The Anomaly's Path

I let out a slow, tired breath, my fingers tightening around the leather hilt of Tempest. The air around the blade warped slightly, a faint crackle of my new Expert Low power humming against the steel.

I looked at the wall of nearly three hundred candidates forming a tight circle around us. Behind them, thousands more were watching like vultures.

Seriously? I thought. They really want to do this right now? We just saved their lives from a Grade 5 mental trap, and they want to hunt us for points?

”If any of you bastards takes a single step forward, I’m not holding back,” Alice growled, lifting her longsword back onto her shoulder. Beside her, Roan tilted his silver spear forward, his eyes turning cold.

But before the first strike could land, a shift in the air made everyone freeze.

The crunch of loose gravel broke the silence. From the ruined stone trenches, a single figure stumbled into the clearing, drawing the eyes of the whole crowd.

His clothes were completely ragged, torn to shreds and covered in grey ash and dark, dried blood. His once-groomed brown hair was a matted, wild mess, and his tired brown eyes looked sunken, hollow, and utterly exhausted.

He looked like a walking corpse that had spent the last few weeks hiding in the dirt, completely broken by the test.

I instinctively shifted my stance, my weight settling into my back leg as I prepared to strike. Another desperate fool looking for a shortcut to the top two hundred?

But the brown-haired guy didn’t lunge at us. Instead, he reached down with a trembling, heavily bruised hand and drew his own sword. It was a high-grade, beautiful blade — the weapon of a wealthy noble — but his grip was shaky.

He didn’t point it at me.

With a heavy, wet cough, he plunged the tip of his sword straight into the cracked earth, planting it firmly right in front of my group, creating a physical line between us and the three hundred surrounding candidates.

I blinked. ”...Huh?”

The ragged brown-haired guy turned his back to us, facing the massive wall of armed students. He used the back of his sleeve to wipe a streak of dark blood from his mouth, his sunken brown eyes glaring fiercely at the crowd.

”If any of you dare to come out... if any of you bastards try to cross this line,” his voice cracked, raw and hoarse, but it carried across the silent valley. ”You have to go through me first.”

The hundreds of candidates looked at him blankly.

A tense, utterly confused murmur rippled through the crowd. They had no idea what this crazy, half-dead guy was trying to pull.

”Is this how you repay your saviors?” the guy continued, his voice rising with a mixture of pure anger and disgust. He gestured wildly toward the dark temple ruins behind us.

”Look at the valley! The purple mist is clearing! If it wasn’t for Leo and his team destroying the statue, every single one of you would have been killed! Your minds would have been completely eaten by your own nightmares, and you would be dead in the dirt right now!”

”Hey! Who cares about that?” a loud candidate shouted from the crowd, lifting an axe. ”They’re exhausted! They have the highest scores in the entire zone! We need those points to pass!”

”Look at them, you fools!” the guy spat, coughing violently as a spray of blood hit the earth. ”Do you really think you can fight them? Do you think a few hundred of you can change anything? Even exhausted, they are still stronger than all of you combined!”

The crowd shifted uncomfortably, their weapons wavering slightly under his intense glare.

”Before this, they were fighting through their own nightmares, trying to save your asses and hold the line while keeping you all alive,” the guy yelled, his body shivering from sheer fatigue as he leaned heavily against his planted sword.

”But if you push them now, this time they will go for the kill. And believe me when I say... killing is much easier than saving. If you cross this blade, you will die before you even realize what hit you.”

The clearing fell into a strange, stunned silence. The people in the back row stopped moving, rattled by his raw, warning.

Beside me, Arthur lowered his palms slightly, the light around his hands flickering in confusion. Roan lowered his spear an inch, exchanging a completely bewildered look with Alice.

I just stared at the back of the brown haired guy’s head, my brow furrowed into a deep scowl.

Who the fuck is that fool? I thought, genuinely trying to search my memory. I couldn’t place his face or his voice at all. To me, he was just a random, nameless stranger who had crawled out of a hole to give a speech.

The guy took a deep, breath, his shoulders dropping as he slowly turned around to face me.

The moment his sunken brown eyes met mine, a small flicker of recognition sparked in the back of my mind. I had definitely seen that deeply unpleasant, arrogant face somewhere before.

Marius Valmont. The son of some Marquess.

Marius didn’t look at my sword. He reached down, pulled his blade out of the earth, and stepped forward, his boots dragging heavily through the thick ash.

Alice instinctively lifted her longsword again, her lips twitching as she whispered to Roan, ”Wait... is that the boy Leo beat into a pulp at the gala?”

”...I think so,” Roan whispered back, a rare, mischievous smirk playing on his face. ”Wow, the exam really changes a man. He looks like a wet dog.”

