It was evening. The smoke had cleared. The sky was a soft bruise of purples and gray-gold. The grove below still held the ruin of the altar. It's quiet now, like the world remembered to breathe gently. I lay against a pack, half-wrapped in a thermal cloak. My shirt was burned through at the shoulder and chest. I had angry, red skin where the fire had bitten too hard.
My eyes flicker open and shut, fluttering at the weight behind them. Adrien sits at my left, silent, gently changing the burn wraps. His hands are steady and familiar. Sera kneels at my other side, her knees in the dirt, watching my face more than my wounds. Her hands glow faintly with what remains of her angel element. Soft light is barely enough for comfort.
She tries to mask her worry as she chuckles. "You really are something else, you know?"
My lips form into a smirk. "What can I say? I'm full of surprises."
"Idiot." She replies softly.
"You gave me another scare, man. You're the most reckless individual I know." Adrien says without looking at me.
I turn to him. "Didn't mean to."
"You never do. That's the problem."
He ties off the wrap and pulls my blanket tighter. There was a brief silence. I know he's upset with me.
"Do you think it'll come back?" Sera asks.
I looked at her. "...I don't know. When I was in there with it, it looked... scared."
She doesn't say anything else. I don't either. The others sleep nearby. Amber is out cold, curled against her satchel. Cyril sits watching beyond the treeline, eyes scanning the mist. Jennifer and Ryder are missing, but no one has spoken their names yet.
The breeze moves through the trees. The first true light of the Sun's departure brushes my face. I open my eyes again, and they aren't glowing. Just tired.
"Thanks for pulling me back."
"Thank the others, too. They helped, Cyril especially." Adrien smiles.
I look over to Cyril, whose gaze meets mine for a moment before he looks back towards the treeline. I thank him, and he nods once. He must be thinking deeply about his friend. We should look for them in the morning. Then, we could all settle down in a camp far from here for the last day.
My eyes flutter one last time before another wave of exhaustion hits me. This time, I don't fight the weight of my eyelids.
——————————————————————
The light is just breaking over the cliffs. The others rest, and a quiet murmurs pass between Sera and Adrien. Daniel sleeps beside them, bandaged and breathing. But Cyril doesn't sleep. He stands watch above the trail, arms crossed, still as a statue. But his eyes are focused on nothing—not the trees, not the wind.
His fingers drummed once against his arm. Then he stops and exhales.
"Where the hell are you, idiot?" He says softly to himself.
He finally looked toward the east trail, the one Jennifer and Ryder took. There was no sign, no sound, and no return. Cyril felt something colder than even the Reaper's breath. It tightened.
In another place, it's dim. The walls are stone and reinforced bark, wrapped in crystal and vines. This place was not made to hold monsters but to hold mines. Ryder lies against the wall, shirt torn at the shoulder, head bandaged from the strike. He wakes slowly, vision foggy, wrists aching.
He tries to sit. A shock runs through his spine—not pain but inhibition. A stone shard embedded in the back of his collarbone pulses faintly. His vision clears, and he sees a woman walking into the room. It is Jennifer. She stands still and silent, with perfect posture and no emotions.
Ryder's voice is quiet and hoarse. "...Jen?"
She turns, her eyes meet his, and she doesn't blink for a second.
"Don't do this. Don't let him—" He struggles to say as he sits up.
She steps forward, her expression unreadable, and kneels before him.
"What would you like me to remember about you?"
"What?" His voice falters.
Jennifer answers calmly. "Before you're processed. Before you're repurposed. What memory should I preserve?"
He stares at her, broken, not terrified.
"You're still in there." His voice was barely audible.
"I've always been here. Now, I've just enlightened." She reaches for his collar and grabs the shard. She flinches—for the briefest second, her fingers tremble. She closes her eyes and breathes in, then stands up. Her eyes were once again cold.
Outside the cell, Malik watches through a one-way crystal. Hands folded. His ring glowed faintly. He turns to his aide.
"Begin stage two."
Back at the camp. Everyone is asleep except for Cyril. He crouches at the edge of the fire's dying glow, sharpening his blade slowly. The rhythm is steady. Intentional. His eyes flick to Daniel. Then to Sera. Then, to the trail east. He tightens his pack, and he's quiet. No armor, no light. Like the ghost he is, he slips into the trees. He's gone.
——————————————————————
It was the morning of the final day of the exam. I woke up from a commotion among our fellow campmates when I heard Sera speak.
"Where's Cyril?"
I groggily sat up, rubbing my drowsy eyes.
"He's not on watch?" Adrien asks.
Amber shook her head. "No. He was supposed to be on the last shift."
