Tok Tok Tok
A rhythmic clacking caused by high heels echoed proudly through the corridor, walking through the corridor was a figure invisible to the naked eye, their elegant clothes being the only thing visible
"Hm~ Hm~ Hm~"
A slow hum came from the individual, it was playful and it carried a sense of carelessness, parried with laziness
Her name was Iye Idiyele, a teacher at Gardenia and the one usually in charge of handling students who are sent to detention
She usually doesn't get assigned to any other work, leaving her with plenty of free time at her hands
Of course she still did her job flawlessly, since it was really important to do
But...that was in the past
Staring out of the window, her eyes gazed at the view that laid bare before her
A bottomless abyssal void where nothing could be seen
In contrast, from above, a beautiful sun sat behind the fake moon, no eclipse could be seen, almost like the moon was an illusion
Even though physics entail that there should be an eerie eclipse that hung on the sky if the sun were perfectly aligned with the moon
There was not, almost as if it were translucent, the rays of light pierced right through the moon and reached the void
The structure housing students who were sent to detention was not exempt from this
Below it, no ground supported it, it merely floated stationery in the air, motionless and ready to fall into the void anytime
Iye stretched her arms, yawning as she trudged forward to her destination
"I kind of made it a big deal the first day....But the previous generation of students did really good surviving and maintaining their sanity, so those two are probably fine~"
She spoke as if it were natural for Cale and Gravel to come out unscathed out of a place meant to completely bent someone mentally
"Now that I think about it, every century the newer generation students are always better than the last"
To be exact, each century that passes. Gardenia would pull in new 'students' and they would always be better than the last batch that came before them, more talent was gained this way of course, but their mental strength was more worth to note than their talent
"They were truly unbreakable a century ago, too bad they couldn't become the Top student of Gardenia, I even gambled a lot of my money on that Feigling fellow...bastard made me lose almost half a million.." She grumbled under her breath
Even the unbreakable may break, and those people were not exempt from this concept
Their mental state had eventually been wrung and stretched to the absolute limit till they broke, they kept on being destroyed relentlessly without any stop, until they became an 'Echo'
A husk-like state, one merely an imitation of what they once were, a sound with no form and a sound that can be forgotten
"Haaa, should I stop gambling?"
She sighed, her movements had all but stopped, she couldn't help but keep on staring at the creation her lord had created himself
It was a giant sphere, but that was the case only for now
As time passed, the moon would shrink without stop, like a ball deflating further into the distance until it looked like a normal marble floating in the air
"Ah…I shouldn't get distracted"
Iye had forgotten that she had a job to do
'Not having anything to do makes someone very lazy, very quickly'
This was learned very thoroughly whenever the previous generations students kept sending themselves to detention and always made Iye work herself more and more than she had to, for no reason, to the point that she slowly became more lazy
She rubbed her temples that even light itself refused to reflect and reveal
Since Gardenia became functional just two months ago and there were already people that sent themselves to detention, she didn't want to suffer by overworking and keep on stalking the students movements for no reason at all
Of course, since there was nothing to do in this special space separate from Gardenia and the trials, she decided to at least by courtesy, put in more effort doing a background check on the two first time troublemakers
"The first one is Gravel Stone…"
'Gravel huh….I heard he is pretty talented and powerful'
Results from the trials showed that Gravel passed the trial very easily after realizing the extent of his abilities
"How many has he killed, I wonder?"
She took a document out of her leather purse she took on a whim
Flipping through the pages, she settled her gaze on Gravel's information
"Almost a hundred?"
An impressive number for just two months
'That is about 20% of the population of the students within Gardenia'
It wasn't exactly a good thing, after all if a lot of students were to die, then the practical exams couldn't be held, so this number was very troublesome in fact
"Apparently he also has an extremely sadistic side that makes him want to torture his victims"
The confirmed reports showed that Gravel had enjoyed torturing and terrorizing the students of Gardenia
"Will he learn his lesson though is the real question, detention does put through a lot of mental distress, but it isn't enough to completely Re-educate someone like him"
While he did get punished severely, even his use of teleportation being limited to a certain degree
It wasn't like he couldn't do it again, he'd just have to be a lot more sneaky than before, without anyone finding out
"Now onto the next one…"
She flicked through the papers, until she found the one she had been looking for
"There he is"
Analytical processed information laid neatly on the paper, everything Iye needed to know about Cale, she could find out by just reading it slowly and carefu-
"What?"
