Darkness.
An endless void that pressed against Damon's consciousness from every direction as if the world itself had been swallowed whole. For a moment he could not feel his body, could not hear a sound, could not even tell whether he was breathing, and the silence around him felt so suffocating that it seemed to tighten slowly around his chest.
Then, faintly, light began to seep into the void.
At first it was only a blur, thin streaks of yellow and white sliding across glass like distant stars dragged through water. Shapes formed slowly, the haze thinning as the roar of an engine grew louder and louder until the world finally settled into focus.
A car.
It was racing through the city at frightening speed, the night outside the windows stretching into long ribbons of light as streetlamps and buildings rushed past in a dizzying stream. The engine vibrated violently beneath the frame, and the road hummed beneath the tires as the vehicle cut through the empty streets.
In the backseat sat a child.
He could not have been older than ten… perhaps thirteen.
Dark hair fell messily across his forehead as his small frame sat stiff against the leather seat, his fingers gripping the edge beside him as the car swayed slightly with its speed.
Damon stared at him.
"This—"
The word barely left his lips.
Because suddenly the engine roared louder.
The car surged forward as the accelerator was pushed down harder, and the boy's head snapped up in alarm.
"D–driver uncle…!" the child stammered nervously, leaning forward slightly. "C–could you slow down a bit…?"
The driver did not answer.
He kept his eyes on the road.
The speed only increased.
Damon felt his heartbeat rising.
"P–please…" the boy tried again, his voice smaller now, trembling with fear. "C–can you slow down…?"
The engine screamed as the car shot even faster down the empty road.
Then the driver slowly turned his head.
His face appeared in the rearview mirror beneath the passing streetlights as he smiled.
"I am sorry… young master Alexander."
The words were soft.
Almost gentle.
Yet something about them made Damon's stomach twist violently.
The boy froze.
His eyes widened, confusion and fear colliding across his face as he stared toward the man in the driver's seat.
"W–what do you mean…?" he asked weakly.
The man's smile remained, though something fragile flickered behind it.
"I really didn't want to do it," he said quietly. "But what can I do… they have my kids hostage."
His fingers tightened on the steering wheel.
"I can't really let anything happen to them now… can I?"
The car accelerated again.
"So you have to die for them."
Outside, the city lights blurred completely as the vehicle tore through the night like a falling star.
Young Alexander's composure broke as tears spilled down his face, his small hands shaking violently while panic overtook him.
"W–why…?!" he cried helplessly.
His voice cracked beneath the roar of the engine.
"Why do I have to die…?!"
The driver's smile trembled slightly as the car continued to surge forward through the night, the city lights outside already melting into long streaks of gold and white.
"Don't worry, young master Alexander…" he said softly, his voice carrying a strange calm that did not match the madness of the moment. "I will be dying with you."
For the first time, Damon noticed the tears.
They were sliding slowly down the man's face, glistening faintly beneath the passing streetlights as his hands remained tight on the steering wheel.
"If you have to blame someone…" the driver continued quietly, his voice cracking as though something inside him had already broken, "…blame your father."
The car swerved slightly as the speed climbed higher.
"That he has made so many enemies."
Young Alexander stared at him with wide, terrified eyes, his small body trembling violently as the meaning of those words settled over him.
Behind him, Damon felt something inside his chest twist painfully.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
"Stop it!" he suddenly shouted, his voice ripping through the space like a desperate command. "Hey—!"
His hands clenched as his entire body trembled.
"Fucking stop it!"
But the car did not slow.
The driver did not react.
Instead, the man let out a quiet breath, the faintest hint of pity passing across his tear-stained face.
"I really… pity you, young master Alex," he murmured. "Even coming from such a big Sterling family…"
His eyes flickered toward the rearview mirror.
"…you cannot even rely on it anymore."
Damon's shouting died in his throat.
His eyes trembled.
And then—
The world exploded.
With a violent boom the car suddenly lost control, the tires screaming against the road as the vehicle spun wildly before slamming sideways into a massive tree. The impact flipped the car violently across the asphalt before it crashed back down, metal twisting and glass shattering in every direction as the force of the collision crushed the front of the vehicle inward.
Silence followed.
Broken glass glittered across the wreckage.
Blood slowly spilled across the interior of the car.
A splitting headache tore through Damon's skull as the world swam before his eyes, the metallic smell of blood filling the air as the haze slowly cleared.
The first thing he saw was the driver.
The man's face was completely bloodied now, his body slumped forward over the steering wheel, breathing weak and uneven as crimson trickled down his chin.
Then Damon saw the backseat.
Young Alexander coughed violently, blood spilling from his lips as jagged shards of glass remained embedded across his skin and arms. His breathing came in shallow, trembling bursts, yet his fingers still twitched weakly against the seat as though his body was refusing to give up.
The driver slowly turned his head.
His gaze fell on the boy.
And then he began to laugh.
It was a broken, trembling sound, half laughter and half sobbing as tears mixed with the blood on his face.
"Why…?" he rasped, his voice shaking so badly that the words barely held together. "Why do you have to survive after everything you have… while we can't even keep our lives?"
Another cough tore through his chest, blood spilling across his lips.
His eyes darkened.
"It's not us…"
The words came out ragged and trembling.
"It's you who deserve to die…"
His breathing grew weaker.