The three check the perimeter while I stretch and get up. They come back and notice me standing. I look towards them.
"Who's missing? Cyril?" I ask, yawning.
"Yeah, Cyril," Sera responds.
Adrien still searches the area. "He left clean with no trail."
Amber kicks a rock. "Or he wanted us not to follow."
That's when Sera notices a note beside a tree. She picks it up and unfolds it.
"He went to find Jennifer and Ryder."
Sera hands me the note, and I read it. It's just like him to write. One line, written in clean, fast strokes: He wouldn't wait for me. I nod as I pack up my belongings.
"Alright, let's go find those three," I tell the group.
They nod.
We began by following the trail those two took, returning to that fork in the road. Amber took the front position, and I was behind her. Sera followed it, then Adrien in the backlines. We noticed the familiar trees as they became less wild and more organized.
The forest here feels different, as if the ground remembers pain. The trees are quieter, the path is unnaturally straight, and the wind doesn't move the leaves. We hiked for about thirty more minutes before Amber called from ahead.
"Hold up." She beckons us closer as she kneels beside a large tree root torn from the earth.
"Something fought here." She added.
Adrien knelt next to Amber while Sera pointed up the trail.
"More signs ahead. Broken branches, scuffed boots, partial drag marks." Sera points out.
I step forward, walking slightly ahead. On the ground, there was a broken guitar blade. This was Adriens. I hold it up to show it to the rest.
"That was Ryder's. His guitar." Sera announced.
"They were attacked here," I added.
We all wanted to ask, by what? But we knew it wasn't a 'what' but a 'who.' We all came to the same conclusion pretty quickly. This was Malik's doing. We all looked at each other with grim expressions. We then looked back at the large tree branch.
"What could've caused this, though?" Amber asked.
"It looks more monster-made," Adrien informed.
"Can Malik control even monsters?" Amber replied.
Suppose he was able to control monsters. Then, this makes him even more dangerous. I looked at everyone else.
"I think it's safe to assume that Malik took Ryder and Jennifer. If that were the case, then Cyril probably knows too."
We stop. No one else speaks. We all feel it now—that edge of the trap resetting. This wasn't just an abduction. This was a message.
"Cyril's walking into this alone," I said lowly.
Adrien replies coldly. "And Malik wants us to follow."
——————————————————————
The wind shifts the moment Cyril crosses the final ridge. He slows. Every step is calculated, every heel-toe, breathless. He knows how to disappear. The trees are thin, and the air warps. He sees the edge of Malik's camp: no walls this deep, just barriers made of minds.
Students march in patterns. Patrols don't check over shoulders. Everyone looks polite and perfect. It feels so wrong. Cyril crouches beneath a thick, overgrown root system. He sets down his bag. He pulls out his short blade and two flare crystals. He looks outward towards the camp.
"You'd better still be in there, Ryder."
——————————————————————
We moved closer to Malik's camp. The trees had become unnaturally symmetrical, with each branch curved similarly. The trail was too clean. There were no birds or bugs, just cold green and silence.
Sera whispers. "We're close."
Adrien nods. "He's masking his tracks, but not perfectly."
"Or maybe he wants us to follow. Just not loudly." Amber chimes nervously.
I stop and stare ahead. Then I step off the trail.
"We split up and pair up, move like ghosts. If Malik sees us as a unit, he'll break us apart."
"You're acting just like Cyril." Sera points out.
I smirk without looking at her. "Exactly."
——————————————————————
Cyril edges between the trees. He sees the outermost guards—three students, glassy-eyed, standing still like statues. Stone shards glimmer at their necks and wrists. One of them is crying silently. But her body doesn't move. Cyril steps past. His heart pounds, but not with fear. With precision.
Then, he sees it. A small holding structure, half-buried in the base of an artificial tree wall. Vines crawl over the entrance. Two guards stand outside. Inside, he spots him. Ryder. He was bound, sitting upright, still breathing. Cyril exhales.
"Got you." He mutters.
——————————————————————
Adrien and I crouch behind an upper ledge overlooking the camp clearing. Adrien speaks softly.
"There's movement by the southeast. A structure near the tree wall. Might be a cell."
I focus on the structure. "Cyril's already inside."
"He's moving fast. Something's off."
——————————————————————
Cyril waits for the right moment, then tosses a flash crystal. It hits the dirt just between the two guards. With a boom, the crystal blinds the two guards. There was no blinding light, no fire, just silence ripped open. He's in before they can recover.
Cyril springs over to Ryder, grabbing him. He smashes the shard that Ryder had in his collar. The control pulse dies instantly. Ryder gasps hard, like surfacing from water.
