Vice-Captain Meridian, observation deck:
"Did everyone see that?"
The observation deck had gone silent. Twenty Federation officers, all of them experienced combat veterans, all of them watching the assessment feeds with expressions ranging from shock to disbelief.
The main display showed tactical overlays of the entire battlefield. Hundreds of candidates engaged across different sections, point totals updating in real-time beside each name.
Two names sat at the top of the leaderboard, both showing identical numbers:
Runar Cross: 10,000,000 Celestia Stormwind: 10,000,000
Vice-Captain Meridian rewound the footage. Watched it again at normal speed.
The boy—Runar Cross, Satellite Orbit, Stage unknown according to his file—appeared in open space and raised his hand. His domain deployed instantly, a perfect sphere of spatial manipulation that locked down everything within its radius.
Then the killing started.
