The Academy was on fire.
Not with normal flames—but with something deeper, something older.Reality itself trembled at the edges, and the air was thick with the scent of burning magic.
Riven dodged beneath a lunging Arbiter, his sword flashing upward in a quick, brutal arc.
The creature hissed—a sound that peeled the paint from nearby walls—and collapsed into a puddle of melted shadow.
"That's two," Kael shouted across the courtyard, parrying another blade of liquified time with gritted teeth. "How many more are there?!"
"Too many!" Riven shouted back.
[System Notification: Arbiter Strike Teams Remaining – 47 Units]
He cursed under his breath. They were being overwhelmed.
Even with spellblades and professors rallying, the Academy wasn't meant for siege warfare. It was a sanctuary of learning, not a fortress.
But today, it would have to be both.
Academy Grounds – Central Courtyard
The students fought desperately.
Raina, her staff glowing like a miniature sun, hurled bolts of searing light that vaporized the smaller shadows.
Dain, the quiet boy from Potioncraft, wielded a pair of alchemical daggers with terrifying efficiency, slashing through tendrils of darkness before they could even fully form.
Even the Headmaster had joined the fray.
His hands moved in complex patterns, tracing ancient sigils in the air. Each movement summoned barriers that deflected impossible attacks—shards of frozen lightning, blades woven from nightmares.
"Hold the inner sanctum!" he roared. "Protect the Codex Vault at all costs!"
But Riven knew it wouldn't be enough.
This attack wasn't about destruction.
It was about him.
The Battlefield – Moments Later
A roar split the sky.
The hammer-wielding Arbiter—the one Riven had marked—landed with a crater-shaking crash.
Up close, it was worse than he'd imagined.
Its body was stitched together from broken timelines. Eyes blinked along its arms, each showing a different past—a thousand deaths, a thousand failures.
It raised its hammer, and reality around it shivered.
"You," it rasped, voice layered with echoes. "Chaosborn. Terminate."
Riven stepped forward, feeling his new sword hum in his grip.
"I was hoping you'd make this interesting," he said.
They clashed.
The first blow sent a shockwave through the entire courtyard, flattening a dozen smaller Arbiters.
The second tore open a fissure in the ground, revealing molten veins of pure chaos beneath the Academy.
Above the Battlefield
Lira floated.
Or at least, that's how it looked from below.
Runic circles spun beneath her feet, layered with sigils from a system no one else could see, from a time the world had forgotten.
She reached out with one hand—and caught a falling Arbiter mid-air.
It writhed and shrieked, disintegrating under her touch.
The Council's agents watching from distant towers paled.
"Impossible," one whispered. "She's not supposed to have that much access yet."
"She's accelerating," another muttered.
"No. She's remembering," said the oldest.
And with every fragment she recovered, the world grew closer to collapse.
Back on the Ground
Riven fought like a storm.
Every swing of his sword fractured time around the hammer-wielder, erasing attacks before they landed, re-writing parries into killing blows.
But the Arbiter adapted.
Its form shimmered, splitting into three mirror images, each attacking from a different angle.
[System Alert: Temporal Echo Detected – Predictive Combat Recommended]
He adjusted instinctively.
Sidestepped one image.Ducked beneath the second.Drove his blade upward into the third—
Only for the true body to slam the hammer into his side, sending him skidding across the cracked stone.
Pain exploded through his ribs.
He barely rolled aside in time as the hammer smashed down again, sending up a plume of shattered earth.
"I tire of this," the Arbiter hissed.
Riven forced himself to stand.
His sword flickered, shifting shape in his hand—becoming a lance of black flame.
He wasn't done yet.
Not even close.
Inner Academy – Meanwhile
Kael, Dain, and Raina regrouped near the broken western wing.
"The gate's about to fall!" Kael barked, pointing at the cracked main portal where a dozen Arbiters hammered against wards already stretched to their limit.
"We need to stall them," Dain said grimly.
Raina hesitated, then pulled a heavy crystal from her robes—a failsafe all students were warned never to use unless absolutely necessary.
"This could destroy half the courtyard."
"Better that than letting them reach Lira and Riven," Kael said.
She nodded once.
Together, they planted the crystal at the center of the breach.
The Front Lines
Riven ducked another hammer blow, feeling his bones vibrate with every near miss.
He needed an opening.
One clean hit.
He slid low, dragging the tip of his shifting blade across the ground—and when the Arbiter swung down, he redirected the blow into the scarred earth, triggering a chain reaction.
The molten chaos veins erupted upward, engulfing the Arbiter's legs.
It shrieked, staggering.
Riven lunged.
His sword became a spike of frozen time, piercing the Arbiter's core.
[Critical Hit – Memory Fracture Achieved][Temporal Anchor Severed – Target Stability Falling]
The hammer-wielder spasmed violently.
Memories poured from its body—images of battles never fought, cities never built, futures that would never come to pass.
And then it collapsed, dissolving into motes of broken possibility.
Riven stumbled back, panting heavily.
One down.
Too many left.
System Update – Battlefield Status[Major Threat Neutralized: Arbiter-Class "Hammer of Ends"][Enemy Forces Remaining: 31 Units][Player Status: Wounded – Fractured Rib, Minor Internal Bleeding]
Riven gritted his teeth.
No time to rest.
He looked up just in time to see the Academy gates shatter inward—and a tide of lesser Arbiters pouring through.
Kael and the others triggered the failsafe.
The explosion lit up the night like a second sun, vaporizing half the invaders in a single, blinding blast.
The shockwave knocked Riven flat again, but he dragged himself up, coughing.
Somehow, through it all, Lira still floated calmly above the battlefield, a silent beacon of impossible hope.
And then—everything stopped.
The Eye of the Storm
The largest portal yet opened above the Academy.
It wasn't dripping or bleeding like the others.
It was perfect—a circle of seamless obsidian, humming with power beyond comprehension.
Through it stepped a single figure.
Tall.
Clad in armor that looked grown rather than forged, black and silver intertwined.
A sword hung at his hip, simple and unadorned—and all the more terrifying for it.
His face was hidden beneath a helm shaped like a dragon's skull.
Every Arbiter still alive dropped to one knee.
Even the shadows recoiled.
Riven felt it immediately.
This wasn't another soldier.
This was a commander.
No.
A king.
The true leader of the Arbiters.
The one who had erased the First Code.
And he was looking straight at Lira.
System Broadcast – Global Priority Notification[System Overriding Local Restrictions – New Entity Identified][Title: "The First Warden – Breaker of Echoes"][Threat Rating: Cataclysm-Class][Objective: Terminate Chaosborn Pair at All Costs]
The First Warden raised one hand.
The battlefield shuddered.
The very idea of hope seemed to flicker and die in Riven's heart.
For the first time since awakening his true power, Riven felt afraid.
And as the First Warden began his slow descent toward the ground, sword unsheathing with a sound like a star dying, Riven realized one terrible truth:
They weren't ready.
Not yet.