The world screamed with steel and flame. The trial grounds had become a slaughterhouse....some heirs were taken vanishing into black smoke, assassins flickering like ghosts through the chaos.
Jace's eyes lifted as another shadow leapt toward the Saint Hall heir, blade gleaming with Shadow Fang Pierce.
All around him, the darkness got thickened, pressing in like a wave tide. His hood sank lower, hiding his face as he instinctively stepped deeper into the folds of shadow.
And then the whisper came.
He still have to decide.
---
[System Notice: Opportunity Detected.]
[Devour Now and Grow, or Remain Weak and Fall.]
---
But he was hesitant....
His pulse thudded in his ears. Devour? Here? In front of everyone?
The system didn't care for his fear.
---
[System Notice: Decision Required.]
---
Jace's jaw tightened. For some time he stood still....torn between survival and secrecy. He could hide, let the clans fend for themselves. He could pretend weakness, blend in, vanish when the smoke cleared.
But then his gaze caught on the Saint Hall heir, barely holding his barrier against three blades at once. He saw the Azure Clan's third son dragged screaming into the shadows. He saw blood smear across the stones like paint.
And then..... he saw her.
Veyra Nightveil, her sword dancing in crimson arcs, fending off assassins with Scarlet Vein Art: Crimson Bloom. Elegant, fierce… but was cornered. Two blades had already slipped past her guard. A third assassin emerged behind her, silent as death.
Her crimson eyes widened.
Jace's hesitation snapped like brittle glass.
"…Fine. You win."
---
[System Response: Choice Accepted.]
[Skill Activated – Devour Essence (Lv.1)]
---
The nearest assassin didn't even realize what had happened. One moment his blade was poised to strike, the next his body shuddered as a wisp of gray light drifted from his chest into Jace's palm. The man's strength faltered, his stance collapsed and Jace moved.
With a snap of borrowed reflexes, he twisted the assassin's arm and rammed the stolen blade straight through his ribcage.
The body dropped without a sound.
Veyra was surprised someone helped her.... her crimson gaze locking on Jace's shadowed face. Shock flickered there, but she didn't speak.
The second assassin lunged, hissing Silent Fang Technique, his strike vanishing mid-swing. But Jace met it head-on, his own strength surging from the wisp he had stolen. Sparks screamed as steel clashed, and he shoved the man off balance.
Veyra didn't waste the opening. Her sword sang, carving a crimson bloom across the assassin's throat.
The third melted back into the dark, retreating as quickly as he came.
For a moment the two stood back-to-back, blades raised, the chaos swirling around them.
"Who—" Veyra started, breath sharp, "—are you?"
"Just another participant trying not to die," Jace muttered, his voice was low, jagged, as if forcefully stolen his throat.
But his eyes stayed on the shadows. Because the assassins weren't finished.
Across the grounds, more heirs were dragged screaming into the darkness. The Blossom Clan's daughter vanished beneath a veil of smoke, the Azure heir's blood marked the stones, even the Saint Hall prodigy's golden barrier shattered before he was swallowed whole.
Sect elders roared overhead, summoning radiant barriers and divine light to lock the skies...but it was too late. The Nine Shadow Sect had already achieved their strike.
They were able to hold down the various elders from the clans present... that's surprising.
When the last scream faded, the air reeked of blood and despair.
Jace stood very still, his fists tightening around the hilt of his stolen blade. The faint hum of stolen essence still thrummed beneath his skin, dangerous, intoxicating.
The system's voice cut through the ringing in his ears.
---
[System Update: Decision Executed.]
[Skill – Devour Essence Proficiency +1 → Lv.2.]
[Affinity Gained: Favorable Impression – Target: Veyra Nightveil.]
---
Her gaze was still on him... possibly suspicious, but also grateful.
He lowered his hood slightly, enough for her to see his mouth curl into a faint, guarded smirk.
"Don't thank me. I didn't do it for you."
But in truth, he wasn't so sure.
Because in that moment.... watching her bloodied yet unbroken, watching the Nine Shadow Sect vanish into darkness with their prizes....Jace realized one thing.
No matter how much he tried to hide, the system would never let him.
And in the trial grounds of the Imperial Heaven Sect, he had just stepped onto the stage of chaos.
----
The silence that followed was heavier than the screams.
Where once the trial grounds had thrummed with ambition and fire, now only smoke lingered. Black trails of shadow still hung like ghostly fingers in the air, marking the paths the assassins had come and gone.
Half a dozen heirs were gone.
And the elders descended like thunder.
Blades of holy light, shields of jade, and curtains of flame tore through the sky as the Academy's guardians finally landed, their robes billowing with suppressed fury.
"Where are they?!" an elder of Saint Hall roared, his voice cracking the stones beneath his feet. "WHERE IS MY DISCIPLE?!"
The Saint Hall heir's absence was a wound that no light could mend. Another elder knelt where the Azure heir had been dragged, fists trembling, blood staining his palms.
The Human Clan representatives, each standing with their banners, looked on with darkened eyes. The Ironspike Clan's second son growled, his jaw clenched, while the Blossom Clan matriarch clutched her chest, her daughter gone to shadows.
The trial, meant to showcase promise, had instead been painted in humiliation.
"The Nine Shadow Sect…" an elder spat, his aura shaking the heavens. "They dare?! To steal heirs within our walls?!"
Murmurs spread through the crowd of disciples still standing....different emotions surge through them: fear, awe, confusion. Some even looked broken. Others cursed the heavens. A few stared at Jace.
Veyra Nightveil was one of them.
She hadn't spoken since the clash, but her crimson gaze never left him. She remembered the way he had appeared in her blind spot, the way his blade had struck, the way her life had been spared in the span of a heartbeat.
Jace kept his hood low, but he could feel her eyes like embers against his skin.
The system's whisper lingered in his ears:
---
[Skill Growth Stable.]
[Warning: Exposure Risk Increased.]
---
"Enough!" one of the Academy's high elders barked, raising his staff, his aura pressing down like a storm. "The Nine Shadows have tested our walls, but they have not broken our will. The trial continues."
A murmur of disbelief rippled across the ground.
"Continue? After THIS?" one of the Human Clan reps snarled, a scarred warrior of the Ironspike bloodline. His fist slammed into the marble floor, cracking it. "My nephew was taken! Your wards failed, your elders failed and you would ask us to remain?"
The Academy's elder met his glare without flinching.
"Leave now, and the Nine Shadows win. This trial is not only for you, but for the empire itself. Every heir still standing has a choice: withdraw in shame, or prove their strength."
The words cut through the heavy silence like a blade.
Jace looked around. Faces pale with fear, but also burning with anger. Heirs shaking, but refusing to lower their heads. Veyra's jaw was clenched, her crimson eyes narrowing with something dangerously close to resolve.
And then her voice, calm but sharp:
"…I will stay."
The Blossom Clan representatives turned in shock. "Veyra, your life was nearly taken—"
"All the more reason not to cower," she cut them off, her tone cold, final. "If I am to inherit, I must stand."
The declaration rippled through the air. One by one, other heirs found their voices. Some still trembling, some defiant, but most choosing to remain.
The elders nodded grimly.
And Jace?
He remained silent, his hood still shadowing his face. But deep inside, his blood stirred — not from duty, not from pride, but from the system humming beneath his skin. The power he had stolen pulsed like fire in his veins.
For the first time since stepping foot in the Academy, he felt something dangerous.
Not weakness.
Potential.
---
Above, the heavens thundered once more, and the voice of the Academy echoed:
"The First Trial resumes."
And the disciples stepped forward, into a stage no longer of ambition — but survival.