For a heartbeat after the noble student's body dissolved into scattered particles of light, the clearing fell into a silence so deep that even the rustling of the jungle seemed to vanish.
The fractured mana surrounding the battlefield continued to crack and distort, the air rippling like shattered glass suspended in space while the dimming sky above bled slowly into a dull gray twilight. The two core breaches hung in the air behind Damon like open wounds in reality itself, their swirling distortions pulsing faintly as if the world had begun to unravel around them.
The only thing that moved—
Was Damon.
No one saw the moment he began to move.
One second he stood still.
The next—
He was gone.
The space he had occupied shattered like a broken reflection as his body vanished into a blur of motion so fast that the eye could barely follow it.
The first scream came an instant later.
"A—!"
A student's cry was cut short as Damon appeared directly in front of him, his cracked hand driving forward with terrifying precision as his fingers pierced straight through the boy's throat. The body stiffened for a brief moment before dissolving instantly into particles of light.
DING.
The Manacron notification echoed sharply across the clearing.
Another student turned toward the sound.
And froze.
Because Damon was already standing behind him.
"You deserve to die."
The words were spoken calmly.
His hand moved once.
The boy's head twisted unnaturally with a sickening crack before his body vanished into light.
DING.
Screams erupted.
Then someone moved.
One of the students, his face pale and eyes wide with disbelief, stumbled backward as he stared at the figure standing at the center of the clearing.
"What… what the hell is that…?"
His voice trembled.
Another student, clutching his weapon tightly, swallowed as the suffocating pressure in the air continued to mount.
"Activate your resonance!" he shouted nervously. "Everyone—activate your resonance!"
Several students immediately tried.
Mana surged through the clearing as dozens of Resonance flickered to life, glowing symbols spreading across clearing as the students attempted to call forth the power bound within their souls.
But nothing happened.
The mana refused to answer.
Confusion spread instantly.
"What…?"
One noble stared at his wrist in disbelief.
"Why isn't it activating…?!"
Another student tried again, his voice rising with panic.
"Come on… come on!"
But the mana remained silent.
Students scattered in every direction as panic exploded through the clearing, their earlier confidence completely shattered as the realization spread that something had gone terribly, horribly wrong.
"He—he's a demon!"
"Run!"
"He's gone mad!"
But running did nothing.
Damon moved through them like a storm.
His body flickered through the fractured air in violent bursts of motion, appearing and disappearing faster than their eyes could follow as he cut through the crowd with terrifying efficiency. Every strike was precise, brutal, and final; a hand snapping a neck, a kick crushing ribs, fingers tearing through throats as bodies dissolved into glowing fragments the moment the Manacron registered their defeat.
DING.
DING.
DING.
The sound echoed endlessly across the battlefield.
"You deserve to die."
A beastman lunged at him with a roar.
Damon slipped past the attack without slowing, his palm striking the creature's jaw with explosive force that twisted the beastman's head completely around before the body vanished into light.
DING.
"You deserve to die."
An elf attempted to draw his blade.
Damon's hand caught his wrist mid-motion before the other hand drove cleanly through the center of his chest.
DING.
"You deserve to die."
The clearing became a massacre.
Blood sprayed across shattered stone and broken earth as bodies disappeared one after another, the terrified screams of students blending with the constant ringing of Manacron notifications while Damon continued moving through them without pause, his black eyes empty and cold as the thin streams of smoke drifting from them twisted in the warped air.
No one could stop him.
No one could even slow him down.
Within minutes, the battlefield had collapsed into chaos.
More than thirty students had already been eliminated.
And Damon had not spoken anything else.
Only the same sentence.
"You deserve to die."
Through the panic, Alina stood frozen for one fatal moment.
The commoner representative stared at the carnage unfolding around her, her earlier confidence shattered as horror spread slowly across her face.
"This… this isn't possible…"
Her voice barely escaped her lips.
Then Damon appeared in front of her.
There was no warning.
One moment he was across the clearing.
The next moment he stood directly before her.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Before she could even speak—
His hand shot forward.
He seized both of her wrists in a crushing grip as his fingers tightened around her arms.
