Kai didn’t keep his eyes matched with Veridia for long. There was no point in staring her down now; the real exchange would come soon enough. Instead, he let his steps carry him further toward the arena’s center.

The first thing that caught his eye was the lower stands, where the commoners were packed shoulder to shoulder. In the middle of the sea of faces and the wild cheers, a massive banner stretched across dozens of hands. The letters were bold and uneven, but what drew a chuckle from him was what was written. “Lord Arzan, you’re going to win.”

Malden stood proudly in front of it, as if the banner was his personal standard carried into battle.

Kai shook his head faintly and let his gaze climb higher, up to the noble tiers where the nobles were supposed to be. He recognised more than a few faces. He recalled some from the banquet, the ones who had smiled too politely at him. Others were new, drawn from every faction in the kingdom, even those who prided themselves on neutrality were here. They had all gathered, whether out of loyalty, suspicion or hunger for a good spectacle.

His eyes found his allies easily in the crowd. Francis, Leopold, Duke Blackwood, they all stood there. Beyond them, the heavy ranks of Dukes, Count, and Marquises filled their seats.

It was almost like the entire kingdom nobility was watching. Above them, higher still, sat the princes.

Kai’s eyes lingered on Amara first. She met his gaze with a smile, not a wide smile, but enough for Kai to know she saw him too. Next to her was Eldric, his face fixed in that frown that seemed carved into his bones. And flanking them, two princes he had not yet met. Aldrin, the second lifted a hand and waved at him, while the third, Thalric merely leaned forward, studying the sands that suggested impatience rather than interest, as if silently asking when the duel would finally begin.

Kai looked away.

Across the arena walls, there were Adept Mages that belonged to the Archine Tower. Their presence was reassuring, though only in theory. He told himself he didn’t need to worry for the crowd’s safety with them stationed there. He told himself they could contain the worst of what might unfold. And yet, a part of him doubted even Adepts could truly restrain what was coming.

He let his gaze sweep the arena one last time, imprinting the moment in his mind. The banners, the nobles, the princes, the Mage-guards—all of it pressing in around the circle of sand where only he and Veridia would matter.

Turning slightly, he whispered to Killian.

“Go. Find a comfortable seat. And make sure the people have paths to run if things go wrong.”

“I will have men everywhere,” Killian said. Then he vanished into the swell of the stands, leaving Kai standing alone on the sands.

Kai turned his attention back to Veridia. She gave him a single nod. He returned it in kind. None of them said anything. Unlike Reyk, Kai knew there won’t be childish taunts, no back-and-forth insults to feed the crowd. This was war, just dressed as a duel. Their silence said more than words ever could.

Their attention then shifted together toward the referee; who looked like he did not want to be there. The man looked miserable, covered in sweat. His hands twitched at his sides as if they’d rather be clutching anything but his staff. His eyes nervously darted between Kai and Veridia, like a lamb placed in between two lions.

Still, he stepped forward into the center and raised his hand.

The crowd’s noise pressed down, a wave of shouts and cheers that shook the air. The referee swallowed hard, and then his voice boomed, amplified by a spell that gave him command even over the roar.

“Gathered ladies and gentlemen,” his voice was loud. “Today we are gathered to witness one of the most prolific duels of the century!” his hand swept dramatically toward Veridia. “On one side, Magus Veridia, Tower Master of the Archine Tower!”

Another wave of applause and cheers followed. The nobles clapped politely while the commoners roared.

The referee’s hand shifted to Kai. “And on the other—Mage Arzan Kellius, son of a Duke’s line, the rising star who has stood against the deadly plague itself!”

The arena erupted for the next minute.

When the noise finally ebbed, the referee’s face grew taut again. His voice dropped lower, gaining everyone’s attention. “The rules are simple. After discussion with both participants, killing has been permitted.”

The word killing rippled through the crowd. Some faces twisted in horror, not at the thought that one of the duelists might die, but at what that death would cost. Spells at higher circles did not do damage to just the opponent.

The referee pressed on. “It remains discouraged. But each of you may use anything on your person—weapon, potion, artifact. You’re allowed to use them. Forbidden techniques, obviously, are banned. The duel will end upon surrender, or when one combatant is dead.”

He paused, swallowed and looked between them. For a moment, he stared at Kai, as though silently apologizing for standing so close.

