Terrak and the First Magus exchanged a few rapid words, lost to Kor’s damaged hearing amidst the ground’s convulsions. The First Magus flicked a small, glinting object to Terrak, who caught it one-handed. Beside Terrak, Prince Darius floated, unconscious – his leg and arm a mangled ruin, a gruesome testament to the Void’s consumption. The prince jerked slightly as Terrak forced the object down his throat. Then Terrak launched upwards, accelerating rapidly. He ascended into the stands, the unconscious prince still levitating beside him, becoming a dark blur against the backdrop of mounting chaos.

  Kor’s gaze fixed on the blackened stone of the arena wall, vision tunnelled, mind blank. The chasm gaped where his Void Galaxy had churned through dozens of feet of solid rock, its destructive power only now guttering out.

  “Kor, look out!” Lentus’s mental warning knifed through his sensory deprivation.

  A winged beast, a compact vessel of draconic fury. Prince Darius’s companion—the drake. It hurtled towards him, no larger than a hunting cat, yet filled with killing intent. Fangs bared in a silent snarl, flames already gathering in its gullet, a miniature furnace ready to ignite.

  Kor grunted, pain spiking through him as he channelled the dregs of his mana into his barrier. It flickered into being, a fragile, insubstantial shield against the inevitable.

  Just before the drake could unleash its fiery breath, Lentus’s magic struck, a tendril of pure entropy slamming into the creature. The air crackled as the nascent flames were disrupted, but the drake’s momentum carried it forward, colliding with Kor in a brutal impact of sinew and scale.

  His barrier disintegrated with a brittle, crystalline snap. He and the drake went down in a tangle of claws and gnashing teeth. Gold flared, his student barrier a final, desperate defence, as the beast’s magical reserves surged.

  Sharp, agonizing pain tore through Kor’s ribs. Each gasp seared his lungs, fire mirroring the ache in his ribs. He wrestled to free himself, muscles protesting with every strained movement, bones grinding together.

  “Stop it, Rask!” Lentus’s mental voice directed toward the other companion.

  A wave of pure authority surged from the First Magus, halting the drake’s relentless attack and binding it in shimmering, spectral fetters. The creature collapsed heavily, Kor only just managing to roll clear before its weight pinned him, forcing a groan from his compressed lungs.

  The First Magus stood before him, mouth moving, but the words were lost to Kor’s damaged hearing. He shook his head, hands cupping his ears—a silent, frantic plea. Another quake, another surge of Void energy, and amethyst fissures spiderwebbed across the arena.

  A fleeting frown creased the First Magus’s brow before he flicked a small, pale pill towards Kor.

  “Take it, Kor,” Lentus urged, his form a sinuous band of darkness weaving through the agitated air.

  Kor caught the pill, crushed it between his teeth, and swallowed the gritty fragments. The world tilted, then steadied as restorative power surged through him.

  His hearing returned with a muffled rush, a subtle internal shift, before the arena’s cacophony crashed down upon him. Distant screams, devoured by the overwhelming chaos, made him look up at the retreating crowd.

  But the restorative effect was short-lived. His body, warped by the Hunger, rebelled. The ravenous emptiness within him consumed the offered power before it could spread past his ears.

  Damn it! He futilely tried to hold back the Hunger, but the pill’s magic was devoured, leaving only his restored hearing as a paltry reward.

  “I never thought you’d be this much fun!” The First Magus’s laugh, wild and unsettling, was cut short as another violet tear split the air.

  His mouth opened, then closed. Sorry wouldn’t even touch the edges of this catastrophe. Lentus slithered through the air, a ribbon of pure shadow coiling around Kor’s neck, the familiar, comforting pressure settling into its customary place.

  A fresh wave of pain pulsed, a dull ache radiating from deep within his battered body. His hand rose, almost involuntarily. Fingers trembling, he reached for Lentus, seeking the smooth, cool scales, an anchor in the storm.

  The First Magus gave a dismissive shake of his head. “You’ve tapped into the Void. Disrupted the equilibrium we maintained with the Voidshard.”

  His words were not an accusation, but a cold statement of fact. Kor could only manage a numb nod in response.

  “I’ll explain later, but—”

  Something monstrous forced its way through one rift, grasping at the edges of their broken reality.

