"You stand among the strongest of your generation. Less than twenty-four hours ago, you were two thousand. Today, you are two hundred. Each of you should be proud, regardless of your current ranking. Surviving this far is not luck. It is skill. It is determination. It is the will to push past your limits when others around you broke."

The crowd murmured with anticipation.

Klein raised his hand, and the noise died down again.

"Before we begin preparations for the next stage, we have a special guest joining us today. A guest who carries an announcement that will change the course of everything humanity has believed was possible since the Great Collapse."

The murmuring stopped entirely as Klein’s smile sharpened.

"Please welcome the Light Sword Saint himself and the champion of the Spirit Tournament. Alaric Sky."

The arena erupted.

Cheers cascaded down from the spectator stands in waves, the noise spreading across the open space.

The name alone was enough to make hundreds of thousands of people lose their composure. People were standing, shouting, chanting his name. Naturally, as one of the previous winners of the tournament, Alaric was no stranger to these people.

Alaric was more famous than some of the Ascenders, despite being a Surpasser himself. Everyone acknowledged his genius, and nobody dared to underestimate him.

Those that had been somewhat unconvinced by Klein’s words, began to pay more attention. At first, some thought he was exaggerating.

Changing the course of everything humanity thought was possible?

It sounded absurd!

But if Alaric was behind it, then perhaps...it wasn’t

A figure descended from the upper levels of the arena. Alaric Sky touched down on the central platform beside the Ascender, his white-trimmed cloak settling around his shoulders, his sword sheathed at his side.

Emma walked into view beside him, having taken a more conventional path from the side entrance. She stayed a few steps behind him as he moved to the center of the stage.

Alaric raised a hand to acknowledge the crowd and the cheers grew louder.

In the holding area, Selene’s eyes widened.

Moon who was already watching caught sight of this. His eyes were narrowed slightly, studying the Light Sword Saint as he prepared to address the arena.

The man who was about to announce something that would supposedly change everything humanity thought it knew.

Moon’s gaze sharpened. To say that he wasn’t curious was an understatement.

Alaric stood at the centre of it all, the cameras drinking in his every movement.

"Since the Great Collapse, we’ve all lived by one rule. A human cannot learn the skills of a class that is not his own. A swordsman cannot wield the arts of an archer. A mage cannot bear the burdens of a tank. We accepted this as law as truth without question."

"But what if I told you that truth was nothing more than our own ignorance?"

Murmurs began to spread through the crowd.

"What if I told you that beyond the classes we know, there exists a river? A river of paths. A river of potential so vast that we’ve only ever stood at its edge, too afraid to step in." His eyes swept across the faces before him. "A path that could let us, mere humans, stand toe to toe with spirits, werewolves, and the powerful races that have looked down on us since the Sanctuaries first appeared."

The restlessness spread. These weren’t ordinary listeners. They were awakeners. Evolvers. People who understood exactly how the world worked, and exactly how impossible his words sounded.

Every camera was placed on Alaric. Every major channel had cut to this broadcast.

Even the powerhouses of the three neighbouring kingdoms had stopped to watch, brows furrowed, wondering what this man was claiming.

Naturally, they know about the River of Paths. Most Evolvers knew about it, and only Surpassers were able to enter it. But even then, they couldn’t understand how that was possible.

A few of them had crossed paths with Alaric in the Second Sanctuary before. They knew one thing about him with certainty.

He was not the kind of man who lied about things like this.

The screen shifted to a recorded video.

The footage showed Alaric standing alone in the wilderness, a place where only beasts and fugitives tread.

He faced a mountain that towered over him.

Suddenly, the sky changed turned golden.

A massive sword of pure golden light formed above Alaric, suspended in the air, radiant enough to paint the sky in gold.

The golden sword struck the mountain and split it clean in two, the halves sliding apart as though the stone had offered no resistance at all. As though the sword hadn’t even noticed it was there.

The crowd watched in awe. The skill was undeniably powerful, yes, but why would a single impressive technique change the course of humanity itself?

Alaric answered the question before it could be spoken aloud.

"My class is that of a Light Swordsman. I cannot use light on its own. I cannot use the sword on its own. Every skill I possess demands both at once. Light and swords, fused together. That is the nature of my class. That is its limit."

His gaze sharpened.

"Yet the skill you just witnessed used my light element alone. Even if it took the shape of a sword, it was light, and light only. A skill that, by the law we know, I should never have been able to perform."

The murmurs turned louder as those with less knowledge began to comprehend Alaric’s words.

"This is the river I speak of." Alaric raised a hand. "Your class exists in that river. And that river runs along a fixed course. A swordsman wields sword skills. A mage wields spells. We follow the current because we’re told there’s nothing beyond its banks."

Alaric closed his fist. "But if you’re willing to take the risk, to step off the path and diverge from the current, even slightly, you’ll find doorways you never imagined existed."