"You're not dancing to the same rhythm you had a few minutes ago..." Raven muttered as he advanced slowly, almost like a predator savoring its victory.
Sophia staggered backward, clumsy and unsteady. She didn't have much left in her.But then, from her blind spot, a sudden burst of energy grazed Raven's face, forcing him to turn.
"Step away from her!" Jake roared, barely managing to stay on his feet. He had just regained consciousness, and his presence was a fragile blend of bottled rage and iron determination. With one swift move, he grabbed Sophia by the arm and pulled her away from Raven, placing himself between them.
Sophia looked at him briefly and gave him a faint smile.
"You're alive..." she whispered, and with a dry, weak chuckle added,"Damn, your sense of drama's still intact."
Jake winked at her.
"And your blazer looks like hell... but hey, it's still in one piece. You're good at that."
She laughed, but beneath that laugh, something trembled — a crack in her fortress.
"Idiot... why do you always throw yourself into danger like that?" she muttered."You're like... the annoying older brother I never had."
Jake lowered his gaze slightly, a crooked half-smile tugging at his lips.He didn't say a word. Just felt a sharp sting in his chest.
Raven watched the scene unfold, his sunken eyes behind the remnants of his mask, his breathing calm and steady, as if waiting for them to finish.
"Touching reunion," he said softly. "But it won't change a thing."
Jake met his gaze, his voice sharp as a blade:
"I don't know what happened to you... or what kind of hell you've been through these days... but you told me to end it. So that's exactly what I'm going to do."
Starlight energy flared around him, cloaking his body like a wild, formless storm.On his wrist, just behind it, a faint dark-purple mark began to surface. He didn't notice. But it was there.A silent warning.
Sophia, still unsteady, stepped away from them. She walked toward the grand exit of the central plaza, where the academy's golden gate stood waiting. But she didn't open it. A crystalline, transparent, living layer blocked her path. The barrier.
"The Eternal Flame..." she whispered.
No one had entered. No one had left. And then she understood — they were completely sealed in.
She tried to channel some energy to scan the seal... but there was no response. Her chest tightened.Nothing. Empty. And then her legs buckled.
"No... not now..."
And she collapsed, unconscious.
Jake didn't even notice. His focus was razor-sharp. His gaze had hardened.
"Come on, Raven... I won't hold back."
And so it began.The first clash was brutal. Jake vanished from his spot, reappearing right in front of his old friend with a punch loaded with every ounce of frustration he'd bottled up. Raven blocked it, but the sheer force pushed him back several meters. The two of them hurled themselves at each other, a whirlwind of collisions and flashes, starlight energy overflowing, spreading across the plaza like a scream trapped inside.
The remains of the coliseum still smoldered, hot embers clinging to the fractured concrete soaked in fresh blood. The main square, though less devastated, offered no refuge: the air remained heavy, thick with tension, and the echo of recent violence still pulsed in the stones.
Jake advanced, feeling the cold seep through the soles of his shoes, the dust mingling with the sharp scent of blood.
Raven stood waiting, his tall silhouette carved against the blackened ruins, like a dark statue.Without his mask, his face bore an unreadable expression. But his eyes...His eyes burned with something Jake had never seen before: corrupted determination.
"Never thought you'd make it this far," Raven said, his voice slicing through the silence.
Jake stopped. His breathing was steady, but his insides boiled.
"Neither did I... and I never thought you'd end up on this side."
No more words. Only action.
Jake twisted his body cleanly, his right arm slicing through the air like a spear.But Raven wasn't slow. With an elegant, almost dancer-like spin, he slipped past the attack, letting Jake's hand brush barely against his cheek. The counterstrike came instantly: Raven drove his knee into Jake's ribs with such precision it knocked the air out of his lungs for a heartbeat.
Jake staggered back, rolled across the ground, and sprang to his feet, using the momentum.His palm glowed, and a stream of starlight energy burst from its center like a direct discharge.The beam shot straight at Raven, white light wrapped in violet hues.
But Raven absorbed it with one hand. The energy faded between his fingers like smoke. Without pause, he unleashed tendrils of dark energy from his forearm. Jake barely dodged with a sidestep, but one of the tendrils coiled around his ankle, yanking him violently against a crumbling wall.
Jake spat blood.
"You don't know a thing about the power I... we carry now," Raven murmured. Then, raising one hand, he pointed toward the sky.
"Do you really think you're fighting something on your level? You barely scratch two percent of what certain beings can do... and you, Jake, don't even realize the weight you're carrying."
Jake's breath was ragged. Every fiber of his body screamed in pain.But beneath all that... he felt something else.Like an invisible shield surrounding him. As if the energy Sophia had transferred to heal him was still there, protecting him. Flowing through him like a warm remnant — as if his emotions were a direct channel to strength.
"I might not fully understand what's going on... but I do know one thing."Jake launched forward."You're the one who taught me never to back down. You told me that if something spiraled out of control... I had to end it."
Their fists collided. A sharp shockwave split them apart.Jake twisted midair, used the rebound from a fallen pillar, and landed behind Raven, landing a solid kick to his back — knocking him off balance for the first time.Raven spun around and immediately tried to drive his elbow into Jake's face, but Jake ducked low, twisting his entire body at an angle, his hand brushing the ground to anchor himself, and delivered a diagonal slash with concentrated energy — cutting through the space between them.