The dorm was quiet for the first time since the combat season began.
Not the quiet of people suppressing themselves — the quiet of people who had genuinely run out. Every student who had walked into the Open Ring across the last several days had given something real, and the night after the final match had a particular quality to it. The specific peace of exhaustion that had earned itself.
One from All was asleep before his head finished reaching the pillow.
No training. No meditation. No running the arithmetic of the gap between himself and the ceiling until his eyes closed involuntarily. Just — sleep. Complete, immediate, the kind that doesn't remember starting.
Down the corridor Elara's light was off before midnight. Riku's water had stopped its unconscious loops for the first time since he arrived at the academy — whatever had been released in Ren's universe needing rest the way everything real needed rest.
Even Kael's room was dark before the last crystal in the corridor dimmed.
The academy breathed.
Above it all — at the top floor that didn't appear on any distributed map — four figures sat around a table.
All in blindfolds except Ren.
Hayato looked at Goki across the table. "So. How was your mission?"
Goki was quiet for a moment.
"I don't know if they thought this multiverse isn't protected by the Emperors anymore," he said. "Because I came across multiple groups. Different locations. Distant universes — all being moved on simultaneously." A pause. "I crushed them. But the coordination concerns me."
Nobody spoke. He continued.
"It felt deliberate. Like the goal wasn't conquest — it was to draw me away from this universe. And with Kageyama also absent—" He stopped. Let the implication sit. "I think they planned to send something significant here while both of us were gone. I rushed back." Another pause. "That's when I felt the Blade of End."
The table was completely still.
"And you moved on the boy immediately," Ren said. Not a question.
"Immediately," Goki confirmed.
Hayato exhaled slowly through his nose. Not alarmed — just a little bit calm.
"Understood," Hana said. "Now." Her voice shifted — the strategic weight lifting, replaced by something brighter. "Let's discuss the new students. Who's taking who."
Goki didn't hesitate.
"I'm taking the water boy, the boy with the sword and the dragon boy."
"Then I'm taking Elara, Yuki and Valen," Ren said.
"The assassin girl, the girl that's like me and the diamond girl," Hana said, the last part carrying a particular warmth that suggested she had been thinking about this since the four way fight.
"The assassin boy, the demon boy and the other demon boy," Hayato said. The tone of someone who had made peace with his assignment.
"Settled," Goki said. "When Kageyama returns he can pick whoever he wants. His sessions rearly comes anyway."
"Understood," the others said together.
The practical matter closed. What followed was the real conversation.
"Out of all the students — who would you say are the most promising?" The question settling over the table like something that had been waiting to be asked since they sat down.
"Goki first," Hayato said.
"The boy with the sword," Goki said without pause. "Then the dragon boy. Then the assassin boy."
"The boy with the sword is named One from All," Hayato said. "And yes — him first. Then Sora. Then Kael."
"One from All, Levi and Kael," Ren said.
They looked at Hana.
"Great choices," she said. "Obviously One from All comes first." She paused. "Not only does he have the Blade of End — he also possesses Emperor's Magic. A magic none of us have except Kageyama." Another pause, smaller. "Even though it's in a very small amount. And he doesn't notice it himself."
The table went still in a different way from before.
"Exactly," Goki said.
"But," Hana continued, "none of you mentioned Riku."
She looked at Goki specifically.
"You noticed it too, didn't you? You said Riku wasn't using magic." A pause. "Yes. He was using Water Commandment. At a very refined level. And that wasn't Riku fighting — that was something like a past memory taking over." She let that land. "I think you already understand where I'm going."
The remaining Emperors moved closer simultaneously. The specific lean of people who have been presented with information that demands their full attention.
"Using Water Commandment at a life force level," Hana said, "is definitely not something you learn on this planet. Not even in this universe. It's something much older." A pause. "I think Riku is a descendant of the Commandments."
"Yes," Goki said. Something in his voice shifting — not surprised, confirmed. "He used one of the oldest attacks. An attack where the moisture around him converts to Anym and feeds him. And if you hit him in that form — you're only making it worse. It's like punching water. Eventually you tire. But the water reforms immediately. And that impact keeps increasing his Anym."
He paused.
"Unless you can cause serious damage in a split second — he only gets stronger." Another pause. "I didn't think he was that extraordinary at first. I thought he was using his life force. I never considered he was a direct descendant of one of the Commandments." He looked at the table. "If that's true — he really is an asset."
