The creature had now become the target of every archer in the arena. Most of them were novices whose arrows posed little threat on their own, their shots easily avoided by the Chimera’s unnatural agility. Yet there was one archer among them that the creature couldn’t afford to ignore.

Lysanne. Every arrow she released forced it to move. Every arrow demanded its attention and her plan was working.

With the Chimera distracted, Keira’s movements gradually began to lose their sharpness. The relentless ferocity she had displayed moments ago was faltering, her attacks becoming less coordinated as though whatever force controlled her was struggling to maintain its hold.

Alys noticed it immediately.

She continued retreating for a few more exchanges, waiting for an opening while avoiding Keira’s increasingly erratic strikes. The moment it appeared, she lunged forward.

Grabbing both of Keira’s arms, Alys drove her to the ground.

Keira let out a strangled grunt and immediately began struggling beneath her. Her entire body writhed with desperate strength, twisting and thrashing as though she were a trapped animal fighting for its life. Tears still streamed down her face while her fingers clawed helplessly at the ground.

Ignoring the panic rising inside her, Alys quickly reached for the mana stone brooch attached to her robe. She tore it free and pressed the blue gem firmly against Keira’s bleeding wound.

"Please work," she whispered. "Please work..."

It was the only thing she could think of.

The creature’s power felt wrong. Every trace of mana surrounding it carried the cold, lifeless sensation of decay. If the cursed mana of the creature had entered Keira’s body through her wounds, then perhaps the pure mana stored within a Dragon’s mana stone could suppress it.

For several agonizing seconds, nothing happened.

Keira continued struggling beneath her, her body shaking violently as she fought against something invisible. Then the mana stone suddenly began to glow.

A soft blue light spread from the gem and through the wound beneath it.

As the glow intensified, Alys watched as a black liquid began seeping from the edges of Keira’s injury. The substance looked thick and unnatural, almost alive as it crawled across her skin. The moment it touched the blue light, however, it began to sizzle.

Thin wisps of smoke rose into the air and the black residue writhed for a few moments before slowly evaporating altogether.

Keira’s body jerked for a little bit before all the tension left her muscles and her eyes fluttered shut and her body went limp beneath Alys.

Relief flooded through her so suddenly that she nearly laughed.

It worked.

Alys released a deep breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding and carefully climbed off the unconscious girl. After making certain Keira was still breathing, she finally lifted her head toward the opposite side of the arena.

The Chimera was still occupied.

Growls and frustrated snarls echoed through the arena as arrows continued raining down around it. Some struck the ground, others scraped against stone pillars, and a few came dangerously close to finding their mark. The constant barrage left the creature little room to focus on anything else.

It hadn’t realized that Keira was no longer under its control, more importantly, it hadn’t noticed Alys gathering mana in her palm.

Heat condensed rapidly around her hand as flames swirled together, forming a blazing sphere that grew larger with every passing second. The Chimera remained focused on the archers, twisting away from another arrow while snarling at Lysanne’s position.

By the time it finally sensed the danger, the fireball was already racing toward it and there was nowhere left to run.

The moment the fireball struck, the entire arena was bathed in orange light.

A wave of heat rolled across the colosseum as the explosion engulfed the Chimera. Flames erupted outward, swallowing the creature whole. Its shrill screech echoed through the arena, distorted and agonized, before being drowned beneath the roar of the fire.

The nobles watching from their balconies instinctively shielded their eyes while the Aether Screens flickered with brilliant shades of orange and gold. For a few moments, nobody could see anything beyond the inferno raging at the center of the arena.

Then, slowly, the flames began to die down and the fire receded bit by bit, revealing the scorched stone beneath and at the center of it all lay a charred body laying motionless.

Alys remained where she stood, her chest rising and falling heavily as she stared at the blackened corpse. Around her, nobody spoke. The entire colosseum seemed to be holding its breath.

Carefully, she approached, every instinct warned her to stay alert. The creature had already proven itself capable of things no one expected.

When she reached it, she cautiously nudged the corpse with her foot.

Nothing happened, its body remained still, no twitch, no growl, no sudden attack, just silence.

Alys took a step back and for several long seconds, nobody moved, nobody spoke.

The realization settled over the arena one person at a time.

The Chimera was dead.

"Did it die?!" One of the twins suddenly shouted from the balcony.

