"Oh well,"
Aron began, his voice carrying that usual playful edge, though a hint of something darker lingered beneath,
"I heard my dad say this forest is apart of something bigger, more important and hidden… many people suspect it too."
He leaned back against a thick tree root, his gaze flicking around the dense foliage as if expecting something to leap out.
Koku listened, his head tilted slightly. Aron's words weren't just idle chatter; they resonated with the unsettling atmosphere of the woods, the oppressive silence broken only by the rustling leaves.
He considered the strange occurrences since their arrival – the unnerving stillness, the feeling of being watched. Slowly, methodically, he began to connect the dots.
'Younger students disappear… no bodies… the forest itself feels wrong. One and one clicked into place with a quiet certainty.'
Then he called out,
"Aron,"
Koku said, his voice low and even, devoid of the usual childish enthusiasm,
"Tell me more about this forest if you know anything else."
He needed more pieces to this disturbing puzzle.
Aron grinned, a flash of his usual mischief returning. He leaned closer, a conspiratorial glint in his eyes.
"Marry into my family when you become 16 then…my eldest sister should be around 19 and shes not had a partner yet, heh, deal?"
He punctuated his offer with a playful nudge, clearly expecting a teasing refusal.
Koku's expression didn't change. The concept of a 'date' was abstract, the future of 'sixteen' a distant, irrelevant point. He processed the words at face value, a simple transaction.
"Deal. Now tell me."
There was no hesitation, no hint of understanding the jest.
Aron's jaw dropped.
"WHAT? WAIT, WAIT I—"
He sputtered, waving his hands in disbelief.
"I was kidding! You're not supposed to actually say yes!"
His eyes widened in mock horror, a theatrical display that Koku completely missed.
"Deal. Now tell me,"
Koku repeated, his gaze steady and unwavering. He had agreed to the terms; now he expected the other party to fulfill their end.
Aron sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes.
"You soulless bastard~never mind. Fine. So I'll tell you what I know."
He launched into a rambling explanation, a mix of local legends of places near the academy, whispered rumors from older students, and his past family members limited experiences within this forest's depths.
He spoke of sudden disappearances, strange noises in the night, and the unsettling feeling that the forest itself was alive and hostile. Two hours passed as Aron recounted everything he had heard and witnessed, the initial humor fading as the weight of his stories settled upon them.
As the last vestiges of daylight bled from the sky through the dense tree's leafs, Aron yawned widely, stretching his arms above his head.
"Alright, my turn for some shut-eye. Don't let the moving trees bite—."
Aron yawned. Koku shifting his gaze up the the right
'Moving trees bite?'
He questioned, as the trees off in the distance rustled, the breeze faintly warm.
Aron gave a weak grin before settling down to sleep.
As for Koku, he remained awake, his mind churning with the information Aron had provided. He looked up at the dense tree's cover, the tree's shades broken only by the faint glimmer of light filtering through the rustling leaves.
'Hmm, so this forest, which is located in an unknown place in the world. That's what they say, but it could be untruthful.'
The boy had sat there, pondering in thought as he continued.
'I'd say…'
He considered the surprise attack they had endured.
'That with the unnatural speed and ferocity of the Night Owls, and smarter one. Nothing is going as planned anymore, at least for what the academy had planned?'
His mental insight spilled, now speaking them aloud,
"Aside from that, seeing as we were brutally attacked, what Aron and the instructors said about this being a survival test that can take many of the student's lives must be true."
He pondered,
"No. Something's completely off. I'm stronger than a low ranking knight, and all I lack is experience so I could also be weaker to a fault. I had a tough time dealing with the bigger night owl, it was smarter and adapted, and unless the instructors are the type to have blind too late faith, they would have stepped in. To further sum it up, from the looks of it, no one here is stronger than me. That's at least for this group."
He intruded further into the possibilities, the pieces clicking into place with a chilling logic.
"This isn't just a survival test… this lures the students with potential away from the ones who don't… meaning these monsters must either not be from this area and brought here or the monsters are from here but aren't regulated as much,"
His brain clicked,
"Meaning things could change, for example, monsters adapt and evolve very quickly, especially as of six years ago when every monster seemed to get stronger or change their habits overnight."