The table held what had just been said for a moment.
Then Ren spoke.
"Let's call it a day. This was really helpful." She looked around the table. "Dismissed."
They vanished.
The morning light came through the academy's upper windows, not brighter, just more. Like the building itself had exhaled overnight.
One from All woke up. Got ready. Walked into the corridor.
Elara was already there. Riku beside her. The three of them fell into step without deciding to — the same rhythm they'd developed over however many days this had been, the specific ease of people who had stopped performing comfort around each other and were simply comfortable.
They walked into their classroom.
More empty than before. The disqualified students leaving a particular kind of absence.
What remained was cleaner.
They sat. Nobody talked. The quiet between them was the kind that didn't need filling.
Then Elara said — "Hey, Riku."
Riku looked at her. A small smile arrived on his face — the first genuinely unguarded expression he had shown since the ring. "Hey, Elara. Hey, One from All." A pause. "I'm glad we all made it."
"Yes, it's a—"
The aura hit before One from All finished the sentence.
Not Kael's contained heat. Not Ren's maternal warmth. Not even Goki's absolute authority. Something completely different — the specific Anym signature of someone who was genuinely, personally, deeply unhappy about their current situation and wasn't making any effort to contain that feeling.
The door opened.
White robe. White hair. A black sword on his back. His finger between his teeth, biting it.
"I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this." Each repetition quieter than the last, like he was trying to talk himself down from something. "I HATE THIS." And then louder again. "Why do I have to teach a bunch of kids, every season a new bunch of weirdo."
He walked to the front of the room. Looked at the class.
Sora opened her mouth.
"Good mor—"
"AHHHHH—" He jumped back. Genuinely startled, his hand flying to his chest. "Don't — don't talk to me. You scared me." He took a breath. Looked at the ceiling. Then back at the class. "Well. I guess I have to teach this bunch of inexperienced, untrained and weak kids."
He said it at a volume he clearly believed was inaudible.
It was not inaudible.
"Well — I'm Benimaru. Although some of you here are very strong, you're still inexperienced in battle. You don't know what to do in sudden situations." He rolled his shoulder. "So in my class I teach battle strategies. Give you battle experience." A pause. "We're mostly having practical classes. Not just sitting and asking questions." He looked around. "Any questions?" He didn't wait. "Well it doesn't matter. We aren't really doing much in our first session. Just basics. Ok?"
The class nodded in unison.
He called Levi forward.
Levi stood. Walked to the front calm as usual — unhurried, economical, just levi being levi.
Benimaru looked at him.
"I know you're one of the more strategic fighters here," he said. Then he threw the stick.
It left his hand at a speed that removed it from visible tracking for most of the class — two inches of ordinary-looking wood. Aimed at Levi's hand.
Levi dodged.
The stick hit the wall.
It didn't just leave a 2 inch dent it was like the wall was shot with a massive cannon.
Benimaru looked at the wall. Then at Levi. Then at the class.
"As expected," he said. "You didn't know what that was. So you dodged." He paused. "Do you know what would have happened if you'd blocked it with your hand?"
Levi said nothing.
"You would have lost the arm," Benimaru said. "With your sword — serious bruises that wouldn't heal properly for days." He looked at the wall. "I put a Commandment on it as I threw it. Destroy the first thing you touch and don't let it heal. Only a high ranking healer like ren could have fixed that — and Ren is busy." He turned back to the class. "So. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
The class was very quiet.
"Think in battle," he said simply. "That's what I'm teaching you." A pause. "This is why I love practical classes more than theory."
He walked to the door.
"Class off."
He left way earlier than most teachers.
It wasn't afternoon yet when One from All's group found the training room.
The academy had opened up after the combat season — spaces they hadn't had access to before now available, the gym and sports center and combat room all unlocked for use. The three of them had decided to check it out together.
They felt the people inside before they opened the door.
Kael. Levi. Nara.
Demon King Magic: Ending Whip — a dark black whip emitting red Anym, targeted at Kael. Kael jumped. Levi appeared above him simultaneously — and knocked him toward the ground.
Levi stomped.
"Sword God: World Ending Slash."
Kael hit the ground and his hand closed around his staff before he landed.
"Summon Babylon."
The black staff appeared — gold rings at the top and bottom, ancient symbols running the length of it ,the look of a babylon that has adapted to its user over years rather than weeks. He drove it into the ground the moment it arrived.
