Arthur sat down on the bleachers, the message reverberating through his mind like a death knell. He would have to destroy an entire church—a cult—within two years. The weight of it pressed against his chest. Apparently, this cult was divided: some fanatically devoted to destroying the world to wake their God, others content to sit idle with crossed arms, watching the chaos unfold. *What else have I gotten myself into?* he thought, his jaw clenching. But then again, he hadn't gotten himself into any of this. Everything had been nailed down to circumstances beyond his control. He had made no choices.
The void was where he first woke—no choice there. The light he moved toward? No choice. His first family, the one he had for only five minutes before they were ripped away? No choice. Returning to the void? No choice. This life? He made no choice to enter it, though he did choose to stay. Or did he? The question gnawed at him. He made no choice to fall asleep, no choice to enter that cave where everything changed. He made no choice when the shadow wall stripped away all his magic, leaving him with negative magic and this cursed system that now dictated his fate. No choice to attend this academy. None of it. All circumstances. All set in stone, like a path carved before he ever took his first step.
"Now that you have finally been registered to the magic academy," the woman announced, her voice drowning out all other noise. Even though people were still talking, that noise simply vanished beneath her commanding tone. "All of you will be assigned to your dorm rooms in a few minutes. But first, I need to announce your roommates. This is a new year, so those who were here last year will get new roommates."
She began naming everyone's roommates and their dormitories, her voice crisp and efficient. Eventually, she reached him. "Dormitory Five: Arthur, Sayo, Faye, and Kai. All four of you, head to your dorm rooms now."
All four of them rose from their seats. Faye led the group—she had sleek black hair that caught the light, two swords gripped confidently in her hands, and wore pristine white armor that gleamed with each step. Her posture radiated purpose. Next came Sayo, his cold, emotionless expression a stark contrast to Faye's confidence, his eyes fixed ahead as if nothing around him mattered. Then Kai, who had black hair that waved in the wind, bright blue eyes that seemed to take in everything, red armor that matched his bold personality, and red gauntlets on his hands. Arthur stood at the back as they walked toward the dormitory, his mind still churning with thoughts of the impossible task ahead.
No one spoke as they moved through the halls, past the Awakening room they had just left. The silence stretched between them like an invisible barrier. After several minutes of tense quiet, they found the dormitory halls, their footsteps echoing against the stone floors.
"So where's our dorm supposed to be?" Kai asked, breaking the silence with casual curiosity.
Sayo turned around sharply, irritation flickering across his otherwise blank face. "Just follow her," he snapped.
Kai stared at him, unfazed by the hostility. "Bro, at least have some life in you. You're dragging the mood down, aren't you?" he said, a hint of amusement in his voice.
Sayo didn't respond, his jaw tightening as he turned back around.
Faye led them until they found Dorm Five. She opened the door with a firm push. The room was spacious, littered with books and trinkets scattered across every surface—remnants of previous occupants who had left their mark on the space.
"So this is our room, huh?" Kai surveyed the cluttered quarters and walked ahead of the others, dropping onto a nearby bed with practiced ease. He snatched up a book from the nightstand. "Well, you all have fun exploring and talking. I'm going to read."
Faye walked toward another bed and sat down, crossing her legs with fluid grace and closing her eyes. "You do you. I'm going to meditate. I need something to pass the time," she said coolly, her breathing already beginning to slow.
Sayo walked toward the same bed Kai occupied and sat down beside him, tension crackling between them like static electricity. "I'm going to sleep. I've been training for what feels like years, and I'm tired," he said flatly, already lying back.
"Of course," Kai said, smirking at Sayo's rigid form without looking up from his book. "All you do is train or brood. You never take a break, do you?"
Sayo laid his head down and fell asleep almost instantly, his breathing evening out within seconds.
"Hey, Arthur, you going to join us?" Kai called out, finally glancing toward the doorway.
Arthur still stood there, lost in his thoughts, his hand gripping the doorframe. *Maybe I should tell them. Maybe I should warn them about the Church of the Black Serpent, just like the system told me. I'll have to go to war with them sooner or later. If I don't do it within two years, I—and this entire world—will die.* The enormity of it threatened to overwhelm him. *I have to gather everyone I can. I might even need the others, because I don't think Sayo and I will be strong enough to take down an entire church alone.* But how could he burden them with this? How could he ask them to risk everything for a battle they didn't choose?
"Hey, Arthur! Arthur, you there, man?" Kai continued to call out, concern creeping into his voice.
Arthur finally snapped out of his thoughts, blinking as the room came back into focus. "Yeah, yeah, I'll join you guys," he said, his voice rougher than he intended. He walked toward the bed and sat down beside Sayo's sleeping form, the mattress dipping under his weight.
