—Frey Starlight's POV—
The hours passed quickly, and I suddenly found myself caught in an unexpected conflict…
After we finished the usual training sessions, a large arena had gathered the Elite Class into two sides ...boys versus girls.
At the forefront of our side stood Danzo and Ragna, who were already engaged in a heated argument with several girls—most notably, Selena and Clana.
"Repeat what you just said?"
The girls looked furious, yelling at the two walking mountains of muscle towering over them.
"Having trouble with your hearing? No worries, I'm generous enough to say it again: All of you are just support standing in the back while we're the ones doing the real fighting."
"Heh, a perfect mindset for muscleheads like you. Just a bunch of brainless brutes."
The argument, unsurprisingly, had escalated between Danzo and Clana Starlight in particular.
I sighed, throwing a glance toward Phoenix, who stood off to the side, laughing.
This was all his doing ... he'd been the one to suggest a match between the boys and girls of the class.
He clearly did it on purpose. I was sure of it.
Either way, this wasn't going to end peacefully…
"Don't make me laugh, girl. You talk all high and mighty, but only one of you even made it to the final eight during the Victoriad—and she got her ass kicked out in the quarter-finals!"
Danzo hit a nerve… Clana had no comeback for that. Meanwhile, Seris frowned slightly ... he was clearly referring to her.
But she wasn't the one who replied this time.
"Oh? So you're basing your grand judgment on the Victoriad, huh?"
It was Selena who stepped up now.
"And what else should I base it on?"
With a calm smile, the sorceress drew her wand and pointed it at Danzo.
"It's simple. Let's fight. The top three girls against the top three boys. That way, you'll get your answer, instead of relying on pathetic assumptions."
Reasonable…
She hit back with a challenge while mocking him between the lines. That girl really is something…
"Perfect! Glad it came from you."
As expected, both Danzo and Ragna took the bait instantly.
The argument reminded me of those heated debates that always used to flare up in the past .. especially from women who believed men were useless altogether.
The whole thing gave me a bad feeling… especially when Danzo turned toward us.
I was standing beside Snow, and he wore the same deadpan expression as me.
"Hey… don't tell me…"
"Yeah. Looks like we're really doing this."
Danzo headed straight for us, just as we expected.
"Princess #1 and Princess #2, you're fighting!"
"Why us, exactly?"
"Are you playing dumb? You're the Victoriad Champion and the Runner-up. Of course you're fighting! We want a flawless victory!"
Danzo was serious about this.
Meanwhile, the girls had already picked their team of three.
The sorceress Selena, the Wave Controller Seris… and the third one ... the one I focused on the most ..Sansa.
"Looks like they've settled their lineup…"
We spoke among ourselves, just as the prince stepped back with that usual sly grin.
"I don't think I'll be joining you, gentlemen ... but best of luck."
His friendly words didn't hide the cold look in his eyes, which remained fixed on Sansa as he walked away.
Ghost vanished just as quietly. He wouldn't be joining either.
Snow, after accepting his fate, grabbed a standard sword and stepped forward.
"So who's on our team? Me, Frey, and… you?"
"I guess so."
Danzo was already geared up and ready to go when...
"Stop."
A surprising figure stepped forward. Daemon Valerion, with his slicked-back blond hair and ever-combustible attitude.
"I'll fight. Step back, gray-hair."
"Huh? And why the hell would I do that?" Danzo snapped, glaring at him.
"You're the weakest among them ... and you've lost every single fight against me, so what are you whining about?"
"You barely managed to win!"
"That doesn't change the fact that I did win. Step back."
Daemon was determined this time, and somehow managed to push Danzo out of the way.
Selena didn't miss the opportunity to mock Danzo, who wouldn't even be fighting.
"You were running your mouth just a moment ago, and now you're stuck watching from the sidelines. Pathetic."
She laughed, then turned her attention back to her opponents.
Frey Starlight, Snow Lionheart, and Daemon Valerion.
It could easily be considered the strongest possible team, to the point the entire training field started filling up with students the moment word spread about what was happening.
Standing shoulder to shoulder, I glanced at Daemon.
"I didn't think you'd be interested in a match like this."
The proud lion of House Valerion wasn't known to waste his time on meaningless duels.
"I'm usually not. But this time is an exception."
Sparks of lightning erupted around him as his gaze remained fixed on one person.
"I just wanted to fight her ... at least once."
He was talking about her. Sansa.
The princess who had sparked so many questions with that mysterious, demonic power of hers.
Sure, on paper our side looked far stronger… but that wasn't necessarily true.
Sansa had purposely stayed out of the Victoriad. Selena, too, hadn't tried her best because she'd been dealing with Aegon at the time.
