"PARTICIPANTS! WELCOME TO THE FRAGMENT EXAMS! I WILL BE YOUR EXAMINER! I CANNOT SHOW MYSELF DUE TO SEVERAL FACTORS, BUT I WILL DO MY BEST NONTHELESS!" Echoed throughout the gray room, ringing in the ears of every person inside.
Fragment exams!? But weren't they supposed to be held tomorrow!? Is that why the elf woman didn't tell me where the exam would take place!? Zero thought.
"FRAGMENT EXAMS!?" Shouted a man in the crowd.
The man who shouted was bald and had a scar on his face. He was tall, and his muscles were no joke. He carried a sword on his back, and it was almost as big as his body.
Then the crowd followed.
"THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HELD TOMORROW!"
"WHAT ABOUT OUR PREPARATIONS!?"
"WE WEREN'T FULLY READY!"
"I DIDN'T BRING MY ARMOR WITH ME!"
Voices started overlapping each other as Zero remained silent.
Then the examiner's voice came again.
"Silence."
The room fell silent.
Not a single person could speak.
"Now then… fall."
Every person in the room fell onto the ground, some on their back and some on their front.
I can't get up..! The pressure is insane! It feels like my back can break any second! Zero thought.
The examiner spoke again.
"Anyone who can't stand up in the next 10 minutes will fail. That's all."
STAND UP!? UNDER THIS MUCH PRESSURE!? Zero thought.
Shortly after every single body in the room hit the ground, some people truly started to grasp the difficulty of the challenge.
"I GIVE UP! LET ME OUT! I FEEL LIKE I'LL BE CRUSHED!"
The voice belonged to the bald man who shouted first.
"I'm sorry, but… we can't let anyone out. You'll have to lay there for another 9 minutes. But now you have failed." The examiner said.
This is brutal..! Zero thought.
As the challenge went on and time flew by, more people start to fail.
About 7 minutes have passed and almost half of the participants have failed! I still haven't moved an inch! Just what did that damn examiner do!? ThesethoughtsrushedZero'shead as he kept trying to stand.
Zero's arms trembled uselessly. Muscles screamed, but his body refused to respond.
The examiner's voice could be heard again.
"The 67th person has now passed!"
Dammit! Zero panicked as he was still unable to move.
As time went by, there were only 2 minutes left.
"The 68th person has passed!" The examiner said that every time someone passed, Zero had heard it 68 times now.
68!? That's not even close to the amount of people here!
Someone near Zero was sobbing, someone else was vomiting, and another was laughing like a madman.
But then, Zero finally managed to move a bit.
A tiny motion.
Only his finger.
"The 69th person has passed!"
Zero then felt the heavy pressure disappear.
Did I… do it? But wasn't I suppose to stand up? Zero thought.
A strange sensation crept up from his feet. Zero looked down just in time to see them crumble into faint blue particles, drifting away like dust in the air.
The fuck!?
The disintegration spread upward, swallowing his legs, his torso, his arms. There was no pain. No falling. Just… disappearance.
Panic spiked as his vision began to fade.
But then, he saw another room.
The room was an enormous circular chamber with a smooth seamless gray floor. There were no windows or doors visible, the only thing that lit up the room was the flying orb of light just below the ceiling. There were several gray, round platforms floating everywhere in the room, big enough for 1 person to stand on.
Zero looked down, and his body was in tact. He could feel all his body parts besides the top of his head.
After a split second, the top of his head was back in place.
"What… just happened?" Zero said in confusion.
"It was the fragment ability of one of the exam overseers, we went through it ourselves right after passing." The one who spoke was a boy around Zero's age.
The boy had orange hair that reached his shoulders. Zero could see his orange eyes behind a glasses.
Zero looked around and saw the other participants who passed. Some were sitting on the floating platforms, some were talking among each other and some sat alone against the wall.
He then turned to the boy who spoke.
"The hell are we supposed to do here?" Zero asked.
"I don't possess a single clue, I arrived just before you." The boy replied.
"Well, I'm Zero. What's your name?"
"My name is Orrin Arkwright."
"Arkwright? You mean that noble family?"
"Yes, I am the third son of the great Aurelion Arkwright. May I ask of your background?"
"Well… I'm a street rat, got no family to speak of."
Orrin's expression changed to one of disgust in an instant.
"A street rat? So not even a commoner? How disgusting. The Fragment Exams truly have no standards these days."
"The hell's that supposed to mean?"
"Quiet down everyone!" The examiner spoke.
Zero and Orrin stopped talking, listening to what the examiner had to say.
"You have all shown that you are qualified to take the fragment exams!"
We haven't even started yet!? Zero thought.
"As your examiner, I have prepared the first phase of the exam!"
Suddenly, one of the participants spoke up.
"Can you tell us about the first phase?"
It was a girl, one with black hair and black eyes.
"You'll have to see for yourself." The examiner said.
What's that supposed to mean? Zero thought.
But then, the floor disappeared, but no one fell.
"Huh? Aren't we supposed to fall?" Zero said in a confused state.
Suddenly, the darkness shot up around the participants. Zero had never seen anything darker.
It then formed a round roof above them, right before crashing down and consuming everyone in the room.
Shit! I can't breathe! And I can't see anything! Zero was blinded by the darkness. And he was unable to speak. It was a silent and dark void.
Zero suddenly gained his vison back, and he was standing in what looked like a dungeon. It was a straight path with cells in the walls, but they held no criminals. The walls and roof were made of stone, with moss growing on them.
"Is this the first phase?" Zero said.
"Yes, I believe that to be the case." Orrin's voice.
Zero was startled, thinking he was alone.
"So you ended up with me, huh? Just great…" Zero was annoyed.
"I am not pleased either."
"Well, whatever. Let's just figure out how to pass, I say we follow the path."
The place Orrin and Zero stood was lighted up by torches, but the path just got darker and darker the further you looked.
But then, a terrible roar could be heard from the direction the path led to. It was truly horrifying.
"Or maybe not…" Zero said.