The room turned black.
Not dark — black. The staff's influence spreading outward through the floor and walls and ceiling until the training room existed in its own register entirely.
"Babylon Magic: Fire Cry."
The meteors came from everywhere simultaneously.
Not falling — arriving. From the ceiling, the walls, the floor, every surface of the black space generating impact at once. There was no angle that wasn't a surface, no direction that wasn't a source. Levi moving through it. Nara's spatial revision redirecting what he could.
It wasn't enough.
Kael stopped it.
Walked toward them through the settling debris of his own attack.
Nara was sitting. Not laid out — sitting, a faint smile on his face. Small bruises across his arms. The expression of someone who had learned something and found the lesson worth the cost.
Levi was standing. Hand on his hilt. Eyes closed. Smaller bruises — he had moved better through the meteors than Nara, his speed giving him options the architectural approach couldn't generate as quickly.
"I guess you won," Nara said.
"Yes," Kael said. "Train harder."
Levi looked at him once. Then walked out.
Nara stood. Walked to Kael. Extended his hand and fist bump him.
Kael met it.
Nara left.
One from All's group had been watching from the entrance the entire time. Elara stepped forward first.
"So you do have Babylon Magic," she said. Her tone somewhat hight because she asked this question before and received an unsatisfying answer. "Why didn't you say so when I asked?"
Kael looked at her.
"To look cool," he said.
One from All looked at him. Riku looked at him.
Kael looked at One from All and Riku.
"Oh. The two weaklings who don't have control over their hidden powers." A pause. "Wassup."
"There's something I'd like to teach you," Kael said. "I'm only doing this to help. The Emperors who are going to train you are definitely going to do this — and trust me, it'll be worse than mine." He looked between the three of them. "So. What do you say? Want to try it out?"
"What kind of training is it?" One from All said.
Elara didn't wait for the answer.
"We're ready," she said.
One from All looked at her.
"It's a combat section," Kael said. "I just want to test your reactions. I'll take all three of you at once — taking you one by one takes too long."
He had always wanted to see how they fought together.
They looked at him. Not surprised exactly.
They decided to try.
Elara summoned her Babylon and charged.
Kael appeared in front of her before she closed half the distance. His hand closed around the staff — not the handle, the body, the Babylon Magic in it pressing against his grip with the resistance of something that had been calibrated to one person's Anym and was being handled by someone else's. He took it.
Hit her with it in the belly.
She left the ground.
The Babylon started heating up in his hand — responding to the wrong Anym, the staff's calibration confused by the mismatch, the magic in it beginning to cycle incorrectly without its user to direct it.
He threw it at Riku.
One from All moved first — appearing beside Riku and pushing him clear, the Babylon passing between them and leaving a sharp cut across Riku's cheek as it went. The staff embedded itself in the training room wall, heating up, the displaced Babylon Magic making the air around it shimmer.
Kael appeared in front of One from All.
His hand found One from All's neck.
No warning. No buildup. He admitted the most dangerous and decided to take care of him first. One from All felt the grip —someone for whom this was not an effort.
One from All summoned the Infinite Vanguard.
Hundreds of weapons tore through the training room simultaneously — the arsenal spreading across the space above them, Kael stepped back. His hand released.
He reached into the formation.
Grabbed one of the swords that flew toward him. His Anym flooded into it — not gradually, immediately, the Dragon Clan Anym converting the weapon from steel into something darker, a deep metallic black that absorbed the light around it rather than reflecting it. He swung.
The force that came out of the swing was not proportional to the size of the sword.
One from All moved back. Not stumbled — moved, the specific controlled retreat of someone who had correctly read that staying in place wasn't an option. Almost blown away. He caught himself.
Elara's hand found her Babylon from across the room — the staff pulling free of the wall and flying back to her. She sent it at Kael directly.
Kael used the sword he was holding to deflect it — a single precise motion, the Babylon redirecting off the dark metallic blade and flying wide. Then he appeared in front of Riku.
The sword came down fast. Invisibly fast.
Riku moved. Tried to deliver a punch instead of blocking.
Kael's back hand connected with him first.
Riku went back. Before he finished finding his balance Kael's hand extended — the telekinesis arriving without announcement, pulling Riku toward him across the training room floor. Riku's movement reversed. He arrived.
Kael's other hand found Elara simultaneously.
