Chapter 56: The Center

A Nightmare Spawn burst through the trees without warning, tearing through the undergrowth with enough force to send branches snapping in every direction.

Caelus sensed it a fraction of a second before it reached him.

The moisture surrounding its body shifted violently as it charged, revealing the sudden compression of air around its massive frame. Caelus stepped aside at the last possible moment, and a claw swept across his chest close enough for him to feel the air displaced by its movement.

He pivoted with the attack and drew his sword in one fluid motion.

Veil Mist.

Mist poured from his body, spilling across the forest floor and winding between the trees until the Nightmare Spawn vanished inside the white haze.

The creature stopped.

Caelus didn’t.

The Eclipse Ring sharpened everything the mist carried to him. Moisture clung to the Nightmare Spawn’s body, outlining its position despite the loss of his vision. He could feel everything, from the shifting pressure of its weight against the soil to the subtle disturbances left behind whenever it changed direction.

The creature roared and charged blindly.

Caelus shifted to the side.

Its claws tore through empty air.

He stepped into the opening before the creature could recover.

Water Sheathe.

Blue light compressed along the edge of his sword, coating the blade in a thin layer of violently condensed water.

Caelus cut across the creature’s thigh.

The blade bit into flesh, leaving behind a clean but shallow wound.

The Nightmare Spawn twisted almost immediately, its claws coming around with enough force to uproot the ferns beneath it.

Caelus was already moving.

He slipped behind the creature and struck its side, the blade carving another shallow line through its hide before he retreated into the mist.

The Nightmare Spawn’s roar shook the surrounding leaves.

Something else moved behind him.

Caelus sensed it before he turned.

A second Nightmare Spawn tore through the fog.

He twisted away, but not completely. One of its claws scraped across his shoulder, ripping through cloth and drawing a sharp line of pain down his arm.

Caelus retreated several steps and reset his stance.

The creatures couldn’t see him clearly, but they had realized the mist was hiding something more than their own vision. They began moving more aggressively, circling and striking at the slightest disturbance in the fog.

The first Nightmare Spawn charged from his right.

Caelus shifted left.

Before he could counter, the second came from the opposite side.

He stepped between them.

The claws passed within inches of his body and collided with the mist where he had been standing.

Caelus continued moving, forcing the two creatures to follow his position rather than dictate the pace of the fight. Every movement consumed mana. Every spell narrowed the amount he could afford to spend.

He could not keep trading blows like this.

The first creature lunged again.

Caelus stepped backward and cut across its leg.

The second pursued immediately, forcing him deeper into the forest.

He changed direction sharply.

The creatures followed.

Another cut landed against the first Nightmare Spawn’s side. A claw swept after him, tearing through the mist and missing his ribs by the width of a finger.

Caelus kept moving.

The two creatures were fast, powerful, and aggressive enough that trying to overpower them directly would only drain him faster. He didn’t need to match their strength.

So he stopped trying to finish them. Instead, he dragged them through the mist.

Every turn forced their bodies to shift. Every attack opened another angle. The wounds he had already inflicted began bleeding more heavily as the creatures exhausted themselves chasing something they could barely see.

Blood gathered at the first Nightmare Spawn’s feet, darkening its fur.

Caelus noticed.

That was enough.

Death Stalker.

The blood on the ground reacted immediately.

A thin distortion rippled across the mist before the spell shot toward the Nightmare Spawn with frightening speed.

The creature twisted away.

The Stalker followed.

The Nightmare Spawn raised an arm to protect its torso.

Caelus stepped in at the same moment.

Water Sheathe.

Blue light flared across his blade.

His sword passed through the creature’s neck.

The cut was clean.

The Nightmare Spawn froze for a fraction of a second before its head slipped sideways and its massive body crashed into the earth.

The second creature charged before the corpse had even stopped moving.

Caelus raised his sword.

The impact drove him backward.

His boots dug into the soil as the force traveled through his arms and into his shoulders. His muscles strained against the creature’s weight, and for a brief moment, the two remained locked together in the mist.

Caelus released the clash instead of trying to overpower it.

He slipped to the side.

The Nightmare Spawn turned far faster than he expected.

Its claws caught the edge of his coat and ripped through the fabric, the force jerking him sideways.

Caelus grimaced and pushed deeper into the mist.

The creature followed immediately.

Blood was already dripping from several of its wounds.

He only needed a little more.

