Fighting through the panicked crowd proved harder than fighting the attackers.
People shoved, clawed, and trampled each other in blind terror. Survival had stripped them down to pure instinct.
Leo pushed forward. Daichi cleared a path behind him with controlled force, careful not to kill any civilians.
"Who is this person worth dying for?" Daichi asked, voice calm in the madness.
"A friend... I think." Leo did not slow down. "I don't know, but I can't leave her."
Daichi made a sound that could have been approval or resignation.
They reached the academy section. Bodies lay scattered among broken stone. The air reeked of blood and smoke.
The elf was still there, kneeling beside the wounded. Three other students helped her. None of them had noticed the two cloaked figures closing in from behind, weapons raised.
Leo struck first.
He blindsided the attackers. Defiance swung heavy in his grip.
The first man turned too late. Two hundred kilograms of enchanted steel slammed into his ribs and sent him flying into a pile of rubble.
The second attacker spun around, weapon rising.
Leo was already there. Resolve slashed across the man's arm, opening a shallow cut.
The blood drain activated instantly.
The attacker's eyes widened as he felt his strength being pulled away.
He tried to create distance.
Daichi was already there. The Oni warrior moved like flowing water. His blade found the man's throat before the attacker even realized the threat.
Daichi wiped his sword on the dead man's cloak. "We need to move. NOW."
The elf finally noticed them. She stood slowly, eyes wide with shock.
"Leo?" Her voice cracked. "What are you doing here?!"
"Saving you, apparently!" Leo stepped closer, quickly checking her for injuries. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, but you shouldn't have—"
A nearby explosion cut her off. The ground shook violently.
"There are wounded here we can't leave!" The elf pointed to the students she had been treating. Three lay unconscious. One was barely awake, bleeding heavily.
Leo looked at them, then at Daichi.
"We can't carry them all, not if we are going to fight and survive," Daichi said.
"Then we make multiple trips or we find another way!" The elf's voice was fierce but desperate.
Daichi scanned the collapsed area. "There's a service tunnel beneath this section. A maintenance access. It should lead to the outer ring of the arena."
The elf stared at him. "How do you know about maintenance tunnels in the Grand Arena?"
Daichi met her gaze evenly. "I study places I'll be attending. So do you want to escape or ask questions?"
"Follow me," Daichi said.
---
Moving the wounded was slow and painful work.
Leo and the elf each supported one student. The conscious one stumbled between them. Daichi carried the smallest over his shoulder while keeping his sword ready.
They found the tunnel entrance behind a collapsed section of seating. A maintenance hatch half-buried in rubble.
The hatch opened into darkness and a ladder leading down.
Above them, screams and explosions continued.
They descended into the dark.
---
The tunnel was narrow, dark, and smelled of old stone and stale air.
But it was quiet. Away from the screaming and death.
Leo helped lower the wounded students to the tunnel floor. The space was tight, but safe for now.
The elf immediately returned to healing them. Her hands glowed with faint green light. Prana energy.
Leo watched her work. She was focused and gentle despite everything they had just escaped.
One of the students groaned and stirred.
"You're safe," the elf told him softly. "Stay still. You're not completely healed yet."
The student nodded weakly, tears running down his face.
Daichi stood guard at the tunnel entrance, sword drawn, eyes fixed on the hatch above.
Leo moved beside him. "Thank you. For coming with me."
"Lady Iori ordered it."
"Still."
Daichi glanced at him. "You made a stupid choice, running toward danger instead of away from it."
"I know."
"But..." Daichi paused. "It wasn't wrong. Just stupid."
They stood in silence for a moment. Then Leo asked the question that had been eating at him.
"This morning. You warned me. About explosions and panic."
Daichi kept watching the hatch.
"How did you know?"
"I didn't." His voice stayed flat. "I suspected."
"Why?"
"Because peace like this doesn't last." Daichi finally looked at him. "A hundred years since the last major conflict. All the races gathered in one place. It was too perfect an opportunity."
"That's not enough of an answer. Not for knowing the arena's layout either."
"It's the only one you're getting."
Leo stepped closer. "You knew, didn't you?"
Daichi's mask slipped for a brief second. Beneath it was something cold and calculating.
"Yes," Daichi said quietly.
"So what are you? A terrorist?"
"Not at all." Daichi's expression smoothed out again. "I'm someone who sees opportunities in chaos. And someone who protects his investments."
"Investments?"
"You. The elf girl. This situation." He gestured around the tunnel. "House Kurogane didn't become the Fourth House simply by following others' rules. We make our own."
"But Iori asked you to help, this wasn't out of the goodness of your heart"
"Well see it however you want."
Leo wanted to press harder, but Daichi had helped save them. For now, that had to be enough.
Behind them, the elf finished treating the worst of the injuries. She stood and wiped blood from her hands.
Then she looked at Leo.
"You shouldn't have come back for me."
"True."
"You could have died."
"Maybe."
"Why did you do it?"
Leo shrugged. "Because I wanted to."
The elf's expression softened, becoming almost vulnerable.
"Thank you." Her voice was quiet. "For being an idiot."
A faint smile touched her lips despite everything. Then it faded.
"Leo... before the explosions, when I saw you in the stands."
"You looked terrified," Leo said. "It looked like you were trying to warn me."
She went very still.
"How did you know?" He kept his tone gentle. "How did you know the attack was coming?"
Silence stretched between them.
Above, the sounds of fighting had shifted.
"I can't explain everything," she said finally. "Not here."
"Then tell me what you can."
She shook her head. "There are things I've... seen? The attack wasn't random, but this isn't the right moment to explain."
"So that's all I'm getting?"
"People are dying up there," she said, voice sharper now. "We need to focus on surviving for now."
Leo held her gaze. She was hiding a lot, but she was also right.
"Later then," he said. "When we're safe, you'll tell me."
"If we get out of here, I'll explain what I can."
Daichi spoke from the shadows near the entrance.
"She's right."
They both turned.
"Those weren't random attackers," Daichi continued. "They were professionals. Well-equipped. And this is just the opening move."
"You sound certain," Leo said.
"I am." Daichi glanced at the elf. "Tonight's killing was mainly a distraction. And the start of something bigger."
The sounds from above changed again.
Daichi noticed it first. "Something's happening."
He climbed the ladder just enough to peer through the hatch. His face darkened.
"What?" Leo asked.
"Come see for yourself."
Leo and the elf climbed up beside him.
The arena had changed.
The stampede had slowed, but people still fled and trampled each other. Many now looked back, pointing at the center of the floor.
A single figure stood alone amid dozens of bodies.
Dark energy radiated from them, shimmering in the air like heat haze. It made Leo's skin crawl even from this distance.
Imperial guards tried to approach. Those who got too close simply collapsed, like puppets with their strings cut.
"Wha—who is that?" Leo whispered.
"Demon worshipers," Daichi said quietly. "A high-level one."
The figure's voice boomed across the arena, magically amplified.
"This is just the beginning. The races will burn."
A pause.
"And from the ashes of your precious, fragile peace..."
Power flared around the figure, dark and corrupted.
"...we will build something better."
The figure smiled.
And the Grand Arena, already turned into a slaughterhouse, plunged deeper into nightmare.