Chapter 84

"All of you are the elite students of the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, tempered by trials of blood and fire. You are not delicate flowers sheltered in a greenhouse; you are fierce young lions, ready to hunt. I challenge you to identify your prey, stalk them with stealth, and ambush them with precision. Finally, unleash your full ferocity and tear them to shreds." Were the aggressive parting words the hotheaded fool that calls himself their principal and had started this war, had for them?

He finished his dramatic speech with a small light show that turned his eyes crimson red.

Harry looked at it, his eyebrow twitching in annoyance, but kept himself calm, waiting for them to be allowed into the entrance.

It was him who would be having the last laugh.

Principal Siley didn't notice the annoyed expression Harry had, instead listing off all the different rewards one could gain through contribution points. None of them really anything Harry cared for.

[ Beep! Analysis Complete. The secret plane has been cleaned out, including the systems keeping it up and running. It can only be opened temporarily; for stability, it can only be opened every three days. Once the entrance is closed, nobody without a major understanding of space can enter or leave it. ]

Three days. The exact time is how long this whole competition is supposed to last. Three days Harry could use uninterrupted. Still, his schedule was extremely tight.

Though he didn't care about it. The rules of the competition were simple: everyone had a badge, and each athlete is worth points based on his rank. Get the badges of others by killing or whatever to get their points.

Once they entered the portal, they would get teleported into different places.

He was pleased to notice that neither Merlin nor Nyssa, Dodoria, and Guricha were present today. It would make things a lot easier since no one he even remotely cared for was inside.

———

Torash POV

Where is Jayden? Torash had sworn he would make the arrogant Acolyte from the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy pay for his deeds.

That arrogant asshole really believed back then that he would get away for stealing the piece of the Lightning Core from me.

A peasant stealing from nobility. Genius? What is a genius supposed to be?

While Grade 5 talents made up less than 1% of the total amount of acolytes starting the Path of the Magi each recruiting cycle, there were still thousands of them all over the South Coast. Torash himself was one.

But these Geniuses had no idea how big the world truly was; even with their talent, they were still bottom feeders.

The true power in the South Coast were the people belonging to powerful families with a long history who possessed advanced meditation techniques and a large amount of resources.

Everyone else was just their slaves working for them. Trash that had to rely on Grine Water.

So! How dare such a trash to steal from him, the mighty Lord Torash?

Where was that rat hiding? The magical artifact his grandfather had given him to find Jayden hadn't picked up anything yet.

In all honesty, Torash was extremely on edge at this place. He didn't really feel that there were many Acolytes in this place that could threaten him; people like Jayden were the peak.

But still something in here was unsettling him.

First there was that strange light that had looked like a barrier that had flashed for a moment as soon as they landed in the secret plane.

His grandfather hadn't mentioned anything about something like that. It must be something related to the stability of the secret plane. After all, there were only acolytes in this place, and a barrier of that scale was beyond any acolytes.

No way, any of the Magi outside would break the rules. The Lighthouse of the Night was one of the Rulers of the Dark Magi Area. Even his grandfather wouldn't dare to offend anyone from there.

Since he didn't feel like that Barrier hadn't affected him, Torash had ignored it and focused on finding Jayden. Even after one day, his artifact hadn't picked up anything. It had a limited range after all.

But there were other strange happenings he had noticed. It was very quiet. Strangely, he hadn't met any other Acolytes yet. Was the plane that big? No way, three days were enough for anyone to get enough contribution points.

Torash didn't greatly care about the points; after all, he possessed an advanced meditation technique unlike the peasants. Still, he couldn't believe it was meant to be that way.

Then there was that rumbling. From time to time, the ground in some parts of the secret plane would tremble.

He even had tried to investigate it, but besides an empty tunnel system below ground that he chose to ignore since his time was limited, he found nothing.

If someone was cowardly enough to hide in these tunnels, they wouldn't gain any contribution points either way. Someone who did that should just give up being a Magus.

They were just dead weight. Even worse than the regular peasants.

And then there were these extremely agonizing cries of pain in the distance, but every time he tried to locate it, in order to see who was fighting, he couldn't find it.