  Two enormous arms, ropy muscles bulging, burst forth. Veins, dark rivers of ichor, pulsed beneath bruised, almost black skin. The air thickened with a coppery, metallic tang. A grotesque head followed, pushing through the opening with a wet, repulsive squelch that echoed strangely in the sudden hush. Too many eyes, scattered across its surface, multifaceted obsidian spheres reflecting a twisted, alien dimension, swivelled towards them. Kor choked, breath stalled in his lungs.

  The instant the creature’s head emerged, power detonated from the First Magus. Above the titan, a gigantic blade manifested, edged with majesty and corruption. It plunged downwards with the force of a pronouncement, a weight that warped the air itself.

  The blade split the creature’s head, a flawlessly clean bisection. Black, viscous fluid, the consistency of tar, gushed from the sundered halves. The monstrosity fell limp, collapsing back into the rift, which sealed with a wet snap as its hold failed.

  The sword, now driven deep into the sand, throbbed with a sinister, shadowy power. Stains, like spreading darkness, marred its once-immaculate surface. An aura of corrupted justice pressed down, heavy and suffocating. Gooseflesh prickled Kor’s arms. It vanished with a subtle pop.

  Kor’s eyes, wide with a blend of terror and disbelief, locked on the First Magus.

  He winked, eyes glinting with something untamed, something that knew. “You aren’t the first to draw power from the Void.”

  The ground shuddered once more, a forceful tremor that sent fissures racing across the dark flagstones of the Crux Basin. “Though, the two of us meddling might have pushed things a bit far...” Levity and gravity, a strange cocktail, coloured the First Magus’s voice, slicing through the bedlam.

  Small rifts tore open. Jagged gashes in reality. Lesser Voidlings spilled out, sprawling onto the sand. Grotesque parodies of life. Twisted fusions of limbs and too many eyes. Void-tainted flesh stretched taut over ill-fitting bones. Some canine, others utterly alien.

  The First Magus’s blade was a silver blur, leaving trails of dark ichor. Voidlings convulsed and dissolved where it struck. As he fought, professors plummeted from above, unleashing a torrent of destructive energy. Concussive blasts, searing heat, and freezing cold ripped through the remaining Voidlings, obliterating them in an instant.

  A dozen professors rushed the arena floor. A combined assault. The last traces of the intrusion vanished. Behind them, Dean Velleth arrived, a tempest of barely controlled rage, his retinue of Voidguard drawing close. He touched down mere feet from Kor, a palpable storm brewing around him.

  He advanced on Kor, eyes blazing, energy sparking around him like a miniature tempest.

  “Boy! What have you done!” The Voidguard landed behind the Dean, their purple robes stirring, their staves aimed at Kor.

  The Dean’s magic intensified, a binding force that constricted around Kor. “That was the Prince of Solaria you’ve all but murdered! The future of our people!”

  The sorcery tightened, a crushing pressure that forced the air from his lungs. Pain bloomed in his chest.

  His Hunger, and Lentus, struck back. A surge of entropy and ravenous, consuming need erupted, dissolving the Dean’s spell in an instant. A trickle of stolen power flowed back into Kor, a brief reprieve.

  Disbelief twisted the Dean’s features. “You dare!”

  “Seize him!” Velleth’s command was a ragged bark. Several Voidguard shifted their already levelled staves, the tips now blazing with ominous power.

  A breath away from unleashing their spells, Kor erected another barrier. His heart pounded a frantic tattoo against his ribs, a counterpoint to the surrounding turmoil. Other professors touched down nearby, their expressions grim, while more continued to fight the influx of Voidlings.

  The First Magus’s voice, laden with the force of judgement, echoed across the arena. “Enough!”

  Everything stilled. Even the oscillating tears paused, their violet edges momentarily quiescent, before another surge of power from the Voidshard jolted them back into motion.

  “The boy was ignorant of the consequences.”

  “That’s no excuse! He’s destabilised the Voidshard, opened a pathway for the Voidlings! His actions have endangered us all!”

  “Don’t be so melodramatic, Velleth.”

  Other professors landed now, a collection of familiar faces: Oak, Terra, Terrak, and numerous others he’d encountered.

