"I believed I had found someone with great potential. Someone worth nurturing into becoming something better."

Zeras claimed.

"I even asked Iritis here to look after you, to make sure nothing got in the way of your growth... though he seemed to have failed at his mission."

He added, turning to look at Iritis, who stood up straight from reclining on the railings, both hands crossed.

"I never believed in that Academy Interchange, almost like I knew something would go wrong, but Iritis told me nothing would happen."

"That you were more than capable of handling yourself."

"Outcasts worthy of the Main Family’s nurturing are non-existent."

"I thought you could be the first, and maybe through you, the other Outcasts could be brought back, mending the broken relationship that exists in the Limitless Family between the Main branch and the Outcasts."

"Something that seems like only I can see is weakening us as a family."

Zeras explained.

"But now what do I get? All my hopes and dreams crushed, along with something that now looks like I have to personally get rid of."

He exhaled to get rid of the anger in his tone before he asked more quietly.

"So tell me, White. Tell me you haven’t lost your Limitless Awakening."

"I have..."

White said, and Zeras’ heart sank in his chest.

But then he froze as White slowly raised both hands, moving them up, with his fingers forming a runic symbol.

A perfect circle that White placed over his left eye as he looked directly at Zeras through it.

"I have become something so much more."

"Activate Sun Burn Domain!"

The second those words fell, light ceased to exist.

A terrifying darkness spread through the arena, far surpassing it and reducing all of the second years into darkness.

---

"What the hell?"

"A power outage?"

---

Some of the students were left bewildered, yet the strongest among them felt an unexplainable sinking feeling in their chests.

And no one got that sinking feeling in greater amounts than Zeras and Instructor Iritis, who stood mere meters away from the source of it.

Infinity Eyes allowed Zeras to see easily through the darkness, and he was able to witness the transformation.

The chairs, the floor, everything disappeared, replaced by darkness.

And from the horizon, something rose behind White.

A pitch-black sun that radiated an aura of deathly destruction.

BAADUUMP!

BAADUUMP!

Zeras’ heart palpitated in his chest, and it wasn’t the only thing.

He could feel even his own eyes flaring within their sockets.

White’s eyes, peering through the runic circle formed by his fingers, looked directly at the shocked Zeras, and he called out:

"Absolute Collapse!"

A massive black hole spiraled open from all around Zeras, and his face changed massively.

He took a step back only to freeze as another terrifying pull enveloped him from behind.

It was an absolute lockdown.

Before him, above him, beneath him, and behind him, black holes had opened up, all unleashing a terrifying absorption force that dragged at him from every direction, seeking to rip him apart into nothing. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

His eyes instantly exploded with light as the words cut through the domain.

"Infinity Eyes: Infinity Will Rip!"

A chilling silence draped over the domain, then,

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP!

A will cut through the domain like a knife through butter, ripping through the black holes surrounding Zeras, and the entire darkness was separated into two in an instant.

White was able to flash to the side, avoiding the attack, but the sun behind him was ripped apart as the entire domain was split straight through.

It naturally dispersed, the world returning to the arena,

BANG!

The sound of a single knee collapsing echoed as Zeras fell onto one knee.

DRIIIP!

DRIIIP!

...one drop of blood, then two.

His blue eyes remained wide, fingers shakily reaching for them.

They were bleeding.

His Infinity Eyes, which could easily override almost all Limitless techniques, were bleeding, something that only happens when he overuses them.

But how could he have already overused it, when all he had done was shut down a single Limitless Technique?

He turned to White, who slowly lowered his hands.

"That was just Limitless Collapse, by the way."

Zeras’ chest sank in, though in the next moment, a grin widened on his face as he rose to his feet.

He closed his eyes, the blood rolling back in, and when he reopened them, light burst furiously from them as an astral pillar descended from the sky, bathing his figure.

"Show me... Show me everything, White Sinclaw!"

He roared out, and White grinned wildly, raising his hands once more.

"If you wish."

"Activate Infinity Eyes..."

"Activate Astral..."

Both commands were issued at the same time, only for something to cut through both.

"Sever!"

BLERRRGH!

Blood burst from White’s lips, his eyes coated in crimson veins as he dropped to one knee.

[Astral Monarch Skill Has Been Forcefully Deactivated by a Preset Absolute Rule!]

The system panel flashed, and White turned forward to find Zeras falling onto both knees.

His body collapsed to the side, losing consciousness instantly as blood dripped from his lips, quickly forming a pool around his head.

’It’s not him.’

His head jerked up right after, and there he witnessed a total of three people descending from the sky into the arena.

"Punishers?"

Instructor Iritis’ whisper echoed behind him, and White froze.

Punishers...

They were staff members of Xtremecyber responsible for upholding the rules, but they rarely showed themselves in person.

The system itself had been built into their runic watch, acting as a punisher of sorts, that punishes most rule-breaking by automatically deducting their points, leaving no need for the Punishers to come personally to a student.

They mainly only focused on the third years, who possessed destructive powers that most of the time couldn’t be held back or punished by the runic watch system.

Yet here they were before him.

They were dressed in a robe of red with high collars that covered everything beneath their eyes.

"Take him away."

The one in front said to the others, and one of the Punishers grabbed Zeras, carrying his unconscious body out of the hall.

That left White and Instructor Iritis alone with the remaining two Punishers.

"Tell me you’re only standing there because you were planning to put a stop to this... Iritis. Not that you somehow had something to do with this."

The Punisher’s pitch-black eyes turned to Instructor Iritis, whose eyes shrank to needles.