The morning light filtering through the reinforced glass of the academy’s window did little to warn the damp, cold corridor.
Min-sun adjusts the collar of her uniform jacket, trying to hide the thin, jagged scars that laces across her neck.
Next to her, Hina walks with a quiet, deliberate stride, her shoulders square despite the matching silver scars tracing down her bare arms.
“Do you think they are still watching us?” Min-sun whispers, her eyes darting towards the passing students.
“They are always watching, Sun.”Hina replies softly, her voice carrying a calm grounded weight,”But they aren’t looking at us, they are looking at what survived in us.”
Min-sun whines as a sudden, sharp ache flares through her leg.
She drags her foot slightly leaning on Hina’s side.
“Just a few steps to the class” Hina murmurs keeping her shoulder steady.” Hold it together.
”
They push through the heavy metal door of lecture 26’s hall.
The air inside smells strongly of stale liquor and charred parchment.
At the podium stands Master Gwon, a crouching man with grease-stained lapels and bloodshot eyes.
He slams a heavy leather-bound tome onto the desk, the loud bang echos of the stone walls.
“Sit down you miscreant rabble!” Gwon barks, his voice thick and slurred.” Every second you waste is another second I spend wasting looking at your pathetic faces!
Move!”
Min-sun hurries towards her row, her boths clicking unevenly against the floorboards.
As she navigates through the narrow aisle, she feels a heavy lingering gaze from the middle section.
Sitting low in his chair is Arashi.
He maintains an unblinking, vacant stare as his finger mechanically traces inside his nostril.
Without a shame of urgency , he withdraws it ,turns his head slightly to inspect the microscopic debris with the detached curiosity of a scientist observing a specimen.
Satisfied with his silent observation, he transfers it to his mouth, swallowing with indifference.
When his eyes unexpectedly collides with hers,his expression did not falter.
No panic registered on his face.
Instead , calculating the social script required to diffuse the awkwardness, he raises his hand.
He executes a deliberately clumsy wave-a manufactured mask of normalcy designed to make him look foolish ,rather than perceived as the threat he truly was.
Min-sun cheeks flushes crimson.
She quickly looks down to the chalkboard to avoid his gaze.
“Now then!”Master Gwon drones, swaying slightly as he gripped the edge of the podium for balance.
“Today, we are moving away from the mundane. Forget your lessons on the foundational ley lines or the defensive blocks. Today we are taking a field trip.”
The classroom remains silent.
No one moves.
No one cheers.
A heavy suffocating tension immediately settles over the rows of the desks.
Min-sun looks around, her chest tightens as she saw the color drain from her classmates’ faces.
“Hina,”Min-sun whispers leaning over her desk.” What’s going on?
Why does everyone look like they’ve just been handed a death sentence?”
“Because they might have been.”Hina replies, her gaze fixed entirely on the teacher.” His talking about the Threshold”.
“The Threshold?” Min-sun repeats, her voice rising slightly.
Master Gwon slams his hand down again cutting her off.” Silence!
You are terrified because you are weak!
We are heading directly to the Gate of the Abyssal Void.
It is the only path to reach the testing ground of the Outer Rim.”
Min-sun’s breath hitches.” The Abyssal Void?
What is that place Hina?”.
“It’s a broken fragment of a demon realm,”Hina explains, her tone dropping into a dim undertone.” The Academy anchors it here to test higher-tier candidates.
Most candidates who enter without absolute focus, do not come out alive.”
“They don’t come back?”Min-sun feels the cold sweat breaking across her spine.
“Listen up!”Master Gwon yells,waving a hand carelessly to the center of the room.” Ensure your spiritual levels are stable before you even think of stepping forward.
If you soul-core is fluctuating, the spatial wind will tear you to ribbons.
For those of you traveling like this for the very first time… well,good luck.
There is a very high possibility most of you won’t make it all the way across.
Not that I’ll miss any of you.”
With a harsh, guttural growl, Master Gwon tore open the massive book on his desk.
He begins chanting in a language that sounds like grinding stones and burning wind.
He raises his hands, channeling an immense surge of raw, ammeyst-colored magic.
The sheer force of the spell radiates outwards striking the stone floor with a violent, concussive blast.
The foundation of the entire academy groans.
Dust rains from the ceiling rafters as the space in the center of the room begins to warp, tearing and twisting like wet paper.
A massive, swirling vortex of pitch-black energy tears open, hovering inches above the floorboards.
