Chapter 61: 61. World academy trials - 7
In the world of Aris, mana reigned supreme. It was not a rigid force bound by singular laws but a flexible and adaptive energy that permeated everything: air, land, water, and even blood.
Over countless generations, civilizations had learned to bend this energy into structured systems, creating clear paths for the awakened.
Broadly speaking, there existed three primary methods through which mana was utilized.
The first was battle techniques: methods that used weapons as conduits for mana, allowing the wielder to amplify physical actions into destructive forces. These techniques depended on precision, control, and experience rather than raw imagination.
The second was spells, which relied purely on mana manipulation without physical mediums. These demanded talent, affinity, and complex mental calculations; once a spell was formed, it was recorded down for future generations.
The third was cultivation techniques, which governed how mana was absorbed, refined, and stored within the body. These techniques formed the foundation of all strength, determining how far an individual could climb.
Among the three, battle techniques were the most flexible to use. As long as a person possessed any type of mana and a weapon capable of conducting it, they could execute them, although a lot of experience and practice was required to master them.
Some techniques, such as the Tempest Sword Technique, were aligned toward specific elements of storm and thunder; if used with them, the output would be the best as compared to using it with other elements.
On the other hand, techniques, like the Heaven-Sundering Divine Sword Art, had no such compatibility.
It was a technique that could accept any form of energy infused into them, creating countless variations of the same attack.
This adaptability was precisely what Ethan had attempted earlier by fusing a light element with the Tempest Sword Technique.
And it was also what Will was about to attempt, albeit on an entirely different level.
Dark clouds rolled overhead as thunder rumbled through the sky.
The forest canopy shuddered when an SS-rank Thunder Roc descended from the heavens, its wings stretched wide as lightning crackled along its feathers.
The beast's rage was palpable, its sharp eyes locked onto the lone human standing below.
The reason was simple.
Will had annihilated its nest.
Branches snapped and trees collapsed as the Roc dove, its talons glowing with condensed thunder.
The pressure alone caused the surrounding ground to fracture, yet Will did not move. His expression remained calm.
"Heaven-Sundering Divine Sword Art,"
"First Form: Origin Severance."
"Kreee—ee! Kreee—ah!"
The Thunder Roc let out a shrill, broken scream as its body was blasted backward by the force alone.
A fraction of a second later, the massive form split cleanly in two, blood and lightning scattered before evaporating into the air.
The corpse hit the ground in pieces.
And a silence followed.
Will exhaled slowly, his shoulders relaxing as he walked toward the remains. As he inspected the area, he frowned faintly.
Will had used his darkness element with the attack, and he soon realized there was no need to do so; the sheer power of the god-rank technique would have been enough.
There was no monster core.
Host, why do you never listen to me? These are illusion constructs. They will not carry cores.]
"Yeah, yeah," Will replied with mild annoyance. "I was just checking."
Straightening, he opened the leaderboard.
[RANKINGS]
#1 William Kaiser (Human) [125,000]
#2 Ethan (Human) [78,125]
#3 Gaelion Skybreak (Titan) [50,625]
#4 Katherine Nightreign (Vampire) [45,125]
#5 Seraphine (Elf) [30,025]
#6 Dino Drakemor (Dragon) [30,006]
#7 Fiona Ashfall (Phoenix) [29,500]
#8 Leila Ravenclaw (Human) [25,625]
#9 Desmond Klembred (dwarf) [23,125]
#10 Kara Babylon (wolf-kin - beastfolk) [20,350]
...
...
====
Looking at the rankings, a slow and satisfied smile appeared on Will's face.
"Dragons and phoenixes outside would be fuming."
He did not say it loudly, nor was there any arrogance in his tone. It was more of a smart guess.
He already knew what kind of response his position would provoke beyond the domain, and the thought did not trouble him in the slightest.
Will was absolutely right.
Outside the domain, the massive arena had fallen into an unnatural stillness. The usual mixture of cheers, gasps, and competitive taunts had collapsed into a strange imbalance of sound. Only one group's voices remained dominant.
The human race audience cheered with all their might.
Their noise rolled across the stands in overwhelming waves, drowning out every other faction. Some shouted names, others screamed incoherently, while many simply stood with clenched fists and wide eyes, unable to believe what they were witnessing.
Humans held the top two positions.
For most of them, this was something they had never even imagined.
Their elders spoke of ancient figures like Sword Saint Klaus, legendary cardinals of the church, and heroes who had lived centuries ago.
Those stories were distant, half-mythical, and belonging to an era long past.
But now, in their own lifetimes, they were seeing it with their own eyes.
Two humans.
At the very top.
They were leading.
Many human spectators wiped their eyes, some laughed in disbelief, while others stood frozen, afraid that if they blinked the rankings would change.
Across the arena, the reaction from other races could not have been more different.
Silence pressed down heavily in the elite lobby.
Representatives of dragon kin sat stiff-backed; their expressions were tight.
Phoenix elders stared at the screens with narrowed eyes, wings twitching subtly as irritation seeped through their composure.
Vampires watched quietly, crimson pupils reflecting the rankings without a single outward reaction, though the tension around them was unmistakable.
Being outranked by humans was not merely a matter of pride.
It was a disruption in natural order for them.
For generations, the hierarchy between races had remained largely unspoken but deeply understood.
Humans were at the bottom; they were adaptable and large in number, but they rarely dominated the competition at the very top.
That unspoken balance was now under threat.
It was not just one of them; instead, it was three humans in the top ten this year.
The atmosphere among them was restless.
