In the blink of an eye, another month passed as the year drew to a close and the cold of winter set in.
And with it came the announcement.
An announcement that all the grueling training we'd been through… would finally be tested in the real world.
Gathered once again in the same hall where the island trial had been announced, we watched as Ivar Valerion, the temple director, stepped up to the podium and revealed a new test—one rumored to be even harder than the one held on the uninhabited island.
Ivar's ornate speech could be summed up in a few words…
All he really did was remind us of the Empire's current state, how war could erupt at any moment, and emphasize the need for proper training and preparedness.
Just a preamble before he revealed the details of the test.
A test I knew nothing about—since the plot of the story I once wrote had already deviated so far off course that predicting anything had become impossible.
Still, to be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this new trial. The temple hadn't been able to offer me a real challenge for a while now.
But I couldn't hide my disappointment when Ivar announced that the test would take place in the Eastern Nightmare Lands.
"That place again?" Snow grumbled beside me, and I understood why.
We had been there not long ago—and surviving in that place was far too easy.
I understood the headmaster's intent: to put students under pressure. But that kind of pressure only works on the weaker students—not the elite class.
Still, we had no choice but to comply…
…
Preparation for the test took only a few days. Like the island trial before it, we would travel to our destination via teleportation gate ..for the sake of convenience and efficiency.
Wearing the same armor from our previous test, I stood among my fellow elite students, ready for what was to come.
"I can't believe we're about to waste our time in the Eastern Nightmare Lands…" Danzo complained. He wanted a real challenge ... something beyond the endless competition among peers.
Fighting Nightmare creatures wasn't a bad idea… but we'd already done that during the island test, which now made this upcoming trial feel like a pointless repeat. The temple wouldn't pit us against any truly dangerous Nightmare beasts anyway…
"We have no choice but to trust the headmaster's intention," I said—though I wasn't convinced by my own words.
"I'll be looking for you the moment the test begins," said Dawn Polaris, equally displeased with the situation. "Better to fight you guys and get it over with than wander aimlessly in those lands for a month…"
With such thoughts clouding our minds, we stood before the teleportation gate—none of us even remotely excited for what lay ahead.
Just before our turn to step through, Phoenix appeared behind us, sensing the foul mood among the elite.
"No need to pout, boys. You know Old Ivar wouldn't send you anywhere without a purpose."
Phoenix's encouragement was met with silence—except from Snow, who was kind enough to respond.
"I hope you're right, Professor Phoenix."
Even the Empire's shining star, Snow Lionheart, felt no excitement for what awaited us.
Standing at the gate, I found myself next to someone I usually avoided.
"You're looking well, Frey."
"I'd say the same about you… but you haven't changed a bit, Aegon."
Side by side with Prince Aegon, I walked toward the gate.
That's when I noticed the slow, creeping smile spreading across his face.
"You seem unusually happy about this test," I noted.
Upon hearing that, Aegon quickly straightened his expression with his right hand. "Ah, excuse me. I guess I lost myself for a moment there."
"So I was right," I said.
Aegon nodded.
"This test, Frey… It'll be something we'll never forget."
For a moment, I stopped and stared at him as he kept walking with that same smile.
Had those words come from anyone else, I would've dismissed them entirely.
But from Aegon…
I found myself giving this trial—one I had completely underestimated—some actual thought. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't imagine what might happen in a test like this.
With that uncertainty in mind, I stepped into the teleportation gate along with the rest of the elite class.
The gate lit up with a blue glow, signaling the start of the teleportation. That soft blue light pulsed for a brief moment .. until it changed completely.
None of those outside realized what had happened… until the light of the gate turned red, releasing a violent wave of force.
That single shift was enough to declare that something had gone horribly wrong.
Among those outside, Phoenix—being the closest—was the quickest to act. He dashed forward without hesitation, diving through the gate right behind us… while the way sealed shut for the rest.
"What just happened?!" Phoenix muttered, unable to find an answer—but unwilling to wait around to discover it.
As for us…
The moment I stepped into the gate, I was startled when the system issued a strange alert—something I hadn't seen since the day of Agaroth's arrival—declaring that something had gone terribly wrong.
I immediately opened the interface, trying to understand what was happening.
And to my utter shock… I discovered something I never could've imagined.
The teleportation gate hadn't been set to send us to the Eastern Nightmare Lands…
It was sending us somewhere entirely different.
Panicking as I realized the magnitude of the looming disaster, I tried to use the system's abilities to stop it—but it was no use. My remaining Achievement Points weren't nearly enough…
"It's too late…"
Teleportation would complete in mere seconds ... seconds before catastrophe struck. I had to act, no matter how little time I had. But my mind was blank...
"Elite monsters are nothing more than insects… so long as you kill them in the cradle."
Those were the words Gavied Lindman once said.
Inside the Ultras capital—caelid—a horrifying army had gathered around a crimson-lit teleportation gate.
Led by lords of terrifying caliber—Gavied Lindman and Godfrey among them—they had resolved to kill anyone who came out of that gate.
The Empire and the Temple had been far too negligent… blind to the fact that enemy hands had already infiltrated deep within their so-called impenetrable walls.
The gate meant to send us to a simple trial in the Nightmare Lands had been tampered with… rerouted to the enemy's stronghold itself!
The one place we should never have been sent ... the battlefield the Ultras intended to drown in blood.
Their only goal: to rob the Empire of its greatest prodigies, the ones who might one day tip the scales of war.
And knowing that, I burned every last Achievement Point I had—staking everything on the one idea my brain could muster under such suffocating pressure.
Using the system's writing ability, I desperately tried to save everyone at the final moment… just seconds before the gate would open and drop us all into unknown, enemy-infested territory.
The Ultras waited for the show to begin—for those unwitting teenagers to stumble through, unaware of the nightmare awaiting them. They were certain they had already won.
But the moment never came.
Instead, the gate simply shut down—without a single soul stepping through—after an unexpected shift in trajectory at the very last second.
…
...
...
In a barren land, like some ancient desert long forgotten by time…
I collapsed to the ground, drenched in sweat, gasping for air. There were no enemies in sight. No trap. Just… empty wasteland.
"Where are we?!"
"Is this the Nightmare Lands?"
I left my elite classmates behind, who were still unaware of the truth, and rushed to make sense of the disaster that had just narrowly missed us.
At the very last second, I had managed to alter the teleportation path—diverting us from the Ultras' trap. But I couldn't return us to the Empire… I simply didn't have the Achievement Points for it.
All I'd been able to do… was redirect us somewhere else on the Ultras' continent—far from the ambush, but still deep in hostile land.
But it changed nothing.
I raised my head, gazing up at the bleak sky above. The wind of this desert carried with it the bitter truth:
We were now in enemy territory. An entire continent where everyone wanted us dead.
"We're inside the Ultras Continent now."
I spoke with a darkened expression, accepting a heavy truth:
The hunt… had already begun.