Death, Devotion, Dissonance

The next morning, Evin woke up feeling dirt on the side of his mouth, his ears catching the sounds of waves. Confused, he opened his eyes and realized that he wasn't even on his bed.

The dark-blue sky and the sun looming beyond the horizon suggested that dawn was nearing, but despite the fact that it was the second month of Fall, the air wasn't so chilly as one would expect, instead, it felt pleasantly warm.

He was lying on sand and a quick glance around told him that he was on a beach. Aside from the ocean and the sand, he saw cliffs made of gray rocks riddled with holes and indents. As far as he could remember, he was never in a beach like this, as it was his first time seeing these gray rocks. Opposite to the waters, there was a forest stretching inland.

"What the fuck is going on?" he murmured, trying to think of what happened last.

He went to sleep in his room, but woke up in an unknown beach.

<Oh, you woke up,> the Voice said nonchalantly.

<What happened?>

<Alvert came into your room yesterday and used some kind of Talisman on you two. I assume it makes you sleep for a certain time or something. Then he clothed and brought you two to the lobby where a Cosmic was busy creating portals and throwing the sleeping children into it. Then came your turn and you ended up here,> the Voice explained.

<So… what are we supposed to do?>

<Who knows? But they did leave you some kind of note beside your pouch with lodestones,> the Voice said and pointed towards a folded piece of paper that was lying beside Evin.

Evin opened it up and realized that it was a map. It showed his current location and the general layout of the island. A few important locations were also marked out with brief descriptions written next to a few of them:

· Shelter – Food, supplies, and safe sleeping space.

· Infirmary

· Dungeon – overcome the trials within and obtain its riches.

· The Tunnels – A nest of rat-type mana-beasts.

· Castle (3x) – castles used for defenses.

· Palace – the ruler of the island lives here.

· Mt. Lor – the highest point of the island. Ascend the fiery peak at your own peril.

· The Cove – a path underwater. Descend into the dark waters at your own peril.

· ??? – an unspecified area

· ??? – an unspecified area

Evin flipped the map and found a small note: 'The trials may continue for more than a week, depending on the circumstances.'

Just as Evin finished looking through the map, he heard a loud boom go off in the air. He searched the skies and found a huge spell shaped in a form of some symbol. A few moments later, another two booms appeared in the sky, but while the symbol of one was the same as the previous one, the other one looked slightly different.

For the next ten minutes various symbols appeared on the sky, some identical and some unique. Evin realized that perhaps this was how the other groups decided to regroup. They would send signals to the sky and head towards the ones which replied with the same signal. Evin was a bit surprised that everyone was using the same tactic, but guessed that perhaps it was an idea that came up during a big group discussion.

<What should we do?> he asked the Voice.

<I can't really say I care,> the Voice replied dispassionately. <I'm just here to help you cast magic, so call me when you need a spell.>

Evin felt offended by its attitude, but knowing it was himself that brought these changes, he could only swallow his complaints and think.

'In any case, I should gather information.'

<Can you make me invisible?> Evin asked the Voice and prepared to fly.

First, he made himself weightless using the World of Weight and then, using the World of Air, he created wind to push himself in directions he wanted. It was a bit awkward flying style, and the Voice criticized its lack of intuitiveness, but with some training, Evin was able to comfortably fly through the air.

He ascended into the sky and started searching for movements between the trees. Sure enough, he saw various students walking around in the forest, and even saw Byron Landon meeting up with two other nobles. He also saw two students who were apparently in differing groups, who started to fight it out with each other. The two were both commoners, so the fight really wasn't something to write home about.

As Evin was pondering his next action, the Voice sent an urgent thought to him, <Dodge down!>

Instincts he didn't even know he possessed forced his mind to create a force of wind which pushed him downward, and Evin felt something brush past his hair at extreme speeds. Glancing over, he saw that it was a projectile of some sorts, which emitted a dark-gray streak behind is path.

<More incoming,> the Voice urged Evin to look towards where the projectile first came from.

Evin saw more than a dozen of the same missiles headed towards him from a tall, gray tower, so he instinctively dodged sideways. The barrage ensued without giving Evin any time to think, and it felt to him as if the amount of missiles were increasing. The Voice even started to use Hard Air to block some of the incoming missiles. Upon impact, the missiles exploded into a fog of dark-gray so Evin realized that he was being bombarded by ketricite.

He tried his best to avoid them, but another problem presented itself, as Evin noticed a variety of spells aimed at his general direction coming from below him. The students around couldn't really see him, but they could see that someone invisible was being attacked. As Evin's capabilities were quite famous, it wasn't hard for them to guess who was being attacked. Perhaps they thought they could take out a formidable opponent early on in the test.

'Are they just jealous they can't fly themselves?' Evin thought with fury as he dove downwards.

The barrage from the tower ended when he landed on the ground, so at least Evin didn't need to worry about that. But he could see the other students appearing from inside the forest.

'What did I even do to them?' Evin cursed before setting off on a run. Evin considered fighting against them, but he was wary of Byron's group coming to him.

But despite the fact that he was invisible, the students still sent their spells towards him. Orbs of fire, hardened piles of sand, hurriedly made icicles and streams of air. It was a colorful array of magic, but Evin couldn't really feel intimidated by it. There was none of the hatred that filled Decatur's spells, none of the sheer power that Lopar or Arza's spells exuded, and certainly none of that bone-chilling deadliness that Bella's spells were made of.

For most of these students, these measly fireballs were the best they could offer.

"Fuck off!" Evin shouted as he set off explosions on front of the spells.

Its force was enough to set the destroy the spells outright, or at least change its course. Evin looked back at the other students' stricken faces with glee, before noticing his footsteps on the sand.

'Of course they'd be able to find my stupid ass even if I'm invisible,' Evin cursed and started floating.

He didn't go high up into the sky as he was afraid of the tower shooting at him again, but he couldn't just run on the sand, as that would give away his location. He flew only a few meters above the ground, high enough to not stir the sand below, but low enough to be not seen by the gray tower.

After getting over their fears, the students resumed chanting their spells, but Evin disrupted their chants with an explosion he created under the sand. Countless particles of sand flew high into the sky, forcing the students to instinctively stop their chants and block their faces with their hands. But one girl drew the short end of the stick, as she cried in agony and clutched at her eyes. Perhaps some of the sand had gotten in her eyes.

The distraction was enough for Evin to slip away without anyone seeing him. He dashed through the air until he found a big enough cliff to hide behind. He sat on a rock and thought about the encounter.

Evin didn't like using explosions during fights before, as too many things could go wrong when one used such a powerful spell. The teachers and the other students also discouraged him from using them.

Others imagined 'Explosion' to be this huge, mana-consuming spell that only heavily trained mages could use… but the spell itself was terribly simple. Even Evin could comfortably use it after a few sessions with the Voice. He only had to gather air in one spot using Seyethe, and then setting fire to it using Irratas. The process took a lot of time and mana when Evin only had access to Irratas, but now that he could control air, the process was much easier.

And due to its simplicity, Evin could eventually master its usage.