From several elite lobbies, shadows silently detached themselves from walls and corners, slipping away without announcement. No one needed to ask what they were doing.
Orders were already forming.
Although Ethan's presence was explainable,
He was publicly revealed as the disciple of Sword Saint Klaus recently after he showcased the tempest art.
But the first ranker was an anomaly. William's background was a blank slate, and that made him far more dangerous in the eyes of power.
A cold voice broke the silence in one of the rooms.
"Investigate the background of both of these humans."
Almost identical orders echoed across other lobbies.
They could not allow the balance between races to tilt unchecked.
In another elite lobby, Emperor Aurelius Dalton stared at the projected rankings in disbelief.
His gaze shifted slowly toward the man seated beside him.
"So," Aurelius said, his voice low but incredulous, "you're telling me that the first ranker—William—is from Riverdale?"
He searched Klaus's face for hesitation, but he could not find any.
Sword Saint Klaus simply nodded.
Aurelius leaned back slightly, exhaling through his nose as his fingers tightened around the armrest.
"And the second ranker," he continued after a pause, "is your disciple."
The two topmost ranks from his own empire—the revelation was difficult to digest for Aurelius.
Klaus remained silent this time, neither confirming nor denying verbally. His calm demeanor made it clear that further questions would not be answered here.
Across the room, Cardinal Nichole sat unnaturally still.
Earlier confidence had vanished from his posture. The faint smugness he had worn during previous discussions was gone, replaced by a strained neutrality.
His hands rested together, fingers interlocked tightly enough for his knuckles to pale.
He had spoken too much earlier about the saint of the church.
Now, with Klaus's disciple standing near the top and another human from the same empire holding first place, the implications weighed heavily on him.
Nichole swallowed, carefully masking the tension in his expression. The humiliation was real, but showing it would only make things worse.
For now, silence was the safest choice.
And in that silence, all three men understood the same thing.
The trial was shaping into something entirely different.
Chapter 62: 62. World academy trials - 8 (THE LOOMING SHADOWS)
[Host, the space has been sealed.]
The system's voice arrived without warning, cutting through Will's thoughts.
There was no playful lilt and neither the usual irrelevant commentary that Will had grown accustomed to over time.
"What?" Will responded instinctively; his eyes swept the surroundings, but he couldn't sense anything.
[The space is sealed.]
The system repeated itself, but this time the tone dropped further. It was quieter, almost subdued, as if the system itself were surprised.
"This space?" Will asked, his voice lowering as his instincts flared.
[The whole realm is sealed.]
The seriousness in the system's tone was enough to send a chill down Will's spine.
It felt wrong.
"Are you sure?" Will asked, even as part of him already knew the answer. His eyes narrowed, and sweat began forming along his brow.
[I have never been wrong about these things. You should know what sealing of space means right]
The words settled heavily in his mind.
Before he could speak again, a sharp notification sound echoed directly within his consciousness.
[ding!!!!]
==========
Mission: Stop the Cult of Amon
Description: The cult of Amon is coming after the heads of the top 50 participants of the entrance exam.
Task: Stop the Cult of Amon
Rewards: will be calculated after the mission is over
===========
Will stared at the translucent mission screen, reading it once, then again.
His expression hardened with each line. Unlike many previous missions, there was no exaggeration here, no dramatic wording meant to inflate urgency.
This was blunt.
"The Cult of Amon..." he muttered under his breath. His fingers flexed unconsciously. "And the space is sealed."
Pieces began clicking together in his mind with alarming speed.
"He is coming, isn't he?" Will said quietly, the realization striking him with such force that his breathing faltered. Sweat rolled down his temple despite the cool air.
[Unfortunately, yes.]
The confirmation landed like a hammer.
Will cursed under his breath. "I can't send divine mail outside. My SP is empty, damn it."
His thoughts raced as he assessed every option available to him. He felt cornered, not because he lacked power, but because of timing and circumstance.
"Is the inventory accessible?" he asked sharply.
[Yes. I unlocked it after this mission appeared.]
That was the smallest sliver of relief, but relief nonetheless.
"Think," Will muttered, pacing a few steps before stopping abruptly. "Think."
He clenched his sword so tightly his knuckles whitened.
Anxiety crept into his chest as several calculations ran in his mind.
He was currently the highest-ranking individual inside the realm, but his actual cultivation still sat at S-rank.
From the Cult's side...
"An Ascension realm mage," Will said grimly. "Coming personally."
"The timeline is moving too fast; this person appeared too late in the story. It's not time for him to appear today."
The gap between Will and the ascension-level mage was enormous.
To fight someone three major realms above him was not just difficult—it was supposed to be impossible.
[You don't need to win.]
[You only need to hold him down until academy reinforcements arrive.]
Will let out a slow breath. "Hold him down... You say that like it's easy."
His mind immediately went to his inventory.
"Let me think," Will said, voice tight. "Bro... my entire inventory might be emptied today."
As if responding to the rising tension, the forest around him trembled.
A massive presence descended from above, and the air shifted violently.
A huge SSS-rank Wind Wyvern crashed through the treetops, its wings unfurling as it landed with a thunderous impact. The ground shook, and trees bent violently, and a deafening roar tore through the air.
The wyvern reared its head and roared directly at Will, its wind-aspected mana surging outward in an attempt to overwhelm him through sheer pressure.
Will did not retreat.
Instead, he raised his gaze, staring directly into the beast's eyes.
"Will the laws of this realm apply to them as well?" he asked, his voice steady despite the monstrous presence.
[Yes. Even though the space has been locked, the laws inside the realm cannot be changed. Even gods are suppressed by them.]