If the princess had fought freely using her demonic powers without restrictions… I wonder what would have happened back then.
Now, it seemed I was about to find out.
Phoenix stood in the center of the ring and gave the signal.
"Begin!"
"Come on, mighty men! Show us what you're made of!"
Those were the last words we heard before the battle began.
Two duelists and a tank ... against a sorceress and two Wave Controllers.
But the fight didn't go as expected at all.
Selena and Seris teleported away instantly, while Sansa stepped forward.
'Alone against all three of us?'
From the very start of the fight…
Sansa engaged us at close range while Selena and Seris bombarded us from a distance.
Daemon took the brunt of everything, focusing entirely on charging the princessc... absorbing all the hits with his hardened body.
He moved at a terrifying speed for his size and swung a brutal punch at the slim figure in front of him.
From afar, everyone heard the devastating impact as a wave of lightning aura exploded across the arena.
Daemon was shocked to see a black pillar erupt between him and Sansa, blocking his strike completely.
He tried to force his way through, but dozens of shadowy tendrils burst out of the pillar and lashed at him.
"What the hell are these things?!"
The tank held his ground and attacked alongside Snow, coming from both flanks simultaneously.
It was a perfectly coordinated assault .. the kind we'd mastered after all our battles against Melina.
But Sansa didn't even move to block us.
She just let the shadows do all the work.
Black spikes appeared from thin air, one after another, targeting us like oversized bullets.
The terrifying part was that we couldn't even cut through those shadows ...we could barely deflect them.
"There's no point in trying to cut them," Sansa said flatly.
"Many stronger than you have tried. And they all failed."
Meanwhile, Seris and Selena rained down endless barrages of fire and ice spells.
We couldn't even get close ... the entire arena was already blanketed in Sansa's shadows.
Trapped like rats in a cage, we couldn't move an inch.
We didn't realize how serious it was until the moment those shadows nearly swallowed us whole.
Black tendrils, razor-sharp spikes, and shadowy blades rained down on our heads with deadly speed.
I don't even know when Daemon started using his black lightning, or when Snow unleashed his full arsenal of elements.
As for me, I tapped into my newly acquired shadow immersion state ... alongside Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow.
Sure, we didn't use our legendary weapons… but we were fighting seriously.
We didn't hold back. We didn't retreat.
But fighting those shadows felt like taking on a black sea forged from unbreakable steel.
Massive black hands formed from the shadows, slamming Daemon into the wall with a brutal barrage of strikes.
No matter how fast I moved ..alongside Snow, who even activated Void Step—we couldn't get within five meters of Sansa.
Seris and Selena's barrage only made things worse.
It was relentless artillery, nonstop. The kind of pressure that brought back memories of what Kai Luc once unleashed.
And yet… despite the fact that the three in front of us were far weaker than Kai Luc, they somehow felt more terrifying.
The reason was simple ...the princess.
Wave Controllers typically struggle in direct combat. They lack the physical capabilities to stand toe-to-toe with duelists.
But Sansa had completely erased that weakness.
She didn't even give us room to breathe.
Forcing my body beyond its limits, I surged toward her, weaving through the tendrils and dark blades that kept hammering toward me.
Even with my speed, several struck my body. But despite the pain ...I broke through, piercing the black tide.
There, standing right before Sansa, I raised my sword and unleashed as much aura as I could muster.
"Ten Thousand Steps of Shadow: Infinite Darkness."
Shadow aura surged into my blade, erupting toward her like a vortex.
But Sansa merely smiled.
She raised her palm toward me ..calm, effortless.
"Your darkness is lukewarm, Frey."
I heard her voice beside my ear ... just before her shadows surged from nothingness and swallowed me whole.
Darkness collided with darkness.
But just as she said ..mine was faint, shallow, compared to the abyss she commanded.
Seconds later, I found myself embedded into the far wall of the arena.
And that was just fifteen minutes into the fight.
Under the stunned gaze of everyone present, in the midst of a shattered arena and a ceiling that had been entirely blown away—tendrils of black still stretched high above us.
That was when Phoenix finally stepped in to stop the battle.
Our bodies were wrecked, torn apart in ways no sparring match should ever allow.
Especially Daemon ...his chest had been sliced open by a vicious blow.
Propping myself up on my sword, I exchanged a glance with Sansa.
She looked completely unaffected.
Daemon shouted that the fight wasn't over yet ... but Phoenix ended everything by force.
He saw no reason to continue.
The champion of the Victoriad, the champion of the Church, and the beast raised by House Valerion ...
All of us were utterly defeated…
By the Dark Princess.