The arena shimmered under the golden light of midday. Whispers buzzed like insects in anticipation—this was it. The final match before the grand showdown.
Gem stood calmly at the center, the chains of her gem-thread weapon coiled around her arms like serpents asleep. Across from her, Ari stepped in with his signature quiet gait, no theatrics, no aura—just presence. Though he had revealed glimpses of his strength before, this was the first time he'd face someone whose magic was utterly alien. And Gem knew it.
She smiled. "You see the strings, don't you? The flows of everything around you. I've heard it whispered. You don't just cast, Ari Solen—you rewrite."
Ari didn't answer. Kaien, watching from the noble platform, narrowed his eyes. Theian sat beside him, clasping her hands, her dragons faintly growling under their breath. Even Keem leaned forward, for once not smiling.
Gem touched a radiant white gem embedded in her palm.
"This one… is special," she said, "It makes my syntax invisible. You can't calculate. You can't cut it. You can't even see it."
She activated it.
A sudden stillness washed over the arena. To most spectators, nothing seemed to change—but to Ari, it was a void. The luminous lattice of Threads that always wove around every person, object, and spell was gone. Gem stood there, untrackable, uncipherable. He could feel her presence, but nothing else. Like trying to fight a shadow with a blindfold on.
The duel began.
Gem struck without hesitation. Her chains lashed out—amethyst and sapphire gems glowing as they morphed mid-swing. Each gem held a different essence—force, delay, warp, magnetism. Ari deflected with instinct, but his normal finesse was gone. Calculations misfired. Defensive matrices collapsed. He was moving blind, and Gem capitalized.
In the stands, Hooven muttered, "This is brutal…"
Vinny nodded grimly. "He's being overwhelmed."
Keem's eyes darted. "She's playing it like a symphony. Every gem—another note. Another layer. And he can't read the sheet music."
Ari bled. Not heavily, but noticeably. A slash from an emerald edge across the shoulder. A crushing blow from a ruby pulse that cracked the arena tiles. He stumbled, and Gem's expression hardened—not cruel, but precise. She was a tactician, and this was war.
But Ari was still… Ari.
As the battle raged on, Ari closed his eyes. Not from surrender—but to feel. To search not with sight or syntax or calculation—but instinct. A different kind of reading. He started tracing her movements by rhythm, the pulse of her footsteps, the tension of air pressure when a gem flared.
And then—he adjusted.
He didn't restore his calculation. He bypassed it entirely.
The arena tilted as Gem launched a final wave—diamond chains swirling, the gems glowing with chaotic, synchronized effects. Ari, bleeding and bruised, stood tall. A single hand traced a symbol in the air—a completely new kind of sigil. Fluid, ancient, and not from any known magical school.
His voice rang out, not loud but absolute.
"Δ: Rewrite."
Gem blinked—and her chains froze mid-air. Not broken. Not unraveled. But recognized.
Ari had managed to "imprint" his magic into her system, even with its lockout. He hadn't bypassed the syntax—he had inscribed something older onto her diamond gem directly. An Originis-level spell. Elegant. Deep. Gentle.
The chains slowly retracted.
Gem stepped back, breathing hard. "What… did you just do?"
Ari approached, held out a hand, and touched the diamond gem embedded in her left gauntlet. A soft glow pulsed through it.
"I gave you something," he said. "A spell I've never shared. It's yours now. Do with it what you will."
Gem looked down, stunned. Inside her most precious gem was a spell that shouldn't exist. A core function that blended harmony, silence, and raw syntactical potential.
A gift.
The crowd rose to their feet, uncertain of what they'd just witnessed. They didn't cheer. They just… stood.
Keem muttered, "He's more than a genius. He's something else."
Theian's dragons exhaled together, their ancient instincts acknowledging the weight of what just happened.
Gem bowed.
Ari nodded.
No need for more words.
The duel was over.