Arson blocked. The Olympian armor appeared above Arson’s body even before he was able to land properly and a flurry of blows was delivered.

Even as Khalif began to yell frantically in Arson’s mind he was punched in the throat, left pectoral, right pectoral, gut and even his inner thigh. The five strikes landing so quickly that they felt as if they came all at once; his body slammed down in an instant. The imprint of his body pressed into the ground, before he was heel dropped and an even larger crater was made.

“Yeah boy, you lose, buddy,” yelled Chozen from across the field. Arson groaned, barely rolling out of the way in time to dodge the next strikes.

“What’s going on, Khalif? Now’s not the best time!”

“Arson, I will sparking haunt you from the bleeding grave if you hang up this sparking call, bra!”

Khalif’s view flickered about in the corner of Arson’s vision, a scene no less dangerous than a battlefield broadcasted into Arson’s mind.

“Khalif, what are you doing? You're supposed to be running a non-lethal mission, scare tactics, not embody the aspects of a sparking plague,” roared Arson in frustration. Chozen now laughing in the distance as Arson did his best to flee the Living Armor that could be heard chuckling deeply with each blow it landed.

“Help me, woman. What’s wrong with you?” yelled Arson with a glance in Chozen’s direction, paying for the distraction with a kick to the ribs.

“I have nothing to do with this, Arson. Halfway through the raid a sparking plague was released. I think someone is taking advantage of my assault and is killing everyone in here!”

Arson could barely think straight as he was continually struck. Chozen and the Living Armors laughter, and the scene of violence flashing in his vision was enough to send him into a slight rage. His blood beginning to boil in a way that made his vision blurry and his body go into overdrive.

His base instincts surged to the forefront of his mind, and in the next instant an ancient palm art he’d promised himself to never use again was pulled from the depths of his memories. A single lifted hand was raised slowly and for the first time since he and Chozen entered the area, the Living Armor was forced to not slightly dodge, but dive away completely.

The hand moved slowly, yet it held enough weight to move Arson toward the Living Armor, building in intensity in the same way that deep sea tidal waves rose off shorelines, only to come crashing down with unrivaled intensity.

This was the dead art, Deep Sea Palm. Taught by beings lost to time. A culture of fighters that Arson nearly died to a multitude of times before his mimicry of their secret battle forms ingratiated him with their people.

Chozen’s eyes went wide at the sight, Arson’s body disappearing and reappearing directly in front of the armor in the same moment its evasive roll ended. The palm landing with a concussive wave that boomed outward with a sonic clap that shook the ground.

The living Armor was sent flying. The suit of armor bounced as the strength of the blow carried it across the field toward Chozen, skidding and flipping with each random limb that smacked the ground with a final crash at the young woman’s feet.

“Aye, I gotta go. We can play 21 questions later!”

Arson laughed as he heard the young woman cursing, the Living Armor performing a kip up and simultaneously driving both its heels into her face. Without a second look back, he left her to defend herself, shaking the hand he’d broken with a single use of the dead art apparently still too powerful for his own body to handle.

“What’s going on Khalif, is this a full on red alert? Do you need me to come get you ?”

Arson rushed through the dump. The bones in his hand snapping slowly back into place while he made his way back into the refined areas.

“I’m here to cause havoc, not murder the innocent. I can manage to get out of here myself, I just need to know if I need to do damage control, didn’t think the blame for this would look good on us,” yelled Khalif, his voice suppressed by a series of explosions in the background.

“I see your point, take down the security grid and get out of there.” Khalif’s camera bobbed and Arson took that as a confirmation as the call was ended. His friend may have stated that he was fine, but Arson refused to take a chance, still heading in the direction of Alister Industries.

“This should be interesting.

…

Xani flew circles around the flying pyramid, keeping herself positioned in front of the side that held dense scripts of runes. The language so advanced that she wondered if the materials she was viewing was a more advanced version of Uni-Vare.

Some sections of the shifting lines of formations literally blurred in front of her eyes the runes were so powerful and beyond her scope of understanding and reasoning.

“This… is absolutely unfathomable,” mumbled Xani

She wanted to understand exactly what she was looking at, but knew her own ability to decipher the runes, potentially lost to time and maybe even unseen in most sectors of space within their realm layer, was very limited.

She couldn’t ask Jade, as the woman had entered the pyramid to explore. Nor could she ask Arson or his AI, as she knew he needed to prepare himself for the tournament that began the day after next.