It was as if he was moving in a circle, but he was sure each time he was heading in the direction. Only when he checked again did he realize he was moving on the wrong path.

In all honesty, he wasn't sure he even wanted to find out what was going on; these cries didn't sound like fighting, more like horrible agony.

Sure, he liked a good fight with a bloody kill, but whatever was going on at these spots lasted for hours and never stopped to his knowledge.

Something was extremely wrong.

Now all he did was to find Jayden, kill him, and find a safe spot until the time was over.

Nothing in this secret plane was happening, as his grandfather had told him.

Finally.

The artifact was giving off a signal!

Torash didn't hesitate for long and rushed directly in that direction. It wasn't like he had to be careful; nobody was around either way.

He would be happy if he suddenly encountered someone.

Even Jayden would be a relief to see before he finally could kill him.

The signal was coming from the edge of the secret plane. It was very quiet for some reason. Previously there had been at least the rutstling of leaves and the wind, but now there was nothing, just silence.

But Torash didn't even seem to notice it; he was somehow only focused on Jayden.

Finally he stopped at a large clearing, and there were other people.

None of them in good shape. Torash was greeted by an extremely gruesome sight.

All over the clearing were people, impaled on spikes. Their blood was flooding all over the floor, seeping into the ground.

This wasn't even the strangest thing. None of them were dead. They had horrible, deadly wounds, but all of them were alive and crying in pain.

Most of them should be dead.

Then Torash noticed someone particular, "Jayden! Don't die. I wanted to do it!"

Jayden's head moved weakly looking at Torash; he too was impaled on a spike before crying, "Please kill me. Kill me before he comes back. I want to die! Please!"

"What… Who?" Torash asked extremely confused.

He finally noticed the runes engraved on the spikes. He didn't know the language, but each of the spikes was a magical artifact. And all of these runes were glowing and dowing something.

And then he finally took a closer look at the other people on the spikes. Most of them were unfamiliar; they don't even look like any of the acolytes from the three Academies.

At least he didn't recognize them at all. While some of them were acolytes, exactly five of them felt different.

These five were official Magi.

"What is going on here? What are Magus doing here? What are these spikes?" He asked Jayden in confusion, but his impaled Rival didn't answer. He was just crying.

"Oh, how did you get here?" A voice suddenly asked from behind him.

Torash whirled around, now combat-ready. He came face-to-face with an exotic-looking boy with black hair and emerald green eyes. He had seen him before. This was one of the Geniuses from the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy.

"You are Harry, right? What is going on here?"

"It doesn't matter to you. But how did you get here? The Confundus Barrier was supposed to keep all acolytes in the Mid Area. And I didn't bring you here, so how did you get out?" Harry asked as his eyes were looking right through him.

"I won't tell you anything. What are you? You are not an acolyte!" Torash grit out.

"Hmm, you used an artifact to track Jayden. Didn't expect that. So it's kind of my fault since I needed more sacrifices for this spot, and coincidentally, Jayden was the next one. Well, thank you." Harry said, unimpressed by the lightning that had started flashing around Torash.

"Thank you for what? Wait, how did you know that?"

"You have an interesting mind. Thank you for two things in particular: for another advanced meditation technique in my library and saving me time."

"Time for-" Torash couldn't finish his sentence, as Harry had known he was playing for time. With a red flash, he had landed on the ground; somehow he was unable to even react as he was frozen in fear.

Torash felt that he was dragged through the gound, "Time so I don't have to search for another sacrifice." I was missing one right here in this spot." He heard Harry's voice before burning pain impaled him.

He had been lifted up and could see that he was standing just beside Jayden. No, impaled besides Jayden.

His ability to form cohesive toughts stopped as the pain burned through his flesh.

"Sigh To the next spot. So much to do." Was the last thing he heard before his mind receded into the depths of his brain to protect himself from the pain.

-------

For 20 and more advanced chapters check out https://www.pat*reon.com/senseicaffeine.

For actual news check on my socials: https://linktr.ee/SenseiCaffeine.

Please leave your Power Stones it helps a lot! It keeps me Motivated!