A complete overhauling surprise surged within her, something that didn't make any sense had appeared on the paper whilst Iye was reading Cale's information intently
To be more specific, she was bewildered by two things
First being the history that bled and told within the trials
A strange anomaly had occurred within said trials, making the filth inside to rampage and regain their free will
Because of such anomaly
"...He had been saved"
They were only two whose spirits had not yet been broken
And they moved to protect Cale
A tall lanky figure who was a colorless but could take a shade of pitch black when fighting seriously, an example was seen with him fighting against the blue fist 'Gala' and emerging victorious
And the other was simply a nobody who had hypnotized and filled himself with a delusional faith that he would be saved eventually, it was the one that saved Cale from being choked to death
The other failures of Gardenia were all still lifeless husks devoid of any spirit or any hope
"Not only that…"
There had first been an infighting between them before the bells rang, that allowed Cale to move without anyone watching his actions closely
The infighting had been caused by a sudden rampage in a classroom above Cale that happened for no reason whatsoever
Multiple others also started to rampage, diminishing the original numbers Cale had to face by more than half
A literal cake walk
Due to this sudden anomaly, the filth had also managed to escape without being consumed by the █e
Causing several other problems as well
'Can this get any worse?'
The filth that had escaped from their graveyard would not cause any problems to Gardenia as a whole
They would just dissipate into the air without a trace
Passing on peacefully
But that also meant that Gardenia could not make use of the energy that it could supply itself with by consuming and recycling the garbage
Which made Iye slightly angry but let go of it since she felt she should at least allow them that right
While the extra power was not needed, it could still be used to increase the quality of the practical exams, obviously such a blunder was grave beyond a shadow of doubt
Someone like Iye though did not care so much as other teachers would if they knew something like this happened
"..."
Scrolling through the contents of the paper
Iye's hardened and froze on the spot
[Insight: ???]
The insight couldn't be recorded
This however did not mean Cale had some sort of special ability, if it were special then he wouldn't even be colorless in the first place
She walked towards, more impatiently than ever, hurrying her steps as much as she could
'Is it some kind of minor probability manipulation?'
She shot any plausible idea in her brain, educated guesses were thrown into the tray and kept being swapped with other guesses
It was essential for her to know everything about a situation as bizarre as this, after all, in the end. This was her job
'For there to be no information on his ability at all could mean only one thing'
"But could it? there have been instances like that in the past but almost all of them died in the trial"
However none have ever passed and survived till the first practical exam
Turning a corner, she raised her head from the document and stared ahead
"..."
At the end of the corridor stood a hard and solid old metal door
Immediately her steps quickened towards it, her heart beating rhythmically and softly to the sound of her steps
The wooden floor beneath her high heels did not creak under her weight, she was light on her feet after all
But a certain pressure, the unknown pressed in on her from every side
Her steps became more mentally heavy each time she drew nearer to the door
'The trials track everything you do in there constantly'
It observes and makes a description of one's ability before they could even use it
'It was a creation of our lord himself after all'
Something like this was only possible because of a genius like him, the one who was the cause of the creation of Gardenia
'By studying the soul, you can find many things, my creation here lays it bare for you to see it with your own naked eyes which otherwise could never even fathom what something like this could even look like'
Things like this were said as it were normal
"It can't make a mistake"
Iye reached the metal door and hovered her wooly glove over it
Click!
As if the door itself had recognized Iye, It opened itself for her
Creakkk
The door creaked open, scraping against the wooden floor, the sound bleeding to her ears
'For your ability to still be unknown even though the trials could figure out how your ability works before you could even tell you had one…. can not mean anything else but that'
She stepped inside, ready to juice out any knowledge that Cale had on the off chance it was wrong, an idea she entertained just in case
"..."
Silence permeated and pushed onto the chilly room
'To have your ability unknown means that you are'
Powerless is what you were, you could not have any sort of power accept you fully and settle within you
Everyone in the world is born with at least one insight, but there are cases of people having powers that do not suit their bodies
That, was borrowed power, power that couldn't grow and remained in a stationery state, power that couldn't become unique to the individual no matter what
Power that could only be loaned from a god
'The power itself is also niche and barely usable in a practical sense'
Furthermore solidifying that such talentless trash was not fit to be even considered to be the top of Gardenia, even if given the chance Cale would surely die in the first practical exam
'There must be something more'
That is of course unless Cale were just that incredible, after all, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to pass the trial, highlighting Cale's case even more in the spotlight
But Iye was wrong, moronically so
The room betrayed all of her thoughts
"What….Is this?"
A disturbing scene painted in her vision
The blood stained window filtered the light, taking on a bright red hue that only highlighted the unease she felt
She was not scared, however chills kept shooting down her spine
The walls were covered in blood, blood filled with pain
An entire puddle of despair was vomited on the floor
On the frames and on the pane of the blood stained window were hand prints, broken pieces of teeth littered the floor, with some fragments of the skull also being there
All blood and fragments of bone pointed to one collapsed sinister pained and grinning figure whose body pointed at the window, as if seeking the twisted and distorted light that streamed and pierced through the window
The light, though twisted, was the only source of light in the room
How could one stop themselves from reaching out to it?
Was it not simple human nature to grasp and stare at the light that filled one's world?
But such a twisted light should never be grasped
For that was greed
And while greed allows us humans to achieve something purely with our ambition
Sometimes, it becomes our downfall, a despairing slope with no return
Corrupting our very own pure being
That…Was the start of endless cycle of madness