Will heaved a sigh of relief.
He looked at the roaring wyvern again.
"Then," Will said calmly, adjusting his stance, "I think I might be able to do something."
***
Academy Control Room...
Deep within the academy, in a control chamber where countless formation arrays converged, two professors sat calmly amidst glowing runes and layered magical constructs.
"Nia, is the space sealed yet?" asked the man seated beside her. He wore rectangular glasses with sharply angled edges, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the console.
"Almost complete," Nia replied without looking up. Her hands moved fluidly as she adjusted several layered formations. "I'm adding extra layers. I want it foolproof."
Both of them wore standard academy professor uniforms.
Both of them were formation masters that worked at the Academy, and both of them were also members of the Cult of Demon Lord Lilith, working as their agents.
Earlier that week, they had received precise instructions to coordinate with the Cult of Amon and ensure that the trial domain would be fully sealed at the appropriate time.
They had been given an artifact for assistance.
The domain was massive, far larger than most trial spaces, and sealing it had taken hours of meticulous work.
The anchor of the artifact had been embedded directly into the domain orb, ensuring complete isolation.
"Good," the man said quietly. "Once Amon's people enter, no one will be able to escape until they are done."
Nia allowed herself a faint smile. "May Lilith bless them."
***
Inside the academy's principal office,
The atmosphere was relaxed.
Andrea, Tamasya, and Yue sat around a polished table, a massive projection screen hovering nearby displaying the trial's progress.
"Hmmph," Tamasya said, placing a chunk of platinum ore on the table. "My disciple will maintain his position for the entire trial."
Andrea snorted lightly. "You're far too confident, Tammy. Klaus's disciple isn't someone you can ignore, and you're forgetting the Titan prince. That boy awakened a divine, world-ending Titan physique."
She gestured lazily at the screen. "Look. Your disciple is taming wyverns while the others are making fast progress."
"I bet my wager on Klaus's disciple," Andrea added calmly before tossing a platinum ore herself too.
Tamasya remained smug. "Hmph. He must have a reason."
She turned toward Yue. "What do you think about him, Yue?"
Andrea and Tamasya both frowned when they saw Yue's condition.
Her pupils had flipped backward.
A faint pinkish glow leaked from her eyes.
"Hey," Tamasya snapped, irritation flashing across her face. "That's cheating. You can't use divination in the middle of a wager."
Suddenly—
Yue's divination shattered.
She gasped sharply, her body jerking as if struck. One hand slammed against the table as she struggled to breathe, shock written clearly across her face.
She looked up at the two women; her voice was tight and urgent.
"Guys," Yue said, swallowing hard, "I think something is not right."
---
[A/N : Just to clarify, people can be killed inside the domain, the monsters can't kill since they are constructs of illusion, but real people can kill real people, that is why killing other participants was prohibited, and professors would intervene whenever that happened,
Well now they can't (～￣▽￣)～]
***-------
For ten long years the war had raged in flame.
Till Greeks withdrew and left a gift of shame.
A wooden horse, so vast and finely made,
The Trojans cheered; their doubts began to fade.
At dead of night, the hollow beast gave birth—
Armed men crept out to burn the sleeping earth.
Thus, Troy fell not by strength, but by deceit.
And cunning won where blades could not compete.
Chapter 63: 63. World academy trials - 9 (THE LOOMING SHADOWS)
"It's my prey. Leave."
Katherine's voice was calm, but the pressure behind it was unmistakable.
Her crimson eyes were locked onto the looming figure standing across from her, her fingers resting lightly on the hilt of her dagger as if she could draw it at any moment.
The air around her carried a faint chill mixed with the metallic scent of blood, subtle yet oppressive.
Gaelion barely spared her a glance.
"Don't get in my way, Vampire Princess," he said, his tone flat and dismissive, as if he were brushing aside a kid rather than addressing royalty.
His gaze roamed the clearing instead, scanning the grass, the wind, and the faint distortions in mana. He was searching for something specific, and Katherine was clearly not it.
The tension between them thickened, but before it could erupt,
"You both... Don't you feel something is strange?"
Ethan's voice cut through the standoff, low and grim. His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword as his eyes swept across the clearing with growing unease.
Ever since he had entered this area, an uncomfortable sensation had settled in his chest, like a warning he could not explain. Something deep inside him whispered that events were deviating from the natural flow.
During his hunt, he had clearly sensed the presence of an A-ranked beast. That alone was enough reason to pursue it without hesitation.
A-ranked monsters carried significant points, and he had immediately followed the trail the moment he detected it.
At first, the presence had been faint, almost elusive, as if deliberately pulling him along. He followed it steadily, step by step, until the terrain suddenly opened up into an enormous clearing.
That alone had caught him off guard.
The land here was unnaturally flat, covered in dense green grass that swayed gently under the breeze.
It was too open, too exposed, and completely unlike the forested terrain surrounding it. A place like this must not naturally exist within this domain.
And yet, here they were.
When he had arrived, the two figures had already arrived at the center of the clearing, a vampire and a titan, arguing over the same prey.
Ethan's eyes dropped briefly to the ground. He noticed the trail of footsteps etched faintly into the soil.
Katherine's path came from one direction. Gaelion's from the opposite side. Neither aligned with Ethan's own route.
They had all been drawn here independently.
By the same presence.
His unease deepened.
Something was very wrong.
Before he could voice that thought again, movement flickered at the edges of the clearing.
Another figure emerged.
A dragonoid stepped forward, a long halberd resting casually against his shoulder, scales faintly glinting under the filtered light.
