A week had passed since the exam started.
Within the confines of that week, students from 5 different schools fought tooth and nail for survival.
Such as the school of Asphalt that lived in Erymos, school of Luna that lived in ???, school of Vita that lived in Natura's Sabe Serotifio, school of Lich that lived in the crawling black land where you met the dead.
Finally, the school independent of everything and at the center of the world.
Gardenia.
Most students died, but that's how it was.
Weeding out the weak. Everyone did that in some shape, way and form no?
As the frosty bushes rustled, a figure slowly emerged, their torso, arms and legs became clearer for the eye as they inched forward, cautious.
Hunched over their back was a black warbow.
Black Warbow of Asphalt, a weapon that could only be used by those that were devout believers of the God of Hunt.
If anyone other than that tried to use it.
They'd get burned by the green flame of passion.
The [Verde Fionne.] If you will.
However, if anyone believing in said god wields it.
A catastrophe is said to incarnate in the host of the warbow.
They were like superstition, just like black cats.
An omen of change.
Bad, irreversible change that targets all.
Aside from the factors of sins that existed in Gardenia and on earth.
The Black Warbow of Asphalt was the closest thing to the concept of 'power can only exist in skill.'
"This smell..."
Stopping, their viridian eyes glanced over odorless and invisible air.
Their dry lips smacked in the delicious taste only they could smell.
"Poison?"
One that affected the mind too?
Such poisons and venoms did exist...
But, the cloaked figure thought otherwise as their monotonous tone echoed in the blistering blizzard.
"It's likely insight."
This poison was artificially created.
Anyone caught in it would likely be caught in a domain of nightmares.
In mere moments, the cloaked figure captured the essence of the poison.
Their cloak fluttered as they turned on their foot.
Disadvantageous.
Not the playstyle for them.
Sure, they could win through brute force.
But.
That's the way of a brute.
True power and genius came when you overwhelm someone without so much as breaking a sweat.
If the fight's difficult for you, then what genius are you to struggle?
Hunting in their own rules and domain was how they played.
They wouldn't stop and dive into danger simply because they can win.
Overwhelming victory.
That's how fear is truly given birth.
"Ah."
One couldn't stop but stroke their chiseled chin that seemed oddly human-like under the shadow of the cloak.
"Come to think of it."
Reminded of another, similar power, they pondered in deep thought.
"Didn't I kill someone who absorbed poison for power?"
They did, and that person was quite strong to say the least.
Of course. One shot was all it took to end the fight, but being able to escape in that situation...
It wasn't something someone weak could do.
The timing was so perfect, even divine one might say.
"Now that the previous apex predator died, a new one that feared it before took its place."
Ironic?
Maybe.
As they walked, their foot stepped on yellow roses that shouldn't be growing here.
Stopping to a crawl, they looked down.
And..
The roses were gone, like they were only there out of the imagination of others.
Silence moved, the leaves rustled.
The figure remained still for a while before moving with a nod.
"I see."
'So that's it.'
A soft chuckle left them.
"Disappointing."
Shame.
Could've been interesting.
If only it hadn't been so boorish.
Sophisticating effort could've made this miasma a horror to face.
Not that'd change anything.
Their wisdom wouldn't allow them to fear anything like this.
***
'No, seriously what is this supposed to be?'
Inside of god-knows what this place could be.
Cale stood in greenery.
Dark and somewhat stale to the naked eye.
A forest with trees so tall even skyscrapers dared not look up to.
And, it was dark.
Sheering wind blew in the hollow space. Trees rustled and creaked like bones.
A milky sky as sparkly as a child's creativity flicked above him.
It shifted, moving like waves.
Creating a scene full of awe and praise.
Another damn storiem?
Was Cale's first thought upon gazing the scene before him.
"Or maybe not."
The chatter-box said that storiems take a lot of poking just to awaken.
And they usually don't isolate living beings that are already affected by another storiem even when waking up.
'His words, not mine.'
Between the chatter-box and Cale who knows the least about things.
Cale chose to believe in the words of an inanimate object rather than himself.
Information coming from such a special being cannot be that vastly wrong right?
