[Stormhold Viewing Section - Simultaneous]
Ariana’s spatial awareness had been casually extended, a habit she’d developed from constant training.
When Eleanor produced the cube, when spatial distortions began manifesting, Ariana’s innate skill scread warnings before her conscious mind even processed what was happening.
Pure instinct took over.
Her hand shot out, grabbing Elizabeth’s arm, her spatial skill activating with desperate intensity!
Space folded.
She, Elizabeth, Adrian, Fiona, and Victoria vanished from their viewing section and reappeared several hundred ters away.
The teleportation was sloppy, uncontrolled and purely reactionary.
But... it saved their lives.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion hit where they’d been standing a fraction of a second later, the viewing section vaporizing in the blast.
But Ariana had already been exhausted from yesterday’s match.
Teleporting five people across hundreds of ters while ntally drained pushed her far past her limits.
Blood exploded from her mouth as she collapsed, her body going completely limp, consciousness fading as her overtaxed brain shut down to prevent permanent damage.
Elizabeth caught her instinctively, her Seer abilities having given her a split-second warning – not enough to see details, just a flash of danger, of death approaching.
She’d raised an A rank defensive barrier around their group the mont Ariana grabbed her, purple energy forming a do that absorbed so of the shockwave’s force when it reached them.
But not all of it!
The remaining force still hit them like being struck by a truck, all five of them thrown through the air, the barrier cracking but holding, preventing instant death but not preventing injury.
They hit the ground hard, skidding across pavent, their bodies battered despite the protection!
Ariana remained unconscious, blood still seeping from her mouth and nose.
Adrian had a broken arm, the bone visible through torn skin, his beautiful face twisted in pain!
Fiona had a concussion, her head bleeding from impact with the ground during their tumble!
Victoria was desperately trying to heal herself and others simultaneously, her hands glowing with green healing energy that seed pathetically inadequate against this level of injury.
And Elizabeth–
Elizabeth stood on shaking legs, her purple eyes taking in the devastation, her mind trying to process what had just happened.
The stadium was partially collapsed, massive sections simply gone, smoke rising into the morning sky.
Bodies lay everywhere – so moving, most not, the injured and dying mixed with the already dead in a scene of absolute carnage.
"AHHHHHH!"
Screaming!
So much screaming!
People crying for help, calling for loved ones, begging for dical attention that would never co fast enough.
A child’s hand protruded from rubble, small and still, attached to nothing visible.
An elderly man sat staring at empty space where his wife had been standing seconds ago, his mind unable to accept that she was simply gone.
A teenager wandered through the destruction with half her face burned away, shock preventing her from feeling the pain yet, her mouth moving but no sound coming out.
Ariana’s eyes opened slightly, unfocused, her consciousness barely present.
Her gaze moved across the devastation with the detachnt of soone not fully aware of reality.
The bodies!
The blood!
The children’s burned faces!
The small hands reaching from rubble!
The expressions of those who’d died without understanding why!
All of it visible in too much detail!
Elizabeth knelt beside her, shaking her gently, trying to bring her fully back to consciousness!
"Ariana! Ariana, stay with ! You need to stay conscious!"
But Ariana’s eyes remained distant, locked on the bodies, on the death she’d barely escaped, on the horror that surrounded them.
Her mind ford a single thought, the only thing her exhausted brain could process.
’What just happened?
What just–
What–’
Her consciousness faded completely, her body going limp in Elizabeth’s arms, her mind unable to handle the trauma combined with the physical exhaustion.
And across the partially-destroyed stadium, thousands of survivors looked at the space where two hundred and fifty students had been standing monts ago.
The space that was now empty!
The portal that had swallowed humanity’s next generation whole!
Gone!
All of them, gone!
Into a hostile portal that nobody knew how to reach, that nobody knew how to find, that nobody knew if anyone could survive.
The World Championship Tournant had just beco a mass execution!
And sowhere in another dinsion, Damian and two hundred forty-nine other students were about to discover exactly what kind of hell they’d been thrown into!
****
[Federation Broadcasting Network - Live Coverage - Day Two Morning]
The caras had been focused on the center of the stadium, capturing what should have been routine tournant proceedings.
Fifty teams standing in formation with president Eleanor raising her hand in greeting. The crowd cheering with anticipation for the day’s matches.
Then... the black cube appeared.
The broadcast caught it perfectly – that small object being thrown, spinning through the air, the way reality itself seed to reject its presence.
The dinsional fluctuations spreading outward like cracks in glass.
The massive portal opening beneath two hundred fifty students!
Their faces – shock, terror and confusion – visible for a fraction of a second before they fell through.
The portal snapping shut!
All of it captured in crystal clarity for millions of viewers across the Federation.
Then... the feed cut!
Not gradually fading to black or transitioning to another cara angle, but cutting completely as if the caras were blown apart.
Static filled the screens for several long seconds.
Then ergency broadcasts began, every channel simultaneously switching to breaking news coverage, the synchronized response showing just how catastrophic the situation had beco.
****
[Tranquil City Restaurant - Viewing Room]
The families had been waiting for the second round monts ago, their children having advanced past the first round, their hopes high for what the tournant would bring.
"!!!"
Now they stood frozen, staring at screens showing static and ergency broadcasts, their minds struggling to process what their eyes had just witnessed.
Gerard’s massive fra was completely still, his earlier boisterousness gone, replaced by shock so profound he couldn’t even speak.
"NO! NO NO NO NO NO!"
Mira was the first, her small fra shaking as she tried to stand, tried to move toward the screen as if she could sohow reach through it to her son.
"RONAN! MY BABY! MY BOY!"
Gerard caught her as her legs gave out, his own face pale, his hands trembling.
"He’s... the portal... he was standing right there when–"
"Lysa was... our daughter... the portal just... she’s gone... where did it take them–"
Marcus and Elaine Morwen held each other, both crying openly, their daughter Lysa having been standing in that center circle when the portal opened.
Takeshi and Yuki Sterling sat with perfect posture as always, but their hands were clasped together with desperate intensity, their daughter Ariana was sowhere in that stadium.
Sakura had tears streaming down her face, her young mind unable to fully comprehend what was happening but understanding that sothing terrible had occurred.
Jas Kael sat completely still, his beer bottle forgotten in his hand, his weathered face showing absolutely nothing because showing anything would an breaking completely.
His son...
His only son...
The last piece of his dead wife he had left...
Gone!
Taken by a portal into hell knows where!
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