—"Do you see what I am, Reiss?" —he said with a hollow voice, but filled with an unbearable calmness—. "This isn't just power. It's liberation. A definitive break from that rotten structure you call morality."
Reiss didn't answer. He was beyond words. He felt the change. His body recognized it before his mind did. The enemy before him was no longer a disturbed student. It was something else. Something that shouldn't exist.
The next second was a blur. Raven vanished from where he was and reappeared right behind Reiss, without sound, without warning. The air had no time to carry the movement.
The first blow was dry, aimed directly at the spine.
A hollow, brutal sound filled the coliseum as the abyssal energy-enhanced knuckles hit the base of Reiss's back with surgical precision. The boy's body arched forward as if an invisible force had bent him in half. The shockwave made the ground's stones vibrate. His breath left him immediately. A muffled, primitive groan escaped his throat.
Before he could fall, Raven grabbed him by the neck with a single hand. He didn't tighten it. He just held him, like a cat with its prey. His gaze was calm, like a doctor preparing for a slow, necessary incision.
—"You went where you shouldn't have" —he said, effortlessly lifting Reiss off the ground—. "You have no idea the magnitude of what you're trying to stop."
The abyssal energy concentrated in the palm holding Reiss, bubbling like boiling tar. It slowly spread across his neck, leaving a black mark, like burning charcoal. The veins beneath his skin began to show, first blue, then black, as if draining him from the inside.
Reiss gathered his strength and punched Raven in the face with everything he had. A direct strike to the cheek. His stellar fist glowed for a moment. The impact resonated like a broken drum. But Raven didn't move an inch.
The smile he gave in response was anything but human.
—"Is that all?"
And then he slammed him to the ground.
Once. Twice. Three times. As if trying to erase his existence from the earth. The stones cracked. Blood spilled from Reiss's scalp, spiraling into the air. His body hit the ground like a rag doll thrown against a wall.
Then he threw him away, as if tiring of playing with his food. Reiss rolled across the floor, leaving a trail of blood behind, until he came to a stop, face down. He gasped, but couldn't even lift his head.
Sophia screamed his name. She tried to run towards him, but the pressure from the energy field Raven emanated was like an invisible, crushing wall. It stopped her cold. Her legs trembled. She couldn't move.
—"This... this isn't right..." —Jake muttered, feeling how rage and fear fused in his chest like a corrosive acid.
Raven slowly approached Reiss, whose breathing was now irregular, thick, as if it was becoming harder for his lungs to function. He crouched beside him.
—"Still think you're a hero?" —he whispered into the boy's ear, who could no longer respond—. "Look at what you've accomplished. A lesson. A warning. For you… and for all who think they can interfere."
He stood up and, without looking back, walked toward the center of the coliseum. The ground cracked slightly under his steps. Not from his weight, but from the trembling energy flowing within him, disordered, cursed.
Jake took one step. Just one.
Raven didn't look at him. He simply raised a hand and snapped his fingers.
Reiss… didn't move.
But he was still breathing.
Barely.
The air grew denser.
Jake took that step. Then another. His body felt distant, as though he were walking in boiling water. He couldn't ignore it. Reiss, his teammate, his friend... was lying on the ground like a sacrificed animal. And Raven... Raven was still there, as calm as if this were nothing more than a twisted game he'd planned from the beginning.
—"Raven..." —he said through gritted teeth. His voice was hoarse, as if something was squeezing his throat—. "What the hell did you do?"
Raven's figure stopped just before crossing the center of the coliseum. He turned, slow, theatrical, as if he couldn't be bothered to turn completely.
Without warning, he appeared in front of Jake in less than a blink.
The punch hit with the precision of an arrow. A dry blow to the abdomen, without complex technique, without added energy, just pure raw, merciless force.
Jake felt as if his stomach had been ripped apart from the inside. All the air shot out of his lungs with a guttural sound. His legs trembled, his whole body bent sharply, and he fell to his knees as the world spun sideways. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. He could only feel. Pain. Raw, sharp. Real.
—"There you are" —Raven murmured, barely leaning down to whisper in his ear—. "Welcome back to reality, Jake."
The world stopped sounding.
Sophia, who had been paralyzed for seconds, saw Jake fall and everything inside her collapsed.
Something broke. It wasn't just rage. It was despair. Powerlessness. It was the pain of seeing someone you love being crushed without being able to defend themselves. The scream that escaped her mouth was more animal than human. A mix of crying and fury, love and loss.
And in a flash of golden light with silver tones, she launched herself at Raven like a living spear.
He turned just in time to cross his forearms and block the first impact. The burst of energy was so violent that the stones beneath his feet cracked into a thousand thin lines like veins. Sophia pushed with all her might, her body covered by an aura that crackled like liquid fire.
—"What did you do to him, you bastard?! You weren't like this! YOU WERE MY FRIEND!"
Raven didn't respond with words. He propelled himself backward and, mid-air, spun like a feline, landing with unnatural grace. No panting. No expression of effort.
—"I'm still the same, Sophia. You're the one who never wanted to see what was behind the mask."
She charged again, this time lowering her center of gravity, launching an upward strike aimed at Raven's chin. He dodged with a slight lateral movement and responded with a low kick to her ankle, forcing her to jump to avoid falling. Sophia spun in the air, firing a burst of star projectiles with her hands, each faster than the last.
Raven raised a single hand.
The abyssal energy absorbed the projectiles as if they were swallowed by a bottomless pit. The lights went out upon contact. No explosion. Just darkness.
—"Your power shines, Sophia... but it shines like a candle before a pit," —he murmured as he walked toward her.
—"I'd rather be a candle than burn myself with something like yours," —she shouted, delivering a spinning kick that he caught with one hand. But he didn't expect the direct punch to the face with the other. The impact was clean.
Raven stepped back a few paces, his lip split. For the first time, something resembling surprise flickered in his eyes.
—"Interesting" —he said, wiping the blood from his hand—. "Did it hurt more to see Jake fall, or that it was me who did it?"
Sophia attacked again. But this time she didn't scream. She didn't speak. She just hit.
Her rage spoke for her. The right fist traced an arc that released a pressure wave so strong it tore a piece of the coliseum behind Raven when he dodged. He countered with an elbow strike that she blocked with her forearm wrapped in stellar light. The clash sparked like molten steel.
Each movement was a message.
Each blow, a story without words.
Sophia moved urgently, as if fighting was the only way to keep herself from breaking. Raven responded with inhuman calm, as if he anticipated every attack. As if he had lived this fight in another time, in another world.
—"You're fighting like you still believe you can save me," —he murmured, catching her wrist mid-attack and twisting it in the air until he slammed her into the ground.
—"NO!" —she roared, getting up immediately with a swift twist. She unleashed an explosion of energy from her chest, forcing him to cover up.
When the dust settled, both of them were panting.
Raven's gaze showed no anger. It was more sadness than anything. Like he knew this fight was necessary, but hated that it had to be with her.
—"You don't understand, Sophia… it's not that I've changed. It's that I've finally shed my chains."
—"Then I'll put them back on you," —she spat, raising her fists once more—. "Even if I have to break your bones one by one."
Raven smiled. Not with arrogance. With pain.
—"Then start."
And they launched themselves at each other again.
Like two comets destined to collide in a sky without stars.