The Strongest Student of the Weakest Academy

I forced my eyes closed, blocking out the arena and Seraphiel and everything else.

My senses spiked to maximum intensity as I turned my awareness inward, diving into my own body with desperate urgency.

I needed to understand what was happening before it killed me.

My divine core pulsed irregularly, energy flowing in stuttering bursts.

My chaos energy, the power that sustained my existence, was moving wrong, circulating backward through channels that weren’t designed for reverse flow.

And beneath it all, I felt...

WHOOOOSH!

My body reacted on pure instinct.

I shifted right without opening my eyes, my heightened senses tracking the displacement of air as Seraphiel’s fist came screaming toward where my head had been a fraction of a second ago.

Her knuckles passed within millimeters of my face, close enough that I felt the heat from the holy light coating them.

My eyes snapped open.

Seraphiel was already pulling back for another strike, her mismatched eyes focused with deadly intent.

I moved.

Not away, but into her guard, closing the distance before she could reset her stance.

My leg came up in a brutal kick aimed at her chest, the same target I’d hit moments ago.

She crossed her arms in an X-pattern to block, six wings flaring outward to help absorb the impact.

WHAM!

My boot connected with her forearms, and the force sent her sliding backward across the arena floor, her feet leaving grooves in the white stone.

But the effort cost me.

"Kurgh..."

Another mouthful of thick black blood erupted from my lips, spattering across my chin and the ground.

The pain in my chest intensified, my divine core convulsing from the strain.

But I’d found the problem.

It wasn’t poison or anything like that...

...It was the most basic problem possible.

Fatigue.

Pure, simple, catastrophic exhaustion.

My divine core had been pushed past its limits in the fight with Krathax, then forced to recover just enough to function before being pushed past those limits again in the battle with Sythara.

And then again.

And again.

Four more times, each fight demanding more than I had to give, each recovery period insufficient to properly restore what I’d spent.

The repeated cycle of depletion and partial recovery had done something worse than just draining my reserves.

It had reversed my chaos flow.

The energy that sustained my whole being was now circulating backward through my body, moving against the natural pathways and creating internal damage with every pulse.

Instead of empowering me, my own chaos energy was tearing me apart from the inside.

Which meant using it, using any technique that drew on chaos energy, any authority that required it, any power beyond pure physical capability, would accelerate the damage and bring me closer to complete system failure.

I couldn’t use my Authority of Ice.

Couldn’t use my Authority of the Abyss.

Couldn’t use my Authority of Ruin or Defiance or any of the powers I’d relied on throughout these fights.

If I tried, the reversed chaos flow would cause more internal hemorrhaging, more black blood, more damage to my divine core until it eventually just... stopped working.

I had to win this fight using nothing but raw physical strength.

Against an opponent with the Authority of Light and the Authority of Darkness.

Against a 9✯ Peak True God hybrid who hadn’t been fighting for the past four battles straight.

Against Seraphiel, who was fresh and uninjured while I could barely stand.

"Fuck," I whispered, spitting out more blood.

Seraphiel had recovered from my kick and was watching me with those mismatched eyes, her expression shifting from focused to something more analytical.

"...You’re deeply injured, it seems..." she observed, her eyesbrows furrowing slighly.

"A reverse energy flow? It must be because you were pushing past your limits many times without getting proper rest."

I didn’t bother denying it.

"Does that mean you’re going to take it easy on me?" I asked, forcing my stance back into a ready position despite the way my legs trembled.

At my words, she smiled at me like some kind of predator would.

"No. It means I’m going to end this quickly, as a mercy."

Her wings spread wide, light and darkness gathering in her hands simultaneously.

"You fought well. You defeated four opponents who should have crushed you. But this is where your... little tale ends."

I gripped both of my swords tightly at her words.

Fwoosh!

Seraphiel didn’t waste time on more words.

She blurred forward, six wings propelling her like a comet of clashing light and shadow.

In her right hand, a spear of pure holy radiance formed by Authority of Light condensed into a lance that could pierce mountains.

In her left, a whip of writhing darkness cracked out, Authority of Darkness ready to erode anything it touched.

She struck simultaneously, the spear thrusting for my heart while the whip lashed at my legs.

Instantly, I stepped into it.

My right foot pivoted, my body twisting slighly to the side, as I used the Midnight Sword to meet the spear first.

Fwip!

The sharpest edge in existence sheared through the holy light like wet paper, splitting the spear down its length before the tip could even graze my armor.

Sparks of divinity exploded outward, but the Heaven Swallowing Sword was already there, sweeping in a low arc.

Its edge drank greedily as it intercepted the darkness whip, nullifying the Authority embedded in it.

The whip dissolved mid-crack, threads of shadow unraveling into harmless mist that the sword swallowed whole.

Seraphiel’s eyes widened slighly.

I pressed the advantage, closing the gap again.

My left elbow drove upward in a brutal strike toward her jaw while my right knee aimed for her midsection.