"Cyril...?" He says, choking.
Cyril grins. "You look like hell. Come on."
Just as they were about to move, Jennifer stepped into the doorframe. She was still controlled, her eyes blank, but her fingers twitched. It was almost for a second that she hesitated.
"Jen. Don't," Cyril pleads softly.
She lifts her hand, and a sound plays throughout the camp.
——————————————————————
We watch as the lights burst in the trees. A howling sound is distributed throughout the camp, raising all alarms. All guards are now alarmed and are heading to the source.
"They've started." Adrien alerts as we both stand.
"Then, let's get down there," I replied.
We looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Adrien created some stone pillars and brought us down into the camp. No one noticed our presence. On the other end, I see Sera and Amber infiltrating as well. We rush off to help Cyril fight any opposition we encounter along the way.
——————————————————————
Jennifer raises her hand. She emits a howling sound that awakens every guard. She then grabs a stone sword from her hip. Her eyes remain glassy, her face blank—Cyril steps between her and Ryder, blade drawn but not lifted.
"I'm not going to fight you, Jen."
Her hand trembles. Then she stops. Malik's voice crackles from a nearby shard embedded in the wall:
"Then you'll die standing still."
Jennifer lashes forward, not wild, but surgical. A single thrust of focused stone aimed directly at Cyril's side. He dodges, but barely. The edge slices fabric and grazes his rib. Ryder picks up a shard from the floor.
"Sorry, Jen—"
He throws it right at her wrist. It pulses with the same frequency as Malik's ring. Jennifer screams, not in pain, but in confusion. Her body stiffens, and her pupils constrict. Her stance collapses, and she falls to one knee, panting.
Malik watches the holding cell from a scry-crystal. The pulse in his ring flickers erratically, and two shards crack mid-air. Malik grits his teeth.
"No... no. Not yet."
One of his lieutenants rushes in. He jogs to Malik's desk and salutes.
"Sir—they've breached the south line. It's Reyes. The others are with him—"
Malik cuts him off. "Seal the inner ring. Bring the beast forward."
The lieutenant nods, and then he jogs out.
"It's not over yet..."
——————————————————————
Chaos erupts. Students—some free, some under Malik's control—scramble in broken formation. Orders clash. Crystals pulse out of sync. Amber slams two guards aside as she clears the way to the cell. Sera reaches the wall and blasts it apart with a radiant burst, revealing Ryder helping Jennifer to her feet.
"I—I didn't mean—"
Ryder pulls her forward, his hands holding hers. "You're okay. Come on!"
"They're here! Move!" Cyril yells.
I walk through the center alone. The fire around my shoulders coils inward. They are tight, controlled, and focused. Students try to block me, but I burn through them without striking a lethal blow. A wave of heat and presence clears my path.
Malik approaches the edge of the platform. His ring pulses violently. Six shards orbit him now. The monster he controls, the hulking, moss-covered beast, emerges behind him, its eyes glowing stone-green.
"You came for your friends." Malik smiles faintly.
"Yes, but I also figured that I should stop you, too."
Within moments, the others gathered around me—Ryder with one arm over Jennifer. Sera and Cyril hold the flanks. Adrien is rising from the earth behind us. The beast snarls. Malik smiles.
"Then let's decide who stays free."
The air crackles with tension as we stand against Malik. The beast he controls snarls, tethered to his will by glowing fragments circling his ring. Malik raises his hand, and his voice deepens, touched with a resonance no human throat should carry.
"Separate."
The ring pulses once. The shards flash outward, slicing through the field like guided blades of light. A burst of stone erupts beneath Adrien, Sera, Amber, and Cyril, cutting them off from me and Jennifer. A barrier slams down, redirecting the monster towards them.
"He's splitting us!" Sera yells as she shields her eyes.
Amber readies her blades. "Then we break back through!"
Cyril draws his dagger. "Not until the beast drops!"
The monster roars and charges them. Its moss-covered hide is thick as armor, and its claws are like jagged stone blades. It's not berserk; it's tactical.
"It's using terrain. That's Malik's mind inside it!" Adrien yells.
"Then we carve him out!" Sera screams out.
I remain with Jennifer in the inner field. She stumbles from the force of the barrier split, blinking in the wake of the mental pulse. She's disoriented, not controlled, but she's still fractured. Malik turns to her.
"I gave you everything you lacked, Jennifer. Order, power, a place."
"You took my choice." Her voice was shaky.
Malik steps closer. "I gave you freedom from choice. The moment you bent, the world finally looked at you. They feared you. They obeyed."
He gestures to the others, and they begin to fight the beast.
