I Copy the Authorities of the Four Calamities

The air in the Iron Cathedral died: replaced by a pressurized, vibrating silence. Behind Vane, a spectral silhouette manifested from the silver mana. It was rendered in translucent, flickering light that seemed to eat the blue glow of the room. The figure had raven-black hair, falling in a sharp, pragmatic cut that framed a face Vane knew better than his own. Her presence was not a cold, distant authority: it was the heavy, blood-soaked weight of a woman who had survived the worst the Empire could throw at her.

[Skill: Perfect Copy (Grade S) — Time Remaining: 58 Seconds]

Vane felt his nervous system ignite. It was a searing, agonizing transition that made the previous pain of his broken ribs feel like a distant tickle. His Elite vessel was being forcibly synchronized with the combat logic of a Rank 6 Expert. Every muscle fiber thrummed with a frequency that threatened to tear his marrow apart. But through the static of the physical torture, he felt her.

He remembered the sterile, high-tech training halls of Zenith Academy after midnight. He remembered the smell of the medicinal mana she had to inhale between rounds: a sharp, herbal scent that couldn't hide the iron tang of the blood she coughed into her sleeve. They hadn't trained in the mud of Oakhaven: they had trained in the shadow of the world's greatest school. Senna had found him when he arrived at Zenith, a boy with nothing but a name and a hollow chest. She had seen the "Rat" and decided to forge a King.

He remembered the nights they spent in her private quarters. She had been his mentor: his lover: and his only anchor. He remembered the warmth of her body against his, even as she grew thinner and her skin became pale. She was too sick to be saved: a terminal decay of the mana-channels that no Light mage could mend. She had known she was dying, and she had spent every remaining heartbeat pouring the Argent Horizon into his bones.

"I am living, Senna," Vane whispered, his voice a rasp of blood and mana.

The pain of her absence flared in his chest, sharper than the mana-recoil. For one minute, he was not just Vane. He was the vessel for the woman who had given him everything before the winter took her.

Vane moved.

He did not lunge with the staggered acceleration of an Elite. He simply existed in Isaac's space. The transition was so fluid it bypassed the concept of kinetic buildup. The star-steel spear-tip moved in a perfect, frictionless line that sought the tiny gaps in Isaac's aura.

Isaac's eyes widened. For the first time in his life: the Monarch felt a primitive, bone-deep shudder. He wasn't looking at a student. He was looking at the ghost of the General who had once turned the tide of the Continental War with a single command.

"The General," Isaac whispered, his hand trembling as he threw up a triple-layer of spatial folds.

Vane didn't use brute force. He used the Argent Horizon, 1st Form: Quicksilver Thrust to find the resonant frequency of the spatial mana. The silver mana on the tip vibrated once: and the fold unraveled like a loose thread. The second and third layers followed: severed like silk beneath a razor.

The star-steel tip slammed into the obsidian-black armor on Isaac's chest.

A crystalline ring echoed through the Cathedral. The obsidian frost: which had been an immovable wall: developed a jagged, star-shaped fracture. Isaac was launched backward. His feet left the floor as he crashed through three frozen iron pillars. The structural integrity of the Cathedral groaned. The ceiling rained shards of ice and rusted metal.

[Time Remaining: 45 Seconds]

Isaac scrambled to his feet. His breath came in shallow, frantic gasps. His regal mask was shattered. There was blood on his chin: and his sapphire eyes were burning with a terrifying, white-hot intensity. He looked at Vane: who was already closing the gap again. The raven-haired phantom of Senna mirrored every step: her ghostly hands overlapping Vane's on the shaft.

'He isn't a student,' Isaac thought, his mana-core beginning to spin at a frequency that made his skin glow. 'He is a monster that crawled out of the mud to hunt the sun.'

Isaac stopped retreating. He threw his arms wide: the blue frost in the room turning into a violent, swirling vortex. He pushed himself to the absolute ceiling of the Elite rank: his mana quality sharpening until it began to resonate with the very foundation of the Iron Cathedral.

