[Flashback]
Head of Coldmaw Warden (B-Grade) was decorated on snow.
"Yosh! 800 points completed!" Serina had hummed softly to herself, checking her point total with satisfaction. "Just a little more and I can advance to S-Class ahead of schedule!"
She'd glanced back toward where she'd left Prince Agni. Was it okay to leave him behind like that?
Well, it was his choice, she'd rationalized. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts.
Her mind had flickered red with the memory of his blunt marriage proposal, and she'd physically shaken her head to clear it. No need to think about that right now. Focus on points.
Then she'd heard it.
A sound that made her heart drop into her stomach—like two mountains grinding against each other, then collapsing. The very air vibrated with the impact.
Something landed beside her.
"Landed" was an understatement. It was practically a bomb blast. The ice beneath her feet shattered in a fifty-foot radius, sending deadly shards flying in all directions.
The same black-masked figure revealed himself, grinning widely.
"Found you, Serina!!" he shouted excitedly. "The genius researcher who proposed Thermal Acceleration Dynamics theory at orientation!.".
He rushed ahead instantly, his fist aimed directly at her liver—a precision strike designed to incapacitate.
Serina moved not with calculation, but pure survival instinct.
She swung her staff wildly, ice magic forming reflexively. Her staff made contact with his fist—
And everything changed.
The moment was short yet somehow lasting. She felt her entire being drawn toward her own staff—dragged inward, then violently pushed outward. Her body temperature spiked dramatically. Her hearing picked up sounds that shouldn't exist: the rattling of chains grinding against each other, the hum of resonating frequencies.
Her black eyes shone with sudden understanding.
A shockwave erupted from the point of contact, sending both of them flying backward. Serina ground against the frozen earth, her staff smoking—
But she was smiling.
A Chain Strike!
Her eyes began shaking, her breathing growing heavier and heavier with excitement rather than fear.
Chain Strike?! That was a Chain Strike, wasn't it?! It feels amazing! I feel... I feel whole!
its like solving a puzzle , like a moment everything make sense...
.
But her excitement was short-lived. Her nose began bleeding furiously, and blood filled her mouth—internal damage from the backlash.
The black-masked man shook his hand, which had been completely frozen. Ice shattered and fell away as he grinned. "I knew it! You had the passion I was looking for!"
Serina's analytical mind kicked back in. I dodged the full impact, didn't I?
But pain shivered down her entire body. Her chest felt weak—definitely internal damage. A mouthful of blood came up.
Retreat!
She started running backward desperately.
The black-masked man looked genuinely shocked. "Eh? Was I too direct...?"
He ran after her. "Hey, wait! Come on, you can't run away like that! We were just getting started!"
He appeared beside her instantly, matching her speed effortlessly. "Where are we running? Got any allies nearby?"
Serina froze mid-stride and fired a lightning spell point-blank into his face.
He shrugged it off completely, the electricity dispersing harmlessly. The spell did, however, smash through the tree behind him, sending it toppling—
And from the snow-covered branches, Prince Agni fell directly onto the black-masked man.
"Hey, watch it!" Agni groaned, disoriented.
The masked man grabbed Agni by his leg and hurled him away like a sack of garbage. "You bore me!"
But then his eyes sharpened with interest. He appeared on top of Agni in an instant, pinning him.
Agni slammed against the frozen ground, coughing up spit mixed with blood. "Ah... is it even legal to fight among students like this?" he muttered weakly.
The black-masked man's fist came racing down toward Agni's face.
Agni raised his arms to block—
The man's bored expression completely vanished, replaced by a wild grin. "You're gonna block it? Then you'd better block like your life depends on it!"
His fist made contact with Agni's hands.
The impact tore Agni's left arm clean off at the shoulder, tendons snapping, bone shattering, blood spraying. The detached limb went flying, and Agni's body was sent crashing violently into a nearby tree.
"Come on now..." Agni muttered, his eyes dulling further as consciousness began slipping away. "I thought i had suffered enough."
