Back at the stadium, there was pure chaos.

Outside, authorities had already begun swarming the area - sirens blaring, emergency lights flashing red and blue against the night. There were police, medical teams, and even low-ranked Titled units.

All of them scrambling to contain what was rapidly becoming a disaster.

Civilians flooded out of the stadium in waves, some injured, some screaming, others tripping and getting trampled in the panic.

And inside it was much worse.

Without a barrier anymore, every clash and impact was tearing through everything around the two crazy A Ranks. They moved faster than most could see, constant blurs of red and purple as their battle continued.

Elara vanished and reappeared behind Kaela in a crimson flicker, her fist already crashing forward again.

Boom!

Kaela barely brought her arms up in time. The impact sent her skidding across the shattered arena, carving a deep trench through concrete and debris.

More blood slipped from the corner of her mouth, but her grin only widened.

"Now we’re talking."

Her purple aura surged even further while her wounds sealed in real time, flesh knitting together as her presence spiked again. Then she burst forward and countered, slamming into Elara’s ribs and launching her straight through the collapsed seating.

The structure caved in on impact, then a pulse of crimson erupted, causing the rubble to detonate outward.

Elara stepped through it, unfazed.

Her aura writhed like something alive, thick red energy spilling off her body as it began forming shapes - blades, tendrils, jagged spikes - shifting constantly, adapting without pattern or limit.

Kaela laughed, almost breathless with excitement.

"I fucking love this."

She lunged again.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Their clashes blurred into one continuous impact, each strike heavier, faster, more destructive than the last. The ground beneath them collapsed further with every exchange, unable to withstand the escalating force.

Elara flickered in and out of existence between blows, teleporting in short bursts that made her attacks impossible to predict. Kaela met it head-on without hesitation or defence, just overwhelming aggression.

Red beams tore across the arena, slicing through steel supports and blasting open the stadium walls. Purple shockwaves followed, distorting the air itself, sending debris screaming outward like shrapnel.

Outside, the entire city felt it.

Buildings trembled, glass cracked, and people screamed as stray blasts shot outward, grazing rooftops and tearing through empty streets.

Inside, there was no arena anymore.

It was a ruin with two escalating monsters at the centre of it.

Minutes flew by with the intensity only climbing higher.

Kaela’s movements became sharper, less human, her grin stretching as blood painted her skin - only to vanish as her body regenerated again and again.

Each injury pushed her further, a warrior who thrived on destruction.

Elara answered in kind.

Her crimson energy thickened, expanding, becoming denser with every clash. Constructs grew larger, more complex - layered attacks forming mid-combat, adapting instantly to Kaela’s reckless style.

"You grow stronger through damage," the demon observed, almost amused. "But there must be a limit."

Kaela cracked her neck mid-charge.

"Yeah? Then help me find it."

Boom!

Another collision.

The shockwave alone flattened what remained of the arena floor.

But this time they paused.

Not from exhaustion or hesitation.

There was a silent understanding between them both as their auras flared violently, the world itself holding its breath in their wake.

Elara raised her hand.

Crimson energy spiralled into it, forming a dense, pulsing sphere that distorted the space around it, humming with unstable destruction.

Across from her, Kaela lowered her stance.

Purple energy coiled around her body, tightening, compressing into her limbs, into her core, into a single point.

Her grin widened.

"Finally..."

They weren’t playing around anymore and were finally going to unleash their ultimate attacks. Whether you had a Title or not, you could feel the incredible energy they were both gathering.

It was like two bombs charging up to explode against each other.

Panic surged among the few onlookers, because when those attacks were released, a large part of the city would vanish.

"Well..." Ethan muttered from the stands, eyes locked onto them.

"...This is fucked."

He had already seen the so-called Blood Demon’s Crimson Flash in the gate, and this looked like an even more powerful version of that. Let alone when matched with Kaela’s own insane attack.

But as their energy peaked, and they were about to unleash everything they had, something suddenly changed.

It was like the sky itself split open.

Then...

BOOM!

The impact came without warning.

It was like a meteor had descended from outer space. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The ground didn’t just crack; it detonated, a violent eruption of stone and dust blasting outward in a circular shockwave that tore through what little remained of the arena floor. Chunks of concrete the size of cars were thrown into the air, spinning wildly before crashing down across the already ruined stadium.

Even Kaela and Elara were launched hurtling backwards, the energy that they had gathered dissipating instantly. Their feet dug trenches into the ground as they slid, both instinctively bracing against the invisible pressure that had suddenly descended upon them.

Then there was a brief, unnatural silence that swallowed the chaos.

Dust and smoke filled the air, thick enough to obscure everything. Even the screaming outside the stadium seemed to fade for that one suspended moment.

Then, a flat, almost annoyed voice resounded.

"You two mind taking this somewhere else?"

The dust slowly settled, and standing at the centre of the crater wasn’t a space rock, but a lone man.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and built like he’d been carved from marble, every muscle defined beneath a tight, dark bodysuit that clung to him like a second skin. Draped behind him was a flowing red cape, slightly tattered at the edges, swaying lazily despite the chaos around him.

On his chest was a large, unmistakable insignia.

A bold, stylised "T."

His black hair was slicked back neatly, not a strand out of place despite the explosion he had just caused by landing. His face was sharp, almost too perfect, like something pulled straight out of a comic book.

But that illusion shattered the moment you looked closer.

Dark circles sat beneath his eyes, while his posture was lazy, slouched, and unbothered. His arms hung loosely by his sides as if he’d just wandered into the wrong room rather than dropped into the middle of a battlefield between two A Rank monsters.

"I really just want to go home and eat some pizza," he muttered under his breath, dragging a hand down his face. "So let’s wrap this up quickly."

Kaela and Elara both froze where they stood, not out of fear, but recognition.

The man between them didn’t move, tense, or prepare, as if neither of them posed even a single threat. And he was about to show just how true that was...