From another direction, a female Phoenix descended gracefully, her royal robes fluttering as residual heat shimmered around her form.
Moments later, Leila, the ice queen appeared, stepping out from the tree line with a bow in her hands, she looked at Ethan and nodded.
Both of them had met before.
An elf clad in deep purple robes emerged next, moving with an innocent expression. Ethan's gaze softened. It was Seraphine, the disciple of Tower Master.
Katherine's eyes narrowed.
Gaelion finally stopped scanning the clearing and turned his head, his eyes narrowed.
There were too many.
Too many high-ranking candidates appearing at the exact same location was no coincidence.
More figures arrived, one after another. Some spoke in hushed voices, others remained silent, but the pattern was identical for all of them.
They had seen something.
A dark shadow, and instinctively they had followed it.
Almost all of them belonged to the top fifty in the rankings.
Murmurs rippled across the clearing, uncertainty spreading like a disease. Then, slowly, the chatter died down.
An oppressive presence began to descend upon the area, the air thickened, and many participants shivered.
The mood became heavy, and mana fluctuations intensified. Instinctively, every participant straightened, weapons half-raised, getting ready to attack.
From the sky above, a massive green, horned wyvern descended, its wings slicing through the air with deafening force. The pressure it exuded crashed down like a physical weight.
SSS-rank.
The suppression alone made breathing harder, but at the same time, the sheer number of points such a beast represented made the eyes of some lunatics gleam despite the danger.
Fiona Ashfall stepped forward, flames gathering at her fingertips as she began to form a spell.
"STOP!"
Leila's shout rang out sharply, halting her mid-action.
"There's someone on top of it!"
Every gaze snapped upward.
At first, it was difficult to make out anything beyond the massive silhouette of the wyvern. Then, gradually, a human figure came into focus, seated casually atop the beast's back.
As the wyvern descended further, the figure became unmistakably clear.
Blue hair that caught the light. Sapphire eyes that reflected calm confidence. A handsome face set on a lean yet muscular frame.
Gaelion's fists clenched.
A strange, instinctive thrill coursed through his veins. His divine physique reacted on its own, resonating sharply as it recognized another of its kind. A slow smirk crept onto his face.
Will met his gaze and returned the expression without hesitation.
"Him?" Ethan breathed, disbelief flashing across his face.
Seraphine stiffened beside him, eyes widening slightly as recognition struck.
Meanwhile, Katherine stood frozen.
Her cheeks flushed as she stared at the familiar figure, fingers tightening around the few broken strands of blue hair clutched in her hands.
"It's him," she murmured, biting her lip as she fought down the instinctive surge of desire that flared within her. The craving for his blood twisted painfully in her chest.
The wyvern landed heavily. The gathered participants instinctively stepped back, creating space.
From the beast's back, the human figure leapt down, landing smoothly on the grass.
Most of them still did not fully understand who he was.
Then he spoke.
"I am William Kaiser," he said calmly, his voice carrying across the clearing without effort. "The first rank."
A ripple of shock spread instantly through the crowd.
"The shadows you saw," Will continued evenly, "were one of my tricks. I brought you all here on purpose."
Recognition dawned fully now. His name alone was enough.
Yet confusion followed immediately after.
Why was he here?
Why gather them like this?
***
A Few Minutes Earlier...
Will stood over the massive corpse of the wyvern, its lifeless body steaming faintly as residual energy dissipated into the air. Even for an SSS-rank beast, it had eventually fallen after sustained effort.
Without wasting time, Will activated the Aeon Blade's invisibility and vanished from sight, sprinting toward a nearby cave. If there was a chance that outside the domain, the people had not yet realized the situation and were still watching the screens, and if he was being watched by the outside world, then he wanted to divert that attention as soon as he could.
Usually the recording arrays were present in the sky, so if he was in a cave, he would be isolated from their field of vision.
Inside the cave he found after searching for a while, he retrieved a stamp-like artifact.
The Array Hijacking Stamp, a divine artifact.
It was one of the free purchases he had made two years ago, specifically reserved for the moment when demons or cults made their move inside the academy.
The academy domain was enormous, layered with countless formations and arrays operating simultaneously, so the stamp was perfect to use in here.
This trial domain was no different; its foundation was an illusion array, and layered above it were countless other formations.
Will placed the stamp against the cave floor and channeled mana into it.
Energy burst outward, rippling through the environment as a massive spectral stamp formed in midair, hovering above the artifact.
Will raised his hand and placed it against the glowing halo, his intent clear.
He began altering the flow of several formations within the domain, changing the rules and laws placed on it that had been unchanged for centuries.
Chapter 64: 64. World academy trials - 10 (Cooperation)
"Are you out of your mind?" Dino Drakemor demanded, stepping forward as he leveled his halberd directly at William.
The sharp edge caught the light as mana flared faintly along its length, it was a clear display of hostility towards William, and it didn't sit well in his eyes.
"The academy has explicitly prohibited infighting among participants," Dino continued, his voice rising with visible irritation.
"Are you so foolish that you cannot even comprehend something that basic?" His expression was twisted with rage, not just because of the situation, but because he felt his time had been wasted by a human daring to command attention.
Will did not react immediately. He simply regarded Dino with a calm expression, his posture turned relaxed and his arms folded into an intelligent expression.
"No," Will replied after a brief pause, his tone was strangely polite "I am not foolish. One would need a lizard's brain to qualify for that level of incompetence."
The words landed cleanly, without heat, which somehow made them sting far more.
Dino froze for a heartbeat before his rage exploded.
"How dare you call me a lizard, you puny human!" he roared, scales along his neck bristled and his aura surged outward in an aggressive wave.