I didn’t laugh. I just kept my eyes narrowed, thoroughly confused by what he was doing.

Suddenly, Marius dropped his weapon. The expensive sword clattered loudly against the floor. Before anyone could react, he fell heavily to his knees, his hands planting firmly into the grey ash as he bowed his head straight toward my boots.

The surrounding candidates gasped in absolute shock. A high-ranking, elite noble was willingly throwing away his pride, groveling in the dirt in front of thousands of witnesses.

”I am sorry,” Marius whispered, his voice trembling violently against the ground. ”I am... so incredibly sorry.”

I stood there, my hand still resting on Tempest’s hilt, staring down at him like he had lost his mind. ”Okay, but... who the fuck are you again? Dio? Mario?”

Marius’s lips twitched slightly in bitter irony, his head still pressed close to the ash. He didn’t even care that I had completely forgotten his name. ”Marius... Marius Valmont.”

He took a sharp breath, his fingers digging into the dirt. ”I know what I did before was a heinous act. I—”

The moment the name Valmont left his lips, the last puzzle piece snapped into place. The memory of the Princess’s gala flashed in my mind — how this arrogant brat had brought five companions to jump me, and how he had dared to threaten my sister, Sylvia, just to provoke a reaction from me.

Sylvia.

Boom!

The funny, confused environment vanished in an instant.

A cold, hungry, and terrifying wave of power exploded from my core, dropping the temperature of the whole valley. The air grew so thick and heavy it felt like iron pressing down on the clearing.

”Gah—!”

Marius let out a sharp choke, the sheer weight of my killing intent slamming him flat onto his chest. He coughed up a thick splash of dark blood, his lungs gasping for air that had completely vanished.

He wasn’t the only one.

Across the front line, the crowd of candidates instantly dropped to their knees, their weapons clattering to the floor as they clutched their throats, their faces turning completely pale from the suffocating pressure.

Even the students hiding far back in the trenches felt the sudden, crushing change in the mood and went entirely rigid, knowing that if they made a single movement, they would die before they even realized what hit them.

Behind me, Arthur and Roan tensed, their eyes widening as they felt the raw fury coming from my back. They had never felt my aura this dark before.

I stood perfectly still in the center of the pressure, my ocean-blue eyes turning completely dead and empty as I looked down at the shivering noble in the dirt.

”Why are you here, Marcus?” I asked, my voice soft and cold, cutting through the gasping sounds of the crowd.

”I... I wanted to...” Marius wheezed, his face pressed against the ground as he fought against the crushing pressure to speak. ”I wanted to apologize...”

”I don’t care about that,” I cut him off smoothly, stepping closer until my boot was inches from his face.

”I’m asking what you are trying to do here? Do you truly believe you can come out and play the righteous hero after what you did? You know I can kill you right here and now. The Emperor isn’t standing here to save your pathetic ass this time.”

Marius let out a shaky breath, tears and dark blood smearing across his cheek as he forced himself back up onto his hands and knees, refusing to look away from my cold gaze.

”I know...” Marius whispered, his voice cracking with immense shame.

”I know you have every right to take my life. I was an immature, prideful fool. At the gala, I claimed I was fighting for Princess Cordelia’s honor... but it was a lie. I just wanted to humiliate you to make myself look superior.”

He coughed again, clutching his ribs as the pressure continued to weigh heavily on his shoulders.

”Because of my own petty revenge, I used Lady Sylvia’s name as an act to provoke you. I thought I was better than everyone else because of my title. But hiding in this valley for weeks... seeing people die... I realized I was no better than the disgusting monster I accused you of being.”

Marius looked down at his own trembling hands, his voice dropping into a quiet, painful realization.

”I realized... if a piece of trash like me could take a step forward and try to defend his friends honor... then a true brother would obviously do a thousand times more to protect his sister. I committed an unforgivable act. I ruined the lives of the five companions who followed me, and I insulted your family.”

Slowly, Marius reached for his left wrist. With a firm click, he tore his exam bracelet off his skin. He placed it on the ground right in front of my boots, next to his sword.

Then he threw his body forward, slamming his forehead against the stone floor in a full bow of surrender.

”I was trapped in the fog for days. The monster showed me my worst memory over and over. I was going to die there — my mind would have shattered completely. But when you killed that thing... the pressure stopped. You saved me. You and your team. You probably don’t even know it. You probably don’t care. But I know. And I owe you a debt I can never repay.”

”...”

”I... I am sorry,” Marius cried out, his voice echoing off the silent ruins. ”I don’t expect your forgiveness. If you want to execute me right now to settle the score... I will not stop you. Take my points, take my life. You have every right to do it.”

The tension in the place grew so thick it was suffocating.

