The next house on the line was House Zizt. The Zizt scion was a bald beautiful lady with flaming red eyes and burning whips that coiled around her arms like snakes.

  She fought like a whirlwind, in blazes of flames that lit up the arena like a massive forest fire.

  Tornadoes of fire raged around Vanis, striking at him from all angles with dozens of tendrils which looked hot enough to cut through steel like hot knife through soft tender meat.

  And for the second time that day, Vanis became the stationary bulwark to a blitzing inferno.

  Surrounded by a ring of crackling crimson lightning, the Verrille battled the woman, exchanging physical attacks with his bident all the while he peeled off bolts of lightning from his defensive technique to strike at his opponent.

  Their duel shook the field in a blaze of rage and fury, each strike sending dust and debris into the air. Smoke choked the atmosphere and heat marinated it. The giant obstacles that had been raised up for each opponent to use as natural shields were shattered and turned into projectiles that they began throwing at each other.

  Eventually, the duel came to an end. The Zizt scion cornered Vanis, smiling widely as she thought she'd had him beat. That was until Vanis suddenly appeared in front of her, his bident coming up under her chin in a rising arc.

  Three times a blaze of crimson light flashed. Three times shockwaves and explosions echoed out. And when the dust and smoke finally settled, the scion of house Zizt was a smoking heap of burnt flesh and missing appendages.

  Vanis demanded an item called the heart of flame from them.

  "Well, that was... Intense," Huiron appeared in the room with a smile. The Saulae scion had taken it upon himself for the second time to commentate, this time officially allowed when Solis had surprisingly backed him up.

  "It was indeed," Sareina said slowly. "I knew the Zizt were powerful, but not to that extent." She shook her head with a smile. "Makes me want to join in on these duels."

  "That would be fun," Huiron grinned. "I could cloak you in an illusion that'll you look like Vanis. Of course, the kings will see through it, but what are they going to do? Throw you out?"

  Just then Vanis appeared in the room, looking a little bit weary. His body sagged as he appeared, which he straightened an instant later.

  "They are getting frustrated. Three embarrassing losses and a pull out was more than they expected. They will be pulling out their trump card next."

  "Four losses and they're getting frustrated?" Sareina smiled. "Did they expect one of those scions capable of defeating you?"

  "I presume hope was a core ingredient of their plan."

  "And now that it isn't clearly working, they want to get serious," Huiron chuckled. "Who're they sending next to the slaughter?"

  "House Filenus," Vanis said, and the room went quiet.

  Damien, who'd been awfully quiet for a long while, gently asked. "Who're they?"

  Vanis turned to look at him silently for a while, and this time there wasn't the disregard or nonchalance he'd shown for the other houses, which in itself was an ominous sign.

  "They're the fourth most powerful house in the alliance."

  "A high house if not In name then in power," Huiron added.

  Vanis sighed but he didn't refute. "House Filenus is one of the few houses in the alliance with a great element as their main focus—the element of light."

  "And mind," Sareina reminded.

  "And mind," Vanis nodded. "Unlike the others, combating a wielder of light isn't just going to be a matter of firepower, my will has to be greater than theirs."

  "You've had multiple duels for the last three hours, I don't imagine your willpower is at full strength."

  That was the issue with fighting intent against intent. In a battle where the firepower of both parties were of the same level, it was down to whose intent held greater sway that determined who came out alive.

  Damien hadn't known Vanis for long, but he'd seen enough to determine that the young man had the greatest mental power he'd seen in a spirit lord, with the exception of Keilan.

  Vanis in full power would have been a force to be reckoned with, but now he'd been drained continuously for the past few duels which, as Damien thought about, had probably been the plan all along by their opponents.

  Chip continuously at his willpower so much that when he finally got to the real power behind the group, he'd be weakened enough that they wouldn't have much to do to take the win.

  "Do not worry," Vanis stood up just after the sign came for the next duel. "I will win this."

  He disappeared into the big screen, appearing on the field opposite a young, petite lady with snow white hair and silver eyes. She was putting on a neat transparent silk dress that drifted under the wind like it was made from nylon.

  She and Vanis both stared at each other. Vanis with his mighty bident and she with her twin deadly looking short blades.

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  The sound projection hadn't finished calling it before both opponents tore towards each other in a whirl of sharp brightness and crimson lightning. And to everyone's shock, Vanis came out on the losing end this time.

  The Verrille Scion came out of the speedy clash, flying through the air to crash into a hill nearby.

  The crowd went silent as the Filenus Scion came out of the cloud of smoke generated from the first clash, moving with so much speed she became a beam of white light.

  She crashed into the hill just as Vanis staggered back up, crashing into him again and carrying both of them through the hill, shattering it into dust and flying boulders.

  Vanis managed to get himself away from her grip, disentangling to fall into a crimson made hole. He appeared a short distance away, and Damien expected him to get a little breathing space, but that was short lived.

  Relira Filenus became a blur, moving so fast she practically existed everywhere. Damien watched as Vanis was pushed and pushed, trading blows after blows that saw him slowly and gradually dragged to the extreme.

  The Verrille lord jumped into another hole in space but a flash of instant light flushed him out immediately, staggering with his hands clutched over his eyes.

  Vanis was panicked, because he began blindingly firing lightning after lightning that luckily saw his opponent retreat... Until a screen of refracted light appeared around her like a cape, shrouding her in invisibility until only her head remained. But that wasn't all.

