Chapter 240: Are You All Ready?

[Stadium Center - Fifty Teams Gathered]

All the teams gathered in the massive central area, forming a loose circle under the morning sun.

Damian stood with his four teammates, his hands in his pockets, his dark glasses reflecting the surrounding crowd.

Around them, the social dynamics were immediately obvious.

Noble students clustered together, their expensive equipment and confident bearing marking them as the tournament favorites.

They looked at Zavier with barely concealed loathing, whispers spreading about the "psychotic commoner" who’d brutalized their fellow Noble.

Their eyes found Damian with pure loathing, recognizing him as the source of the revolutionary ideas threatening their entire social structure.

But there were other groups too.

Republic Academy’s team stood nearby, President William catching Damian’s eye and offering a genuine smile and respectful nod.

A few other teams with commoner members gravitated toward Stormhold, their faces showing hope and solidarity, seeing in Damian’s team proof that they weren’t alone.

"Yesterday was impressive," William said quietly, his voice carrying only to Damian and his immediate team. "Five seconds. Everyone’s still talking about it. You’ve given commoners across the Federation something to believe in."

Before Damian could respond, movement at the stadium’s highest platform drew everyone’s attention.

Tap Tap Tap

President Eleanor appeared, her ancient form moving slowly but steadily, her cane tapping against the platform floor.

Her kind, grandmotherly smile spread across her face as she looked down at the assembled students.

The crowd’s cheering intensified, fifty thousand people showing respect and admiration for one of the legends of human survival.

Eleanor’s voice carried across the stadium despite not being amplified, her power making the words reach every ear clearly.

"Welcome, young champions... You have proven yourselves worthy by advancing past the first round. But the real challenges begin today."

She gestured with her free hand.

"Will all Academy escorts please join me here? I’m just a poor old lady who needs assistance. Surely you young people won’t leave me standing alone?"

The request was phrased kindly, almost apologetically, but carried undertones of command.

Seraphina’s violet eyes narrowed with immediate suspicion, her military instincts screaming warnings.

’Why does she need escorts for a simple announcement? Why gather them all in one location?’

But she saw the other escorts already moving forward – powerful S rank and A rank awakeners from each Academy, responding to the request without apparent concern.

’Maybe I’m being paranoid...’

Seraphina moved forward with the others, joining the group of escorts surrounding Eleanor on the elevated platform.

Fifty powerful awakeners clustered around one ancient woman.

Eleanor’s kind smile never wavered as she looked at the gathered escorts, then down at the students assembled in the center far below.

"Are you all ready–"

The question seemed innocuous, the kind of thing any announcer might ask before beginning a ceremony.

But Seraphina saw it.

A flicker in Eleanor’s eyes.

The kind old grandmother’s expression going completely blank for a fraction of a second, replaced by something else – something empty, something wrong, something... controlled!

Her hair stood on end, her S+ rank instincts screaming danger with primal intensity.

She lunged forward, trying to reach Eleanor, trying to stop whatever was about to happen.

But it was too late!

Eleanor’s hand moved, taking out a small black cube that seemed to absorb light itself, darkness made solid, wrong in ways that hurt to look at.

She threw it toward the assembled students below.

Time seemed to slow, each moment stretching into eternity!

The cube flew through the air in a perfect arc, spinning slowly, leaving trails of spatial distortion in its wake.

It reached the apex of its arc, hovering directly above the gathered students.

Then... it began disintegrating!

Not falling apart or breaking – disintegrating into ash that drifted down like black snow, each particle carrying concentrated spatial corruption.

The air itself started tearing!

Reality warped, bent and folded inward like paper being crumpled.

Dimensional fluctuations spread outward from the cube’s position, the same telltale signs that preceded spontaneous portal openings!

The same horrifying phenomena that had dragged Damian into the Giant realm months ago!

Damian’s mind had time for exactly one thought.

’Fuck! Not again!’

Then... the space tore completely!

A massive portal opened directly beneath all fifty teams – two hundred and fifty students, humanity’s finest young awakeners and the next generation’s strongest defenders.

Every single student fell through the dimensional rift, their bodies vanishing into whatever hostile realm waited on the other side.

The portal snapped shut with a sound like thunder!

Two hundred and fifty students gone in less than a second!

Seraphina spun back toward Eleanor, horror and rage mixing in her violet eyes.

Eleanor’s face completed the movement her mouth had started before the portal opened, finishing the sentence that had begun with "Are you all ready–"

"–for your deaths?"

The complete question finally clear!

Her blank eyes looked directly into Seraphina’s from mere feet away, showing absolutely nothing – no emotion, no recognition and no humanity.

Just emptiness!

Then... Eleanor’s Aura erupted.

Not outward in an attack!

But inward!

Self-destructing her own core with the full force of an S+ rank awakener’s accumulated power.

"NO!"

Seraphina’s scream was mental, physical and spiritual – every part of her rejecting what was about to happen but unable to stop it.

"..."

The explosion started as a pinpoint of white light.

Then it expanded.

The silence lasted exactly one second – long enough for everyone in the stadium to realize something terrible was happening but not long enough to react.

Then the light turned into fire, into force and into pure destructive energy that vaporized everything within fifty meters instantly.

BOOOOOOM!

The sound came after the devastation, a physical wave that shattered windows across the entire Capitol city!

The elevated platform where Eleanor and the escorts had stood simply ceased to exist, atomized into component particles by the force of the explosion.

Seraphina and the other escorts absorbed most of the impact with their bodies and their hastily-raised defensive barriers, their S rank and A rank power buying precious seconds for others to react.

But the shockwave still spread outward with devastating force.

The stands directly behind the platform disintegrated, hundreds of spectators dying without even understanding what had happened – children holding their parents’ hands, elderly fans who’d watched tournaments for decades, young couples on dates, entire families there to support their favorite teams...

Gone in an instant!

Reduced to ash and memory!

The explosion continued spreading, the destructive force only partially contained by the stadium’s defensive barriers that hadn’t been designed to withstand an S+ rank self-destruction from within!