The Anomaly's Path

The morning of the tournament, the big hall of the academy was packed, loud, and a complete mess.

Hundreds of first-year students from the four classes — Ascendant, Veritas, Fortis, and Audax, were standing in their team groups.

The noise bouncing off the high walls was enough to give anyone a headache. Students were laughing, showing off their shiny armor, and testing their weapons. Groups of five stood in tight circles, high-fiving and bragging about how many points they would get.

Everything was going exactly how a massive academy event was supposed to go. People were excited. The mood was bright.

...Or, at least, that was how it was supposed to be.

On the far side of the hall, where the Ascendant students were grouped, a heavy silence had formed. The laughing, joking, and high-fiving stopped completely within twenty feet of that spot.

The students near it were not celebrating. Instead, they were huddled together, whispering, and casting scared looks at a single white-haired boy leaning against a stone pillar.

”Hey... what the fuck is wrong with that guy?” a Fortis student whispered, elbowing his teammate.

”Dude, I don’t know! Why the fuck is he giving everyone the death stare? Who pissed in his soup?”

”Man, I really hate this bastard... Look at his eyes, they look completely dead. I am actually scared right now.”

”Shhh! Shut the fuck up! Keep your voice down, you idiot, he might hear you! Look away!”

”What is he going to do, murder us right here? What the fuck, who does he think he is...”

”Shut up! He’s giving us the death stare again! Look down!”

_

[Leo’s POV]

Fucking bitch.

Fucking piece of garbage, motherfucking, absolute piece of shit...

No, ”bitch” was too small of a word. It didn’t properly capture the pure anger running through me right now.

Fucking trash-tier, worthless, dog-shit reality.

If you are wondering who I am cursing out right now with every bad word I know, it is, of course, my own fucking life. Yeah, fuck my life, fuck my luck, and fuck this whole miserable fate.

Haaa...

Deep breaths, Leo. Deep fucking breaths.

Let me tell you exactly why I was giving off such a dark aura that it was scaring the students around me.

I knew The Hero Chronicles inside out. I knew the timeline. I knew how the story changed. I had spent the last three weeks getting ready for this tournament because, in the original game, this was supposed to be a competitive, safe event held inside the academy’s Virtual Reality Chambers.

You lie down in a comfortable capsule, your mind gets sent into a simulation, and you can fight as much as you want.

...or at least something like that.

I had a whole plan!

Fighting monsters in a fake VR arena is completely different from fighting real people or dealing with real death.

In a simulation, I could have let Malva go all-out without worrying. I could have used everything, tested our teamwork, pushed my space magic to the limit, and easily secured a win to get the resources I needed for my next breakthrough.

I thought that even if the game’s plot was changing a little, the main format of the team exam would at least stay the same.

But no. Of course not. Fate just had to screw me over sideways.

Because the academy had just revealed the actual stage for today’s exam, and the Virtual Reality Pods were nowhere to be found. Instead, we were standing right in front of a real, live, ticking time bomb.

I slowly shifted my gaze toward the center of the hall, where the teachers had dropped the barrier My eyes twitched as I cursed silently under my breath again.

It was a Gate. A real, high-ranking Gate.

It didn’t look like a door or a normal portal. It looked like a jagged wound torn into the air, pulsing slowly like a heavy, sick heartbeat. The edges of the rift swirled with deep purple and black energy, humming with an ancient power that made the hair on my arms stand up.

The moment the barrier fell, a wave of wrongness washed over the whole hall. The air leaking from the other side felt thinner and colder, and it tasted like ash and rust.

But what bothered me most was a faint, familiar thrum against my soul.

It felt old. My space affinity was screaming in recognition, and I realized why. It wasn’t the place I recognized. It was the act of moving between worlds.

The Gate was a tear in space, just like my own ability, but on a scale I had never felt before. My power was reacting to the same force it used every time I folded space. It just didn’t know how to handle something this big.

I looked across the big room, scanning the lines where the teams were standing.

Right near the front of the Ascendant line stood Roan, leading his team of five.

The guy was practically glowing with power. It had only been three weeks of Morgana’s brutal training, and that SSS-core freak had already pushed past his limits, breaking through from Expert Mid to Expert High.

Right next to his line was Alice, leading her own team of five. She had broken through too, moving up to Expert Mid. She stood with a sharp, aggressive stance, her eyes locked on the glowing portal.

Then my eyes drifted to the Veritas track, where Team Arthur was set up.

Arthur stood at the front of his team, flanked by Amelia, Nyra, and two other Veritas nobles. Arthur looked terrifyingly calm. Just like Roan, he had used those three weeks to push himself to Expert High.

Even Amelia and Nyra were visibly stronger, working their way toward Mid.

Over in the Fortis section, Riven stood tall with Caster, Lyssaria, and their team. Riven was very close to breaking through to Expert High. Marius led the second Fortis team right behind them. And down in the Audax track, Elisabeth held her line with Cordelia and Julia.

Every single one of these main teams was stacked with five fully geared, high-ranking students. And then there was my team.

Team Leo. Just me and Malva.

I was still at Expert Low, needing one last push to hit Mid. Malva stood beside me at Elite Low, her face completely blank.

No wonder the other noble teams were smirking and whispering.

To them, a two-person team entering a real Gate was a joke. To make it worse, nobody knew what Malva could do — they just saw a low-ranked commoner girl. They had no idea she had a fucking Void affinity.

