Let’s Begin (始めよう / Hajimeyō)

The training ring was a crater gouged into Solarii’s stone spine, thirty feet deep and wide enough to swallow a cathedral. The walls had been polished smooth over generations of battles, each scorch mark layered over the last until the entire pit gleamed with a cruel shine. Cracks ran like veins across the floor where too much force had been unleashed in too small a place.

The crowd packed every tier of the arena. Apprentices stood shoulder to shoulder. Veterans leaned forward with folded arms. Children sat on parents’ knees, their eyes too bright for what they were about to witness. Solarii lived and died on spectacle, and nothing drew more breath than the Three Lords testing a commander’s unit.

Rei stepped into the ring first. The moment his boots touched the sand, noise shook the walls. The heat rising from below curled his cloak around his legs. Uriel’s Flame shimmered at the edge of his blade, a soft blue-white glow that kept the air around him hot enough to sting.

Hajime followed, rolling out his shoulders. Gold-silver Seiki licked the surface of his skin like restless electricity. He flexed his hands, and twin knives of raw Seiki formed for a heartbeat before he dismissed them. They were not full techniques. Just tools. Extensions of his will.

Izumi walked in last. The audience quieted as vines curled around her arms, blooming small red petals that pulsed with her breath. She closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled. When she exhaled, the vines tightened along her limbs like banded muscles.

At the opposite end of the pit, the Three Celestine Lords waited.

Hayate Tsubasa stood with his spear held loosely in one hand, sunfire coiling around the shaft and flaring each time he breathed. His eyes glowed faint gold, reflecting the heat rising from the arena floor.

Raiden Mitsuhiro rested Choral Edge against his shoulder. Behind him, Gabriel’s seraph manifested fully. It was enormous, twenty feet tall even at rest, its wings stretching nearly wall to wall. Its body was shaped like a man but made of layered light and shifting geometry, breathing in slow harmony with Raiden’s lungs.

Kazuki Haruma stood slightly behind the two, Benedictus Staff grounded in the sand. Green-gold emblems spun around him, precise and evenly spaced, not one drifting from its orbit. His gaze was calm, almost bored, like he was watching the weather, not preparing for combat.

The steward on the balcony lifted a hand.

“Welcome to the combat evaluation arena. You have permission to strike with full force, and fatal blows are strictly prohibited.”

The arena went silent.

“Begin.”

Hayate disappeared.

He reappeared in front of Hajime. His spear shot forward with the first named move, Solar Lancer. The thrust was a streak of white-hot sunfire that carved a tunnel through the heated air.

Hajime barely raised his arm before the spear connected with a crack that rang against the stone walls. His body lifted from the ground and flew back several feet. Sand sprayed where he landed hard, rolling once and catching himself on his palms.

Hajime grinned through the sting in his bones. “Alright, that hurt. Still has nothing on Rei-”

Hayate was already on him again. His foot slammed the ground in a burst of fire. Lightstorm Step. His silhouette blurred, closing the distance before Hajime had fully risen.

Hajime raised his arms and met the spear shaft with both forearms. Pain flashed up his bones. His stance bent inward. The heat scorched his skin.

Raiden moved next.

Rei intercepted him.

The twin blades sang as Raiden swung in with Choral Edge: First Verse. Each slash cut the air with a haunting, harmonic resonance.

Rei parried the first. The second. The third struck sparks up his arm. The fourth grazed his shoulder, slicing cloth and skin like a heated scalpel.

Rei stepped back and ignited Uriel’s Flame in full. Fire roared along his blade.

Raiden’s seraph shifted instantly. Its wings folded in front of him in Seraph Guard, the radiant surface catching the blow that would have carved Raiden’s ribs open.

To their left, Kazuki stepped forward and tapped his staff to the ground.

Izumi snapped her vines into the sand. A circle of thorned growth erupted upward in an instant.

“Forbidden Fruit Art. Thorn Garden,” she whispered.

The vines lashed toward Kazuki like spears.

Kazuki traced a pattern with his staff. Decay Sigil flared beneath the vines, and every thorn blackened instantly. The vines rotted mid-air, collapsing into dust.

Izumi’s eyes sharpened. She stepped sideways, avoiding a second pattern that appeared exactly where she had been standing.

“Smart of you to dodge,” Kazuki said lightly. “Good job.”

Izumi hissed, vines gathering behind her like coiled whips.

Back at the center of the ring, Hayate spun his spear in a wide arc, bringing it down with Radiant Break. The ground split in a glowing fissure where the spear landed.

Hajime jumped back, sand exploding under his boots. He coughed once, tasting dust and blood.

Then he clenched his fist.

