risa stayed there, seated on the ground, shaking, doing nothing but staring at Razeal as if afraid that blinking might make him disappear.
King Julius, anwhile, stood frozen.
Shock didn’t begin to describe what was written across his face.
His gaze was fixed on the arena, on the massive crater gouged into what had once been a pristine battleground, and on the sight at its center: Knox, the ancient examiner, lying unconscious amidst shattered stone... and Razeal, standing upright.
Standing.
Alive.. And unhard.
For several heartbeats, Julius couldn’t even think. His mind simply refused to process the image before him. Knox.. that Knox had been defeated? No, not even defeated... rendered unconscious by a single exchange? And that impact.. what was that impact anyways? He replayed it in his head again and again. He had seen the boy attack. He was sure of it. The strike itself had seed... normal. Strong, yes, but nothing that should have led to what followed.
And yet, the mont the blow landed, sothing incomprehensible had occurred. Light had erupted, pressure had crushed the air itself, and reality had scread in protest. Before he’d even realized what was happening, his instincts had taken over, forcing him to reinforce the shields with everything he had.
He was totally confused and what had actually happened.
Just what did I witness...?
But suddenly .. a movent happened beside him as broke his thoughts.. As he turned sharply, only to see risa collapsing. Instinct kicked in and he moved toward her at once, crouching down, one hand half-extended in reflex.
"Lady risa.. are you alright? What happened?" he asked, genuine concern cutting through his shock.
But then he saw her expression.
The way her entire body trembled. The way her eyes remained locked on the arena, unfocused yet desperately intent. The way her breaths shuddered as if she’d only just escaped drowning.. And then he saw in what direction she was looking in..
And then
Understanding hit him
Of course...
Her son had been inside that blast. She must have thought.. if only for an instant that he’d been erased.
Julius stopped his hand mid-reach and slowly pulled it back, giving her space. This wasn’t sothing he could fix with words or power. He turned his face away respectfully, allowing her that fragile mont of relief without an audience, while his gaze drifted back toward the arena once more.
Razeal stood there, naked and unashad, completely untouched by the devastation around him. Not a single scratch marred his skin. No burn, no tear, no mark to suggest he had just stood at the heart of sothing that could have wiped out a city.
Julius frowned deeply.
"But again..." he murmured under his breath. "Just how did he survive it...? And how did that big blast happened? Like just what? Huh?"
The question echoed uselessly in his mind. He searched Razeal with his senses again, more carefully this ti, as if hoping to uncover so hidden truth. But all he found was the sa contradiction as before nothing that explained what he’d seen.
Around the colosseum, silence reigned.
The spectators stared.
Thousands upon thousands of eyes were fixed on the arena, on the impossible crater, on the unconscious examiner, and finally on the lone figure standing at its center. Confusion rippled through the stands, thick and heavy. No one spoke. No one even seed to rember how.
The massive screens above the arena still functioned, still broadcasting every detail with rciless clarity. Every angle. Every inch.
And there he was.
Spectators blinked..
So of the won in the stands simply froze, eyes wide as their breath caught sowhere between shock and sothing far less appropriate. A few didn’t even realize saliva had begun to trail from parted lips as they stared, openly and unabashedly, at the almost unreal sight before them.
Others flushed violently, hastily turning their heads away while stealing glances they pretended not to take.
The n, for the most part, averted their eyes entirely, coughing awkwardly, suddenly finding the architecture of the colosseum or the patterns in the stone far more interesting than the center of the arena.
"So.." Gulp~ No one said a word.
For a few long seconds, the enormity of what had just happened simply... slipped away.
It wasn’t that the spectators had forgotten the explosion, or the blinding light, or the terrifying pressure that had crushed the air out of their lungs only monts ago. It was more unsettling than that. Their minds refused to hold everything at once. Faced with too much shock, too much contradiction, they latched onto the one thing that required no understanding.
The sight.
The arena was ruined, cracked open into a vast circular crater, the examiner lay unconscious at its center, and yet none of that held their attention for long. Their eyes were drawn upward, again and again, to the massive screens suspended above the colosseum.
To the figure standing there.
Naked...
"Such a... heavenly body..." soone murmured at last.
The words were soft, almost reverent, yet loud enough to cut through the hush.