  “Melodramatic? Melodramatic?” The Dean spluttered, gesticulating wildly at the ongoing catastrophe. “His actions have destabilised the whole of Conflux! Only a lunatic would deny it.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  A surge of something alien pulsed through the very air. A disturbing ripple of otherworldly power, a presence that made his bones ache, radiated from the Void’s depths. Like a thunderclap echoing within their minds, a larger rift tore open high above the arena, filling the space between the spire of the Voidshard and the blackened, gouged wall where Kor’s vortex had impacted. It expanded, a vast, circular chasm of churning violet-black force.

  Tentacles poured through, as thick around as ancient trees, evoking a fleeting, terrifying memory of the Nul’var. Surely it wasn’t... Raw hunger billowed from the creature, a horrifying yearning that resonated deep within Kor, a primal urge to devour.

  No, but even its progeny shouldn’t be here. Not yet, Lentus’s voice, tinged with rare apprehension, knifed through his thoughts.

  The creature descended: a nightmare given form. It resembled a colossal kraken, a titan of the depths, but perverted and contorted by the Void’s influence. Dark violet pulsations throbbed through its unnatural, pliable limbs, a visible manifestation of its ravenous hunger. Countless thrashing limbs, impossibly long and strong, gripped and covered the arena walls. They sprawled up and beyond, disappearing into the stands. A monstrosity of alien power, it dwarfed the thirty-foot walls.

  The gathered professors unleashed a coordinated barrage. Terra’s spell, a rain of fiery meteors, crashed down. Terrak’s, a pulse of compressive force, sheared a massive tentacle clean off. Ice, lightning, and pure force streaked alongside: a breathtaking, chaotic, fortress-flattening display. Luminous webs of binding magic shot out, attempting to restrain the monster.

  A screech, twisting the air itself, ripped from the creature. The shockwave from the sound hammered against Kor’s shield, leaving a large fissure spider-webbing across its surface. A wave of protective shields from the assembled professors and Voidguard took the brunt of the impact.

  Another massive tentacle, severed by the concentrated onslaught, dropped limply, twitching with residual energy, alongside its cleanly cut partner. The creature’s form shuddered under the incessant attack, even as it lashed out in blind fury.

  A visceral connection, an echo of Hunger, resonated between Kor and the alien being. They both drew from the same source of power.

  Its Void-touched limbs scythed through a cluster of professors and Voidguard, scattering them like dolls. A whipping tentacle snapped out, snaring a Voidguard. His screams wailed out, cut short as he was whipped, in a mere instant, into the creature’s gaping maw – a horrifying vista of countless teeth, a descent into a shifting, shapeless mass. A sickening crunch echoed, a sound of instantaneous doom.

  “Fall back! Don’t let it grab you!” Terra’s voice, sharp with warning, cut through the din.

  The air surrounding the First Magus shimmered, warped by waves of arcane power. A gust of displaced air struck Kor, jarring against his weakened shield.

  His feet shifted, power thrumming in his veins. He couldn’t just stand idly by!

  Another fractal galaxy bloomed in his mind’s eye. He funnelled energy into the seed, arm lifting, muscles screaming with the effort.

  Uncountable spells continued to bombard the creature, a ceaseless storm of magical devastation. Wherever its tentacles encountered the spells, the magic dissolved, flowing into the creature, bolstering it with renewed vitality even as it endured the assault.

  That pulsing connection to the Void, raw and powerful, thrummed within his mind, begging to be unleashed.

  No. He couldn’t risk that again... Pouring every scrap of power he’d taken from Velleth into the fractal galaxy seed. He flung it, directing it towards the gaping maw of teeth.

  Energy continued to accumulate around the First Magus, a metaphorical mountain poised to collapse, a tangible pressure building in the air. The gathered might embodied a twisted kind of justice, looming ever closer.

  Something coalesced within the colossal kraken-like being, a rising, ululating sound that set his teeth on edge, a crescendo of alien power.

  Kor’s galaxy vanished into the tooth-filled maw. The teeth snapped, crushing and tearing at the fractal construct, obliterating it. The liberated energy surged into the creature, stoking its ravenous hunger.

  “Perhaps your spells are ill-suited to this, Kor. Your Hunger and its...” The thought, tinged with an uncharacteristic edge of concern.

  A weak nod was all Kor could muster, just as the ululating cry resolved into a vortex of all-consuming greed. A throbbing, insatiable hunger radiated from the creature, and suddenly they all staggered. It was as if gravity itself had been warped, the monster now the epicentre, pulling all power towards it.

