Dusk

"That," Vanessa said, her voice echoing with a cold, absolute finality, "is enough."

The colosseum held its breath as the sheer audacity of the interruption hung in the air like smoke while the Queen’s eyes narrowed, her amethyst pupils contracting into lethal pinpricks on sight of the elf and her audacity!

"Enough?" The Queen whispered, though the magic in the air carried her voice to every ear. "You dare command me?"

She shot a look at Musashi, her rage boiling over the edge of her composure.

"Musashi. Butcher them both. Peel the skin from their bones and hang it from the Solspire tree this very second!"

Musashi grinned, a terrifying sight. "With pleasure, Your Majesty."

He moved with instant transmission, appearing right infront of the trio, never drawing his katana, his hand a blur of motion aimed at Vanessa's throat and yet she didn't flinch. She didn't even blink.

CLANG!

Sparks showered the obsidian floor like fireworks as Musashi’s hand stopped inches from Vanessa’s neck, caught not by magic, but rather countered by a wall of muscle.

It was Silver, standing there resolute! His coat was billowing in the wind, his teeth gritted around a cigarette that was rapidly turning to ash as his left forearm, hardened with Death Magic until it was black as iron, caught Musashi’s strike.

"Easy there buddy" Silver growled, smoke leaking from his teeth. "You have to go through me first."

Musashi tilted his head, his glass haori chiming. "Finally. A toy that doesn't break."

"Silver!" Vanessa gasped, stepping back.

"Get the kids," Silver ordered, never taking his eyes off the 33rd Degree Mage. "Get them out of here. Now!"

But before Vanessa could move, a low, guttural laughter bubbled up from the floor, the sound of something ancient, something that had seen empires rise and fall and found it all terribly amusing.

Runa.

She didn't struggle against Musashi’s aura anymore, doing away with the theatrics of gasping for air as she stood straight, brushing the dust from her knees with a bored expression. The "cute" mask of the clumsy student dissolved instantly, revealing a face that looked centuries old.

"You call yourself the Sun?" Runa asked, looking at the Queen, her voice dropping an octave,  "You are barely a candle, Himiko."

The Queen stiffened. "What did you say?"

Runa smiled, and for the first time, her eyes weren't the bright, doe-like eyes of a teenager, turning into vertical slits that glowed with a deep, toxic purple.

"I have waited a century for a vessel worthy of breaking," Runa murmured, floating off the ground without casting a spell. The gravity around her bent and warped, causing the rubble of the stage to orbit her like a planetary ring. "I thought you might be interesting. But you are just another petty tyrant with a crown of tin."

"Kill her!" The Queen shrieked, her composure shattering. "Kill the abomination!"

"Too late," Runa whispered.

High in the VIP box, Pope Vincent stepped forward causing the Queen to turn to him in place of Musashi who was preoccupoied with Silver, expecting a shield, a blessing, anything.

"Vincent! Destroy them!"

The Pope looked down at her disdainfully, his hazel eyes devoid of loyalty, filled with a fanatical, terrifying ecstasy.

"The vessel is ready," Vincent intoned, raising his staff. "Commence the sacrifice."

"What are you—"

The Queen gasped as she looked down and found a shadow had elongated from her own two feet, rising, twisting, and finally forming the silhouette of a woman with long hair.

It was Lilith.

She emerged from the darkness behind the crown, a wraith of pure vengeance with tears of black ink streaming down her pale face as she leaned in close to the Queen’s ear.

"Do you remember, Himiko?" Lilith whispered, her voice trembling with hate. "Do you remember when you told me that love was a weakness? When you made me plunge the knife into his heart just to prove my loyalty?"

The Queen’s eyes widened in genuine horror. "Lilith... you... you are my dog..."

"I am no one's dog," Lilith hissed. "I am a widow."

SHLUCK.

The sound was wet and sickening as Lilith drove a dagger made of solidified shadow straight through the back of the Queen, through the silk robes, and through Himiko’s heart. The blade burst from the her chest, dripping with royal blood as the Colosseum went silent in shock.

Musashi froze mid-strike and Silver lowered his guard, stunned. Even Noah, lost in his grief, felt the shift in the world.

The Queen gasped, blood bubbling on her cherry-tinted lips as she looked down at the blade protruding from her chest, unable to comprehend her own mortality.

"I... am... the Sun..." she wheezed.

"The Sun sets at dusk." Lilith whispered, twisting the blade further before slashing through Himiko's abdomen and brutally pulling the blade out, causing her to topple over the side of the stage as her body plummeted into the mud. Her golden robes fluttered like the wings of a dying phoenix on her way down, as she hit the obsidian floor of the arena with a dull, final thud. However, strangely enough, the blood didn't pool, neither did it soak into the cracks.

Droplets of royal blood from Himiko's dying corpse rose into the air, shimmering like rubies in the sunlight as they swirled around the Solspire tree in the center of the arena. The atmosphere grew heavy, suffocating and soon the sky, which had been a brilliant blue, turned a sickly shade of grey, the color draining from the banners, the clothes of the audience, and even the very skin of the people.

Runa laughed.

"He is here," she giggled "Daddy is home."

The ground beneath the arena began to rumble as massive roots of the Solspire tree turned black, the gold veins rotting in an instant.

"Protect the Queen!" Musashi roared, his mind snapping as he abandoned Silver, flashing toward the Queen’s body, but he was too late, watching as her corpse convulsed and her jaw unhinged, stretching impossibly wide to reveal a black mist which poured out from her mouth, coalescing into a shape that hurt the eyes to look at.

It wasn't a man. It wasn't a snake. It was a void in reality.

Malevolent had arrived.

The chaos was instantaneous as the Dojo students screamed upon witnessing their "God" laying dead in the mud, stripped of her vanity and luster, whilst the crowd stampeded, trampling each other in a desperate bid for the exits.

"We need to go!" Silver grabbed Vanessa, shaking her out of her trance as she stared despondently at the sky. "This isn't a fight we can win! Not yet!"

"But the students!" Vanessa cried, pointing to Kami and the unconscious Sakura.

Before Silver could answer however, the floor exploded to reveal massive, green vines, thick as redwood trunks, tearing through, shattering the arena! The vines didn't attack, they protected,  wrapping around Kami, around the Sol Academy students, around the Dojo students, and even creating a barrier between them and the encroaching void.

From the center of the eruption, riding atop a massive carnivorous plant that looked like a gigantic venus flytrap the size of a carriage, sat a small, familiar face.

"Mom said you guys were being too loud," Ken said innocently. "So I came to break up the fight."

Silver stared at the kid dumbfounded, then at the vines holding back the apocalypse, a manic grin spreading across his face.