Heads turned in unison.
Dozens of eyes shifted toward the source of the voice, landing on a young woman seated among the spectators. She froze the instant she realized she had spoken out loud. Her face burned red, and she quickly lowered her head, fingers twisting together in her lap, saying nothing more.
No one laughed or scolded her.
They simply turned their eyes back to the screens.
Because she had only said what many were already thinking.
Up in the stands, Neptunia tilted her head back, eyes fixed shalessly on the image above. A slow, appreciative whistle slipped past her lips, followed by a grin far too wicked for a princess.
"...This is my first ti seeing sothing like this," she said lightly, amusent dancing in her eyes. "But I can’t say I dislike what I’m seeing."
Before she could say another word, a hand shot out from the side and covered her eyes.
"Don’t look," Maria said sharply.
Neptunia blinked behind the sudden darkness, then scoffed. She grabbed Maria’s wrist and pushed it down with ease. "Why not? You’re looking too."
Maria didn’t deny it.
Her eyes were still lifted toward the screen, fixed despite herself, her expression stiff and tightly controlled. "I can," she replied flatly. "You can’t."
Neptunia snorted. "That’s not how it works. He’s not yours." With a grin, she forced Maria’s hand down again, deliberately stepping closer so their shoulders brushed. "And everyone’s looking. Why blocking only ?"
Maria’s jaw tightened. She raised her hand again, stubbornly trying to shield Neptunia’s view, even as her own gaze refused to turn away. "Stop being shaless," she muttered, her voice low but strained.
"I’ll stop when you stop staring," Neptunia shot back, batting her hand aside once more.
Around them, the spectator stands remained eerily quiet. No cheers. No gasps. Just thousands upon thousands of eyes fixed on the sa impossible image, minds slowly catching up to reality.
And then.. soone rembered.
"Hey... wait."
The words were hesitant at first, spoken by a man several rows down, his voice tinged with disbelief rather than excitent. "Look... Knox... the protector of Atlantis..."
Heads turned again, this ti toward the arena floor.
"He’s... he’s lying there."
Another voice joined in, louder. "Unconscious?"
"No... that can’t be right."
"Is he dead?"
"I don’t believe it..."
The murmurs spread, rolling outward like ripples across water. People leaned forward, squinting, trying to make sense of what they were seeing now that their attention had shifted.
"Wait.. then that boy... he’s still standing."
"So does that an...?"
A pause, heavy and uncertain.
"He won?"
The word hung in the air, fragile yet dangerous.
"No one before him managed to do that," soone said, disbelief thick in their tone. "Not even close."
"He defeated the examiner."
"The guardian of the sea itself."
"That’s supposed to be impossible..."
The murmurs grew louder, faster, overlapping as realization took hold.
"Then he’s stronger than all the other contestants."
"Stronger than anyone left."
"How old is he?"
"How can soone that young.."
"If this is real..."
The words tumbled over each other now, excitent beginning to creep into the confusion.
"So... he’ll win the first prize?"
"No way..."
"Wait.. doesn’t that an he already has?"
"Who would even dare to challenge him now?"
"He defeated the examiner."
"The guardian."
"That alone should end it."
The whispers began to synchronize, building montum as more and more spectators reached the sa conclusion.
"He won."
"He won."
"He actually won..."
The colosseum, which monts ago had been paralyzed by silence, began to hum. Not with cheers.. not yet but with sothing more volatile. Expectation. Anticipation. The collective breath of an entire city drawing in at once.
From the highest tiers to the lowest seats, the murmuring spread until it filled the vast space, echoing off stone and steel alike.
He won.
Almost everyone had co back to their senses.
Except.. so handful of won’s who still hadn’t. Their eyes still lingered where logic no longer mattered, their attention stubbornly fixed on what their instincts seed to enjoy far more than questions of power, victory, or political fallout. So pressed their lips together, others bit their nails without realizing it, fingers trembling slightly as their gazes refused to move away from the massive screen above. The aftermath of devastation, the ruined arena, the unconscious guardian.. none of it held their focus the way that single, standing figure did.
The murmurs spreading through the colosseum finally reached Neptunia’s ears.
She had been relaxed until then, leaning back slightly, eyes half-lidded, enjoying the view with a carefree ease that suggested the world could end and she’d still be amused. But when the aning of those whispers finally registered, her expression changed.