  “HOLD, A MOMENT LONGER!” Corvus’s voice, edged with a resonant strain that spoke not of weakness, but of immense, barely contained power, cut through the din.

  It was his own Hunger, reflected and magnified a hundredfold. Every errant spark of power, every loose thread of mana, was inexorably drawn towards the kraken-like abomination. Kor ground his teeth, a stubborn act of defiance, resisting the pull. Not even the Void would take what was his.

  The others, however, lacked his resistance. Ribbons of shimmering light, streams of raw energy, were torn from many professors, spiralling through the air to be consumed by the creature. It visibly swelled, violet vitality throbbing within it, as more spells, intended for destruction, crashed against it – too many meeting the waiting tentacles that devoured the magic, adding to its stolen strength.

  Wounded, but rapidly regenerating, its form visibly knitting itself back together, the creature began something. A pressure mounted, a palpable weight of imminent catastrophe, a suffocating dread. Even for Kor, who possessed an unnatural familiarity with the Void, it was like being plunged into freezing water. A vision of absolute annihilation loomed, a chilling premonition of utter obliteration.

  Before whatever it was could be unleashed—

  “JUDGEMENT!” Corvus’s roar sliced through the pandemonium, a thunderous sound that dominated the chaos.

  It was as though a cosmic string had been plucked. A vital thread of destiny, severed. Corvus’ magic, untamed and primal, enveloped the kraken. A beat of utter stillness. A silence so profound it was almost painful, pressing against the eardrums like a physical force.

  He’d called it Judgement. But it was more than that. A subtle resonance of fate vibrated through the air, a magic fundamentally different from anything the First Magus had previously displayed. A discordant note that made Kor’s teeth ache with unease.

  Abruptly, the motion returned. The kraken’s nascent spell, so terrifying in its potential, dissipated like smoke in a gale. The creature emitted a wail, a sound of absolute desolation that vibrated in Kor’s very bones. But something was fundamentally altered. Like a marionette with its strings abruptly cut, the titanic monster sagged. All movement, all power, simply ceased. Utterly extinguished.

  The air, thick moments before with the stench of the Void and the creature’s alien musk, turned frigid. A hush fell, broken only by the ragged breaths of the onlookers. It was as if existence itself had rejected the creature. Kor’s magical senses registered nothing where a moment before, an eldritch entity had threatened them all.

  The colossal form collapsed, the ground shaking with the impact. A deafening thump reverberated through the Crux Basin as it slammed into the sands, its massive limbs dragging a row of chairs from the stands with a screech of tortured metal. Professors and Voidguard scrambled back, a desperate flight from the falling behemoth. Its body was already decaying, crumbling into dust and fading shadows even as they watched. It was as though it had been excised from reality, the threads of its destiny irrevocably snipped.

  More spells impacted the inanimate, rapidly disintegrating remains, unnecessary force against a threat that no longer existed.

  Even the rift that had spawned it had vanished, leaving only the sharp, lingering odour of ozone and a subtle, unsettling sense of wrongness, a void where something profoundly alien had been.

  Ignoring the professors and Voidguard, who were all rooted to the spot in stunned silence, Kor turned towards the First Magus. The man wore a strained smile, the brilliant light that had blazed in his eyes now muted and shadowed, a glimmer of profound fatigue beneath the surface.

  He offered Kor a quick, knowing smirk.

  A profound silence blanketed the arena. Professors, their spells still charged with unspent energy, exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions a blend of wonder and apprehension. Oak’s bushy grey eyebrows were drawn together in a deep frown, his steely grey eyes scanning the surroundings. Terrak stood statue-still, his usual rigid control betraying a subtle tremor of disquiet. Terra’s fiery hair seemed to have dimmed, her amber eyes wide and unfocused.

  The Voidshard had fallen silent after that final rift closed, but the air itself remained unstable, restless. The resonance of the Void throbbed closer than before, a tangible pulse against the skin. The barrier between realities felt fragile, stretched thin.

  The drake, still ensnared by the First Magus’s binding spell, glared at Kor, its eyes furnaces of pure, undiluted hatred.

  Velleth, his composure in tatters, stalked back towards them. “Arrest the boy! We’ll determine his punishment later.” The Voidguard advanced, their staves once more levelled at him.

