Cadell POV

“I only ask for what I’ve earned. To challenge Scythe Cadell of the Central Dominion.”

The boy’s challenge rang hollow in my ears as my last moments with Lady Sylvia replayed in my mind.

“Forgive my last selfishness, Cadell. Please, watch over the boy and my daughter, in my stead.”

“We don’t have to entertain challenges from school teachers.” Dragoth dismissed, nearly lighting the fire of hope inside me once more.

The flame of which was doused by the one I least expected. When I met Seris’ eye, I found neither understanding nor empathy, only a dark calculator like a bird of prey about to strike. I scowled. What was she planning? Her eyebrows rose, mine furrowed.

“No,” I said finally, barely more than a whisper. Swallowing hard to compose myself I continued, “Scythes cannot start entertaining every challenge that comes along. To do so would demean us and give a platform to every self-important fool who—”

“Who just defeated one of us with a single blow,” Seris cut in.

“Yeah,” Dragoth chuckled. “Don’t tell me that Cadell, the slayer of dragons, is afraid of a school teacher?”

“The people must be shown that we are not as weak as Nico has made us appear,” Viessa painfully added.

Anger flared within me as I struggled to stay calm, “This challenge is beneath me. He is not—”

Sovereign Kiros shifted ever so slightly, but it was enough to silence us all.

“Go. This strange little man has caught my interest. I’d like to see more of what he can do, so don’t end things too quickly.”

Standing ramrod straight, I bowed, deeply, lingering with my face down until my expression could settle.

I took flight and floated out over the battlefield. My heart ached at the sight of the boy, his golden mane and topaz eyes a vivid reminder of Lady Sylvie. Protect my daughter… Daughter. The word echoed once again and my mind returned to just before the Vctoriad had begun.

“Daddy, won’t you take me up into the sky again?”

Picking up Bella, I held her close. “I have to go greet Sovereign Kiros, but I will take you tonight, little one.”

“Aww, you promise?” She said with a pout.

Chuckling softly, I nodded. “I promise.”

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The pain in my heart shattered as the familiar smell of baked sweets drifted into my nose. My wife’s and daughter’s smiling faces, radiant in my mind, delivered warmth to my icy core.

I'm sorry Lady Sylvia, but it seems that even fate is determined for the boy to die, and I no longer have the strength to deny it.

“I accept.” My voice was strained and bitter. “But this battle”— I paused, my body relaxing as I accepted what I was about to do—“will be to the death.”

The held breath of the rattled audience was nearly audible.

“Yeah,” Arthur answered, taking several steps away from me, toward the center of the ruined field. “It certainly will be.”

Wanting to get this over with as soon as possible, I ignited the air around me and sent a mass of black flames at the boy, fanning it out into a wide cone. The arena floor was obliterated and I was about to breathe a sigh of relief until I heard a gasp from the crowd.

Looking down through the fading flames I saw it. Arthur, standing in the exact same place looking up at me, completely unharmed with the slightest hint of a smirk on his lips.

The soulfire around me flared in my confusion, and anger. Fine, have it your way boy. I dove, soulfire expanding behind me and around my body, transforming me into the shadowy black flames themselves.

Arthur shifted, his legs separating, his hands clenched into fists. A vibrant blade of pure violet shimmered into his hand.

We clashed, engulfing ourselves in a nebulous cloud of black-purple fire and lightning.

The boy dashed away, after managing to slash my throat. But it cost him, my soulfire claws had found flesh. His torso shredded along his abdomen. I grimaced at the sight, a stark reminder of Lady Sylvia’s fatal wound. I swallowed the feelings, reminding myself that this was what I had to do and I wouldn’t doubt myself any longer.

Soulfire had already begun healing the slash along my neck as I watched Arthur’s final moments, but to my utter astonishment, purple waves of light washed over the fatal soulfire, quickly extinguishing them and then healing the wound as if it had never happened.

He turned to face me as I slowly drifted towards him, my emotions clear on my face.

Arthur’s form shimmered, and once again I was back with Lady Sylvia. The shimmering form akin to her transformation into her true form.

Black scales grew over his skin and onyx horns jutted from the sides of his head, pointing forward and down to frame his jaw. Lady Sylvie…

Arthur adjusted his stance and conjured a sword, illuminating the blackened world around us. “I’ve learned a few tricks since we last met,” Arthur said, his voice ethereal in the deathly silence. “I hope you have as well, otherwise this will be over far too soon.”

Bella POV

As energetic and excited as I had been when I learned that we were going to open a small stand at the Victoriad, I was still pretty drained after these long days. I could hear my mother cheerfully conversing with the bajillionth customer of the day and couldn’t help but smile.

My mother really was incredible, day in and day out I don’t remember a time when she wasn’t exuding a serene calm. Even when daddy comes home after doing whatever High Sovereign Agrona demands of him.

I know that they don’t think that I actually understand what daddy does, but rumors reach even the quietest corners. I didn’t believe it at first, I couldn’t. The things people said wasn’t the daddy that I knew, but as more and more people repeated the same things… I had to accept that there was a different, scarier side to daddy that I had yet to see. One that my mother only responded to with a sad smile when I tried to ask her about the rumors.

They’ll tell me when I’m older, right?

My thoughts were interrupted by gasps and confusion around us, followed by a dark presence emanating from the sky.

Before I realized it, my mother was beside me, looking up with a tense expression, and mouthed the word “Nico”.

The dark comet descended from the sky, directly over the coliseum and his presence deepened with every passing second. The anger and malice, nearly suffocating me. My mother’s arm wrapped around me as the comet landed, shaking the ground, screams of terror following close behind the shockwave.

Seconds crawled by, the pressure growing stronger still. I couldn’t sense mana yet, but I didn’t need to to understand what was happening. A fight. Having never felt daddy’s full aura before, I was about to ask her if it felt like this, when it vanished, fading instantly as if it had never been there. Looking at my mom, I knew the battle was over… Scythe Nico had fallen in mere moments against someone I couldn’t sense at all.

I thought mother would be happy that it was over but she was still staring at the walls, as if trying to see through them to see what was happening. We stayed like that for a couple minutes, her frown deepening as seconds ticked by.

“No…” mother murmured, nearly too quiet to hear.

“Momma-”

A wave of soulfire erupted over the mouth of the coliseum, and with it, a presence so strong that it nearly made me laugh at my previous thoughts about Scythe Nico’s presence. I couldn’t laugh though, I knew this presence. Even having only felt a portion of it prior, I recognized it instantly and I could tell, Daddy was sad and more than that, he was angry.