The sun came up and none of them noticed.
One from All was already in the corridor when Riku's door opened, and Riku was already dressed when Elara stepped out — her fire-red hair deeper than usual, almost volcanic, her Anym so settled and dense it pressed against the walls of the narrow hallway like a held breath. Nobody said good morning. Nobody asked if anyone had slept. The answer was written on all three of them and none of it needed words.
They walked.
The hallway was wrong the moment they entered it. Not visibly — the obsidian walls were the same, the cold blue light from the ceiling crystals unchanged — but the air had transformed overnight into something that prickled against exposed skin. Sixty-seven students, all of them monsters, all of them sleepless and sharpened and done waiting. The Anym bleeding from every door they passed was no longer the ambient hum of students at rest. It was aggressive. Directional. The magic of people who had already decided, at some point in the dark hours before dawn, that today was the day they stopped being careful.
One from All kept his face neutral and his void pulled in tight.
They reached the classroom and took their seats. The silence inside was a different species entirely from the silence of the library or the silence of the courtyard at night. This one had teeth. Every student faced forward, but no one was looking at the front of the room. They were all looking sideways — measuring, calculating, mentally drawing lines between themselves and every other person in the room.
Then the world moved without warning.
No teacher. No instruction. No countdown. One moment — stone walls, cold light, sixty-seven coiled bodies. The next — ancient trees, the thick green smell of living Anym, and a sky so completely swallowed by canopy that the sun was nothing but a rumor.
One from All's feet hit the forest floor. His void snapped open around him like an instinct.
He was already alone.
One from All looked around and realized the school had separated them. He wasn't with Riku or Elara.
He stood in a small clearing with two others. One was the girl who had tried to hold him down during the confrontation with Levi—the mean girl with the Hero's Magic. The other was Sora from the libary.
Across the forest, Riku found himself standing with the other girl from Levi's group—the one with the Diamond Embodiment—and the white-haired boy who had warned Valen on the first day.
Elara was in perhaps the most volatile group: she was standing next to Levi himself and a girl with white hair and completely white eyes.
Finally, Valen was stuck with Kael and a violent-looking guy who had been causing trouble in the back of the class.
In front of each group, a single red card hovered in the air, glowing with a faint light. Simultaneously, a cold, telepathic message echoed in all their heads:
"You are to select a leader who will hold the card. You each currently have ten points. There are beasts to slay and items hidden in this forest that can increase your points. Each team must have a total of 250 points to qualify for the actual battle."
The voice in their heads grew colder. "This is to weed out the weaklings. If you do not have the necessary amount of points before sundown, you will not be expelled instantly. Instead, you will be separated from the rest in a special class to be disciplined. If you can survive the discipline, you may return. If you cannot, it means expulsion. The rules are simple: No killing each other. You can collect another group's card through combat. A team leader has the power to drop anyone who is injured or not participating as a 'burden.' Any level of damage can be inflicted during battle because, upon returning, you will be fully healed. You cannot team up with another group, and you cannot steal a card; it must be surrendered through actual combat."
Hearing this, One from All was shocked. He looked at his teammates. He was confused at the kind of team he had been given. He was stuck with the girl who had a bad history with him just days ago. He looked at the red card and then at her. He decided to be the leader, expecting a fight, but there were no objections from the girl. To his surprise, she didn't look mean anymore; she looked focused. She introduced herself as yuki She seemed quite nice, not at all the way he had expected her to be after their first meeting. Sora nodded in agreement, and One from All took the card.
In the second group, Riku looked at the white-haired boy. The power coming off him was immense. Riku didn't want the responsibility of the card, so he asked the white-haired boy to be the leader since he was clearly the strongest among them.
The boy then grabbed the card. "Fine. My name is Naraka, but just call me Nara," he said. The girl with the diamond skin looked at Riku and gave a small nod. "I'm Reina," she said.
In the final group, the atmosphere was toxic. Valen and the violent guy, who said his name was Tora, immediately started shouting. Both of them wanted to be the leader. They stepped toward each other, Anym flaring, ready to fight for the card before the test even started.
Kael didn't even look at them. While they were arguing, he simply walked forward, picked up the card, and selected his own name as the leader on the interface. Valen and Tora looked at him, furious, but the card was already locked to Kael's signature. Nothing could be done. They didn't want to fail the test, so they couldn't waste time fighting him.
With the leaders chosen and the stakes set, the groups vanished into the thick foliage of the forest. The peace of the "wait" was officially dead. Their long-awaited battle had finally started.
One from All led yuki and Sora deeper into the woods. The trees here were infused with Anym, making them harder than iron. Every rustle in the bushes could be a Purgatory Beast or another team looking to steal their points.
"Don't slow us down," yuki said, though her tone was more cautious than mean. "If we don't get 250 points, I'm not going to that 'discipline' class."
"I have no intention of failing," One from All replied. He could feel his Magic pulsing in his palm. He wasn't just looking for beasts; he was looking for a challenge. He wanted to see if his mental battles had truly prepared him for the chaos of a real war.
Suddenly, the ground shook. A roar that sounded like grinding metal echoed through the trees. From the shadows, a Purgatory Beast emerged—a massive creature that looked like a wolf made of shadows and jagged bone. It had three eyes, each glowing with a sick, purple light.
"Ten points," Sora whispered.
"Wait," One from All said, stepping forward. "Let me see what it can do."
He wanted to test his Presence. He let a tiny fraction of his King's Magic leak out, targeting the beast. The wolf-creature froze, its purple eyes widening. It whined, a sound of pure terror, as it felt the weight of the "One True King" pressing down on its soul.
yuki and Sora watched in silence. They could feel a bit of the pressure too, even though it wasn't aimed at them. They realized then that the boy they were following wasn't just another student. He was something else entirely.
One from All didn't even use his void. He moved with the speed he had practiced in his mind, striking the beast's neck with a single, precise blow. The creature evaporated into black smoke, and the red card in One from All's pocket hummed as the points were added.
"One down," he said quietly.
But he knew this was just the beginning. Somewhere in this forest, Levi, Elara, Kael, and the others were also hunting. And soon, the teams would stop hunting beasts and start hunting each other. The forest was large, but for 67 monsters, it was a very small cage.
As the sun began its slow descent, the real trial began. The shadows grew longer, the beasts grew stronger, and the tension between the students grew until it was a physical weight. One from All looked up at the canopy, his red eyes sharp. He wasn't a survivor anymore. He was the hunter.
End of Chapter 11