The sun was going down behind the tall black walls of the school. The sky was a mix of dark purple and orange, making the whole place look like a painting of a world on fire. One from All, Elara, and Riku walked slowly toward the big buildings where the students lived. These buildings were called the residential blocks. Like everything else in this school, they were made of heavy black stone that seemed to eat the light. It made the air feel cold even though the sun was still out.
"Wow," Elara said, shaking her head. "Our teacher is intense. She really shut down that idiot Valen". She stopped for a second and looked back at the main building. Her face became very serious. "But that white-haired boy... I don't like the air around him. He is stronger than even you, Red-and-gray".
One from All looked at her, shocked. Elara was usually so lively and not afraid of anything, but now her voice was quiet.
"I just hate the feeling that I can't beat him," she whispered. "I feel like if I made a move against him, I'm dead".
Riku looked down, shuffling his feet against the hard stone ground. "Yeah. That pressure when she said 'Emperors' was… hard". He looked like he was still carrying a heavy weight on his shoulders.
Elara tried to change the mood. She poked Riku's arm and gave a small laugh. If I'm going to be a world-class student, I need my sleep". Then she turned to look at both of them.
"You two were barely trying in class!" she said, pointing a finger at them. "And you, Red-and-gray, you made the rest of us look weak. What magic do you even use?".
"King's Magic," One from All answered simply. "And I trained a lot before coming here". He didn't say more. He liked to keep his secrets.
Riku spoke up next. He was still very quiet. "I'm actually a noble. I use Water Magic".
Elara's eyes narrowed slightly. "So you know that scum Valen, huh?".
Riku shook his head immediately. "No, no, I don't. There are many nobles from many different kingdoms here. I don't know him". He seemed very worried that they would think he was like Valen.
Elara let out a light laugh. "Fair enough." She reached up and pulled off the plain hood she had been wearing.
Suddenly, her hair, which had seemed dark and boring before, instantly sprang out in brilliant, blazing fire-red strands. It looked like real flames were growing from her head. "Okay, my turn," she said with a grin. "I have Summon Babylon Magic".
One from all looked at her, totally surprised by the bright hair and the name of her magic. "That's a Rare Magic! Where is your Summon, then?".
Elara grinned and stopped walking. She lifted her hand and created a hole in the empty air. It was a tear in reality that was roughly the height of her shoulder. It looked like a dark, swirling window into another world. From that dark tear, she pulled out a long, plain wooden staff.
"This is it," she said, holding the staff tightly. "The size of the tear shows the power I'm pulling out. It's not a city, but the power in this staff is so compressed. My father—who is a Dragon Warrior—sent me here". She leaned on the staff easily, like it was just a walking stick. "He sent me because I was a prodigy who surpassed him at age ten. Even this simple staff has the power to split the earth".
"Then why did you barely try in class?" Riku asked. He couldn't understand why someone so strong would hide it.
Elara's look became serious, and she leaned closer to them. "I'm lazy, sure, but I can't be bothered when there's no real threat. I've never been beaten before. But I can feel a lot of strong foes here because I have a strong Anym sensor". She looked straight at One from All. Her red eyes were very intense.
"Some people in this school are abnormally powerful. That white-haired boy wasn't the only one. There's another". She shook her head. "Honestly, I feel they are both holding back, but still, I can't presume a winner if they were to battle. So when I saw the Emperors yesterday… I couldn't even blink. That's a feeling I hate".
Riku shifted his weight, looking nervous. He knew exactly what she meant. He looked at the ground as they started walking again.
"For me, it's the opposite," Riku mumbled. "I'm mostly quiet because… I'm terrified of my own power".
"Terrified?" Elara asked.
"When I was ten," Riku confessed, his voice dropping so low it was almost a whisper, "someone harmed my pet ant. I got so angry that I focused too much Anym into the water". He shuddered as if he were cold. "I lost control and almost drowned my whole kingdom. No one even saw the spell; it was just too much water".
One from All looked at Riku, then at Elara's long, earth-splitting staff. He realized that his allies weren't weak at all. They were just paralyzed. Riku was paralyzed by the fear of causing a catastrophe, and Elara was paralyzed by her refusal to train until she felt a true challenge.
One from All thought to himself. My life is about becoming strong enough to handle cosmic threats. Their lives are about trying to handle their own strength. The three monstrous prodigies looked at each other and nodded. They understood a secret that none of the other students shared. They weren't just students. They were weapons.
They finally reached the front of the dorm building. There were no guards at the doors. The school did not need guards because the students were the most dangerous things in the world. As they walked inside, the air felt very thick. It was the Anym. The energy in the air was so strong it made their skin tingle like little needles.
One from All looked around the lobby. He saw other students walking in the halls. Some looked at him with mean, jealous eyes. Others looked away quickly because they were scared of him. Then, he saw Valen. The noble boy was standing by a door, looking very angry. He had a white bandage on his hand from where the black energy had almost hurt him during the lesson in the Hollow.
Valen glared at One from All. He looked like he wanted to say something mean, but then he looked at One from All's hair—that strange half-red and half-gray color—and he stopped. He remembered the scary black loop of energy from the class. Valen didn't say a word. He just turned and walked away very fast.
"He is still mad," Elara whispered. Her red eyes glowed a little bit. "But he is a coward. He only likes to fight people he thinks are weak".
They found their room numbers on the wall. One from All was in a room all by himself. This was because the school called him an "Anomaly". They kept the most powerful students in their own rooms so they wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone else while they were sleeping.
