"Behold a race of gods,
Each skill and its Lords.
A pantheon of endless gods,
Born from nothing.
Soul Palace: Realm of the Almighty!"
The reality of the hostel didn't just shift—it shattered like glass. A new world erupted around him, an infinite space filled with a pantheon of towering, divine entities. Each one was the literal pinnacle of a specific power, ancient and terrifying.
As soon as the realm manifested, the "gods" turned their gaze toward the exit—the tear in reality Leon had created. They launched themselves toward him, a tidal wave of divine force intent on escaping his soul and invading the real world.
Faced with the onslaught of a thousand gods, Leon's mind broke. He froze, paralyzed by a fear so deep it felt like death.
Before the first entity could reach him, Yudris moved. With a blur of speed that surpassed thought, she reached Leon and delivered a single, swift strike to his neck. As he went limp, she caught him in her arms before he could hit the ground.
With the creator unconscious, the Soul Palace collapsed instantly. The invasion was cut short, the gods vanishing back into the void. Yudris stood in the silence of the room, looking down at the traumatized child in her arms.
"My apologies, Young Lord," she whispered gently, her voice tinged with a rare sadness. "But I am responsible for you. I told you it was a bad idea, yet you failed to listen. Power is not your problem, Young Lord... knowledge is."
Leon woke the next day feeling as though his very soul was bruised. As the memories of the previous night flooded back—the sight of the pantheon hauling themselves toward him—a cold shiver raced down his spine. He sat up, his breath hitching in his chest.
Amidst his rising panic, he felt a sudden, soft warmth. Yudris embraced him from behind, her presence a calm anchor in his storm of fear.
"How are you doing, Young Lord?" she asked softly.
Her voice sliced through his terror. Leon stumbled out of her arms, staggering a few steps back before he could find his voice. "I'm... I'm fine. Thank you," he managed to say, though his trembling hands told a different story.
"Yudris?" Leon asked, his voice still trembling as he sat on the edge of his bed. "Why... why did they try to break out? Why did they attack me?"
Yudris sat beside him, her expression calm and clinical. "That is because you expected them to, Young Lord. In the creation of a Soul Palace, you do not just picture the scenery; you dictate the intent. You decided how they would react, and subconsciously, you turned your own creations against yourself."
"They attacked because I wanted them to?" Leon whispered, horrified by the thought that his own mind was his greatest enemy.
"Yes. But I believe with enough practice, you will eventually master—"
"There's no need for that," Leon interrupted, his voice low and firm. "I don't think I'll ever try it again."
Yudris didn't argue. She simply smiled and rubbed his hair gently. "Perhaps in the future, you will. But for now, let us give it a rest." She stood up and began organizing his school supplies. "You'll be late for class if you don't get up now."
leon stood up and went to prepare for school
At the Academy, the atmosphere was charged with a different kind of energy. Instructor Mason gathered the students on the training field for their first practical group mission.
"I have divided you into four groups of three," Mason announced. "The leaders for this operation will be Ron, Lloyd, Seth, and Leon."
Group 1 :Ron(creation), Glean (Regeneration), Rey (Water)
Group 2 :Lloyd(time manipulation),Mac (Metal), Lea (Fire)
Group 3 :Seth(Necromancy), Lisa (Wind), Clein (Invisibility)
Group 4 :Leon(theft), Kendris (Darkness), Connell (Elements)
The objective was clear: Hunt a Red Dragon. While the Red Dragon is the smallest of its species, it remains a formidable C-Rank threat.
Mr. Mason briefed the students on the hierarchy of dragons that exist in the wild:
Black Dragon: The largest and most powerful.
White Dragon: The rarest and most elusive.
Green Dragon: The most common species.
Grey Dragon: The second smallest, known for being highly venomous.
Red Dragon: The smallest and least frightening of the race.
"You have three hours," Mason warned. "A single Red Dragon weighs as much as three elephants. You must not only hunt it but find a way to transport the carcass back to the Academy yourselves. This is a test of strength, coordination, and logic. Go."
