"Quickly find Vorin. We need to negotiate with him."
Andrea’s voice cut through the control room like a blade leaving no room for hesitation.
Her eyes swept across the room as she barked the order, and immediately dozens of professors and technical staff moved in unison.
Hands flew across rune-embedded screens, fingers tracing glowing sigils as layers of data unfolded one after another.
The massive domain map hovered in the air, constantly shifting as the trial space reacted to ongoing combat and external interference.
The atmosphere inside the control room was suffocating and patience was running thin among everyone, especially the ones who had their own children, their blood inside.
Every person present understood what was at stake. This was no longer just an entrance exam or an internal crisis.
The entire generation of future powerhouses was trapped inside a sealed domain with demonic cultists led by a monster like Vorin.
"We need eyes on him now," Andrea added, her tone controlled but clearly strained. "If negotiation is possible, we do it immediately. If it is not...."
She did not finish the sentence. She did not need to.
Suddenly, one of the professors let out a startled shout.
"What is that?!"
The room froze.
Every gaze snapped toward him at once. The sheer pressure of so many powerful beings focusing on him made the professor’s face pale instantly.
He swallowed hard, stepped aside instinctively, and pointed at the screen behind him with a trembling hand.
Kevin reacted immediately. With a sharp flick of his wrist, he expanded the feed, pulling it onto the largest central display so everyone could see.
The image that filled the screen silenced the room completely.
Countless monsters were pouring through the forest at once.
Beasts that had remained dormant throughout the trial, creatures that had never once appeared during previous exams, were emerging from every direction.
The forest floor shook under their weight as they surged forward like a living tide. Massive bodies crushed trees and rocks alike, while roars echoed across the domain, overlapping into a deafening chorus.
"This... this looks like a beast tide," someone muttered in disbelief.
At the forefront of the charge were several SSS-ranked monsters, towering entities radiating overwhelming pressure.
Some of them had never existed in the domain’s predefined structure. Their presence alone was enough to make even veteran observers uneasy.
The monsters did not hesitate to attack.
Cultists who had been moving confidently moments earlier were caught completely off guard.
Black-robed figures were trampled, torn apart, or crushed beneath claws and fangs before they could even react.
Explosions of demonic energy flared uselessly as spell casters tried to retaliate, only to be ripped apart seconds later.
Kevin’s eyes widened as he leaned closer to the screen, his breath hitching.
"The formations have been tampered with," he muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
Andrea, standing beside him, narrowed her eyes. "I don’t think so," she replied slowly, her voice measured.
"The students inside are barely of age. None of them should have the ability to override core formations at this scale. These monsters might simply be reacting to the chaos destabilizing the domain."
She paused mid-sentence.
Her words died in her throat.
Because the next thing they saw shattered that explanation completely.
"What the hell...?"
Several voices spoke at once.
The monster army was not attacking indiscriminately.
They were selectively targeting cultists.
Participants were being ignored entirely.
Monsters bypassed students standing only meters away, their massive bodies brushing past them as if they did not exist, while cultists were singled out and slaughtered with terrifying precision.
A demonic mage attempted to flee, only to be crushed by a descending claw moments later. Another cultist revived after death, only to be immediately ripped apart again by a different beast.
"This makes no sense," one of the senior professors whispered. "They’re ignoring the participants."
The Vampire Empress exhaled slowly, her expression heavy with resignation.
"It does not matter how many cultists these monsters kill," she said calmly. "You all know the law of this domain. Illusion cannot grant true death. They will revive again."
No one contradicted her.
They all knew she was right.
Kevin, however, did not look away from the screen. His pupils trembled slightly, and his breathing quickened, not with fear, but with excitement.
"They will revive," he said, voice low, "but their resurrection points can be changed."
Andrea turned sharply. "You still believe someone has tampered with the arrays?"
Kevin finally turned to face her.
At that moment, his expression looked absurdly out of place. His face glowed with manic excitement, like a child who had just uncovered a secret far beyond his comprehension.