Her head began to hurt, so she decided to take a break. She knew how extraordinary a task she’d taken on, when her headache eased the moment she looked away. A sensation that felt like when she reduced the folding of her mind to focus on multiple actions washed over her frontal lobe like drinking cool water on a hot day.

“That ain’t normal.”

The young woman flew off, and headed toward where the newly dubbed BlackHole Coliseum was held. She wanted to both check on the stage's completion, and to ensure that the Bookish didn’t need her assistance in any way.

The coliseum came into view well before she’d made it close to the field the event center was positioned. She took in the sight and her breath was taken away as it had been every time she saw the mostly completed structure. The finishing touches being completed now, even though they’d already been chosen.

Jasmine, Axis, Lane, and she left no room for missed details. Every area decorated, perfectly staged like model apartments prepared for aspiring renters; made even more accommodating by runic systems, and lush furniture.

At first, Xani couldn’t believe what they’d accomplished, as the magnitude of the structure was larger than anything they’d ever attempted. She knew it was Arson's blueprint and design that led to its creation.

She hadn’t even known the young man could draw, or even design something architecturally sound, but the flush project was quickly coming to a completion.

It had taken the entire BHC’s more than ten thousand manned staff to create the event center capable of housing just over a million occupants, which was still considered rather small for a coliseum within their realm layer, yet even this ended up benefiting them as the limited number of seats rose the price of tickets drastically.

She landed on top of the retractable glass roof and watched the many orphans merrily continue to paint, clean, and prepare. Her Overlay remained open while she watched, working on the runic systems that operated the coliseum’s many mechanisms like lines of computer code.

She’d been inspired by the preliminary stage for the tournament of scions, and even borrowed the basic runic designs from Almarine’s own dojo without her permission to complete her own process.

Below her, the stage that the scions would compete in was bustling. A jungle had been fused with a moving obstacle course. Various floating platforms spun about made to look like chunks of land had been ripped from the ground only to be sent perpetually soaring like miniature arenas. This would allow many individual battles to be held throughout the entire coliseum, some of the platforms paths through the air set on courses that would take them just a few yards away from some of the viewing boxes. Close enough that patrons could literally reach out and touch them at some points.

The jungle that took up the majority of the stage was designed to look like the fusion between unkempt wilds and a luscious garden of eden, interwoven with modern buildings meant to be destroyed through combat and triggered mini events that could cause various interactive situations to occur during the competition. Explosions, earthquakes, landslides, cave-ins, and more.

Xani smiled to herself. From her vantage, she felt as if she’d truly taken Arson’s supposedly simple design and brought it to an entirely new level. She couldn’t dismiss that he’d even thought about the flying habitation ships that rented air space above the coliseum to view the competition, making sure that the roof she now stood upon was made of a completely transparent material.

After finalizing the systems check, for not only the mundane operations inside that would be used by guests to order food, interact with others and even bid on the secret auction they were going to hold, she confirmed that the perpetual storm system held beneath the stage was still functioning at 100% capacity, nodding to herself in excitement for what she knew was to come.

“Get ready Maelstrom, here we come.”

…

Jade couldn’t believe her eyes once she entered the trial. She knew that the Ikarus people had been a very advanced race, but what she saw now proved that they truly were the direct descendants of the SunSpire race.

The city before her eyes rivaled the SunSpire Citadel that she used to cross into Endless. Except the unnamed location before her eyes was filled to the brim with countless robots…

Or are these androids…?

The energy that came from the beings of metal and mana felt like souls, which made Jade believe what she was witnessing was a literal fusion of many of the monster subtypes found within the dump. She hid well above the city skyline, watching a populous of soul-infused robots building Hive Titans. Constructing spaceships, and even developing weaponry she knew may even be able to harm her at her advanced levels of Cultivation.

She looked down at the 20 sided prison in her hand that still held the rampaging Draphen, and then out toward the city, and then back again.

The prison was falling apart at the seams. Violent storm mana spilling free of cracks that shouldn’t exist within the confines of portal magic and spacial compression, showed Jade that the prison wouldn’t hold for much longer than it already had. She had to make a decision soon, and as she looked around at the potentially bad situation, growing to metaphorical powder keg of volatility, she didn’t have to think for much longer.

Raising her hand, she was able to peek inside and see the miniaturized version of Draphen flying at speeds unfathomable to a mortal perception. The open portals meant to keep the dragon flying in a confined space were vibrating with an immense overflow, as they drank ambient mana like the ground during rain after a drought, to stay open. The portals struggled as Draphen’s scales absorbed every bit of energy they came in contact with. His powerful form’s structure literally eating at the prison more and more with every breath Jade took.

