"HAAAA!"

Adrian planted both feet and thrust his hands forward.

Green vines burst from his palms in thick spiraling ropes, lashing through the air with sharp SWISH-CRACK.

Nico sidestepped the first one without looking particularly concerned. "Too predictable."

The second came in low. He dropped into a slide, knees cutting through the dirt, and let it pass clean over his head.

The third swung from the left and he leaned back so far his hand touched the ground before snapping upright again like it had cost him nothing.

Adrian tracked every dodge, frustration building across his face. "Why won’t you just stand still—"

He threw everything into it — Vine Barrage, both hands, a flurry of twisting green tendrils spiraling from every angle.

They cracked against stone pillars and burst into scattered leaves.

Nico moved through all of it with small, light steps, like he was avoiding puddles on a street.

"Hmm." A small sidestep. "Still not enough."

Adrian’s knees had started shaking. Sweat dripped down his face and his breathing had gone ragged. Then a hand touched his shoulder from behind.

He spun around.

Nico was behind him.

"Wha—?!"

WHOOOOOSH.

A compressed wall of water, Aqua Burst — hit Adrian square in the chest and sent him tumbling backward across the training ground, rolling through the mud before stopping against the dirt in a soaked, coughing heap.

His vines went limp.

"NICO!" Valea’s voice cut across the clearing. She stomped forward, wind already curling at her ankles. "You didn’t have to blast him like that! Were you even trying to hold back?!"

Nico brushed wet hair from his face, unbothered. "Hold back? Please. If I actually went all out, he’d be unconscious already."

The vein on Valea’s forehead pulsed visibly.

"Oh, you’re really full of yourself today."

"Can’t help it," Nico said, glancing sideways at her. "Then again, it’s hard to take someone’s opinion seriously when they’re a whole Stage below me."

The vein became two veins.

"What. Did you just say?"

"Did I hit a nerve, or are you just warming up your pride?"

"Fine." She smiled the smile that meant nothing in the near vicinity was going to be okay. "You asked for it."

Wind exploded from her feet. A sharp cyclone coiled upward around her, sending leaves and dirt scattering in every direction, her hair whipping back from the pressure building around her.

Adrian, still kneeling in the mud, watched all of this with his mouth slightly open and his brain clearly somewhere else entirely.

Eren sighed deeply beside him and pinched the bridge of his nose. "And there they go."

He glanced down. "You okay, kid? Nothing broken?"

"I-I’m fine," Adrian said, pushing himself upright and squeezing water from his sleeve. "Just dizzy. And wet." He looked at the training ground — mud trails from the slide, vine leaves everywhere, two people generating competing weather systems in the corner. "...Where’s Aries?"

"Master Cedric took him for separate training," Eren said, with a small tired smile.

He looked at the cyclone gaining momentum across the clearing.

’And honestly, I completely understand why he wanted somewhere else.’

____

Aries sat cross-legged beside the marble fountain with his eyes closed, the sound of trickling water the only thing around him.

Inside, in the dark space where his arcane lived, the small molten orb floated steady at the center. He could feel the difference.

’Small. But warmer than it was.’

He opened his eyes.

’Let’s try the one gramps showed me.’

Mana gathered at his fingertips and ran up both arms in steady streams, coaxed forward the way Cedric had insisted. He raised both hands.

Flames coiled along his arms in tight spirals, and when he pressed one palm toward the ground, fire erupted from the grass in a neat twisting column, spinning and crackling, completely controlled.

He let it sit there for a second.

A slow, satisfied smile spread across his face.

"Whoa! Cool!"

He turned. Eren and Adrian were walking over from the direction of the training grounds, both looking like they’d recently survived something unpleasant.

"Hey," Aries said. "What brings you two over?"

Eren waved a hand. "Nothing much. Just... escaping certain maniacs."

’So Valea and Nico are definitely trying to kill each other again.’

"U-um, Aries..." Adrian’s voice was quiet, coming from slightly lower than expected. "Aren’t your flames...?"

"Huh?"

Aries looked down.

The grass under his feet was on fire.

Not a small fire. A big one spreading and rapidly growing ring of flames working its way outward from where he’d been sitting.

"AAAHHHH—!"

All three of them screamed at exactly the same moment.

"YOU IDIOT—" Eren grabbed his arm. "ARE YOU TRYING TO BURN DOWN THE MANSION?!"

"I DIDN’T DO IT ON PURPOSE—" Aries started stamping on the closest flames, which helped significantly less than he hoped.

"QUICK, GET WATER—" Eren was already spinning around looking for any.

SPLASH!

A massive wave of cold water crashed down from directly above, soaking everything at once, all three of them, their clothes, their hair, and every last flame in one complete and total drenching.

The fire went out instantly.

They stood in the silence that followed, water dripping from every part of them, blinking through wet lashes.

"...What," Aries said flatly.

"What in the world were you all doing this time?"

He turned.

Nico stood ten feet away with his hand still raised, water still dripping from his fingers, expression somewhere between annoyed and thoroughly entertained. Valea was right beside him.

’This guy,’ all three of them thought simultaneously.

Aries pushed wet hair out of his face. "I was training. Practicing the new spell gramps taught me before he left." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Just... didn’t pay enough attention to what was directly underneath me."

"That something called Fire-Emperor technique?" Valea tilted her head. "You already got the hang of it?"

"Kind of," Aries said. "Still needs work."

"Clearly," Nico said, looking pointedly at the scorched ring of grass.

Eren was wringing out his shirt, still glaring at Nico. "Speaking of him, where even is Master Cedric? I thought he was supposed to be out here training Aries."

Everyone looked at Aries.

"He mentioned some official gathering before he left," Aries said. "Said it was important, that he’d be back after."

A knowing look passed between Valea, Eren, and Nico all at once.

"Ohh," Valea said, nodding slowly. "The Ashton Imperial Gathering. He was going on about it the whole time we were in Kaelenor. Guess it finally started."

"Imperial Gathering?" Aries asked.

"Top-ranked Mages, knights and higher officials from across the Astern Empire, assembled in Ashton once every few years," Eren said. He grinned. "He’s probably in there right now."

"In that case." Nico rolled his shoulders back and cracked his knuckles slowly, with the deliberate energy of someone announcing something.

His eyes settled on Aries with an expression that had challenge written somewhere underneath the calm of it. "Since the old man’s busy, how about a match, Aries? Let’s actually see what you’ve got."

Aries blinked. "Eh?"

____

Inside the Grand Knight Hall of Ashton, a vast chamber lined with hanging banners and polished armor, the empire’s highest-ranked knights stood assembled around an obsidian roundtable. The air carried dense, layered pressure — dozens of powerful auras occupying the same room, not competing, just existing together, and that alone was enough to feel in the chest from the doorway.

Low voices. Anticipation running through every conversation like current through wire.

At the head of the table, a figure rose slowly.

"Gentlemen." Every voice died. "Shall we begin?"