It was the expression of someone witnessing a theory collapse and be replaced by something far more incredible.
"Not just tampered," Kevin replied. "Whoever did this layered an entirely new set of formations over the existing ones. They didn’t tamper the illusion array. They hijacked the whole formation."
He moved quickly to a smaller display and made several rapid gestures.
His hands stopped on a certain screen and with a thrilled expression he brought the display to the larger screen.
The image that appeared forced multiple people in the room to stand up abruptly.
The broadcast showed a massive cave.
[A/N: earlier it was told that arrays that recorded the live broadcast were placed on the sky, so the cave was not visible, that is the default configuration, now that the academy is searching for Vorin they moved their positions to do that]
Inside it, hundreds of participants were gathered.
At the far end of the cave stood an altar, elevated and covered in glowing sigils that pulsed rhythmically with golden light.
Beneath it was a broad platform where countless students sat in meditative postures, their expressions focused and strained as they channeled mana in unison.
"This..." someone whispered, unable to finish.
Relief washed over the parents and masters who had moments ago been resigned to despair. Their children were alive. They were together. They were organized.
But shock followed immediately.
Because none of this should have been possible.
Cultists began reviving inside the cave one by one.
They appeared disoriented, confused by the sudden change in environment. Some attempted to rise, others tried to cast spells.
They never got the chance.
Shockwaves of energy surged from the end of the cave produced by the altar, slamming into the cultists with crushing force.
The moment the waves hit, the cultists’ auras destabilized violently. Their mana ranks plummeted under the influence of a foreign suppressive force.
Before panic could fully register on their faces, ice-elemental arrows tore through them in rapid succession, precise and merciless. Bodies fell before they could scream.
Another barrage followed immediately. Fire, lightning, wind, and earth-based attacks struck from coordinated angles, leaving no room for escape.
Still, some high ranked cultists dodged in time.
That was when footsteps echoed through the cave.
Step. Step. Step.
From behind jagged stone formations, participants emerged in formation.
Auras flared as A- and B-ranked students stepped forward without hesitation, weapons drawn, expressions hardened.
Ethan led the charge.
The moment his Aura of Heavens flared, the cultists visibly recoiled. Their demonic energy was weakening beyond their expectations, suppressed by his presence alone, the Altar alone had been a head ache but now Ethan’s aura was worse for them in this situation.
Several of them staggered backward, eyes wide with disbelief as their spells failed to manifest properly.
On another front, Gaelion appeared with his Titan followers.
His massive frame radiated overwhelming pressure as the titans charged together, targeting an S-ranked cultist who barely managed to get his posture established before being affected by Altar’s suppression.
Opposite them, Seraphine floated calmly in the air, she wore a battle armor, a crystal spear in one hand and an emerald sword in the other, her transformation state was active and her gaze was locked onto her chosen target with absolute focus. Elven participants formed up beside her, ready to follow her lead without question.
Katherine did not even wait for others.
She was already moving.
Blood splattered across the stone as she tore into her enemies, her crimson eyes glowing with savage intent. Vampire fighters coordinated around her, drawing the attention of the enemy just long enough for her to strike decisively, leaving nothing but corpses behind.
Kara Babylon led the beastfolk, and they used the rough surface of the cave for guerilla tactics, using the terrain to isolate enemies and strike from blind spots. Their movements were brutal and efficient.
Meanwhile, the dwarven prince coordinated with other dwarves and many earth magic users, reshaping the terrain of the cave itself.
Earth surged and collapsed under cultist feet, disrupting spell casting and preventing them to group together. His group helped other groups to attack efficiently and isolate the enemies.
At the end of the cave, low-ranked participants continued to channel mana and mental focus into the altar, maintaining the suppressive field that kept the cultists weakened and contained.
The members of Amon’s cult had come expecting to slaughter kids.
Instead, they had walked into a slaughterhouse designed specifically for them.