She blocked the elbow with a wing, the impact jarring my bones, but the knee connected clean.

THUMP!

Her torso folded slightly, feet skidding back two meters across the arena floor.

I followed with a horizontal slash from the Midnight Sword, aiming to bisect her at the waist. She spun, wings flaring to create a barrier of light, but I was already adjusting.

The Heaven Swallowing Sword stabbed forward in a feint, forcing her to parry with her forearm.

Clunk... splat...!

The blade bit into her divine skin, drawing a thin line of golden blood before she wrenched away.

"You... dare," she hissed, her eyes shining maliciously.

I spat another glob of black blood onto the white stone.

"Dared worse. Keep up."

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOP!

She came at me again, faster this time.

The arena trembled as she unleashed a barrage of light bolts, raining from above like divine arrows, dark tendrils erupting from the floor to snare my ankles.

I moved on pure instinct, a sidestep here, a low sweep of the Midnight Sword to sever three tendrils at once, a leap that carried me over the rest while the Heaven Swallowing Sword traced a lazy circle overhead, nullifying the light bolts that came too close.

One bolt clipped my shoulder anyway; agony lanced through me, but I’d taken worse from Krathax’s flames.

I landed in a roll, came up slashing.

Swish!

I feinted left with the Midnight Sword, then reversed into a thrust with the Heaven Swallowing one.

Seraphiel bought the feint, her greatsword swinging wide to guard her flank.

My thrust pierced her guard, the blade sinking two inches into her side.

The Heaven Swallowing Sword instantly devoured a chunk of her divinity on contact.

"Dammit!" She gasped, her authority flickering in her mismatched eyes as the nullification rippled through her.

I twisted the blade and yanked, carving a ragged exit wound before she could retaliate.

She roared and backhanded me with a wing.

The blow lifted me off my feet, slamming me into the arena wall twenty meters away.

Stone cracked behind me.

More black blood sprayed from my lips as I hit the ground in a crouch. My vision swam for half a second before I tried to force it clear, narrowing my eyes.

Swish!

Seraphiel was already charging, greatsword raised for an overhead smash that would split the arena in two.

I exploded forward, meeting her halfway, crossing both swords above my head in an X-block.

Her greatsword hammered down.

BAAAAM!

The impact drove me to one knee, but the Midnight Sword held, its impossible sharpness slicing grooves into her weapon even as it absorbed the force.

The Heaven Swallowing Sword drank the overflow of power leaking from her strike, weakening the blow mid-descent.

I surged up, shoving her weapon aside and driving my forehead into her nose.

"Kughh!"

Splurt...!

Cartilage crunched, divine or not, it still broke.

She staggered, and I flowed into a spinning kick that caught her under the ribs, followed by a double slash that opened gashes across her chest and thigh.

Splurt!

Golden blood painted the air.

She healed almost instantly, light knitting the wounds, but the Heaven Swallowing Sword’s nullification slowed it, forcing her to expend more power.

"U-ugh...!" she groaned.

Fwap, wap!

She tried to create distance, flapping her wings to launch skyward and rain destruction from above.

I didn’t let her, sprinting forward, and then taking a big leap onto a chunk of shattered arena stone I’d kicked up earlier, and used it as a springboard.

Mid-air, I crossed swords in a scissor strike aimed at her wings.

Frwoooshh!

The Midnight Sword severed two of them clean off before she could twist away; the Heaven Swallowing Sword nullified the divine regeneration trying to sprout replacements.

She plummeted, and I followed, driving both boots into her back as we crashed down together.

BAAAAM!

The impact cratered the floor.

Dust and holy shards flew.

I rolled off her, swords already slashing in a whirlwind.

Clang, clank!

She blocked, parried, countered, but I was inside her guard now, too close for her long-range authorities to matter.

A pommel strike to her temple dazed her.

A knee to the gut doubled her over, and then, I spun into a heel kick that sent her tumbling across the arena, her wings flailing.

"Tsk...!"

Seraphiel slid to a stop on her knees, golden blood dripping from a dozen cuts that refused to close fully thanks to the Heaven Swallowing Sword’s lingering nullification.

Her chest heaved.

For the first time in this battle, something like surprise, and maybe respect flickered across her predator’s smile.

"...Impressive," she admitted, holding back her killing intent.

"A mortal shell fighting on fumes, yet you push me this far. But mercy has its limits."

Fwooosh...!

She rose slowly, six wings, now four intact, spreading wide.

The air around her thickened, light and darkness no longer separate but merging.

The arena’s white stone began to warp, edges bleeding into shadow while the center blazed with unbearable radiance.

I felt it then: a new pressure, heavier than anything she’d shown before. Her mismatched eyes glowed in unison, one pure white, one absolute black instead of red.

’...She’s going to use her Domain, huh?’ I gritted my teeth slighly.

I gripped my swords, stance low, body screaming but mind razor-sharp.

Then, Seraphiel’s voice echoed across the arena.

"Domain of the Eternal Eclipse...!"