The sound of bones breaking echoed instantly.
Alina's eyes widened in shock as the pressure shattered the bones inside her forearms like fragile glass, the pain exploding through her body before a scream could even escape her mouth.
Damon's other hand moved calmly.
His fingers wrapped around her throat.
"You deserve to die."
Her neck twisted sharply.
The crack echoed through the clearing as her body went limp, dissolving into scattered light before the scream could even form.
DING.
Silence followed.
Fragments of glowing particles drifted slowly through the air where she had stood.
The massacre continued.
And at the edge of the clearing—
A young woman with short black hair stood frozen in place.
Her entire body trembled violently as she stared at the horror unfolding before her, her wide eyes reflecting the shattered battlefield littered with fading particles of eliminated students.
Her lips quivered.
"W–what…"
Her voice was barely a whisper.
Then—
The air shifted.
The fractured mana behind her stirred.
And Damon appeared directly in front of her.
***
Inside the academy auditorium, the atmosphere was entirely different from the chaos unfolding in the jungle.
Rows of floating projection screens filled the massive hall, each one displaying the same scene of the exam site as students fought desperately inside the two core breaches. The stone labyrinth of the first breach twisted and shifted endlessly on several screens, while the ruined garden of the second pulsed with violent mana as vines writhed across the ancient marble ruins.
Instructors and academy staff stood scattered throughout the observation floor, quietly discussing what they saw while keeping their attention fixed on the unfolding battles.
Most of them had already focused entirely on the core breaches.
After all, those were the true climax of the examination.
Near the center of the monitoring platform, Valerian leaned forward against the console with clear excitement shining in his eyes, his long cane resting casually against his shoulder as he watched the projection of the first core breach.
"Heheh… look at that…" he murmured, his voice practically trembling with delight. "Students cooperating against an Arcane-ranked hero ..… even showing sign of suppressing them…ahh, this is wonderful…"
His grin widened further.
"Hahahah… truly wonderful!"
Beside him, Garrick stood with his arms folded, his usual tired expression barely changing as he glanced between the screens.
"Elves, nobles, beastmen… at least they're not killing each other for once," he muttered dryly.
Miss Elowen simply watched with her gentle smile, her calm eyes drifting across the projections.
For a moment, the room remained peaceful.
Then—
A sudden commotion broke through the quiet.
A staff member came rushing across the monitoring floor, nearly stumbling over himself as he ran toward the center platform where the three instructors stood. His breathing was heavy, his face pale, and sweat glistened across his forehead as though he had just seen something deeply unsettling.
"S–sir…!"
His voice cracked as he reached them.
The sudden urgency drew the attention of several nearby staff members, who turned toward the scene in confusion.
Valerian glanced lazily at the man before breaking into a crooked grin.
"Heheheh… what is it?" he said, waving his cane lightly. "Why are you running like this?"
He leaned closer, his smile widening with playful amusement.
"Come, come… calm yourself…"
His laughter slipped out again.
"Hahahah! Just look at the screens! Witness how our dear students are on the verge of clearing the core breaches…"
He tapped the console lightly.
"Isn't it beautiful? Hehehah!"
But the staff member did not relax.
If anything, his face looked even more strained.
"T–there is something wrong with the rankings…!" he said quickly, his voice still shaking.
The words caused Garrick to glance toward him with mild annoyance.
"What do you mean wrong with the rankings?" he asked flatly.
The staff member swallowed nervously.
"It seems… someone suddenly climbed into the top five out of nowhere."
Valerian's grin flickered with curiosity.
"Oh?"
Without another word, Garrick reached toward the console and flicked his hand across the display panel. One of the floating projections immediately shifted, replacing the battlefield feed with the current ranking board.
The glowing list appeared in the air before them.
Garrick looked at it briefly.
Then frowned slightly.
"What's wrong with it?" he muttered. "Student Lucian was in fourth place earlier. Now he's fifth."
He shrugged faintly.
"That's normal."
But the staff member's hands were trembling.
Slowly, he raised a shaking finger and pointed toward the top of the ranking board.