Suddenly Koku's mind came to a stop, realizing something. That something quickly died down as he excluded the possibility.
"Anyways, I'll have to think of something; the thing from the guide is definitely here and most clearly not weak if mentioned in the hidden message."
By the time his thoughts had run their course, the first rays of dawn were painting the eastern sky completely.
Koku looked up at the leaves rustling overhead, the sunlight dappling through the branches. He observed the way the light fractured and danced, a stark contrast to the darkness of the night. With a quiet efficiency, he began to wake the others.
He woke them up with the all powerful and legendary,
"Wake up."
His voice was cold, or chilly. Despite this, it wasn't loud.
As the groggy students stirred, Koku's mind was already several steps ahead.
"Hmm, how could I use a bunch of kids, not that I'm not a child myself, but if I want to survive, I'll have to eventually sway away from the group… if anyone survives and sees me leaving, I could either play the victim or the loner… for now, I'll just…"
The group slowly gathered their belongings, their movements sluggish with sleep. Once they were ready, they began to move again, Koku falling into step with them.
As they walked, the gruesome sight of the dead Night Owls came into view. Their once fearsome bodies now lay still and decaying. The speed of their decomposition was unsettling.
"So they decay faster than normal animals,"
Koku observed quietly, pulling out a small, worn notebook and a stubby pencil. He jotted down his observation, his brow furrowed in thought. Reaching the back of the group, he resumed walking alongside them, his gaze constantly scanning their surroundings.
A few hours passed in relative silence, the tension of the previous night still hanging heavy in the air. Eventually, they reached a waterfall, the sound of the cascading water a welcome change from the oppressive quiet of the forest.
The other children eagerly rushed to the water's edge, splashing their faces, filling their canteens, and some jars.
Some even ventured into the shallows to play, their youthful energy briefly overriding their fear. Koku, however, only drank his fill, his gaze fixed on the surrounding woods.
"Wasting energy by playing isn't smart nor good for the situation we're in…"
He muttered under his breath, his eyes narrowed in disapproval. Once the others had finished their brief respite, they continued their journey, the forest growing denser and darker with every step. The trees loomed taller, their branches intertwining to blot out more and more of the sky, casting the forest floor in perpetual twilight.
When night fell again, the darkness was even more profound than the previous night, a thick, suffocating blackness that seemed to swallow all light. To the other children, it was a terrifying, disorienting even.
You couldn't blame them, the night before was scary to them as it was. To make things worse, where they were at, was even more dense with trees.
Excluding Koku from the rest, it was different. His vision remained sharp and clear, having the ability to see through the dark, combined with his unusually wide field of vision, he felt an almost unsettling awareness of his surroundings.
'Nothing normal will surprise me in this darkness.'
His mind, sharp and on guard.
Four hours after they had made camp, a subtle rustling in the upper branches caught Koku's attention.
His gaze snapped upwards seeing something slither through the trees, and he did this just as a massive snake, thicker than any he had seen before, dropped silently from the trees.
It landed with a heavy thud, and almost immediately, another followed, and then another, and another. Soon, twelve enormous snakes, their scales shimmering like polished obsidian in the faint starlight, and had them completely surrounded.
These were not ordinary snakes. Their sheer size was intimidating, but it was the unusual density and sheen of their scales that stood out.
They looked incredibly resistant to any kind of attack. April, her face pale but her eyes determined, stepped forward.
She raised her hands, and a brilliant small flash of light erupted, illuminating the clearing and banishing the oppressive darkness for everyone else momentarily.
But by the time the others could see, Koku was already in motion.
With the move April pulled off, Koku couldn't see due to his vision being adjusted to the night and the sudden display of light changing that.
He however, moved with a cautious precision, his small short sword a glint of steel in the sudden light.
He tested the snakes' defenses, hacking at their thick scales. The blade bit in, not deeply, but enough to draw a trickle of dark blood.
As the other students began to prepare their own attacks, Koku took a step back. A bolt of crackling energy shot from Aron's hands, slamming into the head of one of the snakes. The massive head hit the ground with a sickening thud, the creature momentarily stunned.
