The platform beneath Selene’s feet shimmered.

  Lines of System-script scrolled across the air before her.

  Names began to form.

  The first round was being assigned.

  The arena itself fractured into a dozen hovering platforms, each glowing with pulsing blue light.

  Pairs of Sovereigns vanished from the gathering point, carried away by bridges of silver radiance.

  The first round had begun.

  Match 1: Selene of the Court of Balance vs. Lord Halric of the Wyrmguard Bastion

  A soft chime rang out.

  Her platform shifted.

  And then— she was gone.

  ---

  Selene appeared in an arena of cracked ivory stone, its surface laced with golden veins of dormant energy. The air was still, heavy with the artificial calm of system-perfect silence.

  Across from her stood a tall man clad in plated silver armor with red serpent scales etched into the pauldrons. His hair was dark and swept back, his smirk practiced.

  Lord Halric.

  A curved spear hung from his back, and a long crimson cloak fluttered around his shoulders even without wind.

  His weapon of choice—a halberd, summoned from the System arsenal—materialized with a glimmer of light.

  He rolled his shoulders, eyes locked on her.

  “So. You’re the ‘first to finish,’ aren’t you?”

  Selene said nothing.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  He clicked his tongue.

  “I expected someone terrifying. Not a little priestess with a staff and an abstract concept for a Domain.”

  He gave a theatrical sigh.

  “Balance? Really? That’s not a weapon. That’s a compromise.”

  Selene’s golden eyes didn’t flicker.

  Halric stepped forward, lazily twirling his halberd. “You can’t win with balance. Balance is the enemy of victory. Peace. Stagnation. Weakness.”

  He grinned. “I was forged in the crucible of conquest. My Wyrmguard cleaved through traitors and tyrants alike. Your Domain?”

  He scoffed. “It’s nothing.”

  Selene lifted her staff. Her expression was unreadable, calm.

  Then she said, softly,

  “You misunderstand what Balance is.”

  Halric tilted his head.

  “It’s not peace,” she continued. “It’s not stillness.”

  She took a step forward, the shadows behind her curling like they knew what was coming.

  “It is the line between all things. War and peace. Light and dark. Chaos and order.”

  Another step.

  “And unlike you, I don’t wield it as an idea.”

  She raised her staff.

  “I am it.”

  Halric narrowed his eyes.

  “And what does that mean, exactly?”

  Selene smiled.

  “It means I don’t have to maintain balance.”

  The Arena lights flared, signaling match start.

  “I can tilt it.”

  ---

  Halric charged, his halberd sweeping in a brutal arc.

  Selene didn’t move.

  The strike should have split her in two—

  But the moment his blade reached her, it slowed, pulled as if caught in invisible tension.

  Halric’s eyes widened.

  “What—”

  Selene’s staff flicked forward, striking the base of the halberd with surgical precision.

  The weapon tilted.

  And momentum inverted.

  Halric was thrown off balance—

  Selene stepped past him, her foot tapping the floor with delicate finality.

  The air folded.

  A weight fell.

  Halric staggered.

  Something pressed into his shoulders. His knees buckled.

  The Arena was perfectly flat, but to him, the world now sloped against him—

  Every movement a climb.

  “Why does it feel—”

  He swung wildly, and she stepped around the arc like gravity itself was her servant.

  She didn’t need speed.

  She didn’t need strength.

  She had direction.

  “Balance,” she said, her voice like a verdict, “is not about fairness.”

  She turned her staff.

  “It is about consequence.”

  A crack of power surged from the ground.

  For every ounce of force he had brought to bear—

  It returned, magnified.

  Halric’s own kinetic weight, redirected.

  He was flung backward, crashing into the far wall with bone-rattling finality.

  The System chimed:

  《Victory: Selene of the Court of Balance》

  《Awarded: 3 Victory Points》

  Selene exhaled.

  The world shifted.

  The arena dissolved.

  And she returned to the waiting platform.

  ---

  The other Sovereigns watched her arrival in silence.

  No applause.

  No comment.

  Just calculation.

  They had all seen the match.

  They now knew the truth.

  Balance was not peace.

  Balance was not weakness.

  Balance was a weapon.

  And she knew how to wield it.