Seiki gathered in his hand, not flaring outward, but compressing inward. His fingers shook. His wrist trembled. The invisible pressure around his knuckles dragged backward like a weight trying to pull his arm out of its socket.

Hajime gritted his teeth. “Not yet.”

Hayate came in again.

Hajime stepped forward against the crushing resistance and threw a punch.

"Genesis Pulse," he screamed as it detonated.

The gravity he had been fighting collapsed outward in a violent burst. Hayate’s chestplate dented, and the man flew backward, bouncing twice across the sand. The shockwave cracked a meter of stone beneath Hajime’s feet.

The crowd screamed.

Rei shifted his stance as Raiden came in again. For every slash Rei blocked, Raiden answered with two more. For every step Rei gained, the seraph stole it back.

Rei inhaled sharply. Flame ignited behind his ribs, rising up his spine.

He activated Uriel’s Ascension.

Fire burst around him in a rising surge of blue-white, hot enough that even Raiden’s seraph flickered under the intensity.

Raiden’s expression tightened. “Stop holding back, Commander.”

They clashed. Sparks showered the sand. The seraph’s wings snapped forward, attempting to divert Rei’s blade. Rei twisted mid-swing, redirecting the flame to slice under a wing, burning a line through the radiant guard.

The seraph recoiled, its light rippling.

Raiden stepped back, twin blades crossing to parry. Rei lunged in again, flame trailing a long arc that seared the ground where it passed.

Izumi reentered the fray, vines surging from the sand in a spiral.

She shouted, “Forbidden Fruit Art. Verdant Tempest.”

The cyclone erupted around her, leaves spinning with deadly edges. Kazuki raised his staff and drew a thin decay slash through the storm. Withering Line cut a clean corridor through the leaves.

Izumi burst through the gap, vines whipping forward. Kazuki parried each with the staff, the decay coating his weapon dissolving the vine tips on contact.

Hajime rejoined with a roar, sprinting past Izumi and throwing another punch. His fist collided with the ground as Hayate dodged, and another burst of Genesis Pulse cracked the arena floor.

Sand rose everywhere, clouding the battlefield. The heat, the dust, the clash of steel and flame and decay turned the crater into a storm of violence.

Raiden’s seraph pushed outward, clearing space.

Kazuki healed himself across his ribs with Raphael’s Touch.

Hayate leapt overhead and unleashed Sunheart Pulse, a shockwave of compressed sunfire that blasted outward in a ring.

Izumi threw up a shield of petals, Bloom Sanctuary, but the shockwave punched through and sent her tumbling.

Hajime staggered from the blast, arms raised.

Rei powered through it, cloak burning.

As Izumi hit the ground, she slid several feet before vines burst out of her back and dug into the stone, stopping her slide. Hajime dropped low, arms crossed, grit slicing across his forearms. Rei walked straight through the blast, fire burning the shockwave itself into harmless steam.

Hayate landed in a crouch, spear lowered. Sweat slid down his jawline and evaporated before reaching his chin.

Hajime spat blood and grinned. “I would have already given up in the past. Now I'm clashing with Celestine lords.”

Hayate twirled the spear once, resetting his stance. “You really do talk too much.”

They collided again.

Hajime ducked under a spear slash that would have taken his head clean off. He drove forward, shoulder slamming into Hayate’s ribs. The impact shook the lord but did not topple him. Hayate answered with a brutal knee to Hajime’s sternum. Pain exploded through his chest. Hajime staggered but kept his footing, grabbing the spear shaft with both hands.

Hayate tried to wrench it free.

Hajime held.

Their foreheads nearly touched. Heat rolled off Hayate like a furnace. Hajime’s skin reddened and blistered where it touched the spear. He ignored it and twisted hard, trying to break the weapon or break the lord’s stance.

Hayate shifted, slammed an elbow into Hajime’s brow, and kicked him away. Blood ran into Hajime’s eye. He wiped it on his sleeve and raised his fists again.

Across the pit, Rei had Raiden pinned in a duel of precision and pressure.

Uriel’s Ascension roared around Rei, fire blazing upward like the wings of a bird refusing to die. Each strike he landed hummed with power, scorching the stone floor and cracking its surface. Raiden met every blow with exact timing, twin blades deflecting the sword by the smallest margin necessary.

But it was not Raiden’s blades that made the difference.

It was the giant seraph behind him.

Every time Rei created an opening, the seraph filled it. Its massive hand of light blocked a slash that would have sliced Raiden’s throat open. A wing swept downward, forcing Rei to shift momentum. Its foot planted in front of Rei, creating a barrier of pure radiance that forced him to retreat.