Ron's team was the first to make contact. They found a Red Dragon perched on a rocky outcrop, and the beast did not hesitate to strike first, bathing the clearing in a torrent of flame.
Rey responded instantly, launching a barrage of ice spikes, but the dragon's obsidian-tough scales caused the ice to shatter like glass. The dragon pivoted, focusing a concentrated blast of fire directly at Rey. Glean threw herself into the path of the flames; her skin charred and peeled, but her regeneration was so violent that she was fully healed before the fire even died out.
Seizing the opening, Ron manifested dozens of steel swords in the air, launching them with a flick of her wrist. The blades pierced the dragon's wings, shredding the membrane and sending the beast crashing into the dirt. Rey followed up by summoning a massive block of ice that slammed onto the dragon's back, pinning it to the earth.
With the target immobilized, Ron raised her hands to the heavens. The clouds blackened, and a massive bolt of lightning lanced down, piercing the dragon's skull and ending the fight instantly. To handle the weight, Ron created a colossal wheeled cart, loaded the carcass, and used the wind to propel the heavy load back to the starting point.
The next to find their target was Seth's group. Unlike Ron's frontal assault, this battle was a display of overwhelming numbers. Lisa acted first, weaving a violent tornado that stripped the dragon of its balance and slammed it into the forest floor.
Before the beast could recover, Seth pressed his palms into the dark soil. From the undergrowth, the corpses of dead animals, rotted insects, and fallen monsters began to crawl out of the earth like a tide of hungry zombies. They swarmed the dragon, a sea of undead flesh that ignored the dragon's frantic fire breath.
The horror escalated as the undead insects crawled into the dragon's mouth and wounds, eating the creature from the inside out. Within minutes, the Red Dragon grew still. To solve the transportation problem, Seth simply reanimated the dragon itself. The undead beast rose one last time, and Group 3 flew back to the Academy on the back of their own kill.
Prince Lloyd's team proved to be the quickest, though they hardly worked as a unit. The moment they encountered their target, Lloyd didn't wait for a strategy. With a flick of his wrist, he froze the world. The dragon, the falling leaves, and even his teammates were suspended in a silent stasis.
Turning his hand sharply to the right, Lloyd forced the dragon through a lifetime of decay in a matter of seconds. As he released the spell, time snapped back into motion. To Mac and Lea, the dragon simply dropped dead of old age the moment they saw it. Without a word of instruction, Lloyd turned and began walking back to the starting point, leaving his stunned teammates to figure out how to haul the massive, withered carcass back on their own.
Leon's group was the last to find their mark, but the dynamic was fractured. Connell led the opening assault, unleashing a chaotic barrage of ice, rock, and fireballs that battered the Red Dragon out of the sky. As it crashed, Kendris lunged forward, pinning the beast's wings to the earth by tethering its shadow to the ground.
Leon stepped forward to assist, but his hands were shaking violently. The trauma of the "Godly Pantheon" still gripped his heart, making his mana feel like lead. Sensing Leon's paralysis, Connell took charge. He carved a massive stone spike from the earth, used his wind elements to spin it like a high-speed drill, and launched it through the dragon's skull, ending the fight instantly.
As the dust settled, Connell and Kendris turned to confront Leon about his strange behavior, but they never got the chance.
Out of the thick canopy, a colossal Green Dragon—five times the size of the Red one they had just killed—erupted into the clearing. Before anyone could react, the beast's massive tail whipped through the air, slamming into Leon and throwing him against a tree with bone-shattering force. Leon slumped to the ground, knocked unconscious instantly.
The Green Dragon reared back and let out a roar so deafening it seemed to shake the very foundations of the woods. This wasn't the "small and least frightening" prey they had been promised. This was a true monster, a predator they were never meant to face.
Kendris and Connell stood frozen, staring up at the emerald scales of a creature that could swallow them whole.