"You can still have that. Stay at my side. And I will let Ryder walk away. Whole. Alive."
Jennifer's hand flexes. Her eyes drift towards me. I hadn't said anything yet. I wanted to know what she wanted to do. I give her a firm look and nod. I was ready to knock her out if I had to, but I hoped it wouldn't come to that. There was a silence, and then Jennifer lifted her chin.
"Better to burn by choice... than to rot under your rules."
Malik's expression tightens—his voice cold.
"Then, you'll fall with them."
I heard enough. I stepped between them.
"You talk too much. It's time I shut your trap."
As the others fought, the moss-covered beast lunged forward, claws churning the dirt as it slammed into Cyril's blade. The impact throws him back, but he rolls, recovering. Adrien throws up a root wall, slowing the next charge. Sera lights a blinding flare, forcing the creature to hesitate long enough for Amber to land two daggers on its flank. However, the monster doesn't bleed. It only glows brighter.
"We're not hurting it," Amber informs the rest.
Sera grits her teeth. "No, we're waking it up."
"It's bound to Malik's will. His ring controls it!" Adrien yells.
Cyril picks up his dagger. "Then we stop it long enough for Daniel to break Malik."
The beast roars, this time with fury. The air twists with elemental tension, and the crystal shards orbiting its shoulders flicker. A pulse fires out. The roots shatter. The light dims, and the temperature plummets. The monster enters a second form, a more primal, spectral mode. Sera catches her breath.
"He's losing control. Which means..."
I burst forward with a fistful of flame—I don't hesitate and don't ask questions. I slam a burning punch toward Malik's chest. He sidesteps and calls up a wall of stone. I crash through it, flame biting at my skin.
"What? No blade? Are you for real?" Malik mocks.
I breathe steadily. "I don't need one to kick your ass."
I move again, faster this time: low punches, quick feints. I don't do elegant, not anymore. Every blow is a reflection of my feralness and what I've practiced. Malik flicks his ring, shards launch mid-air, aiming to pierce me from behind. Jennifer's eyes widen.
"Daniel—!" she screams.
Thanks to her, I notice, ducking and spinning to roll on my side. The shards slam into the ground. Mere inches away from my face. I rise with flames in both palms. Spinning toward Malik with a blast, not wide, but focused. A flame compressed so tightly it whistles. Malik blocks with a stone barrier, but it cracks. Splinters.
"Your emotions are a leash." He glares.
"No. They're my weapons." I retort.
The beast lunges again toward Adrien, but Cyril dives in, his dagger slashing across its mask. A small stone shard flies free—one of Malik's.
Amber shouts. "That's it! We break the shards!"
"Target the anchors!" Sera commands.
They move fast, no longer aiming for the body. Amber's fists turned metal, breaking two more shards. Adrien roots the creature's legs. Cyril stabs into a glowing point near its ribcage. The beast screams, stuttering. Its movements start to lag, but it rears back for a final slam. Sera steps in front of the others, hands lifted, light blazing—
"Down." She fires. The light slices through its chest, and the final shard explodes.
Malik stumbles. His ring flickers; the beast's death has severed his focus. I seize the moment, rushing in. My fists trail flame-like meteors. One punch breaks Malik's stance, and the next shatters his guard. Malik counters with a stone wall, but I punch straight through it. Fire bursts out. Malik flies back, crashing into the dirt—his ring fractures. The shards orbiting him crumble to dust.
I stand over him, chest heaving. Flames coat my arms and shoulders, cracking the air around me. I don't release the wrath; I hold it back. Just barely. Malik coughs.
"You... don't even know what you are."
"No. But I know what you were trying to be."
Malik lifts a trembling hand, and I catch it mid-air. I grabbed his finger that had the hand, and I burned it right off of him.
Malik winces but says nothing else. He looks at me one last time before he passes out. Silence breaks out throughout the entire camp. The soldiers and other students look at us with shock and awe. Malik's mind control breaks, and everyone is free. Jennifer approaches slowly. Her hand shakes, but her eyes are clear.
"Is it over?" She asks softly.
"It is for him," I reply in the same tone.
I turned away from Malik and didn't want to look at him again. I turned to my friends and walked towards them.
———————
The camp is quiet now. The beast is gone—its broken shell scattered in steam and ash. Malik lies unconscious beneath the collapsed platform; his ring burned to fragments—his grip on everything severed. Around the clearing, dozens of students stand still. Some blink slowly, looking at their own hands. Others are crying without knowing why. For the first time in days, they're thinking on their own.
