The training grounds were quieter than usual in the early hours.Mist clung to the stone floor of the arena and the surrounding practice fields. A few students were already awake, moving through warm ups or basic spell exercises, but the usual noise had not yet taken over the campus.Steel rang once.Then again.A heavy strike slammed into a reinforced practice pillar, leaving a shallow dent in the metal plating.Kael stepped back and rolled his shoulder.The pillar leaned slightly from the impact.He exhaled slowly, tightening the grip on his practice blade before swinging again.The strike came down harder this time.Metal groaned.A crack formed across the surface.Kael lowered the sword and studied the damage.,'Still not enough.'His voice was calm, though sweat already ran down his neck.A figure sitting on the arena wall chuckled.,'If you break another one of those pillars the instructors are going to charge you for it.'Kael didn’t turn.,'Then they should stop making them so

Lucas had been standing in the same place for nearly an hour.The training yard behind the combat hall was empty at this time of night. Most students had already finished their final preparations and returned to their dorms. Only the quiet hum of the academy wards and the distant sound of footsteps in the corridors broke the silence.Lucas held his sword loosely in one hand.He wasn’t swinging it.He wasn’t training.He was thinking.The moonlight stretched across the stone ground, pale and steady. A faint breeze moved through the open yard, carrying with it the familiar sensation of Aether that constantly surrounded the academy.Lucas exhaled slowly.,'This is harder than it looks.'He lifted the blade again and angled it forward.Aether stirred inside his core.Not violently.Not explosively.Just enough to respond.He focused.The memory replayed clearly in his mind.Jason’s demonstration.The way the older student had moved his sword, the calm control in his stance, and then the s

The air in the assembly hall didn’t settle.It sharpened.What had started as noise, anticipation, scattered excitement, slowly condensed into something more structured. More intentional.Six academies.Six forces.All in one place.Lucas stood still, eyes moving across the hall, taking everything in without rushing it. Every uniform, every stance, every expression.This wasn’t like watching people train anymore.This was.evaluation.Rodrick leaned slightly toward him."Why does it feel like everyone is sizing each other up without moving,"Lucas smirked."Because they are,"Rodrick exhaled."Great, I’m already losing and I’m not even competing,"Lily nudged him lightly."You lost before you got here,"Rodrick pointed at her."Wild card, don’t talk too much,"Lily grinned."Keep reminding yourself that,"Before Rodrick could reply, a clear voice echoed across the hall."Instructors, position the delegations."The command wasn’t loud.But it carried.Immediately, movement began.Order

The arena didn’t roar.It hummed.A low, steady vibration that settled into the bones of everyone watching, like the entire structure itself understood what was about to happen.Lucas stood with the Eldoria group at the edge of the combat field, arms loose at his sides, eyes fixed ahead.The first matches were about to begin.Not his.Not yet.But that didn’t make them any less important.Rodrick leaned slightly forward beside him, hands stuffed into his pockets, trying and failing to look relaxed."Okay, I take it back," he muttered. "This is way bigger than I thought."Lily stood on Lucas’s other side, arms folded."You said that already.""Yeah, but now I mean it more."Gerald adjusted his glasses slightly, gaze already scanning the arena like he was memorizing every detail."You should be paying attention," he said. "These matches will tell us more than any briefing."Rodrick groaned."You say that like I’m not already stressed."Elara stood just ahead of them, her strategic team

The arena had not yet settled from Kael’s victory when Lucas stepped onto the field.The stone beneath his boots still carried the cracks left behind by the previous match. Dust lingered faintly in the air, drifting in pale streaks beneath the morning light filtering through the open dome above.This time, the crowd was louder.Not because Lucas was more famous than Kael.But because people had been waiting for this match.Lucas Vale had become a name people were beginning to say with interest.The student who defeated Lily in the Combat Division selection tournament.The unknown second-year who had forced Kael to acknowledge him.The boy who had received a threat letter before the Convergence even began.And now he would face Ironcrest’s rising spear prodigy.Riven Tal.From the opposite gate, Riven entered the arena.He was taller than Lucas by a little, broad across the shoulders, with sharp bronze eyes and dark red hair tied high behind his head. His expression was calm, but there