The black-masked man nodded in satisfaction, hands on his waist, grinning widely. "If this helps you fight more seriously—"
He turned toward Serina, who was still recovering from her internal injuries.
"This is Phase Two: Elimination Round!" he announced cheerfully. "So if I defeat you both, you go back to C-Class! So fight with everything you've got!"
[Back to Present]
Serina groaned, forcing herself to her feet despite the agony in her ribs.
"Recovered enough?" the masked man asked, genuinely curious.
Serina's posture fixed into a proper combat stance, staff held defensively. She gritted her teeth.
Remember the sensation of Chain Strike. Replicate it!
"I'm not going back!" she declared, her voice shaking but determined.
The black-masked man's grin widened even further.
"That's the spirit!!"
"Ah, so... can I forfeit?"
Both figures froze, utterly stunned. They turned to stare at Agni, who was still lying on the frozen ground of Frostwind Tundra, his left shoulder slowly regenerating with that unsettling crackling sound as flesh and bone knit themselves back together unnaturally.
He hummed casually, as if he were discussing something as mundane as the weather. "I don't really mind being in C-Class, honestly."
The black-masked man—Raul—stared at him in utter disbelief. His entire body language shifted from combat readiness to genuine confusion. "Does combat not excite you? At all?"
Agni shrugged with his one functioning shoulder, the movement almost lazy. "No. It seems painful and desperate."
He paused, his dark eyes distant and unfocused, looking at something far beyond the frozen landscape. "Above all, I don't think C-Class or S-Class would make any real difference to me. The destination doesn't matter if the journey is meaningless."
"You have zero points anyway," Raul said, his voice growing colder with each word. "So I suppose it doesn't matter for you either way. Not like you'd make a difference to anyone or anything. So feel free to get lost from here."
"Quite rude," Agni muttered, slowly getting to his feet. His regenerated shoulder was still pink and tender, the new skin looking fragile. He turned around, already searching for a different tree to slack off against, as if this entire confrontation had been nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
The black mask's expression—hidden though it was—seemed to twist into something between a grin and a snarl. "Rude? I'm just being honest. Why are you even at this academy in the first place?"
Agni sighed, the sound carrying years of accumulated exhaustion. "No reason, really. Well, actually—it was for getting married. My father threw me out of the palace, said I had to attend Aethermoor and secure a political match to be useful for once."
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Then on my way here, I realized I might have found something interesting to look for. Something that made the journey feel like it had purpose."
His voice dropped, becoming quieter and more resigned. "But honestly, after seeing you and the others here, after watching how you all burn with passion and conviction... what I'm looking for isn't here at all. I was wrong."
"So you're just drifting around on someone else's orders," Raul said flatly. "Like a donkey being led by a rope. No will of your own."
The black-masked man's laugh started light, almost amused—then grew deadly serious. His entire demeanor shifted into something far more dangerous.
The snow around his feet began melting, steam rising as the temperature spiked dramatically in his immediate vicinity.
"You'll never find it."
The words carried absolute certainty, like a prophecy or a curse.
"Whatever you're looking for, you'll never find it. You lack imagination and passion to pursue anything meaningful. You think things will just come to you—that's your fundamental problem. You've always had the privilege of everything being handed to you on a silver platter. You've never had to want anything badly enough to fight for it."
The black mask's aura intensified dramatically, becoming almost visible as a heat shimmer in the frigid air. Serina felt shivers run violently down her spine, her analytical mind screaming in absolute terror.
Level 7 Mana Circuit Manipulation! This man is a complete monster! He could kill us both without breaking a sweat!
The sheer intensity of his presence was so overwhelming that the nearby monsters simply... exploded.
Thornspike Diggers, Nightwing Swoopers, and Barkchew Scrapers—D-Grade monsters that had been lurking in the area—burst apart from the pressure alone, their bodies unable to withstand the concentrated killing intent radiating from Raul. Blood and viscera painted the white snow crimson.
"So keep drifting away like the pathetic ghost you are," Raul hissed, his voice dripping with contempt that felt almost personal. "Don't come into my sight again. If you do, I'll take that head clean off your shoulders permanently next time. That's not a threat—it's a promise."