Death Stalker.

The spell struck.

The Nightmare Spawn staggered as the spell hit where the wound had been.

Caelus closed the distance before it could regain its balance and drove his sword through its side.

The compressed water wrapped around the blade tore through the wound, forcing the sword deeper into flesh than his earlier strikes had managed.

The creature gave a violent roar.

Caelus pulled the blade free and moved around it before the claws could find him.

His sword flashed once more.

The Nightmare Spawn collapsed heavily into the soil.

The mist slowly began to thin.

Caelus remained standing between the two corpses, breathing hard as the last traces of fog drifted away between the trees.

He wiped the blade against the creature’s hide before sheathing it and crouching to retrieve the Soul Cores.

Once they were safely stored in the Ring, he continued toward the center of the island.

The farther he traveled, the more monsters he encountered.

What caught his attention was not their number, but their behavior.

Not every creature attacked him.

Some barely acknowledged his presence as they passed through the forest, moving with clear purpose toward the same destination.

The center.

Caelus slowed.

So this was happening already.

He felt a strange sense of relief.

At least this part of the examination was behaving the way he remembered.

There were still events that had not been betrayed by his interference.

At the center of the island, a Corrupt creature had been sealed beneath the ground long before the examination began.

An A+ rank creature.

The seal had been designed to keep it trapped, but it was weakening.

The creature was trying to ascend.

S-rank.

It could not break free through brute force alone, so it had found another source of fuel.

Other Corrupt creatures.

It called them toward itself and consumed them, turning their energy into its own strength. Every creature that reached the center gave it more power and brought the seal another step closer to failure.

That was why the examination became more dangerous the closer the candidates came to the center.

The Headmaster knew.

Dover had noticed the condition of the seal before the examination began. He knew the creature was gathering strength.

He could have stopped it.

He deliberately chose not to.

To Dover, the sealed A+ creature was another hurdle.

Another trial.

The students had entered the island knowing that death was a possibility. If they were truly meant to become the strongest mages, knights and martial artists of their generation, then surviving a situation like this was part of the test.

That decision had made the examination infamous.

Hundreds had entered the island.

Only one hundred and forty would survive.

The academy had been buried beneath the backlash afterward. Families protested. Several nobles demanded explanations. For a time, investigations and punishment had been discussed openly.

None of it lasted.

Every student had signed the examination conditions before entering.

They knew the risks.

As far as the academy was concerned, that settled the matter.

Caelus remembered all of it because he had once written those events himself.

Back then, one hundred and forty survivors had been nothing more than a number on a page.

Now he was walking through the same island.

The number felt very different.

He pushed the thought aside.

Whatever guilt he carried was useless if it stopped him from surviving.

He needed to reach the center.

More importantly, he needed first place.

Caelus adjusted his grip on the sword and continued through the trees, extending his senses through the moisture hanging between them.

Then something reached him.

A faint sound.

He stopped.

A giggle drifted between the trees.

Caelus’s expression tightened.

The sound came again.

It was soft, playful and eerily wrong.

He listened.

Another giggle floated through the forest, closer this time.

The hairs along the back of his neck rose.

Caelus changed direction and followed it.

Every time he moved closer, the sound seemed to come from somewhere else.

Silence settled around him.

Then a heavy impact struck somewhere ahead.

The ground trembled faintly beneath his feet.

Caelus’s hand tightened around his sword.

A low growl drifted through the trees.

He moved faster.

Branches brushed against his shoulders as he pushed through the undergrowth. The giggling grew louder with every step, becoming more distorted as it echoed through the trees.

There were multiple Nightmare Spawns.

Caelus pushed through the final line of trees and stepped into a clearing.

Five Nightmare Spawns surrounded an injured candidate.

His body was covered in wounds from head to toe. His clothes hung in torn strips, soaked dark with blood, and one arm trembled beneath him as he used it to keep himself from collapsing completely.

He forced himself upright, barely maintaining his balance, his battered body still poised to fight.

The Nightmare Spawns weren’t finishing him.

They were playing with him.

One suddenly leaped over his body and landed several meters away, laughing as it turned back.

Another prowled around him, circling slowly before springing forward and forcing the injured candidate to scramble aside.

The creatures giggled as they moved.

Caelus watched silently from the edge of the trees.

Then his eyes settled on the injured man’s face.

He recognized him.

It was the guy from the library, whatever his name was.