Lira knelt on the cold, unyielding ground of the arena, her blade lying useless at her side. Her body trembled, wracked with exhaustion, the forbidden pill’s toll gnawing at her strength. The crowd’s jeers, the weight of their disbelief, pressed down on her like a suffocating wave.
‘Where did it go all wrong?’ she thought, her vision swimming as her gaze flicked from the dirt beneath her knees to Lucavion, standing above her with that infuriating smirk. ‘Why is this happening? How dare he…?’
Her thoughts spiraled, latching onto the one unshakable truth she had believed all her life: she was superior. She was chosen. The world had always bent to her will. The Cloud Heavens Sect had always stood above the rest. Her talent, her rank, her strength—none of it had ever been questioned. Not until now.
‘How dare a bastard like him, a filthy commoner who has only ever been worthy of licking my boots, look at me like this? How dare he speak to me like this?’ Her nails dug into her palms, blood welling from the pressure. Her chest burned, her heart pounding furiously against her ribs.
The crowd’s roar grew louder, a cacophony of anger and disbelief directed at her. The world felt like it had turned against her like the very foundation of her reality was crumbling beneath her feet.
‘Why? Why does the world feel like it’s against me? Why does nothing I do work? No matter how much I strike, no matter how much power I use, it’s never enough. What… what is this?’
Her breaths came fast and shallow as a new, unfamiliar sensation twisted in her chest. A feeling she had never known, not once in her carefully cultivated life.
Helplessness.
And something worse.
Desperation.
It coiled around her like a vice, choking her pride, her confidence, and everything she had ever known about herself. She had always been above others, always untouchable. Yet now, she was the one on the ground, staring up at someone who should have been insignificant. Someone who, by all rights, shouldn’t even be here.
Her teeth clenched, and her gaze burned as it locked onto Lucavion. ‘What did I do to deserve this? What is it? What is this feeling, like the entire world is slipping away from me?’
Her anger flared, burning through the helplessness like wildfire. She wanted to scream, to lash out, to demand that the world return to the way it had been. Her nails dug deeper into her palms, her knuckles white as her fury surged.
‘I am Lira Vaelan of the Cloud Heavens Sect!’ she screamed inwardly. ‘I am the Silent Thunder! I am the strongest among my peers, the one destined to rise above them all! How dare this… this worm, this nothing, humiliate me? How dare he make me feel this way?’
Her vision blurred with tears of frustration as her trembling hands reached for her blade. She wouldn’t let it end like this. She couldn’t. Not here. Not now.
Lucavion’s voice broke through her spiraling thoughts, calm and cutting as ever. “What’s the matter, Lira? Feeling something unfamiliar? A little helpless, maybe? A little desperate?”
Her head snapped up, her eyes wide and wild. The gray flames in his pitch-black pupils flickered coldly, his smirk deepening as he stared her down.
“You’re not used to this, are you?” he continued, his tone laced with mockery. “The feeling that no matter what you do, it’s never enough. That no matter how hard you try, someone stronger, someone better, will stand in your way.”
“Shut up!” she snarled, her voice cracking as she gripped her blade with shaking hands. “You don’t know anything about me! About what I’ve done, what I’ve sacrificed!”
Lucavion tilted his head, his expression growing colder. “Sacrificed? You don’t even know the meaning of the word. You’ve lived your life taking what isn’t yours, climbing on the backs of those who couldn’t fight back. And now, for the first time, you’re the one who’s powerless. How does it feel, Lira? How does it feel to be the one on your knees?” Stay tuned to
Her body shook as his words cut deeper than any blade. Her fury boiled over, hot and blinding, but it was laced with something she couldn’t deny. A seed of doubt. A crack in the facade she had built around herself.
Her voice trembled as she screamed, her desperation spilling out like a flood. “Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up!”
Lira’s breathing was ragged, her chest heaving as her fingers tightened around the hilt of her blade. This was it. She had no choice but to put everything into her final attack—the one technique she had been forbidden to use because her body hadn’t been strong enough to endure it. But with the forbidden pill coursing through her veins, pushing her far beyond her natural limits, she could finally summon the strength necessary.