"See you tomorrow?" Riku asked. He looked a bit more relaxed now that they were inside the safe building.
"Yeah," One from All said. He gave them his sharp, teeth-only smile. It was a scary, predatory smile, but it was his way of being friendly. Elara just grinned back at him, but Riku jumped a little bit because the smile looked so dangerous.
One from All went into his room and shut the door. The room was very simple. It had a small bed, a desk, and a big window. The walls were made of the same black obsidian stone as the rest of the school. He knew this stone was there to soak up his magic so he wouldn't blow up the building if his power leaked out.
He sat on the bed and looked at his hands. He thought about what the Emperor's voice had said in his head during the registration.
"You must train as if your life depends on it. You must protect yourselves".
He stood up. He didn't want to sleep. He could feel the Anym running through his soul. It felt hot and hungry. He wanted to get stronger. He wanted to be able to fight a cosmic threat. He closed his eyes and focused on the center of his chest. He felt a dark spot there. It was his King's Magic. He pulled on that dark spot.
Slowly, pure black energy began to leak out of his skin. It didn't glow like Elara's fire or sparkle like Riku's water. It was just black. It looked like thick ink moving in the air. It was a void. It ate the light from the lamp on his desk until the room became very dark.
He practiced making the black energy into a perfect circle around his wrist. He remembered what Instructor Selene had said about being stable. The black ring didn't make a sound. It was like a tiny black hole that only he could control.
He thought about the white-haired boy from class. Elara had said that boy was stronger than him. One from All did not like that at all. He didn't want to be second best, and he definitely didn't want to be third. He needed to be the strongest if he wanted to survive the war that was coming.
He pushed more energy out of his body. The black void grew bigger and bigger. It started to cover his arms. He felt very powerful, but he also felt very cold. That was the secret of his magic. It didn't give heat; it took it away. It took everything away.
Suddenly, he heard a small noise outside his door. He stopped immediately. The black energy went back into his skin in an instant. The room became bright again as the light returned.
He walked to the door and opened it quickly. No one was there in the hallway. But he saw a small piece of paper on the floor. He picked it up. On the paper, there was a drawing of a broken world. And under the drawing, it said:
"Three days until you are tested. Don't die too soon".
One from All crumbled the paper in his hand. He wasn't scared. He felt a fierce surge of motivation. He went back to his bed, but he didn't lie down to sleep. He sat with his legs crossed. He started to meditate. He wanted to feel every bit of Anym in his body. He wanted to be ready.
In his mind, he saw the Five Emperors again. He saw the massive pressure they put on everyone just by standing there. He wanted to have that same pressure. He wanted people to feel his power just by looking at him.
He thought about Elara and Riku. They were his friends now, but they were also monsters. Elara was lazy but had a staff that could break through anything. Riku was a noble who could drown a kingdom. They were hiding their true selves because they were afraid.
"I'm not afraid," One from All whispered into the dark.
He spent the whole night like that. He didn't sleep at all. He just trained his mind and his energy. When the sun started to come up the next morning, he felt stronger than he did the day before.
He walked to the window and looked out. He could see the training grounds from here. In three days, the school would test them. He knew it wouldn't be a simple test. It would be a fight.
He looked at his reflection in the glass window. His red-and-gray hair was messy. His eyes looked sharp and cold. He looked exactly like the picture of a boy who could destroy the world.
"Three days," he said.
He left his room to go find Elara and Riku for breakfast. As he walked through the halls, the other students moved out of his way. They could feel something coming from him. It was a dark, heavy feeling. Even without using his magic, he was starting to leak that "void" presence.
He found Elara and Riku in the big dining hall. Elara was eating a huge plate of eggs and meat. She still had her hood off, and her hair looked like real fire in the morning light. Riku was sipping a glass of water, looking very quiet and thoughtful.
"Ready for Day One of the wait?" Elara asked as One from All sat down with them.
"I'm ready for the test," One from All said.
Elara laughed. "Of course you are. You probably spent the whole night punching the air".
"I was meditating," he corrected her.
Riku looked at One from All's hand. He saw the way the air seemed to wiggle and distort a little bit around his fingers. "You're getting stronger, aren't you?".
One from All didn't answer. He just gave them that sharp, dangerous smile again.
They ate their breakfast while the other students whispered about them. They were the "Trio of Monsters". The girl with the fire hair, the boy who drowned a kingdom, and the boy with the black void.
They didn't know it yet, but the white-haired boy was watching them from a table far away. He wasn't eating anything. He was just looking at One from All. He looked like a hunter watching his prey. But One from All knew he was being watched. He could feel the boy's eyes on the back of his neck. He didn't turn around. He just gripped his fork a little tighter.
This school was not a place for making friends. It was a place for survivors. And in three days, only the strongest monsters would be left standing.
One from All stood up without a word. He didn't look back at the white-haired boy. He didn't need to. The weight of those eyes was still on him — sharp, patient, the kind of gaze that didn't need to rush because it had already decided how things would end.
"I'm going to the library," he said. "I want to read on Advanced Anym control."
"The library?" Elara groaned, dropping her chin into her hand. "That sounds like torture. I'm finding somewhere sunny to nap."
Riku stood quietly. "I'll come too. I want something on Water control theory."
They left together — three monsters walking out of a dining hall like it was ordinary, like the boy still watching from the far table wasn't cataloguing every detail of One from All's movement, every flicker of his aura, every breath.
One from All felt it until the door closed behind him.
The first day of the three-day wait had begun. The world was still quiet.
End of chapter 6