Agni looked back over his shoulder, his eyes meeting the black mask directly for just a moment.
"Wow, that's actually rude," he said with surprising calmness, almost conversationally. "Sure, I won't come your way. I'm heading east, just so you know. For the record."
He heard something then—loud thuds, rhythmic and heavy, like something massive approaching. The ground was shaking beneath his feet with each impact.
"Are you really going to quit?" Serina asked, her voice shaking violently. She looked around frantically, concerned both by the approaching sound and the prince's departure.
A small, desperate part of her hoped he wouldn't leave her alone. Hoped she wouldn't be eliminated here without any fighting chance. Hoped for backup, for support, for anything.
"Yeah," Agni replied without turning around, already limping away on unsteady legs. "Like he said, I'm just drifting. Personally, I don't think what I'm looking for is even worth looking for anymore."
His voice grew even quieter, barely audible over the wind. "So it's best to just give up on it entirely."
Serina's heart sank like a stone dropped into deep water. Her throat suddenly went dry, eyes shaking as she watched the small figure of the prince gradually disappear into the white landscape.
The black mask—Raul—hummed with dark satisfaction, then turned his full, terrifying attention to Serina.
"Surely you're not going to forfeit, right?"
"Of course not!" she hissed, though her entire body was shivering—whether from cold, fear, or adrenaline, she couldn't tell anymore.
The forest began shaking more violently, the tremors intensifying with each passing second.
Serina groaned. "Now what?!"
Trees exploded outward in a massive spray of splintered wood and snow. A giant figure burst through them like they were made of tissue paper—easily seven feet tall, with lush white hair identical to Aurora's and a body built like a walking fortress of pure muscle.
His massive fist came crashing down toward Raul with enough force to crater the earth and kill a man instantly.
Raul grinned beneath his mask and blocked it with one forearm. The impact created a shockwave that flattened everything in a thirty-foot radius, snow vaporizing from the pressure.
"So you want to join the fun now, Ashen?" Raul said, recognizing the attacker immediately. "Well, you were second on my list anyway!"
He deflected the massive punch with a practiced motion and immediately followed up with a brutal kick to Ashen's chin. The younger Drakonis was pushed backward, skidding through the snow. He rubbed his lips, which bled slightly from the impact.
"Yeah, you weren't that difficult to find," Ashen growled, his voice deeper and rougher than his sister's. "I just followed the sound of someone acting like a complete asshole."
His eyes blazed with barely contained fury. "Damn it, Aurora promised to face me here! She said she'd test me herself! I trained specifically for this matchup!"
His fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white. "I will not forgive her for breaking that promise!"
"No romance development whatsoever!" Professor Sylvia groaned, her elf ears drooping dramatically with disappointment. "They could have bonded over a shared struggle! Build trust through adversity! The narrative potential was right there!"
Professor Helena's eyes twitched with barely suppressed irritation. "Yeah, I knew it from the start. He's just a lazy, privileged kid with no substance. All that mysterious aura was just smoke and mirrors."
Professor Gareth, however, stared at Agni's regenerating shoulder.
Professor Marcus nodded grimly, his arms crossed. "Too ignorant as well. He doesn't even understand what's being offered to him here—the chance to become something more than a prince, a title."
One of the senior students—a nervous-looking boy with brown hair—raised his hand hesitantly. "Will Raul actually kill the prince if they encounter each other again?"
Loren, the purple-haired senior operating the main monitoring console, shrugged casually. "Hope not, but... Raul is just too—ah, what do you even call this?—a linear person, you see. When he believes something, he believes it absolutely. No room for nuance."
The professors exchanged knowing glances.
"Raul gets carried away in his passion sometimes," Professor Whisper said in her characteristic monotone, though there was the faintest hint of maternal concern in her voice. "But we'll teleport the prince to safety if lethal force is detected. Be assured of that."
Professor Lydia sighed in visible relief, her hands unclenching.
Professor Kazuki muttered, "Still a hot-headed Raul. Brilliant student, but too volatile."