Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Thick white smoke billowed furiously from the bay’s water surface, obscuring nearly half of the Venice Oceanus Colosseum. The air was heavy with the pungent smell of burning sulfur mixed with the thick, foul stench of kelp scorched to ashes by terrifying heat. Slender, needle-thin purple lightning arcs crackled wildly across the boiling water, coiling tightly around floating, shattered granite blocks.
The entire arena of one hundred and twenty thousand spectators fell into an eerie silence.
Not a single cheer. Not a single whisper. Even the howling sea breeze sweeping across the arc-shaped stands seemed choked off. Over two hundred thousand gazes locked intently onto the protruding rock in the middle of the artificial lake—where a teenager in a black combat uniform trimmed with gold stood towering, his robes fluttering gently in the salty wind.
At his feet, the five contestants of the Westbound Team—those who half an hour ago still called themselves the golden generation of the Western magic holy land—now lay scattered on rescue floats, unconscious. Their magic shields were shattered, their armor scorched black and jagged, and their magic energy depleted to the point where not a single finger could twitch.
Five against one! A complete, overwhelming sweep powered by the destructive might of the Dual Spirit Seed of Lightning and Fire!