“The right to act first,” he continued, raising a small silver disc between two fingers. “Will be decided by coin toss. Both participants, please step forward.”

Kai moved, staring down at the sand shifting beneath his boots. When he looked up, Magus Veridia was gliding to meet him, her cloak sweeping like a shadow. Up close, he noticed it: the faint sheen beneath the folks of purple. Enchanted armour plates, layered carefully beneath her robes. Not one piece or two, but an entire set, humming with seals.

Whenever she moved, every inch of her radiated. Kai’s lips curved faintly, though not in humor.

The referee’s hand trembled slightly as he held the silver coin, its surface catching the sun. He cleared his throat. “What do you choose?”

“Heads,” Kai said first.

“Tails,” Veridia followed.

The coin spun skyward, flashing in arcs of light before clattering down into the referee’s palm. He turned it over, and the breath of thousands seemed to hold for a single heartbeat.

“Tails,” he announced. “Magus Veridia wins the toss. She will cast first.”

The crowd roared. The referee didn’t linger—he tucked the coin away and, with more haste than dignity, bolted from the sands, robes snapping behind him.

And then there were only two.

Veridia’s eyes locked on him. “Let’s start the show, shall we?”

The words were scarcely past her mouth when mana burst from her. It came in waves, rippling through the arena like heat off the desert. The ground beneath her groaned, cracked, then shattered as raw power surged into it.

Kai’s instincts screamed. He leapt skyward in an instant, wings of wind mana propelling him into the open air. A heartbeat later, the earth split wide as molten fire erupted upward, geysers of magma clawed for the sky, where he had been standing.

He veered aside, but more pillars exploded. He criss-crossed through the air in jarring arcs. Each path he took, another erupted and chased him. Fire and molten stone clawed up to drag him down. And he knew, it was intentional on her part. Veridia was herding, dictating his movement, luring him toward something unseen.

So he kept his eyes fixed on her. She stood where she had begun, unmoving amid the inferno. But then, his senses screamed again.He snapped his gaze upward.

A shadow fell over him.

There she was—Veridia, not below but above, descending in silence. A blade of condensed shadow longer than a man’s height cleaved downward, aimed to cut him in half.

Kai’s barrier flared, wind screaming around him as the blade struck. The impact rippled through him, air shuddering as the weapon bit deep, nearly cutting through the barrier’s spinning layers. He twisted, retreating with a burst of force, barely escaping the blade’s edge as Veridia plummeted.

She crashed into the earth, the shockwave scattering magma in every direction. The fire swallowed her whole, coiling around her like an embrace, yet she did not burn.

Hovering above, Kai tightened his barrier, reinforcing the spinning layers of wind that kept him aloft.

His eyes narrowed as he studied her below. In just a handful of movements, she had already revealed them—three affinities. Earth, fire and shadow, the first two combined to become magma and the third being used for illusions.

Kai knew that wasn’t the end of it. Veridia had been known as the strongest Mage in the kingdom for too long to be defined by only two tricks.

The ground below split again, geysers of molten stone clawing upward, one after another. But Kai didn’t retreat. He surged forward, through the eruptions away from them. Heat licked at his barrier, searing the air around them, but he carved a direct path to her, cutting through the inferno.

He had nearly closed the distance when her hands rose again. The runes flared in a pattern that Kai recognized instantly.

Not this again.

He dropped low, and a wave of molten fire screamed over his head, trailing heat and sparks. The breath of it singed his barrier, but he didn’t waste the moment. The space between spells was fleeting, but it was enough.

He was on her in an instant, flame swirling around his palm, coalescing into a spear of burning light. With a snap of his arm, he slashed downward.

A weapon met his own.

He internally cursed as he saw a blade of shadow unfold from the folds of her cloak. The clash rang out, flames against shadow. For a brief second, he saw how the ground beneath them spiderwebbed out as the shock of their strike rolled across the arena.

The crowd cheered loudly with several gasping at the power on display.

Veridia’s eyes gleamed behind her blade. “You’ve already lasted three seconds longer than my last opponent. Impressive.”

“I should say the same about you. Though I would’ve been more surprised by that magma blast… if you hadn’t used it so often in your early days.”

Her eyes narrowed, and the corner of her mouth twitched upward. “Oh? Someone has done his research… I like that.”