"He... won?" she repeated softly.
Her eyes blinked once. Then again.
"Wait. No... no, that ans.."
Her mouth parted just a little, the realization hitting her belatedly. Her gaze was still lifted toward the screen, still locked on Razeal’s image, but the playful spark in her eyes had vanished, replaced by sothing sharper. Sothing unsettled.
If he won...
No one noticed her reaction. Not a single person spared her a glance. The colosseum’s attention had shifted too fully, too completely, toward what this outco implied.
Down in the arena, the murmur of the crowd washed over the stone like a rising tide.
Up in the royal stand, King Julius dragged a hand down his face.
"Fuck," he muttered under his breath.
This was bad. No.. this was worse than bad.
His mind raced, thoughts colliding and tangling as he stared down at the ruined arena. Knox lay unconscious, blood still trailing faintly from his face. The examiner got defeated. And standing at the center of it all was a human boy.
A human.
"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" Julius whispered, fingers tightening against his temple. "Give him first prize?"
He grasped his head with both hands, frustration boiling over. "This is all that useless old monster’s fault," he cursed bitterly. "How does one get defeated by a damn kid? How?"
The situation had cornered him now.. Publicly. Completely.
If he denied Razeal now, it would be obvious. There was no hiding it, no polite excuse, no ceremonial gloss that could disguise the truth. The entire colosseum had seen it. Knox was down. The boy was standing. The conclusion was unavoidable.
And yet...
"He’s human," Julius whispered again, as if saying it aloud might sohow change reality.
On the other side of the disaster entirely, Razeal stood exactly where he had been left still, silent, and utterly unaware of the chaos his current state was causing.
He hadn’t noticed the absence of his clothes nor noticed the millions of eyes glued to him. His attention was on stream chat.
The duel between Tongue and Lucifer seems to had already ended. The ssages were flooding in again, overlapping, chaotic, brimming with disbelief and excitent.
Tongue: What king of hell? He couldn’t even move. Now tell .. was I lying? You embarrassnt of a man. Why did you run away, hehh? You should’ve faced your mother instead.
Lucifer: ....
Not a single reply from him.
Ancestor Xue: ...Wow. I never thought soone could be this strong. She turned that Lucifer fellow into a real dog. Made him lick her feet.
Degenerated Bastard: Did you all see her? Sitting in space like it was a living room. And that couch.. was that made of stars?
The Greatest Collector: Such strength... it surpasses comprehension.
Lily: What even is EX rank? I could feel Lucifer’s power through the screen, and I wouldn’t have stood a chance. Just how powerful is she to do that?
Zenocide: I never believed soone could be stronger than . But this... I have been humbled. Completely.
Zara: Why is this kid naked? What happened over there? Can anyone actually see what’s going on? Or is it only ?
Degenerated Bastard: ...Wait. Now that you ntion it. Wow.
Lily: Wait.. what the hell? That physique what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck.. I want this. I really want to see if it’s real. By touching.
Ancestor Xue: Hmph. Good to be young. When I was young, I had better muscles than this boy. It’s nothing special.
Vampire Progenitor: Behold this majestic sight. This is the body of the noblest and purest vampire. Its beauty transcends mortal asure. Its majesty is beyond comparison. Not even the gods themselves could rival such perfection.
Zara: Noblest being? He’s standing naked in front of millions of people. More like a prostitute.
Vampire Progenitor: That’s not how it is.
Zara: And what even happened here? Why is that powerful being lying on the ground? Did this kid defeat him? But how?
Razeal, who had been casually reading the chat, suddenly caught the word naked. He blinked in confusion, then instinctively looked down.
"...Fuck. I really am naked."
He hurriedly brought his hands down, about to ask the System for so clothes, when another ssage appeared in the chat.
Vampire Progenitor: Ugh, whatever. It’s indeed shaful for a noblest being to stand naked in public. Here.. wear so clothes, kid. No, let handle it. You clearly wouldn’t have anything suitable.
Ding!!
[Congratulations, Host. You have received an item: Royal Vampiric Suit (S ) from the Vampire Progenitor via the Stream Gift Function.]
[Do you wish to open it?]
[Yes / No]
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