The stadium was packed with eighty thousand people.
Drones buzzing overhead like 4K mosquitoes.
But the thing making everyone lose their minds wasn't the fight.
It was Damon's face.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" the main commentator screamed, his voice shaking the speakers.
"FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, THE NATIONAL HERO ZERO HAS ENTERED THE ARENA… WITHOUT HIS MASK!"
"This is insane!" the co-commentator yelled back. "He's not even wearing armor! Is it arrogance… or pure power?"
The giant screens showed Damon's pale face in ultra HD.
The stands exploded.
"HE'S SO HOT!"
"MARRY ME, ZERO!"
"LOOK AT HIM! HE'S SO CALM HE LOOKS BORED!"
'Calm? I'm basically dead inside, idiots,' Damon thought, feeling his legs turn to jelly.
'That armor weighed like forty pounds. I couldn't even lift it.'
Beside him, Jude was holding Aiwass in her little black-cat form.
The demon was suspiciously calm, licking a paw, like being surrounded by thousands of loud humans didn't matter.
Or maybe she was planning how to kill them all if she got bored.
"Remember the plan," Jude whispered, wiping sweat off his forehead.
"You go in, make the psycho face, use the mirror trick to project the cat's fear, the beast gives up, we go home. Easy."
"Easy," Damon repeated. "If I live through this, I swear I'm gonna—"
He couldn't finish.
Kate, the PR boss, appeared out of nowhere and shoved an electric-yellow can into Damon's chest.
"Drink this!" she screeched over the crowd noise. "The sponsor just tripled the offer! They want you to say the slogan after you kill the monster!"
Damon looked at the can.
Thunder Energy.
"Are you insane?" Damon stared at her like she was an alien.
"I'm about to walk into a cage with a magic beast! I'm going to die and you're worried about sponsorships?!"
"It's a six-figure contract, Zero!" Kate screamed, pushing him toward the light.
"Just say the line! 'Too easy… drink Thunder Energy.' And hold the can with the label facing the camera! Now go be a hero!"
The gates opened.
Damon walked into the arena and glanced up at the VIP box.
Ophelia Valen was there, watching like an Egyptian pharaoh. Iris was beside her with her hands clasped, praying.
And next to the arena's control console stood Lieutenant Miller.
Miller was smiling.
It was the smile of a kid who just ripped the wings off a fly.
Damon got chills.
Something was wrong.
This test was supposed to be against a Level 5 Fire Wolf. An animal. Something that could feel Aiwass's fear trick and run.
But the opposite cage door opened with a metallic screech.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
A three-meter-tall tower of runed stone stepped out.
A Granite Golem.
And it wasn't Level 5.
It was Level 10. Tank-class.
The crowd gasped. Even the commentators went quiet for a second.
"Th-this is unexpected!" the main commentator stammered. "It looks like they increased the difficulty!"
Damon looked toward the console.
Miller shrugged with fake innocence, like: Oops. Admin mistake.
Damon searched like crazy for eyes to use the mirror trick.
Then the terror hit him.
The golem didn't have a face.
Just smooth solid rock.
The plan collapsed in one second.
You can't intimidate a rock. You can't make a stone feel fear. Aiwass's strategy was useless.
"Hey, pet. That thing doesn't have a soul to scare," Aiwass snapped in his ear. "Plan A is dead. So use your cheating eyes or you're going to be a stain on the floor. Move!"
The golem raised a fist the size of a compact car, ready to smash him like a bug.
Damon stood in the middle of the arena, totally helpless, holding a can of Thunder Energy in one hand and a revolver that didn't shoot in his pocket.
He looked at the can. He looked at the unstoppable monster coming right at him.
'Too easy? Shit.'
CRASH!
The stone fist slammed down where Damon had been a split second ago.
"Left, idiot! Your left!" Aiwass sounded more annoyed than worried. "Its hitbox is busted on the right shoulder. Get to the blind spot!"
Damon threw himself left, rolling across the sand.
"I can't keep doing this!" Damon gasped, struggling back to his feet. "It's a walking siege tank! If it touches me, it uninstalls me from life!"
The golem rotated its massive torso with a tectonic screech.
No eyes.
Didn't need them.
It felt the vibrations of Damon's fear through the ground.
It raised both arms, winding up an area attack.
Damon backed up, but his spine hit the arena's energy wall.
He was cornered.
"Playtime's over!" Aiwass's voice rang in his head. "Use it! Now!"
Damon didn't think.
His hand went to his pocket and, with a desperate motion, he yanked out cold, rusty metal.
EVE.
The Fallen Judge's Revolver.
The whole stadium went silent for a microsecond.
Then it exploded with laughter.
"What is that?!" the commentator mocked, almost choking from laughing. "Ladies and gentlemen, the great Zero has pulled out… an antique pistol! Hahaha! He's going to shoot a Granite Golem with lead!"
The cameras zoomed in on the rusty gun.
On the big screens, Damon looked pathetic. A small guy with a broken toy in front of a stone god.
At the console, Lieutenant Miller laughed so hard he had to wipe away a tear.
But Damon only heard his own heart.
THUMP-THUMP. THUMP-THUMP.
The certainty that he was about to die on national TV, crushed to paste while people laughed at him.
And in that moment, the weapon in his hand woke up.
The rusty metal heated up red-hot, burning his palm, drinking his terror like it was the sweetest thing in the world.
[CONDITION MET: MORTAL PANIC]
[The Judge has awakened.]