"Y-you deserve… to die…"
The last breath slipped from his mouth, and the man's body finally went still.
Damon's entire body trembled violently.
"N-no…"
The word barely escaped him.
He clutched his head as something inside his mind shattered open.
"N-no…"
The driver's bloodied face flashed across his mind.
"You deserve to die."
Then another face appeared.
A caretaker.
"You deserve to die."
A chef.
"You deserve to die."
Distant relatives.
"You deserve to die."
The voices overlapped like echoes clawing their way through his skull.
"YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" "YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" "YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" "YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" "YOU DESERVE TO DIE!" "YOU DESERVE TO DIE!"
And then—
Yuna's face appeared last, as a cold smile plastered across his face.
Her voice joined the others.
"You deserve to die."
Damon screamed.
"NOOO!"
His hands slammed over his ears as though he could force the voices out of his head, his entire body shaking violently as the words kept repeating over and over again.
"N-no!"
"Shut up!"
His voice broke , as it came in trembling breaths..
"S-shut up!"
But the voices continued,
"YOU DESERVE TO DIE!"
***
For a moment after Valeria's outburst tore through the clearing, the world seemed to freeze.
Then…. something changed. The air itself trembled.
At first it was subtle, almost imperceptible—like the faint ripple that travels across still water when a stone sinks beneath the surface—but within seconds that ripple began spreading through the entire clearing, distorting the space around the two core breaches.
Mana was everywhere. And it was breaking.
Thin fractures of shimmering light suddenly appeared in the air around the battlefield, spreading outward like cracks across glass as the surrounding mana field twisted violently. The ground beneath the students' feet began to tremble, loose dirt and fallen leaves lifting slowly into the air as if gravity itself had grown uncertain.
The sky above flickered.
The faint afternoon light that filtered through the jungle canopy began to dim, as though something vast was swallowing the light itself.
The pressure followed.
It came down slowly at first—a suffocating weight pressing against the chest, making it harder to breathe with every passing second.
Students across the clearing began to murmur uneasily.
"What… what is this…?"
One of the beastmen looked up at the sky, his ears twitching nervously as the cracks in the air widened around them.
"Huh…? Is a real breach about to form here?"
Another student glanced toward the swirling distortions surrounding the two core breaches, his voice trembling slightly.
"Or… did someone conquer the core breach already…?"
A third voice joined in, filled with uncertainty.
"What is happening…?"
The pressure increased again.
Even the light itself began fading, the clearing slowly drowning beneath a strange gray gloom that made the jungle look warped and distant.
Someone whispered nervously.
"I-is the exam over…?"
No one had the answer.
But amidst the confusion—
A noble student slipped quietly through the crowd, his eyes locked onto the bloodied figure lying on the ground at the center of the clearing.
Damon Valecrest.
His lips curved slightly.
"Hmph… these fools…"
The noble adjusted the spear in his grip as he stepped forward, careful not to attract attention while the others remained distracted by the strange phenomenon spreading through the clearing.
"I will eliminate him right now," he muttered under his breath, a greedy glint flashing in his eyes.
"And then the Beaumont Marquisate will look after our family."
He stepped closer.
Closer.
Until Damon's battered body lay directly before him.
The noble looked down at him and laughed.
"Hahahahaha…"
The sound carried clearly through the clearing.
"You fools!" he shouted proudly, turning slightly so the surrounding students could hear him. "In the end the great Damon Valecrest has fallen into my hands!"
Several heads turned, but none moved to stop him.
After all, Damon was already finished.
The noble raised his spear.
The metal tip glinted faintly in the dimming light as he aimed it toward Damon's chest.
"Well then…" he sneered.
"Die—"
But…..the spear never reached him.
Because the body lying on the ground suddenly vanished.
The noble's eyes widened.
"…what?"
For a fraction of a second, confusion froze his body.
Then—
A voice drifted quietly through the air behind him.
Soft. Smooth.Cold
"You deserve to die."
The noble's pupils shrank.
His head barely began to turn—
SNAP.
The sound echoed sharply across the clearing.
His neck twisted violently to the side as invisible force snapped the bones instantly, his body going limp before it could even react.
A moment later the body dissolved into scattered particles of light as the Manacron registered the elimination.
Silence swallowed the clearing.
Every student froze.
Slowly… slowly…
Their gazes turned toward the center of the battlefield.
Where Damon now stood.
But the figure standing there barely resembled the boy who had been lying broken moments ago.
His white hair stirred gently in the suffocating wind of fractured mana—but now streaks of gray and black ran through it like ink spreading through snow, the colors twisting unnaturally as if the mana itself were staining it.
His eyes—
They were no longer golden.
They were completely black.
Pitch-black voids where even the faintest reflection of light had disappeared.
And from those hollow eyes, thin streams of black smoke drifted slowly upward into the air.
Across his bare upper body, dark cracks had spread like shattered porcelain, crawling across his chest, shoulders, and the side of his face. Within those fractures something glowed faintly beneath the skin—tiny flickers of deep crimson light that pulsed slowly like dying embers trapped beneath stone.
The air around him warped.
The fractured mana in the clearing bent toward him as though drawn by an invisible gravity.
And Damon spoke again.
His voice was calm.
Almost gentle.
But it carried through the clearing like a death sentence.
"You…. deserve to die."