"J–just now… weren't they only around one thousand points…?"
The three instructors followed his gesture.
Their eyes moved upward across the ranking list.
And then they saw it.
1 — Damon Valecrest — 3120 Points
2 — Khaira Emberhorn — 1600 Points
3 — Aelrion Sylvaris — 1580 Points
4 — Serena Valmont — 1470 Points
5 — Lucian Aetherwind — 1450 Points
For a moment, none of them spoke.
Garrick's eyes narrowed instantly.
Without hesitation he turned and grabbed another console panel, switching one of the projection screens beside them.
"Look at the elimination counter," he said sharply.
The screen changed.
A number appeared.
Total Students Eliminated: 142.
But the number didn't stay still.
It jumped.
The counter continued increasing almost every second.
Across the monitoring hall, murmurs immediately spread among the staff as they noticed the same thing.
"What…?"
"That number shouldn't be moving this fast…"
"Are the students fighting outside the breaches?"
Garrick's expression darkened.
But before he could say anything—
A strange laugh echoed beside him.
"Hheheh…"
The sound was low at first.
Then it grew.
"...hehehahah…"
The laughter fractured into something wild.
"HHEHEHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Everyone turned toward the source.
Valerian stood there trembling slightly, his shoulders shaking as though he had just witnessed the most magnificent spectacle imaginable. His eyes shone with manic excitement, his grin stretching so wide it nearly split his face.
"…Oh my…"
He covered his mouth briefly as another laugh escaped him.
"Hahahahah…"
His gaze locked onto the screens.
Then he spoke again, his voice trembling with pure exhilaration.
"Show me."
The words were quiet.
But the excitement behind them was unmistakable.
"Show the scenes outside the core breaches."
***
Back in the jungle clearing, the massacre had not yet ended.
Bodies had vanished.
Only drifting green particles remained.
At the center of it all stood Damon.
The cracked patterns across his bare upper body pulsed faintly with crimson light beneath the dark fractures, while thin streams of black smoke continued to rise slowly from his hollow black eyes. His white hair, now streaked with gray and black through the middle, stirred faintly in the unstable mana winds twisting through the clearing.
Before him stood Valeria Raventhal.
Or rather—
She tried to stand.
Her body trembled violently as she stared at him, her earlier arrogance shattered completely as the horror of what she was witnessing finally reached her mind.
"You— you… what…?"
Her voice shook.
The words barely escaped her lips.
But before she could say anything more—
Damon moved.
One instant he stood before her.
The next—
His hand had already closed around her throat.
Her feet left the ground as he lifted her effortlessly into the air, his cracked fingers tightening slowly around her neck as she gasped violently for breath. Her hands clawed desperately at his wrist while her legs kicked wildly in the air, her eyes wide with panic as she tried to pry his grip loose.
But Damon only tilted his head slightly.
His black eyes stared at her without emotion.
"You…"
His voice was soft.
Cold.
"…deserve to die."
His grip tightened.
His thumb slowly twisted.
The sound of bone cracking echoed faintly through the clearing.
Valeria's body stiffened for a single moment—
Then dissolved.
Green spheres burst outward where she had been suspended, drifting gently through the fractured air before streaming into Damon's Manacron.
DING.
Another voice suddenly erupted from across the clearing.
"HAHHAHAHA!"
A massive beastman charged forward through the fading smoke of mana, his heavy footsteps shaking the ground beneath him as his face twisted into a wild grin.
"So that's how it is!"
He raised his arms as he rushed forward.
"TITANBLOOD RESONANCE!"
Mana surged violently around him.
The power forced its way into existence as if ripped from the environment itself, the metallic sheen of Ironhide spreading across his massive arms and shoulders. But the resonance flickered strangely, the hardened mana plating unstable as the fractured environment struggled to sustain it.
The beastman roared as he swung his fist forward with explosive force.
But Damon was already gone.
The space before the beastman shattered like a mirage as Damon's body vanished from sight.
Then—
He appeared behind him.
Before the beastman could react, Damon's arms slid around his neck from behind, locking tightly into a sleeper hold as his body latched onto the larger warrior's back.
