The darkness spreading across the battlefield no longer resembled ordinary mana.
It swallowed everything.
The pale light reflecting across the frozen biome slowly disappeared beneath expanding shadows while the sky above the Pocket Dimension darkened unnaturally, as though night itself had descended in response to the rage consuming the battlefield.
Snowstorms vanished into the black mist surrounding me, and the pressure erupting from my body became so heavy that cracks spread across the glacier without me even moving.
For the first time since arriving in Nythera, I stopped restraining the hatred buried inside me.
Not hatred toward Kaelor alone.
Hatred toward everything he represented.
The arrogance.
The cruelty.
The belief that strength justified treating others as less than human.
And the moment those emotions surfaced completely, my darkness answered.
Kaelor finally stopped laughing.
The noble stood at the center of the frozen devastation, frost mana spiraling wildly around his body while pale blue veins crawled across his skin like fractures spreading beneath ice.
His own power had started consuming him as well.
The composed heir of House Veydris no longer existed.
Only rage remained.
“You filthy—”
He never finished the sentence.
The glacier exploded beneath my feet.
One instant I stood across the battlefield.
The next, my scythe had already crashed against his sword hard enough to bend the enchanted blade violently backward.
The impact split the frozen terrain apart beneath us while Kaelor’s body was launched through the storm like a shattered puppet before crashing directly through a wall of ice several dozen meters away.
I followed immediately.
No hesitation.
No strategy.
Only violence.
Kaelor erupted from the collapsing glacier with frost exploding outward in every direction.
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth now, but instead of fear, madness had started replacing the last traces of rational thought inside his eyes.
“You think you’re better than us?!” he roared while unstable mana surged around him chaotically.
“You’re just another monster!”
Perhaps.
At that moment, the distinction barely mattered anymore.
Kaelor drove his sword into the glacier beneath him and thousands of crystalline spears erupted through the battlefield instantly.
The frozen projectiles flooded the air in massive waves before launching toward me fast enough to freeze the atmosphere itself along their path.
This time I didn’t dodge.
Darkness surged outward around my body before swallowing the attack completely.
The ice vanished inside the shadows without even reaching me.
Kaelor’s expression finally cracked.
Real fear appeared for the first time.
Good.
He was beginning to understand.
I moved again.
Black mist exploded behind me while my body crossed the battlefield with terrifying speed.
Kaelor barely managed to raise his sword before my scythe tore through his shoulder armor, carving straight through enchanted steel and flesh simultaneously.
Blood erupted across the snow while the noble screamed and stumbled backward desperately, frost mana exploding around him in uncontrolled bursts.
The rest of the battlefield had nearly stopped moving.
Kael stood frozen in place, lightning flickering weakly around his daggers while he watched the duel unfold with a mixture of shock and savage satisfaction.
Faelyn’s competitive grin had disappeared completely, replaced by silent fascination.
Even she understood now that what stood before them was far beyond an ordinary S Rank student.
Varkas said nothing at all.
The demon simply stared at me while protecting Lyra behind him instinctively, and inside his expression there was no fear.
Only admiration.
Because nobody had ever defended him like this before.
Meanwhile, Lyra looked devastated.
Not by the violence.
By me.
Her exhausted eyes followed every movement through the darkness surrounding the battlefield, and unlike the others, she didn’t look at me like a monster or an unstoppable force.
She looked at me like someone suffering.
That expression hurt more than Kaelor’s attack ever could.
Unfortunately, the rage consuming me no longer cared.
Kaelor roared again before releasing another explosion of freezing mana powerful enough to shake the biome itself.
Entire glaciers rose behind him like towering frozen walls while the storm above us transformed into a violent hurricane of ice and destruction.
“You think strength makes you equal to nobles?!” he screamed.
“People like you exist beneath us!”
His own teammates had stopped fighting now.
Not because they wanted to.
Because they were terrified.
The metal wielder stared at Kaelor with visible panic while the archer slowly stepped backward through the snowstorm.
Even the woman wielding twin blades looked horrified by the amount of mana spiraling out of control around her leader.
But it was too late.
Kaelor had already lost himself completely.
And so had I.
The darkness surrounding my body thickened further while black energy crawled across my scythe like living smoke.
The sky above us became almost entirely black now, and every instinct inside the Pocket Dimension screamed that something had gone terribly wrong.
Far above the battlefield, even the professors observing through magical screens had fallen silent.
Some watched in fascination.
Others with visible unease.
Because for the first time since the examination began…
The mage of darkness no longer looked human.
Kaelor’s breathing had become unstable.
The frost surrounding his body no longer resembled controlled elemental magic but a violent storm barely contained by his own sanity.
Ice spiraled chaotically across the battlefield while freezing mana erupted from him hard enough to split entire sections of the glacier apart.
His teammates had already stopped fighting properly.
The arrogance from earlier was gone now, replaced by something far uglier.
Fear.
Not fear of losing.
Fear of what stood in front of them.
“You think power changes what you are?!” Kaelor roared while unstable frost exploded around him again.