Will raised an eyebrow slightly, as if genuinely surprised.
"Oh," he said calmly, nodding once. "My mistake. You are not as foolish as I initially assumed. At least you understood the joke."
He waved his hand dismissively, already turning his back on Dino as though the dragonkin no longer mattered. His interest had clearly shifted elsewhere.
"I am not here for verbal sparring," Will continued, his voice carrying clearly across the clearing. "So I will get straight to the point."
He turned back to face the gathered participants, his expression now serious.
"I gathered all of you to inform you of a simple fact," Will said evenly. "This domain's space has been sealed, and we are trapped here."
The murmuring that followed was immediate.
"This is not an accident," Will added, his gaze sweeping across the crowd. "It is a scheme orchestrated by the demonic cults. They are coming here, and they are coming for our heads."
He said nothing further. He did not elaborate or dramatize the statement. He simply allowed the weight of his words to sink in.
Several minutes passed.
No one immediately challenged him. Instead, hushed conversations broke out across the clearing. Some candidates exchanged uneasy glances, while others frowned deeply, trying to assess the credibility of what they had just heard.
A few remained completely silent, their expressions growing darker as the implications of his words settled.
Eventually, Dino stepped forward again, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
"Why should we believe you?" he demanded. "You are a human. your kin are famous for their cowardice and scheming nature."
Will did not answer but merely raised his hand and snapped his fingers.
The sound was sharp.
At that exact instant, a massive blade of compressed wind tore through the air. Before anyone could react, the force struck Dino directly.
His body was cleaved cleanly in two.
One half slid several meters away from the other, blood evaporating before it could even touch the ground. The clearing fell into stunned silence as shock rippled through the assembled candidates.
The wyvern above let out a low rumble, clearly it was responding to William's will.
Before panic could fully take hold, light flared around the corpse and Dino reappeared.
He collapsed onto the ground, clutching his chest where the wind blade had struck moments earlier.
Sweat poured down his face as he gasped for breath, his eyes were wide with lingering terror.
Will approached him slowly, with each step deliberate.
Nearby participants instinctively backed away, creating space between themselves and the scene. Dino shakily raised his halberd, pointing it weakly toward Will.
"Stay away," he warned, though his voice lacked any real force.
Will stopped directly in front of him and leaned down slightly, meeting Dino's eyes.
"You are forgetting the most basic law of the jungle," Will said quietly. "A beast does not scheme against insects. It simply walks over them."
The message was unmistakable.
Will straightened and turned back to the crowd.
"We need to survive until reinforcements arrive from the outside," he said. "For reasons I cannot yet explain, those outside are unaware of our situation. Until that changes, we are on our own."
He gestured subtly toward Dino.
"As you just witnessed, the space is sealed. When the wyvern killed him, the domain was unable to expel him back to the arena. Instead, it resurrected him here."
His voice was devoid of any uncertainty.
At this point, no one openly questioned him. The logic was sound, and the demonstration had been impossible to ignore.
Still, a voice rose from the crowd.
"How do you know all this?" someone asked cautiously.
Will shook his head once.
"That," he replied calmly, "is my secret."
It was not a satisfying answer, but it was enough. No one present was willing to challenge him further.
Strength had spoken.
After a brief pause, Will addressed them again.
"Who among you is willing to follow my lead?" he asked. "I cannot guarantee survival, but I do have a plan that might work."
He gestured behind himself.
"Those willing to comply may stand with me. The rest are free to return to whatever they were doing. I will have no obligation to protect you."
For a moment, no one moved.
Then figures began stepping forward.
Ethan was the first.
Seraphine followed without hesitation.
Katherine moved next, her gaze never leaving Will.
Gaelion stepped forward, his expression was unreadable.
Then came Maximus Sinclair.
Will's eyes narrowed slightly as he took in the sight of the man standing beside him, his expression was Stoic and composed.
The villain of the first arc had chosen to stand with him.
And that, more than anything else, told Will that the story ahead was about to become far more complicated.
---------
[A/N: Sorry for the short Chapter this is how i divided the scenes]
Chapter 65: 65. World academy trials - 11 (Cooperation)
Leila Ravenclaw approached him after the initial movement of the crowd had settled.
The clearing no longer felt chaotic, but the tension had only grown with time.
Her expression carried the familiar chill that had earned her the title of Ice Queen among the Riverdale candidates.
"Why are you doing this?" Leila asked, her voice was calm and interrogatory, and her question was something going on in everyone's mind.
Will turned to look at her.
"Doing what?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
She did not flinch.
"Why are you trying to protect us," Leila continued, her gaze unwavering, "when you could just stay quiet, move along, and look after yourself?"
Her words carried no accusation, only logic. She was questioning his motive.
Will studied her for a moment. Not just her face, but the tension in her shoulders, the way her fingers subtly flexed at her side, and the alertness behind her eyes. She was wary of him.
Then something changed.
A sudden shift passed through Will's expression, so abrupt that several people nearby instinctively straightened.
A glint appeared in his eyes, sharp and unsettling, as a smile slowly spread across his face. It was the kind of smile that could not be borne without madness in one's heart.
The temperature of the surroundings seemed to drop.
That smile alone sent chills crawling down the spines of those watching.
Will raised his hand and pointed casually toward Dino.
"You see that dragon?" He said" You see the way he looks at humans, with disgust barely hidden behind arrogance?"
At his words, Dino stiffened. His earlier bravado vanished, replaced by a tight, instinctive fear that he could not suppress. He knew, better than anyone present, what Will was capable of.
