The courtyard reflected him.
Raze stood near the shallow basin at its edge.
His eyes locked on the water's surface.
His face stared back.
Pale against the light.
Gaunt with the weight of unspoken questions.
Long white hair, never tied.
Curtained the edges of his jaw.
His eyes: violet, sharp-cut, and too alive for how still he stood. No movement. Just breath.
"Raze."
Alteria's voice broke the stillness—not loud, but layered.
He didn't flinch, just lifted his gaze to meet her through the water's shimmer.
She stood further ahead, flanked by guards.
Four of them.
The tension in the air wasn't ceremonial.
It was instinctual.
The kind you feel before something breaks.
"Come."
He stepped forward, slow, deliberate.
Behind him, the guards fell into formation.
Not with reverence. With curiosity. Caution.
Like they'd heard enough to believe something.
Not enough to believe in him.
Alteria turned, coughed once into her sleeve.
The sound was real.
Clearing the air, not a performance.
"I called you all here because—" her eyes moved across the guards, "—to my knowledge, the three of you are elemental-aligned. Water, Earth, Wind."
She paused. Let the words hang.
The guards didn't move.
Not until one stepped forward. Broad, pale skin.
Hair buzzed close.
His armor was too tight in the shoulders.
"Earth," he said, eyes flicking toward Raze, then away. Another followed. narrow frame, dark braids, gloves worn thin from practice.
"Wind."
The third hesitated. Swallowed. Then nodded.
"Water, Princess."
Alteria smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"I called you here to test your magic. And to fight my Drakos." Breath caught. Not hers. Raze didn't blink.
"You've also been betting," she said, tone flattening. "On how long he'd last. Whether he'd burn out. Whether he'd disobey."
No one denied it.
She stepped once to the side.
A opening. Her hand lifted.
Not a gesture of invitation, but of command.
"So let's settle it."
She nodded to Raze, then turning to face the guards.
"If any of you decline," she added, "you'll hand in your seals. Resign. And never work under royalty again."
The courtyard quieted.
Even the wind seemed to step back.
Raze turned. The water behind him stilled like it understood what was about to happen.
"Am I fighting them one by one," he asked, voice low, "or all at once?"
Alteria didn't miss a beat. "Are you crazy?"
"I don't know." He looked at her fully. "You tell me."
She huffed—short, amused. "Ah. So you are a lunatic." Her gaze swept to the guards. "These are royal-trained. Not the best, but not gutter blood either. And you want all three?"
Raze didn't blink.
His aura answered first.
Flaring without flash.
Heat bending faintly off the air around him.
The same presence he'd unleashed the day before Augustus arrived. The day the Queen's eyes found him and didn't look away.
"All of you," Raze said, his tone cutting. "At once."
The courtyard shifted.
One of the guards stepped back.
Not far, just enough. Enough to be noticed.
Alteria raised a hand.
Not to stop, but to mark the beginning.
"Then make them regret the bet."
[ Ping! ]
[ arena status: stabilized ]
[ multiple threats detected ]
[ combat simulation: unsanctioned | permitted ]
[ raze – fire | capacity: 23% | control: 18% ]
[ opponents – standard affinity, variable skill ]
[ objective: endure | assert dominance ]
The first strike came from Wind. Always fastest.
A pulse of air split the space between them.
Sharp as broken glass.
Raze ducked it, pivoted left, and didn't wait.
His palm dragged low across the stone.
Fire trailed like blood from a cut that wanted to bleed. The Earth guard braced. Too late.
Raze hit him with a feint, spun off his blind side.
Then launched a sharp elbow to the ribs.
Not clean, but enough.
His purple eyes saw a life he hadn't lived.
Not in this body.
Fire followed his body and coiled into the strike like it had a reason to exist. The tunic hissed.
Wind circled wide, gathering speed.
Water stepped in.
Hands raised, casting slow and precise.
She moved like a student who never failed.
"Careful," Raze muttered, flame building along his spine, "you might get burned learning something new."
He surged forward.
[ Ping! ]
[ skill activated: DRAKONIS ]
[ control threshold exceeded ]
[ consciousness reroute engaged ]
The heat didn't rise. It collapsed.
Pulled from spine to throat, to fingertips, to vision.
No flash. No flame. Just a snap in the system.
A break from logic.
Raze moved—
Not as himself.
As something older.
His steps lost their sound.
His strikes, their hesitation.
The ground beneath him didn't crack—it bent.
Wind launched another burst.
Wider this time, less refined.
It missed. Raze didn't.
The Drakos appeared at the guard's flank before the spell collapsed. A kick—center mass.
Compressed fire laced into the strike.
The air boomed. Not loud. Just final.
Wind dropped.
Alive. But grounded.
The others faltered.
Water cast again, circles spiraling from her palms, but too slow. Her magic rippled across the ground like ink looking for a surface.
Too late.
Raze spun through it.
Flame coiled around his wrist like a second skin.
Flaring once, just enough to slice the pressure lines in half. The spell died in her hands.
He didn't touch her.
He didn't need to.
She stepped back instinctively, breath catching.
Earth growled. Stepped in hard. Shoulder-first.
The only one not afraid of contact.
Good.
Raze met him head-on.
Fire didn't blast—it compressed.
The impact landed like a hammer inside a chamber.
Earth stumbled. Raze grabbed the gap.
A knee. Up, sharp, reinforced by momentum. The sound of armor denting echoed across the stones.
Raze exhaled.
Not from strain. From habit.
There was no fatigue in his body.
Not yet.
He turned, just as Wind tried to rise. Flame curled in his palm like a whip.
A flicker away from lashing out.
"Raze."
Her voice.
Alteria.
He froze mid-motion.
Not stopped. Paused. Flame hovered.
Balanced between act and command.
The guards didn't move. Didn't speak.
Alteria stepped into the ring.
Her eyes didn't search the damage.
They searched him.
"Enough."
The flame vanished. Not extinguished. Just recalled.
Raze exhaled. And this time, it shook.
His body remembered it was a body.
His stance faltered. The pressure that had carried him broke like water around a dam.
He dropped to a knee. Not collapsed. Just reset.
[ Ping! ]
[ skill cooldown: 6 hours ]
[ internal note: synchronization failed ]
[ trauma signature detected ]
[ recommended directive: rest / recalibration ]
The guards said nothing.
Water knelt first, hands flat on the stone.
Head down.
Wind followed, slower.
Earth stood last. Blood at his lip. One hand to his side. He didn't kneel. But he didn't speak either.
Alteria looked at all three.
Then back at him.
"You heard the terms," she said.
No one argued.
Raze looked up. His vision blurred.
Not from pain. From the comedown. From the clarity that always arrived too late.
She offered her hand.
He didn't take it.
But he didn't refuse it either.
He stood. Slowly. The guards stepped aside.
They weren't betting anymore.
They were remembering.