The morning sun over the Main District did not bring warmth; it brought a scorching, artificial glare that reflected off the obsidian floor of the Colosseum of Judgment. The air was thick, vibrating with the roar of hundreds of thousands of spectators who had returned, hungry for the spectacle of the "lesser" universes being dismantled.
Elder Haldan Vross, Master of Law, stood upon the Council’s platform, his voice booming across the arena.
"DAY TWO. TWENTY-ONE FIGHTERS REMAIN FROM THE FIVE UNIVERSES. THEREFORE, TWENTY-ONE MATCHES SHALL TAKE PLACE. BEGIN!"
The display boards flickered to life, the magical text burning bright against the dark stone. The mood among the Five Universes team was heavy. They had survived yesterday, but the Six Kingdoms had barely touched their reserves. Thirty-five fresh fighters sat in the stands, studying them.
"FIGHT 26: THERON ASHWICK (AREALA) VS. GOLIATH (THORNE)"
Theron Ashwick stepped onto the black stone, his barrier charms clinking softly against his armor. At 71 years old, he was the anchor of the Areala team, a man who had survived the destruction of his universe through caution and defense.
Opposite him, Goliath of the Thorne Kingdom entered. He was a mountain of a man, even by Thorne standards, his skin etched with rough, bark-like scars.
"Old man," Goliath rumbled, cracking his neck. "You should have stayed retired."
Theron didn’t take the bait. He instantly cast Aegis Sphere, surrounding himself in layers of translucent hexagonal barriers. "Come and try, boy."
Goliath grinned. He didn't charge. instead, he inhaled deeply, his muscles visibly expanding, tearing the fabric of his tunic. This was his ability—temporary muscle mass increase to grant unparalleled strength. He grew nearly two feet in height, his veins bulging like ropes.
With a roar that shook the stadium, Goliath leaped. He didn't use a weapon; he brought a double-fisted hammer blow down onto Theron’s shield.
CRACK.
The first layer shattered instantly. Theron’s eyes widened. He reinforced the second layer, pouring his mana into the construct, but Goliath’s fists were like falling meteors. The giant punched again, and again, faster than a man his size should move.
"Too brittle!" Goliath shouted, delivering a final, catastrophic uppercut that shattered the final barrier and connected with Theron’s chestplate.
Theron was launched across the arena, skidding to a halt near the wall, his armor caved in. He tried to rise, gasping for breath, but his body refused.
"THERON ASHWICK - ELIMINATED."
The crowd erupted. But as the medics moved in, a royal telegraphic guard stepped forward first. He held a sleek, crystalline device that hummed with a low, dissonant frequency. He pointed it at the gasping Theron. A beam of pale blue light scanned the old veteran from head to toe.
Theron flinched as the light touched him, his eyes glazing over for a split second before he slumped into unconsciousness.
"Scanning complete," the guard muttered, tapping the side of the crystal. The device pulsed once, a stream of data flowing deep within its core, before he signaled for the body to be removed.
"FIGHT 27: MYSTIC DREAMWEAVE (KAIPO) VS. ORACLE (TECHNOLOGY)"
The loss of Theron cast a pall over the teams, but there was no time to mourn. Mystic Dreamweave floated into the arena, her eyes swirling with hypnotic patterns. She immediately cast Labyrinth of the Mind, filling the arena with shifting illusions of fire and void to disorient her opponent.
But Oracle of the Technology Kingdom simply stood there, tapping the side of her visor. As a technomancer capable of hacking systems, she viewed magic as just another code to be broken.
"Illusion density: 98%," Oracle stated flatly. "Locating bio-signature."
Oracle raised a sleek, chrome pistol. She didn't aim at the illusions. She aimed at empty air to her left.
BANG.
An energy round pierced the illusion, striking Mystic in the shoulder. Mystic cried out, her concentration breaking, and the illusions flickered and died. Oracle walked forward, her movements efficient and cold.
"Your mind tricks do not work on sensors," Oracle said, leveling her weapon. "Yield."
Mystic attempted to cast a sleep hex, but Oracle activated a neural scrambler on her suit, emitting a high-frequency whine that disrupted Mystic’s focus. A swift kick to the temple sent the illusionist sprawling.
"MYSTIC DREAMWEAVE - ELIMINATED."
Once again, the guard appeared. The crystalline device hovered over Mystic’s unconscious form. The blue light washed over her, and for a moment, the veins in Mystic's neck bulged as if reacting to the scan, before settling. The guard checked the readout, a cold smile touching his lips. "Subject cataloged."