"If you are going to show me the General," Isaac roared: his voice a physical shockwave that leveled the debris around him. "Then I will show you why I am the Sovereign of the North!"

The two entities collided in the center of the ruins.

It was a duel that the Labyrinth was never designed to contain. Vane used the Argent Horizon as a proper mana-art. The spear-tip carved lines of silver light that severed Isaac's frost-spikes mid-air. He moved with a lack of wasted motion that was haunting: his body being piloted by Senna's prime instincts. But every strike cost him. He could feel his bones developing micro-fractures from the sheer kinetic energy his body was forced to produce.

Isaac matched him blow for blow. He used his space-time magic to deflect the spear-tip and find the micro-seconds between Vane's rotations. He was evolving in real-time. His talent was responding to the threat of the General with a ferocity that Vane had never seen.

'He's a monster,' Vane thought: his vision flickering red as a mana-vessel in his eye burst. 'To keep up with an Expert's logic while still an Elite: he truly is a Monarch.'

'This is what it means to have an EX-rank Authority,' Vane realized through the haze of battle. 'I am finally living up to the title.' Just like every legendary EX-rank holder he met: he had unlocked his first S-rank skill. He was no longer just copying: he was usurping the throne of the Experts.

[Time Remaining: 20 Seconds]

The Iron Cathedral was being systematically dismantled. The massive iron gears that powered the descent were being sliced into scrap by Vane's silver mana. The floors were being crushed into dust by Isaac's gravity. The two of them moved like blurs of light: two geniuses standing at the same threshold: refusing to let the other pass.

Vane felt the pain in his heart reach a peak. It wasn't just the Perfect Copy. It was the weight of Senna's final moments. He remembered her lying in that bed in the Zenith infirmary: her hand going cold in his. She had told him not to build a shrine: but to sharpen his art on the throats of those who left them behind.

"I am living, Senna," Vane whispered: his voice a rasp of blood.

He threw the entirety of his soul into the final form.

[Argent Horizon, 3rd Form: Falling Star — True Resonance]

Vane leaped. He didn't just spin: he became a singular, rotating drill of silver light. The raven-haired phantom of Senna merged with his body. They became a spear that sought to pierce the world itself.

Isaac looked up. He didn't blink. He drew all the blue frost and the thermal energy of the room into his right fist. He reached for the Sentinel threshold: pulling with every scrap of his imperial heritage. He wasn't a Sentinel yet: but he was the absolute peak of the Elite.

"Vane!" Isaac screamed: his voice filled with a genuine, predatory respect.

"Isaac!" Vane roared.

The silver spear-tip met the black ice core.

The explosion was silent. A wave of pure, unadulterated mana expanded from the contact point: turning the central platform into a crater. The shockwave traveled up the tethered chains of Zenith: vibrating the entire archipelago. The observation room's monitors went white as the sensors were overloaded by the sheer density of the output.

[Time Remaining: 0 Seconds]

The silver spectral armor shattered. The ghostly silhouette of Senna vanished into motes of light. Vane fell from the air like a bird with clipped wings: his body hitting the rubble with a hollow thud. Every mana-channel in his body was screaming: and his heart was struggling to maintain even a basic rhythm.

Five meters away: Isaac slumped against a half-melted iron pillar. His obsidian armor was gone. His uniform was in tatters: and his breath was a series of ragged, white plumes. He looked at his hand: which was shaking from the cold and the exhaustion.

The two of them lay in the wreckage of the Cathedral, the blue emergency lights of the Labyrinth flickering on.

Isaac turned his head: looking at Vane through the settling dust. He saw the boy who had survived the mud. He saw the warrior who had channeled an Expert. He no longer saw a "Rat." He saw the only peer he had ever met.

"You," Isaac rasped: his voice barely a whisper. "You really are a monster, Vane."

Vane managed a weak, bloody grin. He couldn't move his arms. He couldn't feel his legs. But for the first time: he felt like he was standing on the same ground as the Monarch.

"Takes one to know one, Isaac," Vane breathed.