“Trash will always remain trash!”
The frozen hurricane surrounding the battlefield intensified violently.
Thousands of crystalline spears formed throughout the sky before crashing downward like divine punishment itself, freezing the atmosphere in their path.
I walked forward through it.
Darkness swallowed every incoming attack before it could even touch me.
The glacier cracked beneath every step while black mist spread farther across the biome, devouring the pale light until the battlefield resembled a nightmare drowned in darkness.
Kaelor’s expression finally broke completely.
Because now he understood.
This was no longer a battle between elite academy candidates.
This was survival.
The glacier exploded beneath my feet as I crossed the battlefield instantly.
Kaelor barely managed to raise his sword before my scythe tore through his shoulder and chest in a single motion violent enough to send blood erupting across the snow.
The noble screamed while darkness spread through the wound like corruption infecting his mana circuits, and before he could recover, I was already in front of him again.
The rage consuming me no longer wanted victory.
It wanted destruction.
Kaelor forced himself back to his feet through the pain, frost mana exploding wildly around him while panic finally appeared inside his eyes.
“Monster—!”
My scythe crashed against his sword before he could finish the sentence.
The enchanted blade shattered instantly.
Fragments of frozen steel exploded through the storm while Kaelor stared in disbelief at the remains of his weapon falling into the snow beneath him.
Then I struck again.
And again.
Black slashes tore across the battlefield with monstrous speed while Kaelor’s body was carved apart piece by piece beneath overwhelming violence.
Blood stained the glacier.
Darkness devoured every attempt at regeneration.
Frost mana collapsed completely under the pressure of my own.
The noble tried fighting back for a few seconds.
Then instinct finally took over.
He started running.
Actually running.
The proud heir of House Veydris fled across the battlefield in terror while darkness swallowed the frozen biome behind him.
“You wanted to know the difference between us?” I asked quietly.
Kaelor turned just in time to see me appear directly in front of him.
His eyes widened.
Then my scythe removed his arm.
The scream echoing across the glacier barely sounded human anymore.
Around us, the rest of his team had completely fallen apart mentally.
The metal wielder dropped his weapon entirely while backing away through the snow in panic.
The woman with the twin blades tried retreating alongside the archer, both of them abandoning any idea of fighting back the moment they realized Kaelor was being destroyed in front of them.
But there was nowhere left to run.
Darkness erupted across the battlefield.
The metal wielder died first.
One moment he was retreating through the storm.
The next, a black slash carved cleanly through his torso before his body disappeared instantly in the light of forced elimination.
The woman followed seconds later.
She barely had time to raise her blades before shadows wrapped around her body completely.
Her scream vanished alongside her silhouette as the Pocket Dimension expelled her from the battlefield.
The archer panicked completely after that.
Wind magic exploded around him while he desperately fled across the frozen biome without even looking behind him anymore.
Kael intercepted him.
Lightning tore through the battlefield before both daggers pierced the noble’s chest violently enough to kill him instantly inside the Pocket Dimension.
The body vanished in a flash of transfer light moments later.
And unlike the others…
No lingering wounds followed him outside.
Only Noctis’s darkness remained capable of violating the rules of the Pocket Dimension itself.
Which left only Kaelor.
The heir of House Veydris collapsed into the snow while blood covered the glacier beneath him.
Frost mana leaked uncontrollably from his mutilated body while panic finally overwhelmed every trace of noble pride left inside him.
“N-No…”
I kept walking toward him.
Slowly.
The battlefield itself had gone silent now.
Even the storm surrounding the biome seemed quieter beneath the pressure of the darkness swallowing everything around us.
Far above the battlefield, chaos had already erupted among the professors and medical staff observing the examination through magical screens.
The nobles I had killed moments earlier had already reappeared outside the Pocket Dimension…
Still wounded.
Still bleeding.
Still covered in black corruption that should have vanished the moment they left the dimension.
“That’s impossible…”
“The transfer system restores all physical damage!”
“What exactly is his darkness?!”
Emergency healers rushed toward the eliminated students immediately while panic spread across the observation platforms.
Some professors looked horrified.
Others fascinated.
A few stared silently at the screen displaying the frozen biome where darkness still covered the battlefield like an abyss consuming the world itself.
Even the director had stopped hiding his surprise.
Because for the first time since Aetherion Academy created the Battle Royale…
Someone had broken one of the absolute laws of the Pocket Dimension.
Kaelor tried crawling backward through the snow.
The sight alone felt surreal.
Only a few minutes earlier, he had stood proudly at the center of his team like a noble born to rule over everyone around him.
Now he dragged himself across the shattered glacier with one arm missing, blood freezing beneath him while panic completely destroyed the last traces of arrogance inside his eyes.
“N-Noctis… wait…”
His voice trembled.
Not from pain.
Fear.
Pure fear.
The darkness surrounding the battlefield continued spreading silently while black mist swallowed the remains of the frozen biome around us.
Even the sky above the Pocket Dimension had become almost entirely black now, as though my rage itself had infected the artificial world surrounding us.