Rei was the better fighter as far as raw potential.

But Raiden had a second fighter that was not bound by mortal reflex.

Rei lunged low, blade dragging a burning line across the sand. Raiden blocked, but the flame splashed past him and licked against the seraph’s chest. The living creature of light recoiled, its shape bending inward as smoke rose from its radiant frame.

Raiden’s eyes narrowed. “Interesting.”

Rei twisted his grip and brought the flat of his blade across Raiden’s jaw. The impact cracked the air. Raiden staggered back, teeth bared in pain for the first time in years.

The seraph roared.

Its voice did not sound. It was pressure. The air shook as if the entire ring had inhaled.

Rei braced his legs as the seraph swung a massive arm downward. Light hammered the ground where Rei had been standing, pulverizing stone into powder.

Rei reappeared above Raiden, fire trailing behind him. He slashed downward.

The seraph caught the sword mid-swing.

Rei’s hands shook. The seraph pushed back, forcing the blade upward. Its wings snapped inward and blasted him with focused radiance.

Rei hit the ground on his shoulder and rolled, cloak smoking.

Raiden wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. “We're not done yet.”

Rei stood up with his deranged smile, blasting himself with Uriel's Flame towards Raiden. "I missed you guys."

Meanwhile, Izumi and Kazuki had devolved into the quietest, deadliest exchange in the arena.

Izumi crouched in the center of a slowly expanding circle of thorns. They spiraled outward, weaving around her like living serpents. Her expression was calm, her breath steady.

Kazuki stood fifteen feet away, staff raised, a single imprint pulsing under his feet.

Izumi moved.

A vine pierced the ground and erupted beneath Kazuki’s heel. Kazuki stepped aside, tracing a circle in the air. A green-gold line flickered into the vine, and it rotted instantly, collapsing to dust at his feet.

Izumi snapped her fingers.

Six vines whipped upward, forming a cage that closed in from every direction. Kazuki spun his staff and tapped the air. Grace Light (恩光 / Onkou) pulsed from his chest in a soft burst, warping the cage path by inches. The vines stabbed into the sand where Kazuki had been.

Izumi flicked her wrist and vines erupted again, this time faster, more frantic. Kazuki swept his staff once.

Withering Line carved a thin arc, severing every vine tip in a perfect crescent.

Izumi hissed. “Fine. Try this.”

Her vines plunged deep into the earth. The ground trembled. A massive shadow rose behind her, a towering amalgamation of roots, bark, and Seiki.

“Forbidden Fruit Art. Nature-Drowned Avatar.”

The giant tree-like entity reached forward, its arm of braided wood swinging toward Kazuki. Kazuki lifted his staff just as the blow collided.

The impact rattled the stands.

Kazuki slid backward, his boots carving furrows. The Avatar pressed harder, its weight tremendous. Kazuki’s halo flickered from the strain. He slammed his palm into the ground.

Decay Sigil ignited under the Avatar’s foot, rotting the bark and vines at the root. The Avatar stumbled, collapsing onto one knee.

Izumi yanked more Seiki forward, forcing the Avatar to reform, but Kazuki’s decay spread faster than she expected. The Avatar’s leg crumbled. Half its torso sagged, bark turning gray.

Kazuki looked up, sweat on his brow. “You're too pretty to be this violent.”

Izumi bared her teeth and sent dozens of vines through the Avatar, reforming it into a weaponized mass.

Kazuki’s eyes widened. He did not have time to counter.

A trunk slammed him across the arena, smashing him into the wall.

He slumped forward, coughing once, then raised his staff.

He whispered, “Raphael’s Touch.”

The emblem pulsed. His ribs knitted back together.

Izumi’s vines lunged again.

Kazuki caught one with his hand. Decay spread up the vine instantly. Izumi gasped sharply, feeling the pain travel along the Seiki link. She tore the vine free before the rot reached her shoulder.

She backed up, vines recoiling.

Kazuki pushed himself to standing, staff planted in the ground.

“The Verdant Veil taught you well. Sylvara is something, isn't she?”

Izumi took a deep breath and dashed forward.

Across the pit, Rei and Raiden clashed again. Fire and light danced, each hit shoving air outward like a blast. Rei ducked under a swing of the seraph’s arm and carved a line across its lower torso. The wound flickered and sealed itself in a flare of radiance.

Rei did not relent.

He attacked Raiden from the front while the seraph guarded his back. A clash of blades, a jolt of fire, the hiss of burning stone. Rei’s movement blurred. The seraph’s movements sharpened.

Kazuki’s decay field warred with Izumi’s Avatar in the far corner. Hayate and Hajime’s exchange grew more violent by the second as Genesis Pulse detonated shockwaves through the crater floor.

