The Guardian stood motionless at the mouth of the last remaining narrow path, its massive broadsword raised high.
Behind the survivors, the endless tide of undead continued to surge forward.
They were boxed in from both sides.
Zero Aether.
Zero room to fight.
Daniel’s Eye of Truth flickered wildly, his head throbbing with an agonizing migraine.
He didn’t analyze the Guardian this time—he directed his remaining vision toward the horde pressing from the rear.
*The undead aren’t operating individually…
They’re connected by a single, fragile psychic frequency.* His gaze snapped toward Success.
“Success!” She flinched, her pale face streaked with dirt and sweat.
“W-what?” “If you can control them, you don’t need to dominate every single mind!” Daniel yelled over the roar of the crowd.
“Just disrupt that frequency!
Force them to target whatever is closest!” Success froze, her trembling hands clutching her skirt.
“I…
I don’t know if I can—” “You have to try!” Daniel gritted his teeth.
“Or we all die on this stone!” Behind them, the Guardian took another heavy step.
*Clang…
Clang…* Success closed her eyes.
Terror clawed at her throat as an undead lunged toward Ayomide’s back, its rotten fingers inches from his spine.
*Please…* she prayed inwardly, her knuckles turning white.
*Please work!* She thrust both hands outward.
Nothing happened.
The corpses kept coming.
Tears burst from her eyes.
“STOP!” *BOOM!* A strange, invisible shockwave burst from her chest.
The dark threads of her Authority didn’t just extend—they snapped violently into hundreds of rotten skulls at once.
Every nearby corpse froze mid-stride.
Then…
chaos.
One undead turned abruptly, driving its rusted hatchet into the neck of the corpse beside it.
Another lunged at a rotten figure pulling itself over the railing.
Within three seconds, the entire rear horde collapsed into a bloody, frantic free-for-all, tearing each other apart.
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“It worked!
Everyone—RUN NOW!” Nobody hesitated.
Godwin sprinted first onto the narrow two-meter stone ledge, his silver sword held tight.
Miss Grace followed, ushering the remaining students across.
Victoria, Ella, Victor, John, Wisdom, and Maxwell surged forward in a desperate, single-file line.
The Guardian raised its sword to cut Godwin down, but the crazed, mind-controlled horde suddenly threw themselves off the main bridge, piling onto the Guardian’s legs like a living mountain.
*Slash!* With a single sweep, the Guardian sheared five corpses in half, but ten more rushed in to take their place.
They couldn’t damage the black armor, but their sheer weight bought the survivors precious seconds.
Suddenly, Success coughed violently.
Blood sprayed from her lips onto the stone floor.
Her eyes rolled back as dark veins flared across her neck.
“My…
head…” Her knees buckled.
She collapsed hard onto the pavement.
Ayomide turned his head as he reached the mouth of the ledge.
*Leave her,* his survival instinct screamed instantly.
*You barely survived your first death.
Go!* He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his grip tightening around his half-broken, chipped blade.
*No.
If her control breaks right now, the horde swarms the ledge.* Ayomide clicked his tongue sharply.
“Tch.” He turned back and grabbed Success’s limp arm.
“Stand up.” Her legs wobbled like paper, completely useless from Aether exhaustion.
Before Ayomide could pull her alone, Adesewa rushed beside him without a word.
Her gaze was locked entirely on Ayomide—she didn’t care about Success; she was only there because *he* turned back.
She hooked Success’s other arm over her shoulder.
Together, the three of them began dragging her toward the ledge.
Slowly.
Far too slowly.
Zara stopped near the edge, her rusted spear shaking in her hand.
“I’ll help!” Ayomide glared at her, his voice cold and unwavering.
“No.
Three of us moving slow is bad.
Four is suicide.
Cross the ledge now.” Zara bit her lower lip, tears welling in her eyes.
“I can’t leave you!” “If you stay, all of us die,” Ayomide said, his tone utterly devoid of panic, purely pragmatic.
“Go.” Zara’s chest heaved.
After an agonizing second, she stepped onto the ledge, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“You better come back!” On the far side of the chasm, Kemi and Tunde watched them struggle across the narrow path.
“Adesewa!” Kemi screamed, leaning over the edge.