But Kai didn’t answer. He already started to feel it—the shift in mana, the subtle distortion along the edge of his flame-spear. Her shadows were eating into it, unraveling the weapon strand by strand. He had been waiting for this exact moment.

The instant the spear began to dissolve, he turned sharply, his other hand already raised. Mana surged outward, spinning into a whirling vortex.

The tornado exploded from his palm, ripping through the air with a deafening howl. It slammed into Veridia’s silhouette, tearing through the shadows. The figure disintegrated into wisps of darkness, shredded by the storm.

And then the tornado struck the ground, ripping stone and sand into the air as it hurled Veridia’s true body back across the arena floor. The impact cracked the earth, scattering debris.

For the first time, the Tower Master had been forced to yield ground.

Unfortunately, Veridia didn’t stay pinned for long. A torrent of mana burst out of her body, a tidal wave of force that shredded the tornado into tatters. The storm Kai had conjured was swallowed whole, torn apart by sheer willpower.

Kai had hoped she’d falter, stumble into her own magma pillars and take herself down with her arrogance. But luck, it seemed, had no role here.

He didn’t hesitate. Mana surged from him in return, flames coiling at his command. Dozens of small fiery projectiles bloomed into the air, each one wrapped in a sheath of wind that bent them into perfect, spear-like missiles. With a flick of his hand, they shrieked downward.

They tore through the forest of magma towers, carving paths of steam and sparks, before slamming into Veridia’s form.

The impact rocked the arena.

Heat washed over the crowd even through the protective wards. Kai’s eyes blinked towards the sand and stone that lifted in a wave, the shock rattling the air with deafening thunder.

Kai hovered, narrowing his eyes at the roiling smoke.

But as it cleared, the space where she had stood was empty.

A frown creased his brow. He launched higher into the air, scanning the battlefield, senses spread wide. Yet all he found was fire, stone, and ruin. No Veridia.

Until—

A ripple of mana that didn’t belong to magma or shadows got his attention.

He jerked his head upward.

High above, Veridia hung suspended, her legs wreathed in shadows keeping her aloft. In her hands, black lightning danced. Crackling across her fingers with a sound like the tearing of metal.

She thrust it downward.

Kai’s mana surged forth, winds screaming around him as he raised both arms. A torrent of air shot skyward, meeting the strike head-on. Lightning and wind slammed into each other, two elements vying for dominance. The clash twisted into a sphere of chaotic energy, growing brighter, heavier, feeding on itself until it detonated.

The blast tore the sky apart.

The explosion hurled a shockwave across the arena, snapping banners from poles and pushing back even the wards cast by the Adepts on the perimeter. Wind howled through the stands, carrying screams and cheers alike, while in the center Kai was flung backward, his barrier groaning under the strain.

He righted himself in the air, jaw tightening, eyes fixed on Veridia.

The duel had barely started, and already she had wielded fire, earth, shadow, and lightning. Affinities that few Mages would ever touch in a lifetime together, yet she commanded them as if they were mere tools.

Kai’s frown deepened. He had read the records, searched through what scraps the Tower allowed the world to see. Veridia was no ordinary Magus. She was said to wield one of the rarest collections of affinities ever recorded in the kingdom, perhaps in the entire continent. A quad-affinity Mage.

And now, face-to-face with her, Kai could feel it.

The truth of that power was far more terrifying than the ink on any parchment.

But nowhere had they said she could weave her shadow into everything—a venom threading itself through fire, through lightning, through even the very ground she commanded. He had suspected she might hold something back from the archives, but this? This was mastery sharpened by… decades.

For once, he admitted it, he had underestimated her.

And yet, even as the weight of that truth pressed against him, a grin tugged at his lips. How long had it been since he had felt this? That spark of danger in his chest, that thrill that came only when someone across from him was not prey to be put down, but a predator clawing at his throat. It had been years, no, lifetimes. Beasts he had crushed, creatures he had faced, but they had been simple. This… this was different. A true Mage duel.

The smoke roiled thickly around him, a choking veil that muted the roar of the crowd. His senses prickled.

The haze parted just enough to reveal them.

Snakes. Born of shadow-bound lightning, their scales rippling with black sparks, their maws glowing as they hissed forward. It was too close and too sudden, there was no room for another elaborate weave.

