The battlefield was broken.
Burning ruins.
Collapsed pillars.
The iron stink of blood clinging to the wind.
But amidst the chaos, a new order was forming — not born of fear or desperation, but of will.
At the center of it stood Kaelen.
Sword in hand, cloak tattered, eyes burning like twin stars.
Around him, a ragged band of survivors tightened ranks — students bruised, bloodied, but alive because he had given them something greater than survival:
A reason to fight.
From the shadows, more Black Moon assassins emerged — not the inexperienced ones now, but elites.
Their blades dripped cursed venom.
Their faces hidden behind masks carved with mocking smiles.
Thirty assassins against maybe twenty surviving students.
The odds were impossible.
Perfect.
Kaelen stepped forward, raising his blade.
"We fight together!"
"We cover each other!"
"No one dies alone!"
His voice cut through the battlefield like a war horn.
Selina moved to the center of the group, casting shield spells in rapid bursts.
Eren planted his feet in front of her, axe gleaming, ready to shatter anything that dared touch their healer.
Kaelen exhaled slowly, feeling the System surge in his mind:
[Tactical Override Unlocked: Sovereign Battle Formation.]
[Passive Bonus: Group Coordination +20%. Morale Resistance +50%.]
His leadership was no longer instinctual.
It was written into the very world around him.
He had become a natural-born commander — a Sovereign in spirit, if not yet in name.
The battle began.
The assassins struck like a tidal wave.
Kaelen moved first — not to kill, but to control.
Arcane Lance blasted a cluster of assassins off their feet before they could strike.
Eren roared, meeting the attackers head-on, swinging his axe in wide, brutal arcs.
Selina's shields flickered around them — thin as glass, but just enough to deflect lethal blows.
Other students followed Kaelen's lead — mages casting suppression spells, warriors blocking for archers.
An army of survivors.
A rising Sovereign's army.
But it wasn't enough.
From the far side of the battlefield, a figure stepped forward — taller, heavier-armored, aura boiling with dark mana.
A Black Moon Commander.
His presence alone made the air colder, heavier.
The assassins fell back, forming a wall around their leader.
The Commander raised a black sword crackling with cursed energy.
"Bring me the Amateur's head," he commanded.
Kaelen's grip tightened on his sword.
No.
I'm no one's prey.
The Commander moved — faster than anything Kaelen had fought before.
One blink and he was there, swinging a massive, two-handed cursed blade straight at Kaelen's heart.
Kaelen barely deflected the blow — the impact sending him skidding back across the stones, boots carving deep gouges in the earth.
This was different.
This wasn't a test.
This was an execution.
The System chimed urgently:
[Sovereign Protocol: Emergency Fusion Mode Unlocked.]
[Skill Available: Sovereign's Requiem Strike.]
[Warning: Extremely high mana cost. Potential System Instability.]
Kaelen wiped blood from his mouth.
He smiled.
"Good," he whispered.
He planted his feet, breathing deeply.
Letting the world fall away.
The dust.
The fear.
The odds.
All irrelevant.
Only the path mattered.
And his path… led forward.
The Commander lunged — a black blur of death.
Kaelen met him head-on.
Mana exploded from his body in a hurricane of power.
The ground cracked.
The sky itself seemed to darken.
Kaelen's blade flared with Sovereign's Requiem Strike — a fusion of all his mastery: speed, power, disruption, destruction.
One step.
One swing.
The clash shook the battlefield.
For a heartbeat, nothing moved.
Then the Commander staggered, a massive gash blooming across his chest — cursed armor shattered, blood pouring in dark rivers.
He dropped to his knees.
Kaelen stood over him, blade steady.
No mercy.
One clean strike ended it.
Silence.
The remaining assassins froze, their morale broken.
Students rallied, cutting down the stunned enemy forces with brutal efficiency.
Within minutes, the battlefield belonged to Kaelen's army.
The Selection Rites were over.
Not because the test ended.
But because Kaelen Drayce had claimed the field.
System Chime:
[Selection Rite Complete.]
[Survivors: 18/500.]
[Achievement Unlocked: First Sovereign.]
[Title Gained: The Uncrowned Sovereign.]
Kaelen stood amidst the broken battlefield, breathing hard, sword lowered but still ready.
Around him, battered students — his army — stood victorious.
They stared at him with something more than respect.
Something closer to reverence.
Commander Ardyn watched from atop the cliffs, arms crossed.
The grizzled warrior grunted approval.
"So it begins."
Elsewhere — Astralis Academy
In the Hall of Mirrors, Aria Valcrest lifted her head sharply, sensing something across the leylines of the world.
"He's coming," she whispered.
The old sorceress beside her smiled faintly.
"Yes. And so are his enemies."