“Hurry!” Tunde yelled, waving his arm wildly.
“We’re right here!
Just ten meters!” Ayomide gritted his teeth, feeling the rough stone beneath his boots.
Ten meters.
Eight meters.
Six meters…
*CLANG!* A deafening detonation echoed across the bridge.
The mountain of corpses atop the Guardian was instantly blown to shreds.
The ancient warrior stood tall once more.
Without a sound, without a roar, it raised its enormous broadsword high into the air and drove the blade directly into the structural joint beneath its own boots.
Daniel’s face drained of all color.
“He’s not targeting us…
He’s cutting the support!” *BOOM!* The entire remaining foundation shattered.
Spiderweb fractures violently expanded under Ayomide, Adesewa, Success, and two terrified background students behind them who hadn’t finished crossing.
“AYOMIDE!” Kemi’s voice cracked in a blood-curdling scream.
The stone floor completely gave way.
Success slipped first.
Adesewa grabbed her wrist, but the rock beneath her boots crumbled into dust.
Ayomide reached for the solid edge on the far side—his fingers brushed the cold masonry by mere millimeters.
Then, gravity took them.
*BOOM!* Tons of ancient stone, three survivors, and two weeping students plummeted toward the raging crimson river far below.
“NO!” Tunde roared, lunging over the railing.
Miss Grace tackled him around the waist, slamming him back onto the solid ground.
“Stop!
Tunde, stop!” “Let me go!” Tunde thrashed wildly, tears blurring his vision as he shoved against her arm-guards.
“My friends are down there!
LET ME GO!” “They’re gone!” Miss Grace yelled, holding him down.
But as she said it, her own jaw clenched tight.
Her eyes flickered toward the raging current where five of her students had just fallen, her knuckles trembling violently against Tunde’s armor.
She forced her breathing steady, swallowing down the bitter taste of her own grief.
Tunde’s struggles slowly weakened.
He slammed his fist into the stone, sobbing violently.
“…Damn it…
Damn it!” Zara fell to her knees beside Kemi, who was staring blankly at the churning crimson water below, whispering Adesewa’s name over and over again.
*You told me to go…* Zara thought, clutching her chest as tears streamed down her face.
*I listened…
Why do I feel like I abandoned you…?* Daniel walked slowly to the crumbling lip of the chasm.
He looked down at the crimson river.
There was no sign of them above the raging current.
Only silence.
He slowly closed his eyes, his fists clenching until his skin split.
*Did I make the wrong call?
If I had told them to move three seconds earlier…
if I hadn’t pushed Success…* The weight of the tactical orders he had barked crushed down on his shoulders.
He didn’t say a word, but the guilt locked itself deep inside his chest.
Miss Grace looked at the traumatized remnants of her class.
Half of them were bleeding, their Aether completely drained, their spirits shattered.
“…We have to keep moving,” she whispered softly, her voice raspy.
“We can’t let their sacrifice be for nothing.” Nobody argued.
Nobody had the strength left to speak.
They marched in silence down the ruined avenue until they reached a towering, ancient stone wall that blocked the road completely.
Victor wiped his bruised face, looking around blankly.
“…Wetin be this?
No road again?” Before anyone could search for an exit, the ground trembled.
*Rumble…* Ancient golden runes carved across the massive wall flared with brilliant light.
*BOOM…
BOOM…* The wall split down the center, grinding open to reveal a blinding white threshold.
Daniel stared at the golden light, his voice hollow.
“…I see.
The trial wasn’t about killing the Guardian.
It was a survival timer.” “Let’s go,” Miss Grace said quietly.
One by one, the survivors stepped through the light.
Instantly, the dark, suffocating atmosphere vanished.
They found themselves standing inside a colossal, pristine hall.
Towering white marble pillars stretched into a high, vaulted ceiling, illuminated by soft, golden sunlight.
At the center stood a magnificent statue of a benevolent woman, her hands spread outward in a quiet welcome.
Daniel looked around, his brow furrowing through the exhaustion.
This wasn’t the open, cold summoning plaza where they had first arrived in this world—they had been brought to an entirely different sanctuary.
Footsteps echoed across the marble floor.
A group of civilians—men, women, and children wearing elegant robes—emerged from the inner corridors.