"FIGHT 28: ECHO VOIDSTEP (KAIPO) VS. SILENCE (SOUND)"
This was a mismatch of cruel design. Echo Voidstep relied on spatial magic and sound cues to teleport. But Silence, the assassin of the Sound Kingdom, created spheres of absolute vacuum.
The moment the fight began, Silence clapped his hands. A dome of silence expanded instantly. Echo tried to chant a teleportation spell, but no sound escaped their lips. Without the vocal component and the acoustic feedback they relied on, their spatial coordinates scrambled.
Echo stumbled, disoriented by the sudden sensory deprivation. Silence moved effortlessly through the vacuum, striking Echo’s pressure points with ruthless precision. Echo fell without ever making a sound.
"ECHO VOIDSTEP - ELIMINATED."
The crystal scanner flashed again. Bzzt. Another warrior archived.
"FIGHT 29: FINN WILDHART (AREALA) VS. CORVA NIGHTWING (ANIMAL)"
Finn summoned his spirit foxes and bears, trying to overwhelm the shaman. But Corva Nightwing screeched, summoning a flock of razor-winged ravens that blackened the sky. The aerial advantage was absolute. The ravens descended like a tornado of blades, tearing through Finn’s ground-based defenses.
Finn shielded his animals with his own body, taking the brunt of the assault until he could no longer stand.
"FINN WILDHART - ELIMINATED."
The guard scanned Finn, the device pulsing rapidly as it absorbed the unique data of his beast-taming aura.
"FIGHT 30: LYDIA SOULFORGE (MIXED) VS. GRAND MAGUS ELARA (MAGIC)"
The Mixed Team watched in horror as Lydia was matched against the leader of the Magic Kingdom. It was a massacre. Lydia summoned spirits of the dead to aid her, but Grand Magus Elara merely raised a finger.
"Reality is mine to dictate," Elara whispered.
She warped the space around the spirits, turning them inside out, then compressed the gravity around Lydia until the spirit medium was forced to her knees, pinned by the weight of the air itself. Elara didn't even move from her starting position.
"LYDIA SOULFORGE - ELIMINATED."
The guard scanned Lydia. The crystal device glowed a deep, ominous red this time, as if savoring the strong spiritual energy it was analyzing.
"FIGHT 31: ELENA FROSTBORN (MIXED) VS. VOLKOV (TECHNOLOGY)"
Elena fought bravely, constructing massive ice ramparts to block Volkov's advance. But Volkov, the heavy artillery specialist, simply laughed. He deployed his shoulder-mounted plasma cannon.
"Ice breaks. Plasma burns," Volkov grunted.
A beam of superheated plasma melted through Elena’s absolute-zero ice in seconds. The steam explosion blinded her, and Volkov backhanded her with a hydraulic-enhanced fist, sending her crashing into the arena wall.
"ELENA FROSTBORN - ELIMINATED."
The guard stepped up to Elena. Scan. The data scrolled across the crystal screen.16Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1Uu62PSEaR
As the sun began to set, the dust settled on the arena. The Five Universes had suffered a devastating blow. Six more fighters had fallen.
Remaining Fighters for the Five Universes: 15 Remaining Fighters for the Six Kingdoms: 33
In the waiting room, Captain Daichi slammed his fist onto the table.
"Did you see it?" Daichi hissed, looking at Saber. "That device. They aren't just checking vitals."
Saber nodded grimly, his eyes fixed on the display board where the names of the fallen were grayed out. "I saw. It's an Essence Reader, but modified. It extracts a imprint of their magical signature."
"Why?" Lyxa asked, walking over from the Areala section, her face pale from watching Theron fall. "To study us?"
"Or to use us," Daichi said darkly. "If they have the signature, they can bypass our defenses. Or worse... replicate our abilities."
On the Council platform high above, Elder Orin Falrik, Warden of Technology, looked at a small datapad linked to the scanners below. He watched the data streams from Theron, Mystic, Echo, Finn, Lydia, and Elena upload to a secure server.
"Integration is proceeding," Orin whispered to The Judge, who sat motionless on his throne. "The collection is growing. Soon, the army will be ready."
The Judge said nothing, but his gaze shifted to the 15 remaining warriors below. The culling was far from over.
ns216.73.216.1da2
and then Add to home screen.