Cree clashed with the first one, refusing to let it overpower him as he concentrated the wind of all his funnels into pushing and freezing her deadly follicles.

"Libra Art: Beartic Crash!"

Rigal gathered the lightning in his arm, envisioning his fellow heirs and Amarilis holding his hand, offering their help to save someone whose pain and tears hid behind her raging fury.

"This is the new me! Aquila Art: Lightning Talon!"

He stabbed the remains of his tornado to electrify his spell and paralyze the Malora Constains to stab through them, racing with the speed of lightning in his veins to tear through the Wind Razor until locking hands with Cassie, shocking her while Cree's pushed further to freeze her other hand.

"Sehki!"

He launched himself up with both of them stopping the Void rampage, and blasting her entire body with shadows. Rigal and Cree held her hand with their respective element, refusing to let her fall until their friend stripped the essence consuming her body with a vicious snatch.

Cassie huffed and whiffed when Rigal used what little lightning was left to defibrillate her energy while Cree kept her airborne with his staff.

"Take it easy."

Cassie blinked. "The noise of anger. The video was edited?"

"There is a brain down there."

She whimpered, turning her head to Rigal.

"Ceph - why didn't you kill me? You held back."

"You said I hurt everyone who I cared about. This time, I wanted to save you. I told you, live for your brother's sake," reeling from the amount of physical force he had to exert, "to watch his dream come true. And if I can't bring him back, I'll stop the means that killed him."

She spat in his face. "Liar."

"You can decide my fate after. But you owe someone an apology," pointing to Sehki, watching them, a little embarrassed.

"I should've kept my guard up and stopped anyone from hurting you that night. Even if you choose to join Kesh, please let me keep my promise to Fari," giving her the details.

"Rebuild, but without the Planetary Presidents to interfere?"

"And if we find out which spouse did it, the whole world would turn against them."

"It's too good to be true-I can't trust Akilah!"

"But she's willing to end the program," said Cree. "With someone strong like you, me, and Rigal, we could replace it and make sure that never happens again."

"Proxim and Lumin have my younger brother. I don't know Ceph, but from one older sibling to another, we're not gonna let anyone hurt our younger siblings."

"You'll forgive me for the attack on the school?"

Cree nudged her head. "We had a little play fight outside our dorms. Besides, if you could've controlled those ones back then, you would've used them to fight us. Just don't do it again or we'll have to fight again."

"You threatening me, stick boy?"

"Can't have a rematch if you're in jail," leading to them butting heads while Sehki and Rigal used their powers to descend back to the populace where Taylor glomped on to his best friend.

"That was too close, you could've asked for my help."

"I told you, it was personal. At least your stamina's gotten better."

Sehki groaned. "Just make out already."

"Shut it!"

Ainsley snapped their fingers. "Guys, Proxim!"

With Cassie in toe, the four of them rushed over to the conclusion of the fight between Proxim, having holes and scars across his armor.

Candy, Lorena, Meng, Bao, Hyuga, Tenshia, Akilah, and Wali had them surrounded, with his metal dragon fractured and wings dismantled.

"Give up Proxim, it's over!"

"All means of accessing Starlight have been completely disabled. You're done."

The cold laughter from his mouth left them cackling,using the remains of the dragon to form a massive cannon, while unveiling the switches.

"One of you certainly is."

Sehki threw a giant claw to prevent them from activating, but a smaller shaped limb burst from a Nullshade portal, flying through the crowd at him and Cassie.

Tenshia pushed them out of the way when Proxim fired to knock her shield away and drag her with him into the portal with none of the Saiban members able to process their teammate being kidnapped.

"But...why? Why her?!"

Rigal kicked the ground. "We were so close!"

Sehki looked around, seeing everyone's faces, coming so close to victory.

"Guys, he's on his last legs. He's gonna try something again, and when he does, we'll get her back."

Hyuga lunged at him. "You have no idea what it's like to lose a friend!"

Sehki caught his fist, equally angered. "You have no idea how wrong you are!"

"It should've been her," pointing to Cassie. "They were working together!

Bao jumped in. "You owe Tenshia your life you horse breathed bastard!"

Cassie didn't have the strength to argue but Akilah and Meng restrained the two from continuing.

"She accepted her guilt and results. Focus your rage at the culprit currently on the run with your peer."

Rigal, Cree, Cassie and Candy looked around. Despite the damage, all of the contestants and Shugoda were still intact.

"Wait, so who won the tournament?"

They all looked up at the scores to see Sehki in third, Akilah in second, and Tenshia and Rigal tied for first.

"We'll make sure she gets her reward."

After a day of restructuring, trying to celebrate the results, and the staff and students participating heading back to Celestial, they got a surprise broadcast from Fenghuang Saiban's administration.

"We demand the allied nations secure Tenshia Tso's safety within the upcoming month and ask for Sehki Shakuheld's and Cassie Lacerta's head should failure apply."

Jia entered Mechion's chambers in surprise as Mako approached not too far behind.

"I wasn't aware of this."

"The populace want retribution. Proxim was clearly targeting both of his allies to retrieve them and ease suspicion at once."

The Shadow Brawlers woke up to this revelation, realizing they had to act to find Proxim.