Lysanne stood frozen, still staring at the blackened remains.

The question seemed to snap her out of her stupor.

"Yes..." she whispered.

A grin slowly spread across her face and then she laughed, a loud, disbelieving laugh filled with relief.

"We did it!" She shouted.

The spell of silence shattered and cheers erupted throughout the colosseum.

"They did it!"

"The Princess defeated it!"

"All hail the Princess!"

The deafening roar of thousands of voices swept through the arena like a wave.

Alys looked around at the people cheering from every direction. Nobles were applauding from their balconies, commoners were shouting in celebration, and even the knights who had spent the last hour preparing for the worst were laughing with relief.

Many of the mages sagged where they stood, exhaustion finally catching up to them now that the danger had passed. Others embraced one another or exchanged relieved smiles.

Everyone was alive.

That thought brought Alys far more comfort than the cheers ever could.

Her gaze wandered across the arena, passing over familiar faces until it finally settled on one person.

Silas.

He was walking toward her through the crowd.

The afternoon breeze drifted through the arena, stirring his long pink hair as he approached. Compared to the chaos that had consumed the arena moments ago, his presence felt strangely steady.

Without realizing it, Alys smiled.

It was over, the nightmare that she had been running away from was finally over.

She took a step toward him, then another, a few more steps and only then did she realize how exhausted she truly was.

The adrenaline that had carried her through the battle vanished all at once and the mana that she had expended left her legs weak and trembling. Her vision swam slightly as the exhaustion she had been ignoring finally demanded its due.

Just as her knees threatened to give out, strong arms caught her. Alys stumbled forward and instinctively wrapped her arms around Silas.

For a moment, she simply let herself lean against him, allowing him to support nearly all of her weight.

"You did it," Silas said softly.

The words seemed to break something inside her and all the tension she had been carrying since the battle began suddenly unraveled.

Her eyes stung and before she could stop herself, tears gathered in them.

Burying her face against his shoulder, Alys tightened her grip on him and let herself breathe.

High above the arena, Marquis Fairisles watched the scene unfold in silence.

The sight of Alys leaning against Silas brought an unfamiliar sense of relief to his chest. The battle was finally over. The creature was dead, the people were safe, and despite the chaos and destruction, they had managed to avoid the tragedy everyone had feared.

For a brief moment, he allowed himself to relax and then he turned and gave a signal to the mages maintaining the barrier around the arena.

The exhausted mages nodded. Many of them looked ready to collapse after maintaining the formation for so long. One by one, they began dismantling the spell. The glowing runes surrounding the arena gradually faded until the barrier finally disappeared altogether.

Not far away, Roger released a long breath and slid back into his seat.

Only now did he realize how tightly the knot in his stomach had churned and every fibre in his body had been strained.

A laugh escaped him, half relieved and half in disbelief.

For years he had lived with the constant fear that his niece’s existence would be discovered by the wrong people. Every step forward had carried risks. Every appearance had been carefully considered and yet now she had stood before the entire kingdom.

Not as a hidden child forced to remain in the shadows and run just to survive but now she stood here acknowledged by the people and she had saved everyone.

The thought alone made his eyes sting.

Meanwhile, Colette rose from her seat so abruptly that several nearby nobles glanced in her direction. Her nails dug into her palms as she stared at the arena below.

The cheering, applause, chants.Every single voice celebrating the girl who should never have been standing there.

The girl who was supposed to have died years ago. The sight made her stomach churn.

Without sparing another glance toward the arena, Colette turned on her heel and stormed away. She had no intention of remaining there just to watch people praise the Princess whose existence had ruined everything.

Far above the colosseum, perched atop one of the towering spires overlooking the city, Caelthir remained where he was.

Unlike everyone else, he had watched the entire battle from beginning to end.

A small smile appeared on his face as he slowly brought his hands together.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The sound was soft against the wind, yet genuine.

"That was good."

His silver eyes remained fixed on the arena below where Alys and Silas stood together amidst the celebrations.

For a few moments he simply watched and then his gaze shifted toward the group of mages escorting an unconscious Keira away from the arena.

The smile on his face slowly faded.

"But you haven’t finished the work."

The words were carried away by the wind.

The next moment, his feet left the stone spire but instead of falling, his body simply drifted forward as though gravity had forgotten him. The air bent subtly around his form and his figure gradually blurred from sight.