The beastman snarled, trying to reach behind him.
But Damon's grip only tightened.
The black smoke from his eyes drifted slowly through the air as his cracked arms constricted around the beastman's throat with relentless pressure.
"You deserve to die."
The words were almost a whisper.
The beastman struggled for several seconds.
Then—
His body dissolved.
Green spheres scattered through the clearing before flowing into Damon's Manacron.
DING.
The massacre continued.
Damon moved again.
And again.
"You deserve to die."
Another student fell.
DING.
"You deserve to die."
Another body dissolved.
DING.
"You deserve to die."
Across the battlefield, the cries of terror blended with the constant ringing of Manacron notifications as Damon continued moving through the shattered clearing like an unstoppable force.
DING.
DING.
DING.
And the massacre did not stop.
***
The Clearing fell into the silence.
Then—
A calm voice broke the quiet.
"Well done, Lucian. If it weren't for you, clearing that breach would have been considerably more difficult."
A crack of distorted space flickered open near the first core breach, the fractured veil rippling for a moment before five figures stepped out onto the clearing. Behind them, the breach began sealing itself slowly, the swirling tear in reality folding inward until the space returned to normal.
Lucian stood among them, his sword resting loosely at his side, while Serena gave him a small approving nod.
At almost the same moment—
Another voice echoed from the opposite side.
"If it weren't for you, the other elves wouldn't have been eliminated."
The tone was cold, arrogant.
A second breach rippled open nearby as another group stepped through.
"Did ya say somethin', pointy?" a rough voice snapped right after, thick with a beastman's accent. "If it weren't fer me, ya wouldn't've even been able ta clear the breach."
The distortion behind them collapsed as well.
The two core breaches closed almost simultaneously.
For a brief moment, the newly arrived students simply stood there.
And then they noticed something was wrong.
The clearing was silent.
Only scattered marks across the ground where battles had taken place.
Mira's eyes moved slowly across the empty battlefield.
"W–where is everyone else…?" she asked uneasily.
Khaira stepped forward slightly, scanning the clearing as her tail flicked once behind her.
"Is the exam already ova'?" she muttered in her heavy beastman accent.
Aelrion's sharp gaze narrowed.
He raised a hand and pointed toward the center of the clearing.
"…What is that?"
Everyone turned.
There—
A single figure stood.
His back faced them.
The last remaining student in the clearing had just dissolved into green particles that drifted slowly into the air before fading away.
The figure tilted his head slightly and glanced back at them from the side of his face.
White hair.
Cracked skin.
Black smoke rising from empty eyes.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then—
A startled voice broke the silence.
"T–this… how is this possible?!"
Everyone turned.
Cedric Beaumont stood frozen in place, staring down at the glowing ranking display on his Manacron with disbelief written clearly across his face.
***
"HHAHAHEHEHHAHAHAHA!"
Valerian's laughter erupted through the monitoring hall like a storm, echoing off the high walls as he leaned forward over the console with a manic grin stretching across his face.
"Amazing… amazing… absolutely amazing!"
His eyes gleamed with unrestrained excitement as the projections continued displaying the devastated clearing outside the core breaches.
Beside him, Garrick stood with his arms crossed, his expression far calmer though his brow had tightened slightly as he watched the same scene.
"It's clearly an unusual resonance," he said in his usual flat tone, though there was a hint of unease beneath it. "But this amount of power…"
A new voice completed the thought.
"…surely comes with its own price."
The words were calm.
Disciplined.
And carried a quiet authority that immediately drew every head in the auditorium toward the center of the observation floor.
A sphere of pure white light had appeared there.
It floated silently in the air, glowing softly as though it existed slightly outside the world around it.
The moment the staff recognized it, their postures straightened almost instantly.
"Dean!"
Several voices spoke at once.
Miss Elowen tilted her head slightly toward the glowing sphere, her gentle smile never leaving her face as she asked politely,
"Do you happen to know what resonance this is, Dean?"
For a brief moment, the sphere remained silent.
Then—
The light faded.
The sphere vanished completely.
But a voice echoed softly through the hall.
"Fractured Ruin."