Cale shivered under the cold wind that bit him from every crevice it could find.
'Quite creepy.'
In a forest so different from the previous environment.
Everything he knew was thrown out of the window.
It was akin to learning physics for 5 months only for the exam to be about history.
Obviously, Cale felt frustrated.
No instructions, blindfolded with 5 different towels and fabrics.
Completely screwed.
Matter of fact, he couldn't even see the thin white thread that'd usually save him.
'No danger yet then?'
Wishing he was right, he took a step forward.
In the oh so silent forest, his steps were akin to chainsaws rippling their engines to work well.
Standing around seemed to have no good outcome.
So Cale decided to move first, passiveness were for the indecisive. Not him who wished to live for tomorrow.
Walking and walking, that's all he had been doing.
When did he stop?
Dying out of foolishness, coming back to life only to come back to a death game for who knows what reason.
So much time had passed.
Cale's eyes were sullied with muddled tire.
Something at the back of his mind.... Seemed to ease up. Relax, like a bicep calming down after a flex.
"What had I gained in all of this?"
A voice echoed, was it his? He couldn't tell, it was drowned out by the critters coming from the trees.
It was annoying.
He wished to know if his efforts truly had any meaning or bore any fruit.
That he wasn't just pounding on dry and malnourished earth where plants couldn't be grown.
Like a maniac.
As Cale kept walking forward, he began to slowly sway from right to left.
The trees seemed closer than before.
Pressing against him with slow suggestions.
Cale kept brushing forward, his steps lighter than the last.
His mind also appeared to be lighter.
"Maybe nothing in the end...."
Strangely, he also seemed to talk to himself more lately.
Had he gone crazy from being killed once?
No, he didn't even remember the sensation of dying anymore.
Perhaps, something inside him though foretold other ideas.
Cale felt even lighter than before, as if huge lumps inside Cale's body disappeared overnight.
No...
"Perhaps they did."
Really.
Perhaps.
They really did.
Cale continued further, any fear clouding him before disappeared.
His mind mysteriously fogged up when he tried to conjure up thoughts.
Was there something wrong with him?
"Perhaps."
Another annoying tone he didn't like echoed out. It felt familiar, like it was his voice that echoed.
Strange.
Cale didn't correct it though, in fact, he agreed that something was indeed wrong with him.
Like for example...
Were his two arms really gone like his gaze captured?
Gone like the wind that passed through him?
Pumping out blood like a sideways fountain?
"Perhaps."
Looking down, he captured himself staring at a pool of blood.
The idea of a staring contest popped in his fogged up mind.
Not like it stayed there for long.
Soon, a silhouette of some creature loomed over Cale's motionless body that was on the uneven floor.
From the edge of Cale's vision.
He observed their characteristics.
But.
The words he could use to characterize them.
....Just, wouldn't leave his mouth.
Strange, it was as if his cognitive ability declined from all the walking.
Or maybe....
It really did decline.
Like poison to a human brain.
Cale took one good look at the row of rotted teeth looming closer and closer over him.
Then, Cale decided to take one good look at himself.
Limbs, all gone, organs, mouth, ears, nose and flesh.
Everything except his exposed heart was gone.
Even his eyes, his sockets were hollow, occupying them were two small voids of pure dark that couldn't be pierced.
Gone like dandelions in winter blizzards.
His entire figure was drenched in red.
A color that bled in the sky above him.
Except.
His heart.
It was different, each beat pulsed a different color out.
There, at his sternum.
A yellow rose slowly bloomed.
It ate at his heart, slowly chipping it away.
Against the bright red that felt vicious.
It glowed with pride.
Pride that moved something within Cale.
Against the gloomy numbness Cale felt even in his current state.
He felt.
Regret.
And there, it ended.
Everything went black.
Inky, pitch black that cannot for the life of everything just disappear.
It only provoked regret, disappointment and outright rejection.
At first, Cale believed he had died, disappointingly so.
That was until.
Crack!
A certain crack in space woke him, a singular white thread pooled down, dangling in front of him.
And the world returned.
In the same forest he had died prior moments in.
At the same exact spot he found himself in.