Her voice rang out, steady but laced with fury, as she called the name of her ultimate technique.
“Heaven’s Wrath: Cyclone Expanse!”
The moment she invoked it, the air around her shifted. The atmosphere grew heavy, the wind howling with a ferocity that drowned out the murmurs of the crowd. Overhead, the sky darkened, clouds swirling as if summoned by her mana. The arena quaked beneath her feet, dust rising as the sheer power of the technique began to manifest.
Lucavion stood motionless, his smirk fading as his gaze lifted to the churning sky. For the first time, a flicker of acknowledgment passed through his eyes.
“Finally,” he murmured, licking his lips as a faint, cold smile returned to his face. “A display at least worthy of a semi-final. Such a pity it came this late.”
Lira’s blade glowed with an intense, radiant light as the vortex of wind formed around her, growing larger and larger with every passing second. The clouds surged, crackling with energy as if nature itself had been called to her aid. Her mana poured into the technique, every ounce of strength she had left channeling into the deadly storm.
With a scream of pure determination, she unleashed it.
A massive cyclone of razor-sharp wind surged forward, tearing through the air like a force of nature unleashed. The vortex roared, its destructive energy heading straight for Lucavion, promising to obliterate everything in its path.
Lucavion’s expression hardened. He stepped forward, his estoc held firmly in one hand. The aura around him shifted, dark and ominous as if the air itself recoiled from his presence.
“Watch,” he said, his voice calm yet commanding, carrying over the roar of the storm.
As the cyclone bore down on him, Lucavion’s estoc glowed faintly with a shadowy, black-gray hue. With a flick of his wrist, the air around him rippled, forming a perfect ring of shadowy energy. The crowd gasped as the ring expanded outward, encompassing him in an eerie, pulsating aura.
“Annihilation Sword: Null Space,” he intoned, his voice reverberating across the arena.
The cyclone collided with the ring of energy—and stopped.
For a moment, the vortex seemed to hesitate, its immense power meeting an unmovable force. Then, the sound came:
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The winds, once so fierce and unstoppable, were sliced apart, disintegrating the moment they touched the edge of the Null Space. The audience watched in stunned silence as the massive storm was reduced to nothingness, its energy obliterated piece by piece.
Lucavion moved within the Null Space with breathtaking precision. His estoc blurred, slicing through the remnants of the cyclone with surgical accuracy. Each strike dissolved another piece of the attack, the shadowy energy surrounding his blade guiding the destruction.
Lira’s eyes widened in disbelief as she watched her strongest attack vanish before her very eyes. The arena fell silent, the sheer impossibility of what had just occurred leaving the crowd breathless.
Lucavion stepped forward, the shadowy aura around him fading into stillness. His blade hung loosely at his side, his calm, unyielding gaze locking onto Lira.
“It’s over,” he said, his tone as cold as the void he had summoned. “Your strength, your techniques, your ambitions—all of it is nothing.”
Lira staggered back, her body trembling as the forbidden pill’s effects began to wane. Her blade slipped from her hands, clattering to the ground as she fell to her knees. The weight of her defeat pressed down on her like a crushing tide, her mind racing with questions she couldn’t answer.
Lucavion turned his gaze to the crowd, his voice rising as he addressed them once more. “This is the truth of the Cloud Heavens Sect,” he declared, his words sharp and cutting. “Power built on lies. Techniques with no substance. And strength that crumbles under the weight of its own corruption.”
The audience erupted, their cheers and boos mixing into a cacophony of sound. But Lucavion ignored them, his eyes fixed on Lira as she knelt in the dirt, her once-unshakable confidence shattered.
He moved towards her, with steady steps.
“This,” he said, his voice low and final, “is where your arrogance ends.”
PITU!
And finished with a spit on her face.
“Pathetic.”
And then left the arena.