Will continued without looking back at him.
"Not just him," Will said, sweeping his gaze across the assembled candidates. "If you are human, then you have seen it too. The way other races look at you. Like you are nothing more than a convenient meat shield to be thrown at demons first. Like breeding stock meant to fill numbers, not shape outcomes."
The human candidates felt those words strike something deep inside them.
"Well," Will went on, his smile widening slightly,
"Let's just say my hatred for the demon race is a thousand times worse than that. I am racist against demons; they are an inferior race that shouldn't think about conquest."
His voice hardened.
"My purpose is to remind them of their place. I am the bane of their existence, meant to erase this imperfect race from existence."
He paused deliberately, letting the weight of those words settle before finishing his thought.
"So if any of you think I am doing this because I am some kind of goody two-shoes, filled with justice, responsibility, or moral obligation," Will said, his tone sharpening, "then save yourselves those two brain cells."
"an ascension ranked Half demon-dragon is coming to take your heads with his cultist minions. I merely want to kill that bastard child of dragons, so I need your cooperation. After all, I don't have a delusional lizard brain on my head that believes that it can go against anything."
Silence followed.
Will straightened his posture and spoke again, his voice carrying authority.
"In ten seconds," he declared, "I will be departing with everyone who chooses to stand on my side."
Leila's expression flickered. Just for a moment, uncertainty cracked through her composure. Then she stepped forward without another word.
She positioned herself beside Will.
Her action became a catalyst.
Almost immediately, the majority of the human candidates followed.
To them, Will was no longer just the strongest among them. He was the first human they had seen who neither begged for recognition nor sought approval from other races.
His hatred for demons resonated deeply, pulling at wounds that had existed long before this trial.
Soon after, titans and vampires began stepping forward as well, drawn by the presence of Gaelion and Katherine. Their leaders' choices shaped the decisions of those who followed them.
Desmond Klembred, the dwarven prince, stepped out next, his heavy boots thudding against the ground, followed closely by Kara Babylon, the second princess of the Babylonian empire.
Once they moved, members of their respective races followed suit, accepting them as de facto leaders.
Only a handful of elves joined Will's group.
The rest remained behind, drifting toward the dragon and phoenix candidates who had clearly begun forming their own faction, with Dino and Fiona at the center.
Seraphine stood still for several seconds, her expression unreadable. She was the highest-ranked elf present, yet many of her kin refused to acknowledge her authority.
Pride outweighed logic for them.
"Fiona," Kara called out, concern slipping into her voice, "why are you not joining us?"
Fiona Ashfall turned to face her.
"Do not worry, Kara," Fiona said calmly. "I cannot follow the lead of a human, even if you are my friend."
Will glanced over his shoulder, his voice cutting in smoothly.
"It does not matter for her," he said evenly. "She has a method of resurrection back at her homeland. Royal Phoenix privileges."
Then he looked at the rest of the phoenixes.
The Phoenix candidates stiffened.
"But I cannot say the same for the rest of you."
The color drained from several phoenix kin faces as confidence faltered. Fiona shot Will a sharp glare, but he ignored it completely.
"Let's go," Will said, clapping his hands once.
The sound echoed unnaturally.
Moments later, the sky darkened as shadows passed overhead. One by one, flying monsters descended, answering his call.
Wyverns, drakes, even the thunder roc he had killed earlier, and other winged beasts landed around them; their eyes were obedient as their heads bowed to William.
Will mounted his green wyvern first.
"Get on," he instructed.
One by one, the participants climbed onto the beasts' backs. With a powerful surge of wings, the beasts lifted off, disappearing into the distance, leaving behind those who were too prideful to follow William.
Will led them back to the cave he had prepared earlier.
The Array Hijacking Stamp had already completed its function and now rested inside his inventory.
It allowed him to alter the behavior of existing arrays without dismantling them.
Using knowledge from the novel and guidance from the system, Will had reconfigured the illusion array that governed the forest domain.
The illusion beasts were no longer independent.
They were under his control.
Though they were constructs of mana, their attacks were real, actualized through a powerful secondary formation known as the Actualization Array.
Will did not fully understand its mechanics; he only knew that it drew massive amounts of mana directly from the academy's mana veins.
The hijacking stamp had allowed him to redirect command authority.
And now, the result stood before the gathered participants in the form of a huge altar under which was a huge circular platform.
Will turned around and began explaining its functions.
Chapter 66: 66. World academy trials - 12 (Cults attack)
BOOM
An explosion tore through the arena without warning.
Stone ruptured as if struck by a giant's fist. Entire sections of reinforced platforms cracked apart, and the massive projection screens that hovered above the arena shattered into thousands of glowing fragments.
Mana conduits burst, releasing violent surges of unstable energy that crackled through the air like lightning snapping free of chains.
For a fraction of a second, there was silence.
Then panic exploded.
Thousands of spectators screamed as the ground shook beneath them. Seats collapsed. Railings snapped.
Parents grabbed children. Nobles abandoned composure and ran like commoners. The carefully enforced order of the World Academy dissolved instantly into chaos.
Before the dust even settled, space itself began to tear open.
One by one, black portals ripped apart the air above the arena. Their edges writhed like living wounds,
these leaked demonic energy so dense that everyone felt nausea claw at their throats.
From within those portals, figures in black robes stepped out calmly, as if entering a marketplace rather than a massacre.
Their auras flared.
The moment their boots touched the arena floor, they attacked.
Spells detonated inside fleeing crowds. Blades flashed.
Demonic constructs tore through defensive barriers. Blood sprayed across white stone. Bodies fell before screams could finish forming.