In that instant, Koku launched himself onto the snake's head, his knife plunging down with surprising force. The snake thrashed violently for a moment, then went still. A strange sensation, a subtle shift within his own body, accompanied the kill.
The fight devolved into a chaotic struggle. More snakes arrived, their silent approach adding to the growing terror. The younger magic users were quickly depleting their mana, their spells flickering and weakening.
Koku, Aron, April and Dan could hear several children like cries and screeches in the background out in pain as the snakes' powerful jaws tore into their limbs or them apart.
Seeing and hearing the brutal bloodshed, a cold calculation flickered in Koku's eyes.
"Should I leave now? This… could provide cover."
But even as the thought formed, a strange sound echoed through the forest, a loud, mournful cry that seemed to come from a distance.
"What's that?"
Koku murmured, the direction he faced shifting to where the noise came from. The fighting stopped. Even the massive snakes paused, their heads raised as if listening.
Then, to everyone's horror, the snakes began to flee, slithering back into the darkness with surprising speed. But their retreat was not due to fear of the students.
Eight grotesque figures emerged from the shadows, their forms hunched and feral. Saliva dripped from their terrifying maws, and their eyes, burning with a primal hunger, fixed not on the retreating snakes, but on the terrified students.
Their blackish coat stained in blood from an active hunt not long ago.
'Were the snakes fleeing when they came across us?'
Koku's thoughts went unanswered as an eerie silence befell them all.
For a few frozen seconds, nothing moved. Then, with a sickening snap, one of the creatures effortlessly broke the neck of a massive snake which had been immobilized.
The others followed suit, their movements swift and brutal. Koku watched, a flicker of surprise in his usually impassive eyes.
'They're fast and strong…'
Recognizing the immense danger, he instinctively channeled every ounce of his inner energy, a dark purple aura beginning to shroud his small body.
It had been the first time he'd formed this mysterious purple aura over his actual body and not just his sword.
Panic erupted among the students. Their screams of terror mingled with the guttural growls of the new predators.
They scattered, their flight fueled by pure, unadulterated fear, amplified by the oppressive strange aura emanating from Koku.
As one boy desperately tried to escape, his head snapped back, a thin, scaly quill protruding from his neck. No one had seen the attack. A chilling realization dawned on Koku.
"The Cratrus."
He muttered, readying himself.
The image from the hidden message in the guide flashed through his mind. The monsters let out bloodcurdling roars, and the massacre began. Students were cut down with horrifying speed. Even Koku found himself running for his life.
'I might be able to escape in this confusion,'
he thought desperately, but three of the deadly quills whizzed past his head, narrowly missing him. He dodged behind a thick tree, his heart pounding in his chest for the first time in what felt like an eternity. He sprinted from tree to tree, using them as fleeting moments of cover. The Cratrus pursuing him, however, didn't rely on ranged attacks for long.
Within seconds, the creature expertly navigated the dense trees, its movements unnervingly fast and agile. Seeing it closing in, Koku swerved sharply to the left, narrowly avoiding its initial charge. But the moment it passed him, the Cratrus twisted in mid-air, its powerful body defying gravity to an extent.
'Too fast… too agile.'
Koku's heart hammered against his ribs, not with fear, but with a sudden surge of something akin to… urgency.
Not much, but something to say the least.
The Cratrus's tail lashed out, positioning itself for another attack, this time at close range. Knowing he couldn't dodge the speed of the quills at this distance, Koku twisted his body, trying to minimize the impact. Three sharp barbs tore into his right leg, sending a searing pain through him. The Cratrus charged, its jaws wide. Koku stumbled, then dodged to the side just as the creature lunged. As its body flew past, its powerful tail swung around, slamming into Koku's side.
He was sent hurtling through the air, crashing into a tree with a force that nearly split the trunk in half. He landed heavily on the ground, gasping for breath. He tried to stand, to dodge the next brutal tail strike, but a searing pain ripped through his chest, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"My ribs—"
He was struck again, this time diagonally, sending him flying upwards, breaking through several branches before landing precariously in the tangled limbs of another tree.