The lines between fighters blurred.

Hayate spun from Hajime and thrust at Rei. Rei blocked just in time, but the heat scorched his arm. Raiden moved to follow up on Hayate’s strike, but Hajime tackled the seraph’s leg, ripping Raiden’s second strike off-course.

Kazuki stepped between Hayate and Izumi to intercept a vine that would have pierced the spear lord’s leg.

Izumi twisted behind Raiden and lashed vines at the seraph’s back. The seraph smashed the vine with an enormous hand, sending her skidding across the sand.

Hajime leapt between them and punched the seraph’s knee with Genesis Pulse. The giant was staggered, radiant light flickering.

Rei seized the opening and came in high, slashing at Raiden’s exposed side.

Kazuki planted a rune, and the sand shifted beneath Rei’s foot, forcing him to slide off balance.

Izumi used the same shift to hurl herself upward and bring the Avatar’s remaining arm down on Hayate’s guard.

The entire battle collapsed into chaos.

A true 3 versus 3.

Hajime threw himself at Raiden, fists blazing with raw Seiki, the knuckles splitting under the force.

Rei and Hayate traded blows that cracked the air, flame against sunfire. Hayate’s spear shaved inches from Rei’s face. Rei’s blade kissed the metal and superheated it enough that Hayate hissed in pain and switched grip.

Izumi and Kazuki spun around each other. Vines snapped. Decay flared. Healing pulses flashed. The Avatar groaned and collapsed. Izumi replaced it with dozens of thin whip-vines that snapped like scorpions.

Kazuki parried two. The third nicked his cheek. The fourth coiled his arm. Kazuki drove his staff downward and healed the cut mid-fight.

Rei ducked a spear thrust and slammed his elbow into Hayate’s jaw. Hayate staggered. Raiden’s seraph shifted to protect him. Hajime slammed both fists into the seraph’s ribs, Genesis Pulse detonating against radiant shields.

A burst of light blasted all three fighters apart.

Izumi seized the moment. She pointed at Hayate.

“Forbidden Fruit Art. Verdant Tempest.”

A storm of razor leaves howled across the arena. Hayate blocked what he could with the spear, but the leaves shredded the edges of his cloak and cut shallow lines into his arms.

Kazuki raised a hand.

“Grace Light.”

A wave of healing passed over Hayate, sealing the worst of the cuts, but Kazuki staggered from the effort.

Hajime sprinted past Rei, leaping into the storm. His fist pulled backward as gravity crushed against it. The longer he held it, the stronger Genesis Pulse grew. His teeth ground together. His arm shook violently.

He reached Hayate just as Verdant Tempest faded.

Hajime’s punch struck the air an inch from Hayate’s chest.

Genesis Pulse detonated point-blank.

The explosion of force blasted Hayate into Raiden’s seraph. The seraph buckled. Radiant wings shattered into shards of light that dissolved before they hit the ground.

Raiden dropped to one knee, gasping. The strain of maintaining the seraph under Hajime’s pressure was immense.

Izumi snapped vines toward Kazuki’s ankles.

Kazuki severed them with a swift sweep.

Rei emerged from the smoke, cloak burning, eyes blazing with Uriel’s fire. He swung once and stopped his blade at Hayate’s neck.

Hajime stood behind Raiden, fist raised at the base of the older man’s skull.

Izumi stood with a vine at Kazuki’s sternum, the tip poised to pierce.

Silence rippled outward.

Then the crowd exploded into shouts.

Hayate let out a shocked laugh. “You three are unbelievable!”

Raiden wiped blood from his lip and nodded. “Rare talent for sure.”

Kazuki steadied himself and tapped his chest with the staff. “I haven't felt this alive in a long time.”

Rei withdrew his blade.

Izumi let her vines retract.

Hajime lowered his fist with a wheeze.

The steward opened his mouth to declare the result.

A scream tore through the east gate.

A guard stumbled into the pit, armor shredded, blood running down his face. He fell to his knees in front of Rei, voice shaking.

“Commander Kurayami. The Chainbound Doctrine has breached the main gate. Akane Yatogi and her army are here! The lower city is being burned and looted.”

Rei’s jaw clenched.

Hajime cracked his knuckles.

Izumi’s vines bristled.

Hayate’s spear flared.

Raiden’s seraph flickered back to life.

Kazuki lifted his staff.

Rei looked at Izumi and Hajime. Then at the three in front of him.

He drew his blade.

“Hayate, go get the army and meet us there immediately. Everyone else with me!”

The sound of Solarii burning rolled through the city.