Kaelor kept retreating desperately until his back finally struck a wall of broken ice.
Cornered.
Finished.
“You said people like them were beneath you,” I said quietly while walking toward him.
“That demons should stay chained.
That commoners existed to kneel.”
“I-I…”
“You looked at suffering and called it natural.”
My scythe slowly dragged across the glacier beside me, carving a deep black trail through the frozen terrain.
“And now you’re begging the same people you called filth to spare you.”
Kaelor’s breathing became erratic.
“Please…”
The word echoed weakly through the battlefield.
Behind me, nobody moved.
Kael watched silently now, the rage from earlier replaced by something heavier after witnessing the true extent of my power.
Faelyn stood completely still while the wind around her had long since calmed.
Even Varkas remained frozen beside Lyra, staring at me with a mixture of admiration and disbelief.
Only Lyra looked genuinely sad.
Not for Kaelor.
For me.
Because unlike the others, she could see the truth hidden beneath the rage consuming me.
I was enjoying this.
That realization disturbed her far more than the violence itself.
The darkness surrounding my body reacted to my emotions like a living thing.
It whispered constantly now, feeding the adrenaline flooding my veins while every heartbeat intensified the intoxicating sensation spreading through my body.
The battle.
The destruction.
The absolute domination.
It felt good.
Too good.
And somewhere deep inside myself, I realized with growing unease that I wanted more.
Kaelor suddenly screamed and released the last remains of his frost mana in pure desperation.
Jagged ice erupted wildly through the battlefield while unstable freezing energy surged toward me one final time.
I cut through it effortlessly.
Darkness devoured the attack before my scythe crossed the distance between us in a single motion.
The slash was almost beautiful.
Silent.
Precise.
Then Kaelor’s body split apart beneath black energy.
The heir of House Veydris died inside the Pocket Dimension like the rest of his team.
A burst of transfer light consumed him instantly afterward.
And far above the battlefield…
Panic erupted.
Kaelor’s mutilated body crashed onto the academy transfer platform outside the Pocket Dimension while healers rushed toward him immediately.
Except this time, the wounds looked even worse.
Black corruption spread violently across the missing arm and shattered torso while frost mana leaked uncontrollably from his broken body despite the restoration laws of the dimension supposedly preventing exactly this situation.
“He’s still losing blood!”
“The wounds aren’t closing!”
“What is happening?!”
Several professors stood up immediately while emergency healing magic flooded the platform in an attempt to stabilize the eliminated students.
Yet even then, traces of darkness continued lingering inside their injuries like poison infecting the mana itself.
Silence slowly spread across the observation area afterward.
Not ordinary silence.
Fear.
Because every professor present understood the same thing at once.
Noctis had done something impossible.
Back inside the Pocket Dimension, the darkness surrounding the battlefield gradually began receding now that the fight had ended.
The black sky slowly faded while the frozen biome returned little by little to its natural state.
And with the rage disappearing…
Clarity returned.
My breathing slowed.
The whispers inside the darkness faded.
Then suddenly, exhaustion hit me harder than expected.
Not physical exhaustion.
Mental.
I stared silently at the blood covering the glacier around me while the adrenaline slowly disappeared from my body.
The pleasure from the fight still lingered faintly inside my chest, and that realization unsettled me more than anything else that had happened.
I had enjoyed it too much.
Far too much.
A soft hand suddenly touched my arm.
Lyra.
“You’re hurt,” she whispered quietly.
Her voice pulled me fully back to reality.
The fear and sadness inside her eyes hurt more than Kaelor’s strongest attack ever could.
“I’m fine,” I answered automatically.
“You’re not.”
The silence that followed felt strangely heavy.
Then Kael suddenly exhaled loudly behind us.
“Okay… remind me to never piss you off.”
Faelyn slowly crossed her arms while staring at the destroyed battlefield around us.
“I knew you were strong,” she admitted quietly, “but this was absurd.”
Varkas remained silent for another few seconds before finally speaking without taking his eyes off me.
“…Nobody’s ever defended me like that before.”
The words hit harder than expected.
I looked away briefly before crouching near the edge of the shattered glacier.
Authority of Knowledge immediately identified several alchemical plants growing beneath the broken ice nearby, their mana signatures enhanced by the remains of the Leviathan battle earlier.
Without saying anything else, I gathered them instinctively.
My hands moved naturally now, combining crushed mana herbs and condensed elemental essence together through newly recovered alchemical knowledge.
A few minutes later, several small restorative potions formed successfully beneath controlled mana compression.
“Drink,” I said while handing them to the others.
Kael stared at the potion before blinking.
“You can seriously do everything.”
“I’m starting to believe that too,” Faelyn muttered.
Lyra drank hers carefully before the exhaustion visible on her face immediately lessened slightly.
Varkas silently accepted his own potion afterward while keeping that same thoughtful expression from earlier.
Meanwhile, I remained quiet.
Because despite the calm returning to the battlefield…
Part of me still wanted the fight to continue.