“Two problems…” mumbled Jade to herself before she tossed the dimensional prison like a stone toward the center of the city. The object unravelling as it sped through the air.

“One rampaging dragon…” said Jade with a chuckle and a shrug of her shoulders.

The roar that came from the prison as the portals that enclosed Draphen’s fully transformed body, fell apart, was enough to burst Jade’s eardrums. Blood trickling from her inner ears and down her lobes until her body begun to heal itself slowly. She cursed, but heard nothing momentarily, but saw an immediate explosion.

An alarm, like that of a natural disaster siren, blared and activity could be seen in all directions rushing toward where Draphen crashed-landed. His body even larger than it had been before she trapped him, making the crash topple an entire set of buildings.

“I love you, baby. Good luck!”

Another powerful roar pierced the sky and made Jade wince as it rattled the very air between where she stood and where Draphen now thrashed violently. His rage enough to be felt through the ambient mana in abundance all around her.

“Man, I wish I brought a snack,” said the woman to herself, but then quickly remembered she had food within the spacial watch on her wrist, retrieving a meal, and watching the mayhem unfold in the distance.

“Ooh, I think I have some Carmel popcorn left!”

…

Orbit and Tartaria kneeled before their parents. The lavish throne room within the empire of the Sun known as Prism was glimmering in the light of dawn. The kingdom’s primary use of diamonds and mana refined crystals made every aspect of their architecture far more alluring and grand than normal, yet changed what they valued comparably to other realms, as they lived on planets far more rich in valuable minerals and ores than any other realm within their realm layer.

“So this is your report in full, there Is nothing more to disclose?” said their mother, the queen. The woman was a matured version of their sister Chozen, while their father’s dominant stare was a mirror to Orbit’s own newly matured features.

“Yes ma’am, Orbit and I have seen the power of this realm and believe they have far more secrets to be unveiled than any of the realms we’ve personally seen. It honestly wasn’t until we managed to follow Carter Gestalt through the portal that led to his homeland that we realized the suppression of information from their CityNation rivals our own, if not exceeds it,” said Tartaria. His parents shared a look and their father spoke for the first time since the brothers had arrived.

“This is honestly much of what our operatives managed to send back before they are never heard from again. We’d like to believe that it is due to them being captured or killed, but from what we can tell, any we send there don’t return due to defection, which from what we can tell may be what has now entangled your sister,” said the King. At his words it was his sons' turn to share a look. A look that spoke volumes to their parents.

“It was hard for me to leave, my abilities seem to be far more enriched in their native environment than even here on the prism plains known for portal scars and dimensional breaks,” offered Orbit, speaking up for the first time since he’d returned home. He hadn’t been able to admit to himself that he was jealous of Chozen’s decision to stay, accepting the fact only after hearing his parents words thus far.

“I see, and will that increase your potential to win the tournament of scions? You know that the winner’s rewards would greatly increase the reputation and prominence of the motherland,” inquired the queen with a raised brow. Orbit thought momentarily, looking between his parents, and then his elder brother, before he looked back at his parents, only one thought on his mind.

“Yes, but that is only if I don’t lose to Tartaria, who may ultimately lose to Chozen in the end.”

Confusion flittered across his older brother’s face for only a breath, before understanding entered his mind and he too nodded in agreement to the utter shock of both their parents. They’d explained that of the three, Orbit had gained the most from their visit to the foreign realm and why, Chozen may ascend beyond them both by being there and continuing to train in the meantime.

“But I thought you stated that your spearmanship was now elite potentially even among the generals of our own kingdom after what you learned and experienced there, I don’t see how—“ Orbit raised a hand palm out, the gesture oddly powerful and dominant enough to silence even his mother, Queen Crown.

“I know what you have heard today, Mother, and I assume that from my forced spar with uncle, he’s passed along my improvement to you even before you allowed us to speak today, but Tartaria held back during this morning’s training, whereas I did not, and Chozen…” Silence momentarily filled the throne room and Orbit sighed, looking for help with his explanation with a look to his brother. The single glance enough to tell Tartaria everything he hinted at, and was apprehensive to share. Then it was Tartaria’s turn to sigh, before he once more spoke up, filling in the gaps of the explanation with a single and powerful statement.

“Our sister is going to ascend soon, and when she does, nothing will ever be the same.”