The first blow was not felt by stone or steel.
It was felt by the world itself.
Reality shuddered as Kai and the Catalyst collided — light and darkness crashing together in a maelstrom of raw creation and destruction.
The sky overhead fractured into streaks of bleeding gold and shadowed black.
The ground around them rippled like water, crumbling under the force of their clash.
Kai Arashi — the Lost Prince of the Abyss — moved first.
He lunged, black tendrils exploding from his arms, weaving a chaotic dance of destruction. Each tendril sharpened into blades, striking faster than lightning.
The Catalyst Child met him effortlessly.
Their body blurred, dancing between the attacks with an eerie grace, countering with waves of blinding fusion-light that tore apart anything it touched.
Around them, the ruins of the Academy were vaporized.
Spires collapsed.
Sigil defenses overloaded and shattered like glass.
Students and teachers fled for their lives, some falling to their knees simply from being too close to the clash.
The very air screamed as Systems failed, crumbling into useless code under the overwhelming pressure.
Arin pushed through the chaos, staggering.
She gritted her teeth, tears streaming from her eyes from the pressure.
"Kai…" she whispered.
"Don't lose yourself. Not now…"
Kai didn't hear her.
Or maybe… he did.
Maybe it was her voice that kept him from falling completely into the Abyss as he fought.
Because the Abyss inside him roared, tempting him:
"Use it all. Become everything. Become unstoppable."
But Kai clenched his fists harder — blood dripping from his palms — and refused.
He wasn't fighting to rule.
He was fighting to save.
The Catalyst's power warped the world.
Every step they took left a crater.
Every swing of their hand bent light itself.
They summoned constructs — hybrid beasts of light and darkness — and hurled them at Kai.
Massive, twisted creatures with wings of gold and claws of shadow charged toward him.
Kai roared.
The ground exploded upward as he unleashed his Abyss Copy System in full — summoning copies of every Sigil he had ever absorbed:
Flaming swords.
Shields of unbreakable stone.
Wings of shattered twilight.
Spears of pure hatred.
He met the beasts head-on, carving through them in a ballet of rage and defiance.
Above the battlefield, the sky split open completely.
Thunder without sound.
Lightning without light.
An endless black rift bleeding golden rain.
The Storm that Shakes Heaven.
The old prophets had whispered of it.
And now it was here.
Kai and the Catalyst clashed in mid-air,
two forces wrapped in opposing storms:
Abyssal black fire engulfing Kai.
Ethereal white-gold plasma surrounding the Catalyst.
Their fists met —
and the shockwave flattened the ruins of the Academy, sending chunks of earth flying like meteors.
Arin, shielded by a fragment of a barrier, looked up at them.
Her heart thundered.
Kai was holding his ground.
But how long could even he stand against a force not bound by mortality?
In the maelstrom above, Kai gritted his teeth.
Blood ran down his face. His arms trembled.
But his silver eyes burned hotter than ever.
He wasn't fighting just to survive.
He was fighting because he believed the world could be more than endless cycles of heroes and monsters.
And he would defy the heavens themselves to prove it.
The Catalyst, for the first time, looked almost… uncertain.
They floated back, studying Kai as if seeing something they hadn't expected.
Something dangerous.
Something… beautiful.
"You were not meant to survive this long," the Catalyst said, almost admiringly.
"You are a broken thing. And yet…"
They lowered their hand, the storms parting slightly.
"…You make me hesitate."
Kai wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled — a bloody, wild grin.
"Good," he rasped.
"Be afraid."
The Second Phase of the battle was about to begin.
The world wasn't ready.
Neither was fate.