Leading them were two men: an elderly figure with a long beard, and Karl, standing tall in his immaculate white uniform.
Karl stepped forward, a soft, welcoming smile on his face.
“Welcome back…” Karl said gently, “…to the world of Aetheris.” The moment Karl spoke, the dam broke.
The calm of the hall didn’t soothe the students—it inflamed them.
Several students collapsed to their knees, weeping uncontrollably.
One girl threw up onto the polished marble, her body shaking from shock.
Another boy began screaming hysterically, demanding to know how to get home, while others backed away in panic, terrified that this clean hall was just another illusion.
Tunde’s mind snapped completely.
“YOU!” Tunde screamed, kinetic energy flaring recklessly around his fists.
“Tunde, wait!” Miss Grace called out, but Tunde had already closed the gap, grabbing Karl’s pristine collar with shaking, bloodied hands.
“You threw us into that butcher shop!
Ayomide and Adesewa are GONE!
You knew people were going to die!” Maxwell stepped up right beside him, electric-blue sparks crackling over his knuckles, his eyes red with fury.
“Answer him!” Kemi stared at Karl with pure hatred, her glowing threads hovering near her wrists.
Right beside her, Zara’s trembling hands tightened around her rusted spear.
She stepped beside Kemi without saying a word, her red, tear-stained eyes fixed directly on Karl.
Karl didn’t even flinch.
He didn’t raise a hand.
*BOOM.* An invisible, crushing pressure radiated from Karl’s body, slamming Tunde and Maxwell to their knees instantly.
The air in the hall grew heavy as lead, forcing the screaming students into terrified silence.
“Control yourselves,” Karl said smoothly, his tone remaining polite despite the immense aura crushing them into the floor.
“The trial was meant to awaken and temper your dormant Authorities under life-or-death pressure.
Without that crucible, none of you would survive what exists in this world.” He eased his pressure, letting Tunde slump to the marble floor, gasping for breath while glaring up with burning, quiet resentment.
Karl looked at the exhausted, broken group.
“Listen closely.
You stand in **Aetheris**.
In this world, death is not always the end.
Those who perish do not simply vanish—their essence passes into the **Mmuo Forest** as *Mmuo*, spirits that failed to fully pass on.” Karl walked slowly toward the central statue.
“Most fade away.
Some warp into monsters.
If a spirit is strong enough, it lingers.
In this world, power is structured across six ranks: **Initiate, Elite, Master, Sovereign, Saint,** and **Transcendent**.” Karl turned, looking at them with calm authority.
“Right now, you are merely **Initiates**.
If you ever hope to navigate Aetheris—or reach the Mmuo Forest to retrieve a spirit and construct a new body for them—you must reach the rank of **Transcendent** and harvest the heart of one of the Four Monarchs.” Silence fell over the hall.
Kemi’s blood-stained knuckles clenched until her nails cut into her palms.
She didn’t speak.
She didn’t yell like Tunde.
*Then I’ll reach Transcendent,* she vowed silently, her eyes burning toward the distant horizon.
*I’ll take a Monarch’s heart and bring her back.* Karl then walked casually down the steps, glancing over the group with an easy, offhand curiosity.
“During your struggle in the trial…
did any of you happen to come across unusual relics or ancient artifacts?
A ring, perhaps?” The survivors remained silent, too drained to process the question.
Daniel stepped forward, his eyes cold and unreadable.
“The one carrying the ring fell into the crimson river.” Karl’s eyes flickered with a brief, hidden gleam before he smiled warmly once more.
*I see,* Karl thought to himself.
*So the ring is lost in the river with him.
Convenient.
I don’t even need to dirty my hands.* “Rest now,” Karl announced smoothly, gesturing to the attendants behind him.
“Your quarters are prepared.
Tomorrow morning, your formal training begins to prepare you for the war against the **Ash Monarch** in two months.” As the civilians guided the shell-shocked students toward the living quarters, Karl subtly gestured to two silent shadow guards standing near the marble pillars.
The guards stepped into the shadows as Karl leaned in, whispering with icy precision: *”Go to the Mmuo Forest.
Find the spirit of the boy named Ayomide.”* Karl’s smile vanished entirely, his gaze turning deadly cold.
*”Ensure he never leaves that place.”*