"It’s my prey. Leave."
Katherine’s voice was calm, but the pressure behind it was unmistakable.
Her crimson eyes were locked onto the looming figure standing across from her, her fingers resting lightly on the hilt of her dagger as if she could draw it at any moment.
The air around her carried a faint chill mixed with the metallic scent of blood, subtle yet oppressive.
Gaelion barely spared her a glance.
"Don’t get in my way, Vampire Princess," he said, his tone flat and dismissive, as if he were brushing aside a kid rather than addressing royalty.
His gaze roamed the clearing instead, scanning the grass, the wind, and the faint distortions in mana. He was searching for something specific, and Katherine was clearly not it.
The tension between them thickened, but before it could erupt,
"You both... Don’t you feel something is strange?"
Ethan’s voice cut through the standoff, low and grim. His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword as his eyes swept across the clearing with growing unease.
Ever since he had entered this area, an uncomfortable sensation had settled in his chest, like a warning he could not explain. Something deep inside him whispered that events were deviating from the natural flow.
During his hunt, he had clearly sensed the presence of an A-ranked beast. That alone was enough reason to pursue it without hesitation.
A-ranked monsters carried significant points, and he had immediately followed the trail the moment he detected it.
At first, the presence had been faint, almost elusive, as if deliberately pulling him along. He followed it steadily, step by step, until the terrain suddenly opened up into an enormous clearing.
That alone had caught him off guard.
The land here was unnaturally flat, covered in dense green grass that swayed gently under the breeze.
It was too open, too exposed, and completely unlike the forested terrain surrounding it. A place like this must not naturally exist within this domain.
And yet, here they were.
When he had arrived, the two figures had already arrived at the center of the clearing, a vampire and a titan, arguing over the same prey.
Ethan’s eyes dropped briefly to the ground. He noticed the trail of footsteps etched faintly into the soil.
Katherine’s path came from one direction. Gaelion’s from the opposite side. Neither aligned with Ethan’s own route.
They had all been drawn here independently.
By the same presence.
His unease deepened.
Something was very wrong.
Before he could voice that thought again, movement flickered at the edges of the clearing.
Another figure emerged.
A dragonoid stepped forward, a long halberd resting casually against his shoulder, scales faintly glinting under the filtered light.
From another direction, a female Phoenix descended gracefully, her royal robes fluttering as residual heat shimmered around her form.
Moments later, Leila, the ice queen appeared, stepping out from the tree line with a bow in her hands, she looked at Ethan and nodded.
Both of them had met before.
An elf clad in deep purple robes emerged next, moving with an innocent expression. Ethan’s gaze softened. It was Seraphine, the disciple of Tower Master.
Katherine’s eyes narrowed.
Gaelion finally stopped scanning the clearing and turned his head, his eyes narrowed.
There were too many.
Too many high-ranking candidates appearing at the exact same location was no coincidence.
More figures arrived, one after another. Some spoke in hushed voices, others remained silent, but the pattern was identical for all of them.
They had seen something.
A dark shadow, and instinctively they had followed it.
Almost all of them belonged to the top fifty in the rankings.
Murmurs rippled across the clearing, uncertainty spreading like a disease. Then, slowly, the chatter died down.
An oppressive presence began to descend upon the area, the air thickened, and many participants shivered.
The mood became heavy, and mana fluctuations intensified. Instinctively, every participant straightened, weapons half-raised, getting ready to attack.
From the sky above, a massive green, horned wyvern descended, its wings slicing through the air with deafening force. The pressure it exuded crashed down like a physical weight.
SSS-rank.
The suppression alone made breathing harder, but at the same time, the sheer number of points such a beast represented made the eyes of some lunatics gleam despite the danger.
Fiona Ashfall stepped forward, flames gathering at her fingertips as she began to form a spell.
"STOP!"
Leila’s shout rang out sharply, halting her mid-action.
"There’s someone on top of it!"
Every gaze snapped upward.
At first, it was difficult to make out anything beyond the massive silhouette of the wyvern. Then, gradually, a human figure came into focus, seated casually atop the beast’s back.
As the wyvern descended further, the figure became unmistakably clear.
Blue hair that caught the light. Sapphire eyes that reflected calm confidence. A handsome face set on a lean yet muscular frame.
Gaelion’s fists clenched.
A strange, instinctive thrill coursed through his veins. His divine physique reacted on its own, resonating sharply as it recognized another of its kind. A slow smirk crept onto his face.
Will met his gaze and returned the expression without hesitation.
"Him?" Ethan breathed, disbelief flashing across his face.
Seraphine stiffened beside him, eyes widening slightly as recognition struck.
Meanwhile, Katherine stood frozen.
Her cheeks flushed as she stared at the familiar figure, fingers tightening around the few broken strands of blue hair clutched in her hands.
"It’s him," she murmured, biting her lip as she fought down the instinctive surge of desire that flared within her. The craving for his blood twisted painfully in her chest.
The wyvern landed heavily. The gathered participants instinctively stepped back, creating space.
From the beast’s back, the human figure leapt down, landing smoothly on the grass.
Most of them still did not fully understand who he was.
Then he spoke.
"I am William Kaiser," he said calmly, his voice carrying across the clearing without effort. "The first rank."
A ripple of shock spread instantly through the crowd.
"The shadows you saw," Will continued evenly, "were one of my tricks. I brought you all here on purpose."
Recognition dawned fully now. His name alone was enough.
Yet confusion followed immediately after.
Why was he here?
Why gather them like this?
***
A Few Minutes Earlier...
Will stood over the massive corpse of the wyvern, its lifeless body steaming faintly as residual energy dissipated into the air. Even for an SSS-rank beast, it had eventually fallen after sustained effort.
Without wasting time, Will activated the Aeon Blade’s invisibility and vanished from sight, sprinting toward a nearby cave. If there was a chance that outside the domain, the people had not yet realized the situation and were still watching the screens, and if he was being watched by the outside world, then he wanted to divert that attention as soon as he could.
Usually the recording arrays were present in the sky, so if he was in a cave, he would be isolated from their field of vision.
Inside the cave he found after searching for a while, he retrieved a stamp-like artifact.
The Array Hijacking Stamp, a divine artifact.
It was one of the free purchases he had made two years ago, specifically reserved for the moment when demons or cults made their move inside the academy.
The academy domain was enormous, layered with countless formations and arrays operating simultaneously, so the stamp was perfect to use in here.
This trial domain was no different; its foundation was an illusion array, and layered above it were countless other formations.
Will placed the stamp against the cave floor and channeled mana into it.
Energy burst outward, rippling through the environment as a massive spectral stamp formed in midair, hovering above the artifact.
Will raised his hand and placed it against the glowing halo, his intent clear.
He began altering the flow of several formations within the domain, changing the rules and laws placed on it that had been unchanged for centuries.