  As Vanis lightning attacks struck, they met fractioned light, portioned into hundreds of tiny hexagonal geometric shapes, and reversed.

  Not all of them struck back at him, but there was enough that it saw the young man flung into the air like a rag doll, rolling uncontrollably to crash on another artificial hill.

  Relira Filenus seemed to be starting, raising a hood Damien hadn't noticed to shroud her face, turning herself completely invisible.

  Tension ran through the room at what that move represented. If Vanis couldn't keep up with a visible Relira, then what chance did he have against an invisible one?

  The Verille scion had other thoughts.

  He stood back up, shoulders straightened and reigned in anger smouldering beneath his cold expression. He beheld the Filenus Scion and for the first time in his life, Damien saw Vanis's lips curl in disdain.

  Relira didn't pay the expression any mind, vanishing into the air, visible to everyone but Vanis. Damien watched through the screen as her blurred outline sped towards Vanis, weapons raised to deliver no doubt a devastating strike, but Vanis seemed to have had enough.

  With a snarl uncharacteristic of his usual stoicism, he slammed his bident on the earthen floor, and space shattered.

  In full view of everyone; black lines began running through the air, spreading in different angles like the webs of a spider.

  Relira Filenus pulled back as from those black cracks, crimson light shone, growing brighter by the second like something distant was quickly approaching

  And then it came.

  The arena erupted in a light of blinding crimson, shining so bright that everyone had to avert their eyes, Including the Spirit lords.

  When it finally died down, Vanis was still standing, breathing hard with beads of sweat running down his brow. His bident was held tightly in his hand, like he'd lose it if he didn't hold it tight.

  Damien turned his attention to Relira and watched with widened eyes as the lady staggered upwards, breathing equally as hard as Vanis. Her cloak of invisibility had been broken, shattered to such an extent that only tiny patches remained on her body. She dispersed them a second later.

  One of her swords had been completely broken and the remaining one looked cracked, so she threw that one away and manifested a sword made from the free-form light of the sun.

  Though this new weapon looked more menacing, Damien knew it wasn't so. Conjured weapons were extremely fragile and tended to lack enough power, unless held together by a powerful will.

  The atmosphere brightened as the Filenus Scion began drawing light into herself, growing brighter the more lines of crimson gold light descended from the sky to wrap around her.

  "She's going all out," Sareina said glumly. The Duveyar scion had already stood to move closer to the screen, fingers steepled over her stomach as she watched the duel with a sullen expression.

  Huiron stood beside her, shoulders squared and hands folded behind his back.

  "We all know her master technique takes time to form," he said. "Vanis still has time to take this win."

  "And how do you expect him to do that when he can barely reach her?"

  Huiron said nothing, instead he turned to look back at Solis, who still sat on his chair with fingers steepled under his chin.

  "Any ideas?" The Saulae scion asked.

  Solis said nothing and after a few seconds of no reply, Huiron turned back to the screen with a shrug.

  By now the two opponents had already gone from a simple duel of techniques to one of Intent.

  Crimson lightning flashed everywhere, striking at different angles as Vanis tried to teleport, but anywhere they struck, a flash bang rang, blinding and disrupting as they undid his technique.

  Vanis wasn't the only one facing difficulties. The Filenus was forced to stick to one side of the field when Vanis deployed lines of black cracks that ran through his entire section, spreading through his side of the field like cracked earth.

  Damien had no doubt that each could shatter the others blockade, but anytime they tried, an invisible wall of mental power seemed to rise up in contention, stabilizing its constructs and fending off the offending will.

  They went at that for a while, exchanging long range free form techniques that saw space crack, shatter, and repair itself every second.

  Thunder boomed, cracking through the eardrums of everyone as dozens of lightning struck at the Filenus Scion every second.

  The lady returned in kind, conjuring different objects from weapons to beams of light that rained down on her opponent like a hail of meteors.

  The devastating battle saw the field divided into two different sides; one, a wall of blinding crimson, with black lines running through it.

  The other, a curtain of golden white light that grew in brightness as they fought.

  The lights around Relira Filenus continued to grow, turning so bright that only her face became visible because her body had now become a silhouette of crimson gold light.

  The lady seemed to be the one on the winning side, but Damien knew that it wasn't so. Maybe it was because a significant portion of her will had been tasked with gathering light or something else, but Vanis seemed to be winning.

  His black spider webbed lines continued to push deeper and deeper, slowly encroaching on the makeshift domain of light that Relira had conjured.

  "It's too late," Sareina whispered with resigned acceptance.

  Damien saw it a second before it happened. The already dreadful light growing around Relira seemed to double in an instant, and Damien noticed a pendant he'd taken zero notice of before dim, like it'd been drained completely of power.

  And then the sun shat—

  Time stopped, sound vanished, the sky dimmed and a gale of cold air flowed through the entire arena, like all the warmth in the world had suddenly been sucked away.

  And then a voice came forth, dreadful and immensely powerful as it rang into the ears and minds of everyone. Vengeful glee dripped from it as the owner spoke.

  And the world listened.

  I CALL TO THE BEYOND,

  TO THE OTHER OF REALITY.

  I CALL TO THE ONES OUTSIDE CREATION,

  TO THE ONES UNMADE,

  WHO LURK AND LOOM,

  I GIVE MY SOUL AS PAYMENT,

  DESCEND...

  AND DEVOUR.

  Reality shattered.