"Hahaha, die, you bitches!!"
A massive titan cultist hovered above the arena, his laughter booming as his followers butchered civilians below.
His expression was euphoric, eyes glowing with madness as he watched people die helplessly beneath him.
That laughter cut off abruptly.
A sword intent, sharp enough to slice several mountain ranges apart, slammed into his body.
The titan cultist was hurled backward like debris, smashing through stone pillars and collapsing an entire upper gallery before crashing into the arena wall.
His bones shattered audibly, his roar turned into a strangled wheeze.
Above the chaos, a familiar figure appeared.
Sword Saint Klaus hovered in midair, turquoise-blue sword intent coiling around him like a living storm. His expression was calm, but his eyes burned with murderous focus.
"You" Klaus said coldly, his voice carrying across the ruined arena, "shouldn't have come here"
As if that were a signal, other auras erupted across the elite lobby.
Emperors, hidden masters, and other warriors from all the races who had remained seated moments earlier now stood, their killing intent locking onto specific cult leaders with terrifying precision.
The battle was not escalating linearly
It exploded.
-----
Far above the academy, beyond the reach of mortal eyes, the sky itself twisted.
A humanoid figure hovered amidst thick coils of demonic energy. His form was vaguely human, but corrupted beyond recognition, horns curled backward from his skull, veins of abyssal power crawled across his skin, and tendrils of darkness lashed outward like predatory limbs.
Demon Lord Amon smiled.
"Haha... so the ruler of eternal darkness has finally returned."
Tamasya's eyes burned crimson as shadows surged around her body. Even restrained, her presence crushed the air itself.
"Shut up, Amon," Andrea snapped, her pupils glowing gold. "You will regret coming to the academy domain alone."
It was a declaration of war.
Andrea had been principal of the World Academy for countless years. No demon lord had ever dared to directly violate the academy's core domain under her watch.
Amon laughed softly, spreading his arms.
"Heh. I am not here to fight you, Andrea. I am here to strike balance. To ensure fairness between demons and the natives of Aris."
Tamasya's shadows flared violently.
"Oh? And how will you do that, you disgusting bastard?"
Amon's smile widened.
"Obviously," he said calmly, "by crushing the nest before the eggs hatch."
The atmosphere froze.
Andrea's pupils constricted. Tamasya's shadows went berserk.
meanwhile Yue Qinglan stiffened as fragments of her earlier divination slammed into place.
Moments earlier, Yue had tried to divine the competition's outcome, intending nothing more than a harmless wager with her sisters.
But instead of the expected celebration, she had seen chaos and death spiraling outward from the academy.
Now she understood why.
"Hahaha," Amon continued, his form beginning to blur. "All the best trying to save them."
He vanished.
"I will go after him," Tamasya growled, shadows exploding outward. "Save the children."
"No, you will not," Yue snapped, grabbing Tamasya's wrist as pink divine light flared. "Your powers have not fully returned yet. You cannot face him alone." she said before restraining her in place with her powers.
she herself could not go since her powers weren't related too much combat.
Tamasya struggled violently but Yue's restraints were stronger.
"Let go of me!"
meanwhile Andrea did not wait.
She descended the clouds to the arena
Andrea's arrival was catastrophic for the cultists below.
The moment her feet touched the arena floor, pressure crushed downward.
Cultists mid-attack were slammed flat, bones pulverized before they even understood what happened. Entire spell formations collapsed under her presence alone.
Senior professors locked in combat felt her aura pass over them like a divine decree.
She raised one clawed hand.
The sky responded.
Formations ignited across the academy.
Hundreds of glowing sigils activated simultaneously, layered arrays interlocked with each other.
Mana roared as binding chains erupted from the formations, each one targeting a specific cultist.
Some cultists screamed and detonated themselves instantly, preferring annihilation to capture.
Others were too slow.
Chains wrapped around their limbs, necks, and cores, suppressing demonic energy completely before dragging them upward. One by one, they vanished into glowing formation gates transported directly into the academy's underground prison.
Andrea moved forward, stepping over corpses of the cultists, her expression was grim.
Senior professors regrouped behind her, bloodied but alive.
Without slowing, Andrea marched toward the control sector.
as she reached the control room two bodies lay sprawled across the floor outside the room.
They were formation masters, they had their throats crushed, their eyes were still wide in terror. At the center of the room, hovering above the domain orb, floated a sinister artifact, its surface crawling with abyssal runes.
Andrea's jaw tightened, she turned around and gestured to the professors.
"call the headmaster"
***
Inside the trial domain...
With a blinding flash of light, an army of several black and red robed individuals appeared and leading them was a black demon halfling.
Black scales shined on his body with black rings adorning him.
he was Vorin one of the elders of Amon's cult.
Chapter 67: 67. World academy trials - 13 (Cults attack)
Vorin was an Ascension-ranked warrior, a being who stood above the majority of cultivators in the world, and his mastery over the space elemental spells alone made him a walking calamity.
Even among those who had reached similar realms of power, very few could stand against him directly without paying a severe price.
Space was not an element one could defend against easily, it ignored distance, shattered logic, and tore through defenses that relied on durability.
His past was like any other cliché villain,
Vorin was not born into reverence or legacy. He was a halfling, a cursed union of dragon and demon bloodlines that should never have merged.
His existence was an insult to dragons, beings that considered themselves the purest and most supreme race in existence.
To them, blood purity was law, and deviation was filth. As a result, Vorin had grown up surrounded by contempt, mockery, and thinly veiled disgust.
No matter how strong he became, the stench of his birth never left him in their eyes.
