The students were finally able to breath a sigh of relief but the pain in their hearts was undeniable.
They just watched their classmates die in front of them, some being friends they just made today, some childhood friends, some even brothers or sisters.
"Do not mourn the dead, doing so won't change anything" the instructor from damains class cold words could be heard. The students looked at him with pain in their eyes.
"Remember their faces, forget them. I couldn't care less, right now your inner Nexus should be at its limit. You will now undergo your first trial. So ready your selves and follow me"
He walked out of the portal, together with the other instructors signaling the students to follow.
'Was this all planned by the academy? Of course it was. How else could the portal close right after dozens of beasts conveniently slipped through? But why…?' Damian's thoughts raced. 'Is it because they want our Nexuses to overflow?, why result to such cruel method then'
The students followed the instructors, they looked like mindless zombies, moving sluggishly, face looked drained from any form of life, their eyes dead.
The soon arrived at a field, quiet. Too quiet.
Where hours ago, screams and crunch of bones rung lound.
Inside the dungeon they had just come out of, he corpses of the fallen had been dragged away, but their absence did nothing to cleanse the air. Stench of blood clung stubbornly to the ground, sinking deep, as if it would never wash out.
At the field they had just arrived, the students huddled in clusters, whispering low, their voice heavy with tremors they couldn't suppress. Some wept openly even now, tears carving tracks across dirt-streaked faces. Others simply stared into nothing, their minds traps in the scenes they had witnessed.
Damian just stood there frozen. Blood across sleeve --not his own. This field seemed isolated, he wasn't sure what motive the academy has this time, if they were to try anything there's nothing he could do, he felt helpless, looks like the other students too had accepted their fate.
He looked at their grieving figures as they were forced to stand on a straight line. All 2, 300 remain students complied.
A machine about 4ft could be seen at the center of this massive field.
One instructor matched to the front of the line. His voice like gravel, low and unyielding.
" You have tested fear. You have seen death. Now, you will face yourselves"
The mans gaze swept the group, sharp and merciless
"Your Nexus stirs in trauma. But trauma alone gets you nowhere. It must be confronted . It must be broken"
"You!" A crying girl in front was asked to step forward, she did placing her hands on it and instantly she disappeared. The grieving boy behind her was shook and hesitated.
"Step forward!" the instructor barked. The boy obeyed, his body trembling, before vanishing into thin air.
One by one, the students disappeared, swallowed by nothingness. The other instructors stood motionless, towering and cold--unmoved by the fear, deaf to cries around them.
Damian watched it all, his usual calm expression had broken at this point. He didn't know what to expect from the academy this time. It was soon his turn, his heartbeat was rapid, he placed his hands on the machine and in the next instant he was in another open room.
It was vast, circular, the ceiling swallowed in darkness. Along the walls obsidian champers stood in rows - coffins of polished black stone, each himinh with faint nethera.
A female instructor already there, said nothing and just simply pointed at a chamber. Damian obediently complied, his heartbeat skyrocketed at this point he could hear is own heart beat loudly.
The chamber before him pulsed faintly, it's surface darker than midnight, veins of crimson writhing like molten cracks beneath the stone. He placed his hand on it, it was like touching air.
Nothing.
But then it opened.
Inside was darkness, deep and unyielding . Not the absence of light, but the kind of dark that seemed alive, pressing, whispering.
For a moment, Damian stood at the threshold, eyes half- lidded, trying to calm himself down. He tilted his head, as though listening. The chambers hum seemed to sync with the rhythm of his own heart.
A flicker passed through his mind- burning fields, ash in the air, the echo of laughter where there should have been screams. His lips parted, just slightly.
" I refuse to be overwhelmed"
And then he stepped insided.
The chamber closed
Darkness swallowed him whole.
However silence was not what met him in this dark void.
It was sound.
Whispers, low and endless, clawing at the edge of his thoughts. Laughter that didn't belong to any human. The crackling roar of fire. The taste of ash.
He stood in a field, endless, burning. Flames licked at the sky, black smoke twisting upward. Like broken pillars.
Beneath his feet, the soil was cracked bleeding even more darkness like water.
And there - figures. Shadows walking the flames, faceless but familiar. Their laughter was jagged, cutting through the roar.
He knew this place. He had seen it before-- no, lived it. But this trail twisted it, made it sharper, trying to make it crueler. The shadow turned towards him. Their heads titled unnaturally. Their cries and laughter swelled.
"Dami.... Damian..."
His name, stretched, mocking, echoing through the blaze.
He did not flinch. His hands remained loose at his sides. His eyes now calm, calmer than ever. These eyes traced the horizon of fire.
The shadows closed in, their movements jerky, unnatural. Their whispers were louder now, overlapping, suffocating.
"Why did you live?"
" Why are you still here.... When we are no more"
The ground became unstable as their voice rose, it cracked beneath him, more shadows emerging.
Still, Damian stood unmoved.
This trail was meant to break them, to drown them in weight of their fears, their regrets, their scars.
But Damian .... was surprisingly calm for someone who was shaking moments ago. The shadows pressed on, coming closer but his lips curved--not into a smile, not fully, but into something sharp, unreadable.
"So this is the trial that man spoke of?" Damian whispered--not to the instructors, but to someone else. His voice was cold, steady. "He made it sound terrifying. If this is all there is, then you'll have to do better… because if this is truly my trial, then I've already passed."