I kneel, burned and shaking. My arms are raw from the flames, but my breath is steady. The fight is over. Jennifer sits beside Ryder. She doesn't speak; she stays close. Sera and Adrien move between students, helping them sit, rehydrate, and get their bearings. Amber leans on her knees, panting, quietly muttering something like a prayer. Cyril walks over, surveying the freed camp with a guarded eye.
A student steps forward, then another. They gather around us individually, not with weapons or wariness, but with something softer: gratitude.
"We didn't know what was happening. We just... followed." One student said.
"I thought I was helping. He made it feel right." Another uttered.
One student approached Jennifer. "You saved us," she told her.
Jennifer flinches. "I tried to destroy you."
"But you stopped. That's what matters."
A wave of emotion passes through the crowd. This was an unspoken moment of unity, not a celebration. They were finally free. One student walks up to me directly. He is an older boy, tall, with calm eyes. His voice is hoarse.
"You broke the chains. We'll remember that."
"Don't remember me," I asked with a tired smile.
I looked around at my friends, Jennifer, and the camp's smoking ruin.
"Remember how not to follow the next one."
The wind shifts. Sunlight breaks through the clouds for the first time in what feels like days. And in that golden quiet, the students begin to rebuild—this time, on their own terms, with the remaining time they have left.
Some time passes, and Malik, who created the prison, is now encased in it, chained to the wall. He accepts this as his failure. The students tore down everything relating to Malik's reign. They all burned them at the bonfire pit in the center.
While this happens, Jennifer sits alone on the edge of a low stone bench. Her posture is straight, but her eyes are down. Dirt stains her hands, and her gauntlets are off. She doesn't look up when Ryder walks over. He doesn't say anything, just sits beside her.
A long silence stretches between them. Wind rustles the nearby vines.
"...I didn't think you'd want to talk to me."
"Wasn't sure if I'd get the chance."
Jennifer swallows. "...Did I hurt you? When I was... when he—"
"No. Not really." He says softly.
"The worst part was watching you walk away and not knowing if I'd ever see you again."
She flinches but doesn't deny it.
"It felt like drowning. And I was... quiet in my own head. Until you spoke."
She finally looks at him, with a single tear forming.
"You pulled me back."
Ryder half-smiles. "Only because you let me."
A small silence forms.
"...You could hate me, you know. I wouldn't blame you."
"I don't."
"Why not?"
He glances at her steadily, honestly.
"Because you're still here. "
She stares at him for a long moment. Then, she quietly leans her head on his shoulder. Just once, no promises, no confessions, just presence. Ryder wraps his arm around her shoulder. She couldn't help but tear up against him. They both never said it, but they found closure for themselves.
The Sun hangs low over the camp. Students sit on crates, broken walls, or bare earth. Some cry, others laugh, and some just exist. Then, a soft and familiar chime echoes through the air, like a school bell buried in starlight. Then, crisp and bright, Evelyn's voice cuts across the sky from a glowing projection above the camp.
"Good evening, survivors~!" Her voice is smooth, too casual, like she didn't just sentence dozens to mental war.
"I'm delighted to announce that your survival simulation is now complete. Those of you still conscious, breathing, and relatively intact may give yourselves a well-earned round of applause."
Some students glance at each other, stunned. Then a few claps, and then more. A cheer breaks out—not wild, but real. Evelyn grins.
"You will be disconnected momentarily. Please remain calm, do not resist the pull, and please do try not to vomit in the pods. Maintenance hates that."
Her image flickers.
"Thank you for your participation. May the choices you made here follow you forever... who am I kidding? They will!"
Click. She's gone.
Shimmering light clusters form around students in random order. They begin to vanish in pulses, fading into glimmer and dust: laughter, hugs, small waves of goodbyes. I stand with my group. Our circle tightens. No one says much. Not at first.
"I'm gonna miss breathing. Didn't think I'd say that." Amber chimes.
Cyril smirks. "Let's see what fresh hell Evelyn has waiting on the other side."
Adrien turns to me. "You good?"
I nod. "I will be."
Sera smiles. "All of us made it. That matters."
There was a pause. Then, Ryder looks at Jennifer, who gives the slightest nod, like a whisper in motion. The first ones to vanish are Amber, Cyril, Adrien, and Sera, disappearing mid-laugh. Ryder and Jennifer vanish next to each other. It was just me left. I looked around once more at the battlefield, which had turned quiet. I exhale, then disappear.
Pods line the walls of a sterile, low-lit chamber. One by one, they open. Gas hisses. Electrodes detach. The students gasp, awake. Some are crying, some are silent. Clothes are rumpled. Hair is matted with gel. But they're awake. My pod opens. I blinked until I saw right. I was still tired, but I was alive.