I mean, come on. Void affinity. The ability to erase magic. And I’m a bit jealous, honestly. Like, sure, my flames are amazing, but a man can dream, you know? No shame in admitting that. As if responding to my greed, the flames in my chest stirred slightly.

Haaa... I know the flames are incredible, but a man’s greed has no limits. I don’t know why I’m even complaining. I have space, lightning, and soul flames. I’m literally a walking cheat code.

But still... Void affinity. Damn.

”Silence!”

The loud talk in the hall died as Professor Helene stepped onto the high platform.

She stood with a cold, sharp stance, her short silver hair catching the light. Her grey eyes moved over the crowd like blades. Just her presence was enough to make half the students straighten up in fear.

Standing beside her was Professor Dain, the school’s expert on spatial rifts and ancient gates. He stepped forward, his eyes shining with excitement as he pointed at the swirling portal.

”Listen well,” Professor Dain said, his voice sharp. ”What you see is not a fake dungeon. It is a real Grade 4 Gate. A link to a different world.”

The students started whispering, but a sharp look from Helene shut them up. Dain kept going, his fingers twitching over his notes.

”The world inside is a piece of a different dimension. The sky is a strange color, the buildings do not match any known group, and the air follows different rules. Because it is a Grade 4 Gate, the danger is high. Normal monsters inside are Expert rank, and the creature guarding the center is a Master rank beast. These are not normal animals — they are twisted, broken echoes of things that should not exist.”

He leaned forward, his voice dropping low.

”The Gate works on a strict timer. It will close exactly five hours from the moment you enter. If you are still inside when it shuts, you will be trapped between worlds forever. The monsters are pulled by the wound of the portal. This is not a test. It is a look at the harsh truth beyond our borders.”

I ran a hand through my hair, a cold drop of sweat rolling down my neck. A Grade 4 Gate with a five-hour time limit. In the game, going into a real Gate meant no safety net. If you mess up here, you don’t get a headache and a hurt pride. You get eaten alive.

Professor Helene stepped forward, her heels clicking on the stone.

”The rules are simple,” she said coldly. ”Go in, survive, and kill. Your score will be tracked based on the cores you pull from the monsters. The team with the most kills and highest-grade cores wins. And yes — stealing cores from other teams is fully allowed. Do whatever it takes to win.”

She paused, letting the harsh truth of a free-for-all core hunt sink into the scared crowd. ”However... since this is your first time entering a live Gate, the academy has assigned your seniors to accompany you.”

My eyes went wide in surprise. Seniors? The game never said upperclassmen would be in this part!

”The second-years will act as your observers,” Helene continued.

”They will move through the Gate with you, hidden or following behind. They will not interfere in your fights, nor will they help you hunt. They will only step in if your life is in immediate danger. But remember: if your observer has to draw their weapon to save you, your team gets zero points and is disqualified. Now, take your positions. Your observers will find you.”

The hall burst into motion as teams scattered to their entry points.

Near Team Roan, a tall second-year with a massive broadsword walked over and gave Roan a nod. A few feet away, a figure with sharp, commanding eyes walked straight toward Team Arthur. It was Sylvia, my older sister.

I stood still, waiting with Malva at our spot.

”Observer,” Malva said, her voice flat as her eyes locked onto someone walking through the crowd.

I turned around, and the breath caught in my throat.

Walking toward us with a heavy, silent stride was Seris. Her face was completely blank. Her eyes, empty of emotion, locked onto mine. She didn’t greet me or nod politely. She just stopped right in front of us, her posture stiff, giving off a cold, unsettling aura.

Malva didn’t flinch. She just stared back. The two girls stood face to face, both completely expressionless, creating a strange, awkward silence over our spot. It was like watching two walls stare at each other.

I felt a strange prickle at the back of my neck. Seris’s flat gaze stayed on me. Underneath her cold look, there was something else — an intensity I couldn’t read.

”...I am your observer,” Seris said.

”Ah... right. I understand,” I muttered, coughing slightly to break the weird tension. Fate, are you sure about this? Leaving me with these two? Ugh, damn it.

Before I could say anything else, a heavy arm slammed over my shoulder, breaking the mood. Roan had slipped away from his team for a second, leaning in to whisper right in my ear, a big, mocking grin on his face.

”Oh man... I truly hate you. You are completely, utterly fucked, aren’t you?” Roan whispered, practically shaking with amusement. ”First girlfriend versus second girlfriend? Wow, Leo. I didn’t expect you’d have to face your sins this early.”

”Shut the fuck up and get back to your team before I warp your teeth out of your mouth,” I hissed back, my face burning as I shoved him away. Roan just snickered, satisfied with himself, and jogged back to his line.

I cleared my throat, looking back at Seris. Her face had not changed at all. She had not even blinked at Roan’s sudden interruption. The stabilization pillars began to hum, the purple and black rift growing wider as the first teams started walking into the swirling void.

I walked up to the edge of the portal, standing side by side with Roan one last time before our paths split in the old world.

Roan looked at the tearing sky through the rift, his playful look gone. He gripped his spear, his eyes reflecting the dark purple light.

”...Hey,” Roan said softly, not looking at me. ”Don’t hold back against my team inside, Leo. Because I won’t.”

I let out a low, dark laugh, my space power humming under my skin as I stepped forward into the ash-tasting wind. ”I wouldn’t dream of it.”

With a final step, we went into the lightless void of the Gate.