The visual distortion cause a sickening, dizzinying pull in the air.
“The hate is stable!”Master Gwon shouts over the roaring wind of the portal.
“”Well?
Who goes first?
Who among you have the spine to step into the Abyssal Void?
Step up or I’ll start throwing you in myself!”
The students shrinks back into their sit.
The roaring black rift, spits sparks of dark energy that singed the wooden desks.
Nobody dare move.
Out of the absolute silence, a chair scraps loudly against floor.
A boy stands up from the back row .He had messy,bright red hair that fell wildly over his eyes,and his uniform was torn at the elbows.
He carried himself with a menacing aura-the kind that warns everyone to keep their distance.He didn’t look at his classmates;his eyes are fixed solely on the swirling black void.
“Out of the way,cowards”,Hong-kung mutters, stepping into the aisle.
“Looking at him,” Min-sun whispered, clutching Hina’s sleeve.
” He isn’t even shaking.”
“He doesn’t have an ounce of fear in him.”Hina notes, her eyes narrowing.” That’s either extreme confidence or pure madness.
”
Without a single moment of hesitation, he walks directly to the edge of the rift.
He didn’t look back.
He didn’t brace himself.
He simply steps forward into the swirling blackness.
For a fraction of a second nothing happens.
Then a sickening pop echoes through the room.
The boy’s form stiffens as the crimson lighting wraps around his limbs.
Before he could even utter a sound, his body violently disintegrates into a cloud of fine,gray ash instantly sucked away into the void.
A collective shriek tears through the classroom.
Several students scrambles backwards knocking over their chairs in a desperate bod to get away from the podium.
Min-sun’s breath quickens into a frantic hyperventilation.
He just disappeared.
He’s dead!”
She jumps up, projecting her voice over the noise of the portal to reach the teacher.
“Master Gwon! He’s dead! Why did he disintegrate! What happened to him!”
Master Gwon didn’t even look up from his tome, a cruel indifferent smirk playing across his lips.” Dead?
Alive?
You won’t know the difference until you get to the other side, girl.
Maybe he made it.
Maybe his physical shell just couldn’t handle the conversion.
You won’t find out by sitting here crying.
”
“But you can’t just expect us to jump in!”Min-sun screams.
“I don’t expect anything from you except obedience!”He roars back.
He raises his hand, casting a broad, sweeping wave of kinetic energy that forcibly pushes the next row of students into the rift.
“In you go!”
“No! Please!”a girl screams as she was thrown forward.
Three students are forced into the portal simultaneously.
The moment their boots touches the threshold, agonizing shrieks and blood-curdling screams fills the room.
Min-sun watches in sheer horror as their flesh cracks and glows with a terrible internal light, their bodiestearing apart in excruciating pain.
“We’re all going to die here!”Min-sun sobs covering her ears.
The panic in the room is deafening but Arashi’s expression remains entirely blank.
While everyone scrambles in blind terror, his mind was already finishing a precise calculation of the exits, tge trajectories and the crowd’s momentum.
Without a single word or change in his breathing, he moves.
He didn’t leap flashing into the air; instead, he slips through the chaotic crowd like a shadow, using the panicked movements of others to mask his on precise, blindingly fast advance.
He didn’t need to shout for people to get out of the way-he simply utilizes the gaps they left behind, completely unnoticed by anyone around him.hum.
“Sun,”Hina’s voice cracks through the panic, steady and firm.
Min-sun looks down.
Hina reaches out , wrapping her hand tightly around Min-sun’s freezing fingers.
Her grip is warm,solid and unyielding.
“We don’t have a choice.”Hina says looking directly into her eyes.” If we stay, Master Gwon throws us in broke and unfocused.
If we go together, we control our own spiritual alignment.
Trust me.”
Min-sun swallow hard.” I’m scared Hina.
My leg….I…..I….I don’t know if I can control my focus.”
“I’ll hold it for both of us.”Hina promise moving up to the platform.” On three.
Don’t look back.”
Min-sun nods, a small trembling breath escaping her lips.” Okay, together.
”
“One.”
The wind whips their hair wildly across their faces.
“Two.”
Min-sun squeezes Hina’s hand , shutting her eyes tightly against the blinding crimson glare.
“Three!”
With a shared hesitant leap, they step off the stone and plunges into the roaring depths of the Abyssal Void, their bodies instantly dissolving into the swirling, dark unknown.