"I ca-n't brea-th…"
More blood gurgled in his throat.
'I'm not ready for this monster yet,'
He thought, his vision blurring, the world around him seeming to slow down. His senses became hyper-acute, the sounds of the forest, the movement of the Cratrus, all stretched out in agonizing slow motion. He could even hear the faint, hurried footsteps approaching his location.
Koku was dying. The reality hung heavy in the air, not just for him, but for something unexpected.
The unseen observers in Paladiona.
"What the hell—"
Voices exclaimed in disbelief.
"This isn't a test—this is a bloody massacre… those things are definitely stronger than some knights."
Even the stoic holy knights watching the events unfold were shaken.
"Since when did Cratrus's become so strong…"
One knight murmured to another.
"No idea… that thing—those things are clearly at high knight rank or maybe even royal guard level,"
The other responded, his face grim.
Seeing the sheer power of the creatures, a frail, elderly man stepped forward, his eyes gleaming with a disturbing intensity.
"The rules under article 7 state we cannot interfere with this, they aren't normal monsters anymore."
It was the vice principal, and a chilling realization dawned on some of the observers – he seemed to be enjoying the spectacle.
Back in the forest, Koku's world was fading. Everything slowed to a crawl, then stopped completely. Confusion flickered across his face before his vision dissolved into blackness.
He found himself once again in the familiar suffocating dark eerie place, time seemed to stop, all the pain rining through his body, also stopped, this was the void. Suddenly, a rush of sensation flooded through him.
"Huh?"
He pondered limping as he took an imaginary step in this formless place, the limping was unneeded, the pain for the moment was gone.
He was disoriented, everything happening too fast. He didn't understand it, but his emotions, dormant and held captive for so long, had returned in a violent surge accompanied by something else.
Something felt wrong, though.
'Why would these feelings be here now?'
He pondered for a moment, and the darkness before him solidified, forming three distinct options:
Rage mode. (High risk high reward.)
Summon a creature from the ancient times (may turn against you.)
Embrace of oblivion (Instantly destroy everything within a 10-mile radius.)
'I assume that whatever I choose here ends up happening. If I choose two, could I control the thing? Could the creature also kill me accidently and everything else? If I choose three, the threat would be solved, but I might kill students and wouldn't be able to explain why I killed any students and how it happened. So I'll go with…'
The idea inside his head…the instant Koku made his choice, something shifted in the real world.
Koku, moments away from being torn apart by the Cratrus and its approaching companions, suddenly stood upright, his wounds vanishing as they were filled in by a dark color.
For a bizarre moment, the Cratrus froze, its predatory gaze fixed on Koku's motionless form. Then, in the next instant, a deafening explosion ripped through the forest, followed by a wave of thick, dark purple aura that swallowed the entire area with Violet lightning ripples in the air itself, obscuring everything from view.
The sudden surge of power disrupted the magical flow that powered the magical viewing screens in Paladiona, plunging the audience into darkness and confusion. As quickly as they went down, the screens flickered back to life, but the horrifying aura and an overwhelming sense of dread permeated the air once more. For a fleeting moment, the world itself seemed to hold its breath, sensing a presence of immense and terrifying power. Leaders across the globe, in every nation and faction, paused in their activities, their senses reeling from the sudden, potent force emanating from the exam forest.
"North!"
"South!"
"East!"
"West!"
"In the lower world!"
"The surface?"
Each leader instinctively identified a direction, poised to investigate, but the oppressive presence vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Back in the ravaged forest, Koku absorbed the swirling dark purple aura into himself. His small body seemed to grow, his features distorting, becoming less and less human. He resembled the terrifying figure from the day of his mothers death.
The Cratrus before him, a creature of immense power, trembled violently, whimpering like a wounded animal. It turned to flee, but before a second had passed since its first panicked movement, its head was cleanly severed.
In truth, the attack had occurred the instant the thought of turning appeared in it's simple mind; it simply took a few agonizing seconds for the effect to manifest.
Sensing the terrifying presence, the remaining Cratrus's turned and fled into the darkness. Koku watched them go, then unleashed a monstrous, blood-curdling cry that echoed through the ravaged woods. And then…