, eyes glowing like twin suns on the verge of collapse. His muscles twitched unnaturally, his expression caught between triumph and torment.
"You should be kneeling," Liora hissed, voice now split—his own layered with something vast and ancient. "This... this is what real power feels like!"
"You don't even know what it's doing to you," Kaito said, steadying his breath. "You're a puppet."
Liora screamed—a blast of warped mana bursting from him in all directions, fracturing the ground. He launched forward, blades trailing streaks of cosmic fire.
Kaito moved.
Temporal Shift.
Time stuttered around him—Liora's strike slowed just enough. Kaito ducked beneath one blade and struck low with an elemental sweep—wind and fire, erupting in a burst of force.
Liora skidded back but didn't fall.
He laughed, even as his skin began to crackle with unstable energy. "Still playing with tricks, Echo-boy?"
"Not tricks," Kaito said, the Echo glowing brighter now, threads of mana syncing with his breath. "Control."
He raised the blade—Arcane Convergence.
Fire and lightning spiraled along its length, merging in a wild, whiplike coil of energy. Kaito slashed—a sweeping arc of flame-bound lightning tore toward Liora.
Liora crossed his daggers—and stopped it, but his hands trembled under the strain. "You think that's enough?!" he roared—and unleashed a counterstrike.
Reality bent.
The courtyard walls twisted, warping like melted glass. Gravity buckled under Liora's next step, pulling Kaito toward him as the very air bent around the VeilHeart's influence.
Kaito was slammed into the ground with concussive force.
"KAITO!" a distant voice shouted—Elya? Seraphine? He couldn't tell.
Everything hurt.
But something inside him burned brighter than the pain.
The Echo pulsed—resonating deep within.
This wasn't about winning a duel. This was about stopping Liora from being consumed by power he couldn't control.
Kaito stood. Slowly. Defiantly.
Mana gathered around him—steady, bright. His aura swelled, not chaotic like Liora's, but calm and focused.
"I don't need to break reality," Kaito said, "to stand against someone who already broke himself."
He charged.
Their magic clashed again and again—blades ringing, mana cracking like thunder. The sky pulsed with each impact, their duel a storm of will and force. Kaito's illusions danced and weaved, while Liora's corrupted aura shredded the battlefield with each breath.
But Kaito endured.
And with one final surge, he activated Arcane Shield just as Liora's strike came.
The blade struck—shattered the shield—but behind it, Kaito drove his sword upward into the VeilHeart's glow, channeling all his remaining mana.
A burst of white-gold light exploded between them.
Liora screamed—not in pain, but fear. The VeilHeart's glow flickered. Cracks raced through its surface.
Then—
BOOM.
The artifact exploded in a wave of cosmic backlash.
When the light faded, Liora lay unconscious, unmoving, the ground around him scorched and warped.
Kaito stood—barely—breathing hard, the Echo's glow dimming as he fell to one knee.
Silence returned to the night.
Then, voices—running feet. Elya, Seraphine, and Professor Lysandra were already sprinting toward the wreckage.
Kaito exhaled shakily, whispering under his breath:
"Still breathing."
The courtyard was quiet now—smoke still curling from shattered stone and seared earth. The echoes of combat lingered in the air, heavy as ash, but the battle was over.
Professor Lysandra Mirelle knelt beside Kaito, her hands glowing with a gentle emerald light. Her touch was warm, soothing—like sunlight breaking through storm clouds.
"Steady, Kaito," she said softly. "You've pushed yourself far beyond your limit."
Kaito winced as she healed a gash along his ribs, but he remained still. Every muscle in his body screamed, every breath rattled, but he refused to pass out. Not yet.
Lysandra's amber eyes were calm, even as her fingers worked with practiced grace over bruised skin and torn mana threads. She whispered incantations under her breath—old words of life and restoration.
"You're lucky," she murmured. "Had that artifact's backlash reached you fully, you might not have woken up again."
"Liora…?" Kaito managed through clenched teeth.
Lysandra looked up. A short distance away, Seraphine knelt beside the unconscious student, his form charred with raw magical residue. The VeilHeart, cracked and pulsing weakly, had been sealed in a protective ward by Seraphine's hand.
"He's alive," Lysandra said. "But not untouched."
A faint twitch ran across Liora's fingers—then stopped. His expression, even in sleep, was twisted with pain and confusion.
"The VeilHeart corrupted his aura," Seraphine said, standing. "Whatever it gave him… it's still inside him. But dormant. For now."
Kaito didn't reply. He just stared up at the dark sky, where the clouds had begun to part. Faint moonlight spilled across the ruined courtyard.
Then—
A tremor.
Subtle. Barely perceptible. Like a shift in the wind. Lysandra's brow furrowed.
Kaito's eyes drifted toward the far edge of the courtyard—where the shadows seemed... heavier than they should be.
A silhouette stood among the rubble, framed by the moon.
A giant.
Massive shoulders. Towering form. Skin etched with faint glowing runes. He watched silently, arms crossed, as if judging what he saw.
Even from this distance, Kaito felt it—a weight, a pressure in the air that had nothing to do with magic. It was power, raw and unmovable.
Then, before anyone else turned to see him—
He vanished.
Not with a spell. Not with a sound.
Just gone.
A phantom carved from the mountain's shadow.
Kaito blinked, breath catching in his throat. Lysandra noticed his sudden tension.
"Kaito?" she asked.
He looked at her, then back to where the figure had stood. There was nothing now. Only silence.
"...Nothing," he muttered. "Just thought I saw something."
Lysandra didn't press. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and warm magic washed over him once more.
"Rest," she said softly. "There'll be time for answers. For now, just breathe."
As the night deepened, and the wounded tended to, Kaito's eyes drifted closed, even as his mind spun.
The battle with Liora had revealed more than just strength.
It had drawn attention.
And in the shadows beyond the moonlight, something unbreakable had begun to move.