Morning came with a roar.The coliseum trembled as ancient runes flared to life, each one glowing like a heartbeat. The crowd filled the stands in tides of humanity, elves, dwarves, beastkin, vampires, and even cloaked dragon-kin. Their voices merged into a single thunder, rattling the stones.Today, blood would be spilled.The High Arbiter raised his staff, his silver voice cutting through the uproar.“Champions! The first trial of the International Academy Tournament begins!”The floor of the arena split open. Runes whirled like galaxies, tearing apart the air. Where there had been marble, now stretched forests — vast, shadowed, wild. Trees taller than towers clawed at the sky. Mist coiled between branches. The cry of beasts shook the ground.The crowd gasped. The hunting zone had been summoned.“This is your trial,” the Arbiter declared. “Within the hunting grounds roam creatures born of chaos — beasts forged by magic and will. You have until the setting sun to hunt. Points will be

The arena dimmed again.All eyes turned to the final gate — the Human Royal delegation’s entrance.Kai’s team had emerged from their battle, Reinhard’s group entered like champions already crowned. They moved in perfect formation: golden armor gleaming, banners snapping in the heat, their emblem — a rising sun over crossed swords — catching the light.Reynard led them, of course.Golden hair bound back, eyes aflame with pride, his every step measured, rehearsed, radiant.The nobles in the stands erupted in cheers — their prodigy, their heir, their perfect human.Even from the audience, Kai could feel the weight of it.He sat motionless beside Sylvia and Mandy, cloak still torn from his battle, watching as the younger version of everything he once was stepped into the field.The ground rumbled.Stone fractured, sand swirling upward, until the landscape became a desert of broken ruins — heat shimmering in waves, monoliths carved with ancient Human script jutting from the sand.And from

The arena was no longer an arena. It was a continent. The stadium had transformed overnight, expanding through ancient dimensional runes etched into the earth. Towering forests swayed where stone had been; rivers cut through shimmering plains; mountains rose in the distance, their peaks scraping clouds heavy with thunder. Floating citadels circled the horizon like silent watchers. This was the Dominion Zone — a living world forged for war. Above, banners of every nation unfurled: Emerald for the Elves. Crimson for the Vampires. Bronze for the Dwarves. Gold for the Humans. Silver flame for the Dragons. And black and white — lightning and bone — for the one who stood apart. Kai. The High Arbiter floated above the vast expanse, his staff blazing with ethereal light. “Champions of the world!” His voice boomed through the sky. “By the accord of nations, the Dominion Trial begins. You are to claim territories — forge, defend, or destroy. When the sun sets, those without dominion

The sun did not rise; it was born screaming.A surge of white fire tore through the Dominion Zone’s horizon, splitting the sky into rivers of light and shadow. Every mountain, every forest, every broken city from the first trial shuddered as dawn came not with warmth, but with power. Clouds burst apart, revealing a sky stitched together by threads of lightning and flame.Beneath that fractured dawn, the champions stirred.From the emerald woodlands, the Elves emerged in silence—silver hair catching the morning glow, bows humming with runes that smelled faintly of rain. Prince Calyth walked at their head, armor polished to mirror brightness, his jaw locked tight. Behind him, Lirael moved with feline ease, her smile unreadable as ever. She trailed one finger along a branch; it bloomed instantly, a white flower that wilted just as fast.Across the crimson plains, the Vampires woke beneath the dying stars. Vaelith rose from his black tent as though from a coffin, mist swirling about his b

The world hung between breaths.For a single, terrible moment, no one moved — not the champions, not the armies, not even the gods who had wagered their favor on mortal will. All color had drained from the Dominion Zone. The sky was a pallid gray, the earth an endless ash field. The Crown of Will floated at the center of the hollowed heavens, split in two — one half blazing gold, the other thrumming with silver lightning.The halves pulsed in opposite rhythms, like two hearts forced to share one vein.And at the center of that impossible symmetry stood the brothers — Kai and Reynard — separated by a river of light that refused to choose.The Arbiter’s projection flickered above the ruin, his form barely coherent in the distortion. “This is not written in any accord,” he whispered. “The Crown cannot divide. It was forged before nations — before kings. This… defies its nature.”He reached out to contain it, but the halves repelled him with a scream of power that shattered the ether. H