The destruction of Shadowfen Coven's mental domain became the defining moment of the National Championship.
Not merely because Skygate Academy had won.
Victory alone was no longer enough to shock the Imperial City. By this stage of the tournament, every remaining team possessed monstrous talent, elite bloodlines, and terrifying combat capability. Strength itself had become expected.
What unsettled people was the method.
An academy feared across multiple kingdoms for mental warfare and illusion manipulation had been dismantled inside its own specialty.
Not overpowered through brute force.
Not overwhelmed through superior numbers.
Broken.
Systematically.
Completely.
And now, for the first time since the tournament began, uncertainty spread through the empire faster than excitement.
Nobody could confidently predict Skygate Academy's limits anymore.
That realization changed the atmosphere of the entire tournament.