Yet if dragons valued pride and lineage, demons valued only one thing, strength. They respected power above all else, and in that brutal hierarchy, weakness was a sin.
Vorin inherited both bloodlines, and with them, a warped sense of ambition and hunger. His cracked nature, both mental and emotional, was not a flaw but a consequence of years of degradation and survival.
That instability, that unhinged edge to his personality, earned him recognition among demonic cults that worshiped demons and destruction as a form of truth.
Right now, he was doing what he did best unleashing devastation.
The forest below him had turned into a slaughterhouse.
Massive ancient trees lay split or uprooted, their trunks warped and twisted by spatial distortions. The air was thick with blood mist.
Screams echoed between the trunks, short-lived and desperate, often cut off mid-breath. His subordinates clad in warped armor were scattered across the forest floor, hunting down participants like animals.
Most of the victims were not even worthy opponents.
He could not spot most of the high tier participants that he had specially come for, but still damage was being done, and he was not worried about failing his mission.
Vorin hovered calmly in the air, arms loosely crossed, observing the carnage like a bored god watching insects struggle in a flood.
his eyes momentarily shifted to sudden fluctuations he felt in a distance.
A sudden surge of energy erupted far away, several hundred miles off, yet so intense that it punched through the ambient mana like a shockwave.
The atmosphere warped for a split second, and even the clouds above distorted unnaturally.
Vorin's eyes narrowed.
He felt it clearly. Something did not belong.
He turned his gaze toward the source, his expression shifting from boredom to mild irritation.
"Well, well... look who it is?" a voice spoke from behind him.
Vorin did not react immediately. He did not need to. His perception told him everything before his eyes did.
Slowly, he turned, his gaze settling on a young man hovering in the air behind him.
Blue hair fluttered lightly despite the unnatural stillness of the atmosphere. A strange silver sword rested in the man's grip, its surface was reflecting light in a way that did not belong to any known metal.
Vorin studied him for a moment, then let out a breath that almost resembled amusement.
Without saying a word, he raised one hand and casually flicked his wrist.
Space in front of the newcomer warped violently. A dark void began forming, folding inward as if reality itself was being crushed and peeled apart. It expanded rapidly, aiming to swallow the man whole, a spatial collapse that would tear flesh, bone, and body into unrecognizable fragments.
But something unexpected happened.
The space tear stalled.
Golden particles erupted around the distortion. They clung to the fractured space, stitching it together, resisting the collapse. The void trembled violently, then stabilized, unable to expand any further.
Vorin's brows furrowed slightly.
"This realm won't allow it," the blue-haired man said calmly. "Too bad. Now you're trapped here like me."
Will had already put several restrictions on the realm when he was altering the formations in this domain, he made it so that any change in space would be restricted by the realm itself.
Although it won't be enough to completely suppress Vorin, but now at least the domain will actively work to negate most of the fluctuations in space.
His techniques would land, but their efficiency had dropped sharply.
"Who are you?" Vorin growled, annoyance creeping into his voice. His scarred face twisted, making him look even more monstrous than before.
"A bastard like you isn't worthy of knowing," Will replied calmly, before vanishing from sight.
He activated the Invisibility trait instantly and disappeared from active sight.
Vorin let out a harsh chuckle. "Do you think that would work, human insect?"
Even without seeing him, Vorin could still perceive the golden sword intent radiating through the air.
He thought that the human boy had made a grave mistake by using this sword energy, now he didn't need to use any divine sense, since he could already track the boy with his eyes.
The golden aura surged forward suddenly, streaking through the sky toward him with terrifying speed.
Vorin responded without hesitation. Space condensed around his right claw as he swung, the motion so fast that even an S-rank observer would struggle to track it.
The edge of his claw tore through reality itself, creating thin lines of distortion meant to annihilate anything it touched.
Yet the expected resistance never came, the blood mist vorin wanted to see never appeared.
Before confusion could settle, a sword's movement thundered from a different direction.
"Origin Severance."
The air screamed.
A colossal slash, drenched in stellar fire, erupted across the battlefield.
The attack cut approached with overwhelming force, its trajectory was accurately pinned on Vorin's head.
Vorin barely had time to register it before it was already upon him.
The sword's roar drowned out everything else.
The strike landed, but Vorin still was able to avoid the major vitals of his body.
The impact was catastrophic. A blazing arc carved across Vorin's arm, tearing through his flesh and with horrifying precision.
The stellar flames clung to him, burning not just his body but something far deeper.
He was thrown back violently, his form spinning midair before stabilizing through brute force.
He looked down.
One of his arms was nearly severed, a deep gash splitting through it at an unnatural angle. The wound burned with an alien energy that refused to extinguish itself.
"AAARGHHHHH!!"
The scream tore from his throat before he could stop it.
Pain like this was rare. He had endured fatal wounds before, injuries that would have killed lesser beings instantly, yet this was different.
This pain was too invasive as if it was running towards his soul itself.
The energy clung to him, gnawing at his demonic essence, corroding it from within.
His regeneration faltered. His power stuttered.
The sensation was like being eaten alive.
His skin began to decay around the wound, blackening and peeling as if rotting in real time.
Snarling, Vorin acted instantly. Without hesitation, he brought his claws down and severed his own arm in a brutal, clean motion.
The limb fell away, disintegrating midair as the stellar fire consumed it entirely.
The moment it detached, the pain lessened. His breathing steadied, though fury burned in his eyes.
---
[A/N - when I am describing stellar energy as corrosive, it is from the POV of Vorin who uses demonic energy, for him the energy is corrosive.]