He slammed them against each other.
The impact produced a sound that the training room's reinforced walls absorbed without comment. Both of them bled, He threw them both.
Then came back to One from All.
One from All looked him directly in the eyes.
The red room arrived.
Kael found himself in it — Heavenly Judgement, the red walls and the white bed and the dark chains that tightened the moment anything resisted them. The first weapon was already arriving before he finished processing the space.
"Flame Commandment: Reality Consumer."
The fire came from everywhere simultaneously — not attacking the room, not attacking the chains, filling every available space with the instruction to burn everything in its path and destroy the user. The red room received the Commandment — without negotiation, without resistance, with the immediate compliance of reality being told what it was now doing.
One from All felt it from outside the room.
Not heat. Something deeper than heat. Something that found the place inside him where the Heavenly Judgement lived and burned there.
He was back in the training room.
So was Kael.
The fire inside One from All was real. Not metaphorical — actual burning, internal, the Flame Commandment's instruction being carried out inside his body.
He reached for the void.
The void reached for the fire.
Found nothing to absorb. The fire wasn't an attack. It was a command being executed. The void was looking for something to consume and the Commandment wasn't a thing — it was an ongoing instruction that had already been given and was simply being followed by reality. There was nothing to grab.
"Riku," One from All said. His voice carrying the strain of someone maintaining composure while something burns inside them.
Riku was already moving. His hand found One from All's shoulder. The water came — not from the air, from Riku himself, flowing outward from his hand.
Water Commandment.
Opposing the fire at the level the fire operated on.
The burning reduced. Then stopped.
One from All exhaled once. Straightened.
Kael lowered his hand.
"Commandments don't work like normal attacks," he said. His voice back to its usual register — not a lecture, a correction. "It's a command. It goes to fulfill its purpose. The reason your void couldn't absorb it — it was looking for an attack. There was no attack to find." A pause. "The only known void user who absorbs Commandments like they're nothing is Hayato. But you're far from his level." He looked at One from All directly. "So for now — avoid Commandment attacks. Don't try to absorb them."
He looked at Riku.
"And the reason Riku could quench it — he's also using a Commandment. Water opposing Fire." He paused. "That's enough talking." He looked at all three of them. "Hope you understand."
He looked at One from All.
No response.
One from All stood up.
And charged.
His hand found Kael's throat — not a strike, a grip, the intention of someone who had moved past strategy into something more direct. His eyes carried something they hadn't carried since the beginning of the session Anger.
"You almost killed Elara," he said.
A wild smile crossed Kael's face.
"So what," he said.
His hand came down on One from All's wrist. Clean. Precise, simply taken is and away from the rest of his body.
He kicked One from All toward Riku. Riku stepped aside — let One from All pass, registered the situation, turned back to Kael.
A water projectile launched from his hand. Moving fast. Kael dodged — but the projectile burst above him, the impact converting into spikes that came down from the new position. One pierced Kael's hand.
He continued.
Appeared above Kael — the water compressed and rotating in Riku's palm, shaped with the intention of destorying. He brought it down.
Kael moved.
The attack landed where he had been. Then kept going — through the floor, through what was beneath the floor, the Commandment's instruction carrying the impact further than physics alone would have taken it.
"Whew," Kael said.
Riku touched the ground.
The training room floor converted — not to water, to something that moved like water, accepted movement like water, responded to his presence like water. Kael's footing shifted. He adjusted.
It didn't stop him. But it bought a second.
Kael appeared in front of Riku. His hand found Riku's head — not gently. He drove it straight down into the converted floor. The surface that had been accepting Riku's movement like water suddenly felt like stone under the force Kael applied — hard, total, solidity of something that had received an instruction from a stronger force.
The impact was thorough.
Riku went still.
Kael picked him up. Spun him once — the motion gathering momentum, the unconscious form of Riku becoming something with velocity. Then brought him down on Elara.
The crack of bone was quiet. Honest. Both of them on the floor — Elara with a freshly broken rib pressing against everything she tried to do, Riku unconscious and leaking from several places, the training room around them carrying the evidence of a session that had gone significantly further than a practice drill had any right to.
One from All felt it land in a place that wasn't strategy.
His hand found the sword.
The blade of the End.
Crimson. Ancient symbols Pressing into his palm with the specific authority of something that recognized its holder.
He swung at Kael.
Kael summoned his Babylon.