Kai dropped low, hands flaring. His own spell structure snapped into place in an instant, lines of flame and wind locking together. From its heart, figures burst forth—knights clad in firelit steel, wings of storm and wind unfurling from their backs.

Unlike the ones he had unleashed against Khorvash, these were not bound to the earth. They soared.

With a clash of steel and a shriek of wings, the knights met the serpents. Their blades cut through scales of lightning, severing heads and tails as bursts of black sparks rained across the battlefield.

A single beat later, the knights’ wings snapped open. Gales roared across the arena, scattering the smoke like it had never been there. In an instant, the battlefield was clear again.

And there she was.

Veridia hovered across from him, robes whipping in the updraft, her face lit by the glow of residual magma dying below. No more pillars rose from the earth—her first act was spent. Now, it was Mage against Mage in the sky.

That made the entire arena stand up, cheering in approval. Nobles, commoners were all on their feet.

Kai raised a hand, fingers tightening into command. The three knights wheeled midair, and shot forward like arrows loosed from the same bowstring.

They streaked across the arena, blades raised, fire and wind screaming in their wake—aimed straight at the Tower Master.

Both her hands immediately glowed with spell structures, runes coiled and snapped into place with an insane speed. From her right, a spear of black lightning crackled outward, shrieking through the air toward one of Kai’s conjured knights. The knight raised its flaming blade, blocking the strike. Sparks hissed and scattered like a storm of razors as the weapon absorbed the impact.

Her left hand flared an instant later. Magma burst forth in a sweeping wave, a tide of molten rock hurled skyward toward his other summons. The air itself shimmered with heat as the molten mass surged forward, forcing the knights to cut through it or be consumed.

One did. Pushing through the inferno, wings of wind beating furiously, the knight closed the distance and brought its blade down in a perfect arc toward her chest.

But Veridia’s eyes narrowed. The lightning in her hand twisted, lengthened, and in a breath it reshaped into a sword. She caught the blow at the very last instant, the clash ringing out. Then her arm rose again—an overhead swing so sharp and brutal it cleaved through the knight’s form. The construct shattered into flame and wind, vanishing into sparks.

Above, Kai’s brows flicked upward. He hadn’t expected her to dismantle his manifestation so quickly. His wind barrier flared against the scattered magma that reached him. The impact softened by a sheen of frost that shone faintly over its surface.

His spell structure, already humming with gathered mana, reached its apex. He raised both hands, and with a guttural exhale, he poured everything into a single concentrated beam. Thɪs chapter is updated by NoveI-Fire.ɴet

The air split.

A lance of searing light shot across the arena, straight for Veridia just as she dispatched a second knight. For the first time, her eyes widened. She snapped her head toward it, cloak flaring—

And then her body rippled.

In an instant, the sky filled with her. Dozens of Veridias unfolded in layers, shadowy doubles cloaked in the same violet haze, each moving with the same perfect grace. Illusions—it was one of the old tricks of the shadow element.

In return, Kai’s beam tore through them. Each false Veridia flickered and died under its touch, collapsing into smoke. Part of the beam scorched the arena wall, slamming into the protective wards. The barrier shrieked under the strain, a visible crack webbing across it before the Adept Mages scrambled to reinforce it.

It was a pleasant surprise that the wards held on for this long.

But Kai ignored it, his eyes hunting the sea of shadows.

There you are, Kai thought to himself as he saw a twitch on one of their faces that no illusion could perfectly emulate.

With a twist of his arm, he swung the beam sideways, slashing into the empty air.

The true Veridia appeared mid-step, her eyes widening as the beam struck her shoulder.

“Fuck!”

She cried out, smoke and steam bursting from the wound as the fabric burned and the flesh beneath seared. Her body wrenched backward, tumbling toward the ground in a trail of blackened sparks.

She hit the arena floor hard, staggering to one knee, clutching her shoulder with a grimace.

High above, Kai hovered, the air whipping in violent currents around him. His barrier shimmered faintly, smoke trailing from his palms where mana still burned hot. He looked down on her.

And yet—

Both of them smiled.

Veridia, through gritted teeth, gave a grin of challenge. Kai, his chest rising and falling with exhilaration, lips curved up in challenge.

For all the pain, for all the danger, they were both exactly where they wanted to be.

The battle had only just begun.

***

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