Every single eye in the valley — from Arthur and the others to the thousands of hidden candidates, was locked entirely on me.

Princess Cordelia stood a few paces back, her arms crossed tightly, her emerald eyes staring at Marius with a deep, silent trace of shock. She had never seen her childhood friend brought so low.

I looked down at the brown hair pressed firmly into the ash. I looked at the bracelet and the sword sitting at my feet.

The heavy aura around my body slowly began to fade, lifting the weight off the clearing. The candidates in the front line gasped, pulling air back into their lungs.

I didn’t reach down to pick up his bracelet. I didn’t draw Tempest.

”...You want to make it right?” I said plainly, my voice carrying a cold, detached indifference. ”Live with what you did. That’s harder than dying.”

Marius’s shoulders shivered against the dirt, but he didn’t lift his head.

Killing a man who was already completely broken, crying, and begging for death on his knees wasn’t justice. It was just pathetic. He was so far beneath my concern now that he wasn’t even worth the effort it would take to end him.

Without saying another word, I turned my back on him and began walking forward.

The moment I took a step toward the wall of three hundred candidates, panic rippled through their ranks. Seeing how my power had crushed a noble into the dirt without me even lifting a finger, they didn’t dare look at my face.

The crowd instantly scrambled backward, creating a wide, open path through the middle of the ruins, completely clearing the way for me. They lowered their weapons, their eyes wide with terror as they pressed themselves against the cracked pillars to stay as far away from me as possible.

I walked straight through the crowd, leaving the ruins behind as the final twelve hours of the exam ticked down.

Behind me, alone in the grey ash, Marius Valmont remained on his knees, staring at his discarded sword as the long, silent road of his redemption began.

I didn’t turn back to look at Arthur, Amelia, or the rest of the strike team. I didn’t say goodbye, and I didn’t wait for them to follow. The lingering irritation from the confrontation — and I needed to get used to my current rank.

I needed to move. I needed to hunt.

Leaving the broken ruins and the whispering crowds behind, I crossed the grey valley floor alone, heading straight toward the dark, rocky mountain paths on the eastern edge.

Behind me, the fragile alliance we had formed dissolved.

With only twelve hours remaining and the brutal reality of the top two hundred leaderboard sinking in, the entire valley descended into pure, desperate madness.

Even as I walked away, the sounds of clashing steel and desperate screams began to echo from the trenches. The candidates were turning on each other like starved animals, fighting tooth and nail to steal whatever bracelets they could before the clock ran out.

The rest of my former group split up, choosing their own paths to survive the final time.

Arthur and Amelia stayed together, moving through the ruins side by side, his golden light pushing back the darkness as they made their way toward safety.

Roan quickly linked back up with his sister, Lyssaria, his silver spear whirling in perfect tandem with her elven magic to keep the desperate masses at bay. Riven Ashford vanished into the shadows, hunting alone in the dark like a ghost.

Alice Scarlet stayed close to Princess Cordelia, her massive longsword swinging at anyone foolish enough to approach them. Nyra Silverfang moved with them, her amber eyes scanning the shadows, her claws ready to tear through anyone who got too close.

Julia and Caster stuck close as well, Julia’s Spatial Pressure warning them of danger while Caster used his radar to find a safe path through the chaos.

Elisabeth moved alone, cutting through the crowd like a blade through silk, her cold presence keeping even the most desperate candidates at a distance.

But while they dealt with the desperate candidates, I focused entirely on the mountains.

_

Driven back by the thinning purple fog, the highest-grade monsters left in the valley had retreated deep into the frozen cliffs. For the next several hours, it was a straight, non-stop mountain slaughter.

Every time a Grade 3 or Grade 4 beast jumped out from the rocks, Tempest would leave its sheath in a blinding flash of black lightning. I didn’t hunt for points. I hunted to push my new Expert Low core to its limit, letting the black flames eat their cores to lock down my foundation.

BZZZZZZ—

A sharp, mechanical buzz cut through the air, echoing across the whole valley. Overhead, the loud voice boomed from the hidden speakers one last time, announcing that the hours were over and the test had officially ended.

Up on the quiet mountain peak, the heavy silence returned.

I looked around the small clearing. The ground was a mess of torn meat, broken scales, and frozen stone. Dozens of high-grade monsters lay dead around my boots, their blood soaking into the grey dirt.

I let out a long, slow breath and pushed Tempest back into its sheath with a sharp click. I reached up and wiped a line of dark monster blood from my cheek with the back of my hand. My white hair flickered in the cold wind as the last bits of my black lightning faded away.

The exam was over.

I turned my eyes toward the distant valley, a faint, cold smirk playing at the edge of my lips.

Aegis Academy was waiting, and it was finally time to go back.