"So how long have you been here?" Arthur asked, looking at Kai and forcing himself to engage.
"I've been here for at least three years now," Kai replied, his smirk fading into something more serious, more genuine. His blue eyes studied Arthur with unexpected perceptiveness. "But Arthur, I'm almost warning you—this academy isn't for the faint-hearted. You'll probably get hurt here by other people who don't like you the way I do. Some students I know even died. Students at this academy aren't scared to kill people, you know."
"I know," Arthur said. The memory of Freddy telling him basically the same thing flashed through his mind—him being at the academy gates, Freddy warning him that people would kill him here, that they could kill him.
"That's good," Kai said. He continued reading his book as Arthur eventually grabbed one himself. He had nothing else to do, and he couldn't play around with the system because, well, he had nothing to do with it.
One book caught his eye as he looked through the shelves: *The History of the Church of the Black Serpent*.
*This is the book I need,* he thought. *Maybe if I read more information than what the system said, more details will unlock. If I go deeper into the quest...* He quickly picked up the book and began reading.
*One thousand years ago, a cult was founded by one man and one man only: Vain, the first member of the Black Serpent. He decided to create a cult to worship the God that he followed—the Serpent King.*
Arthur continued reading, becoming engrossed in the text. He needed to know all of this information, the story of what led up to the large cult of the Black Serpent.
**New information has been unlocked,** a system message appeared, the black screen floating in his vision. **You have learned more information about the Church of the Black Serpent. One stat point has been allocated.**
Arthur opened up the system, and there it was—one stat point he could use for anything he wanted. He looked at his stats: strength, speed, agility, endurance, void energy. He put the stat into void energy because he didn't know what might happen to him, so he needed as much power as possible. He could put his stats into strength later if he got more stat points.
Suddenly, purple mist erupted from his chest, from the black skull marking he'd forgotten he had. Jack emerged. The purple mist transformed into a bony monster—black fingers, the rest of his bones pitch white, a head with empty black eyes. Jack stared at everyone.
Everyone stood in shock. Kai leaped from the bed, waking Sayo, who stared up at this monster. Faye stood and drew her swords, pointing them at Jack.
Jack looked at Arthur. He pointed at Arthur, his black finger glowing with purple energy, and began to draw words in the air. The words shimmered with purple light: **I sense something powerful that is lurking near the academy.**
Arthur's eyes widened. He knew Jack could speak, but why would he draw words in the air if he already knew how to speak? Maybe it was because whoever was near the academy could hear him. That was probably the case.
Reading the words floating in the air, a shiver ran down everyone's spine except Sayo's.
"Something's near the academy," Faye said. She lowered her swords and looked out the window. She didn't see anything, but of course she wouldn't—who would be foolish enough to lurk right outside the academy where students could see them?
*Maybe... maybe it's Anonymous.* The memory of Anonymous flew through Sayo's mind—his shadowy powers, him threatening Sayo to attack him just so Anonymous would have the excuse to go to war with the academy. *I wouldn't play his game. I knew he would come to me if I didn't decide to hit him first. But that's fine. Because he doesn't know what I can do yet. No one does.*
"I'm glad you noticed I was here," a voice said.
Sayo got out of bed and turned around to see Anonymous emerging from his pool of shadow.
"You know what's interesting? You didn't want to play my game. You completely ignored all my expectations. I thought you would be the one to attack first, but you just waited. And now that you've waited..." Anonymous paused, his shadowy form rippling with malice. "I wish to go to war."
Sayo stared at him. "You want to go to war over something so minuscule?"
"Indeed," Anonymous said. "I wish to destroy you and this entire academy. I've lived in this academy for some time, and I don't get the best impressions of it. I'm only going to war with the academy, though. I'm going to leave everything else alone. After all, I have no need to go to war with everything else. No other academies, no other places in this world have hurt me—but this place alone..." He paused, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow filled the entire room. "My father wants to go to war with other cities and whatnot—he can do as he chooses. But I wish to destroy this academy."
Everyone looked around. They faced a confrontation. They knew Anonymous was most likely outnumbered—four to one wasn't good odds for him—but no one knew how powerful Anonymous truly was.
Everyone quickly got ready. Kai stood up, his gauntlets and armor glowing. Faye raised her two swords. Sayo stood there, silent and ready. Arthur had no weapons, but his void energy pulsed beneath his skin.
They were ready to fight.
Anonymous smiled, his form beginning to expand, shadows spreading across the floor like spilled ink. "Let's see if you survive the night."
The room plunged into darkness.
And then the screaming began.