  “Hey! It’s not like I intended for any of this to happen! If the Prince hadn’t resorted to cheating...” Kor lifted his hands, palms upwards, in a gesture of appeasement.

  His professors erupted in protest. Terra’s voice, sharp and resonant, rose above the growing clamour. “We witnessed the entire duel; Kor was well within his rights to defend himself...”

  “Defend himself?” Velleth’s voice dripped with scorn. “He practically radiates Void energy!”

  Terra’s hands balled into fists. “Are you accusing him of being a Voidling, Velleth?”

  “No.” Velleth’s face twisted with distaste. “Though he may well be collaborating with them.”

  Another round of heated debate broke out. Terrak roared his condemnation of the Solarians. Others questioned why Terrak hadn’t intervened earlier, their voices sharp with accusation.

  The arguments continued, a swelling tide of fury and bewilderment, until the First Magus silenced them with his words. “He’ll remain in my custody until this situation is resolved.”

  Velleth opened his mouth to protest, his face flushed, but a single, unwavering stare from Corvus stopped him immediately.

  “Very well,” Velleth conceded, his voice tight with anger. “His actions are your burden now.”

  Kor exhaled, unaware of the breath he’d been holding. His shoulders slumped, weariness crashing over him.

  “Don’t imagine this is the end of it, Lexican. The Council will determine your ultimate fate.” He jabbed a finger, an accusing gesture, towards the Voidshard. “This entire catastrophe is your fault—“

  A storm of professorial voices crashed over them, a tempest of accusations and justifications that swallowed Velleth’s last words. The noise, a dizzying vortex, swirled around him. Terrak, a sturdy figure, shouldered his way through the throng, his violet gaze, deep with a sense of hunger, fixed on Kor. He hauled Kor aside, his expression a battleground of disapproval and something else, something deeper.

  From within his robes, Terrak produced the Vennulin. The twisted green needle was strangely heavy in his hands. “Ignoring the… chaos you’ve unleashed, Lexican,” Terrak’s voice was gruff, his face a rigid mask of conflicting emotions, “you clearly won the duel.”

  Kor took the Vennulin. A malign energy pulsed against his fingers, a dark thrum that shivered up his spine. He gripped it tightly, the metal a tangible link to the pandemonium he’d wrought. “Thank you, Terrak.”

  The professors’ arguments continued to rage, an unrelenting tide. Terrak’s jaw worked as if he were about to speak, then he seemed to reconsider. Another pulse, a subtle tremor, emanated from the Voidshard, like a fading echo of some colossal impact.

  “Your methods were extreme,” he finally said, his gaze sharp. “But the Solarians are to blame for all of this.”

  Kor’s hand instinctively went to adjust the glasses he no longer wore, a phantom gesture from habit. His fingers brushed Lentus’s scaled body, coiled around his neck, before he managed, his voice a little rougher than he intended, “What of the prince?”

  Terrak shook his head. “Don’t know, lad. We barely managed to stabilise him, but with the Void ripping through his body… I doubt Oak is going to be able to do much.”

  Kor swallowed, the weight of Terrak’s words settling heavily. Terrak’s gaze softened, a fleeting expression of… something unreadable, before his attention snapped to Corvus, who had broken away from the knot of professors and was heading their way.

  The First Magus, overwhelming presence dimmed, his features etched with profound weariness, surveyed the wreckage. His gaze lingered on the gaping chasm in the arena wall, the lingering, quavering sense of the Void’s proximity, and the still-bickering professors.

  “What was that you cast at the end, sir? That creature, you just… erased it?”

  His brows furrowed for a moment before shaking his head lightly. “We’ll discuss that another time, perhaps.” His voice was quiet but firm. “You’ll be staying at Spire Alpha with me until this is all cleared up.”

  Was it wise to leave this mess? The question formed on Kor’s lips. He glanced back at the arena, the arguing professors, the damaged Voidshard.

  “The Voidguard will handle it for now,” Corvus said, preempting his unspoken query.

  With a brief, almost imperceptible surge of energy, the First Magus lifted them both from the ground. They ascended rapidly, rising above the chaos of the arena floor, Kor clutching the Vennulin tightly to his chest, its dark energy a stark counterpoint to their swift ascent.