The explosion of magic was completely invisible at first. But then, the very fabric of reality changed. The bright, blue morning sky above the arena completely vanished. The dark, swirling clouds of Lucien’s magic were violently pushed away. The entire world inside the massive stadium turned into a blinding, scorching, pure yellow light. It was not just a flash of fire. It was a complete, permanent change in the environment. Valerius had projected his own dying soul over the physical world. He had turned the arena into his own personal dimension. The stadium was instantly engulfed in a massive, terrifying desert of pure light. There was no ground. There were no walls. Everywhere anyone looked, there was only endless, burning, blinding gold. The heat was completely, totally unbelievable. It was a million times hotter than Julian’s fire. It was hotter than the inside of a volcano. It felt like the entire capital city had been transported directly onto the surface of the actual sun.

Huge chunks of heavy rock floated into the air and were sucked into the black sphere around Lucien, vanishing instantly into the void. The wind howled fiercely, blowing the hair and clothes of the people in the stadium toward the center ring. "Hold on!" Seraphina yelled in the Coach's Box. She grabbed the wooden railing with one hand and wrapped her other arm tightly around little Lin. The intense, unnatural gravity was trying to pull them right out of the dirt pit. Kai jammed his steel sword deep into the dirt and held onto the handle with both hands, his feet sliding across the floor. "He is pulling the whole world in!" Kai shouted over the roaring wind. But the intense, impossible gravity did not just affect the arena. Deep, deep underground, far beneath the beautiful white marble streets of the Imperial Capital, the ancient leylines of the earth felt the pull. The leylines were massive, invisible rivers of raw, natural magical energy. They had flowed peacefully under the cit

The massive beam of black and gold energy faded into the sky. The dark clouds were gone. The bright, clear blue sky shone down on the ruined Imperial Arena. Millions of people stared at the center of the stadium. They had just watched Patriarch Valerius, the oldest and strongest master of the Saint-Aurelius Clan, get swallowed by a beam of pure destruction. Everyone thought he was dead. Everyone thought his body had been completely turned to ash. But the Saint-Aurelius Clan had ruled the world for a thousand years. They had collected the greatest, most powerful magical treasures in the universe. They did not die easily. In the center of the deep, smoking crater of black glass, a bright golden light suddenly flashed. The sound of a precious stone breaking echoed in the quiet stadium. A small, golden amulet, which had been hidden deep inside the Patriarch’s armor, exploded into a million pieces of glowing dust. It was a Life-Saving Jade. It was a priceless, mythical artifact that

When Valerius used the "Piercing Dawn," he spun his wrist to create a beautiful circle of golden light before thrusting. It was how the clan had been taught to do it for five hundred years. The spin made the attack look grand and royal. When Lucien used the "Piercing Dawn," he did not spin his wrist at all. Lucien simply thrust his sword in a straight, ugly, perfectly direct line. It was not beautiful. It did not flash with pretty light. But it was a fraction of a second faster, and it was a hundred times more lethal. Lucien’s blade slipped past Valerius’s golden sword and sliced a shallow cut across the old man’s chest armor. "Ah!" Valerius stumbled backward, holding his bleeding chest. Valerius stared at Lucien. The old man’s heart pounded with a dark, heavy realization. Lucien was not copying him. Lucien was correcting him. Lucien was stripping away all the flashy, corrupted, beautiful modifications that the Saint-Aurelius Clan had added to their martial arts over the centur

The Imperial Arena was covered in a heavy, thick layer of black, melted glass. The bright morning sun was hidden behind the swirling, dark clouds of magic. Up in the Golden Royal Box, the air was completely still. The silence was not peaceful. It was a suffocating, terrifying silence. The Emperor of the Sun sat on his golden throne. His hands were gripping the armrests so hard that his knuckles were pure, bone white. He stared down through the broken magical window. He watched Patriarch Valerius, the oldest and strongest master in the world, stumbling backward. He watched the old man bleed. Valerius was the Emperor’s father-in-law. The Emperor had married the Patriarch’s daughter many years ago to secure the loyalty of the powerful Saint-Aurelius Clan. For decades, the Emperor had relied on the absolute, terrifying strength of his wife’s family to keep the common people in line. The Saint-Aurelius Clan was the unbreakable shield of the Golden Throne. But right now, that shield w