The black staff arrived in his hand — and for the first time in the session his posture changed. Not drastically. But he knew this blade was the real deal and now he can't just take this easily. He blocked.
One from All pressed.
Kael moved to defense.
The training room received the exchanges between them. One from All driving forward — the sword pushing Kael back. Kael defending — the Babylon absorbing what it could, redirecting what it couldn't, the gold rings on the staff flaring with each contact.
One from All made a heavy hit.
Kael went back.
"Secret Dragon Art: Crimson Fall."
The meteors that came weren't Fire Cry's omnidirectional chaos. These were targeted — large, fast, carrying the heat of Dragon Art at its most concentrated. One from All drove the Blade of End into the ground. Still gripping it.
"Devour all."
Billions of red slashes erupted from the contact point — not upward, outward, spreading across the training room floor in every direction simultaneously. The meteors hit the slashes and reduced. Not blocked — reduced, the ancient blade's instruction being carried out.
Some slashes reached Kael.
His Babylon caught most of them. Not all.
One from All went down.
The Anym was simply gone — the sword had taken everything again, the second time in two days, his body delivering its report confirming all his anym is now drained. The floor received him.
Elara stood up.
Shaking. The broken rib making each breath a negotiation between what her body needed and what it could currently afford. She summoned her Babylon anyway — the staff arriving in her hand with the specific loyalty of something that responded to her regardless of her condition.
She charged.
Kael's hand found her belly and delivered a devastating blow.
She went down. The staff clattered beside her.
He looked at Riku.
His hand found Riku's neck. He lifted.
Riku's eyes were still closed.
Then One from All's hand found Kael's wrist.
The Anym coming off him wasn't void. Wasn't King's Magic. Wasn't anything that had appeared in this training session or the combat season or the four way fight or the moment Goki arrived at his back with a countdown.
Red.
Deep, absolute, sourceless red.
The most dangerous Anym he had ever emitted.
Elara's Babylon was in her hand. She was standing — somehow, the broken rib and the blood and the exhaustion all secondary to something that had decided standing was what was happening. Her presence had shifted — not dramatically.
Riku's hand found Kael's arm.
Blue. The ocean color — not the fighting water, not the Commandment's full expression, something between them. The color of someone who had been asleep and was waking up by degrees. His hand communicating something his voice wasn't available to communicate.
"Would kill".
Two words. In the Anym itself rather than spoken. The specific message of something that had found its limit and discovered the limit had a response.
Kael looked at the three of them.
At the red. At the shift in Elara's presence. At the blue on his arm.
The wild smile that had been on his face since One from All grabbed his throat didn't leave. It settled — became something quieter and more genuine, the smile of someone who had engineered exactly this moment and was looking at the result with the specific satisfaction of a person who had been correct about something that mattered.
He released Riku.
Stepped back.
Looked at them.
Said nothing.
Far away — in a universe with no light that the people inside it could see perfectly — a room existed that had no name on any map.
A chair sat at its center. Not carved from stone or wood. Built from skulls — human, dragon, demon, vampire, others that had no common name across the verse's current civilizations. Each one a record. A collection of every kind of thing that had opposed what sat in this chair and found the experience educational in only one direction.
Three figures knelt before it.
The voice that came from the chair was thick. Commanding. The voice of someone for whom giving instructions was simply the natural state of things and receiving them was a concept that applied to everyone else.
"Shiro can't complete this mission."
A pause.
"I'm sending you three. My top generals." Another pause. "Bring Levi back. I can't lose Levi as I lost Shizuko." The voice settled into something final. "Failure means death. If you encounter Shiro — if she can't prove her worth — kill her on the spot."
The figure in the first position had pure white hair. White eyelashes. White everything — except the eyes. Crimson. Shining. A dot in the center of each one. Dressed in white combat clothes with a cape-like material flowing with no wind. Looking significantly younger than the others in a way that had nothing to do with being less dangerous.
The figure in the third position looked almost like Levi. Short spiky hair — blue. A completely black outfit that absorbed the room's non-light the way one from all's arena Anym absorbed everything around it. The family resemblance in the jawline, in the set of the shoulders.
In the middle — Ren.
"Understood," all three said together.
A short evil grin crossed Ren's face.
The kind of grin that had nothing to do with excitement and everything to do with already knowing how something was going to end.
End of Chapter 35
End of Volume 1: World Destroyer At 17