Going back a few minutes in time. The moment that famous man showed up, Darian felt like a hammer had slammed into his chest. It was his curse—or rather, the one he now chose to see as a blessing.
At the end of Ceug's speech, he focused on him and activated it. It only took a few seconds for images to start flowing into his mind.
The vision came from Ceug's perspective, seeing through his eyes.
Everything around him was dark, covered in thick miasma. The first thing that stood out were the screams—desperate, endless screams, all at once.
Ceug was walking in one direction, surrounded by a glowing Indigo aura that protected him. When he finally stopped, he waved his hand, and the miasma began to clear, revealing the scene in front of him.
There were hundreds of bodies scattered on the ground. All of them were Mannaz, most already dead, with a few barely groaning, taking their final breaths.
But behind them were three men tied up by their arms and legs, roaring in despair, eyes locked on one specific point.
There, surrounded by black flames that burned endlessly, were three humanoid Spiritual Guardians, radiating an Indigo aura.
Those Summoners were watching their partners slowly vanish while crying tears of blood.
Seeing that same colored aura around Ceug, Darian realized that Indigo was proof they all had six rings.
All around, several other Summoners and Spiritual Guardians were just standing there, smiling with twisted joy. They were obviously behind all of this—along with Ceug.
"Perfect. With this, I'll reach seven rings very soon."
The voice came from behind Ceug. He turned, and the image of an ice hawk appeared in front of him—his own Spiritual Guardian, looking thrilled. It went on:
"In one year, the Nest will be ready. We'll have a real feast. The Lord wants everything to be perfect—he's even gonna lend us a piece of his abyssal heart to make sure of it."
Ceug gave a small nod. "Are you sure about that? So many people dying at once could collapse our galaxy. We'll lose a lot of soldiers. It'll take ages to replace those numbers."
"Hmph… don't worry about it," the Spiritual Guardian scoffed. "Most of them will be humans and elves from Earth and Verdon; they're trash anyway. Besides, no Spiritual Guardian wants the Risen to fully conquer this universe. Once we're done, we'll create tons of powerful people and only lose the weaklings. Reaching eight rings will be easy after this—and then… even nine rings won't be just a dream."
Ceug grunted and understood. And in that moment, those three Spiritual Guardians vanished forever. Just like that, the vision ended.
Back in the present, right after Darian finished saying all that to Niara, he asked:
'What's an abyssal heart?'
She, more confused by the second, felt her heart race hearing the question.
'It's like a Spiritual Guardian's rings. But this one… this one comes from a Risen Lord. That's the top-tier entity, capable of killing even an eight-ring Spiritual Guardian.'
'According to legend, the abyssal heart can capture multiple souls, refine them, and give power to the Risen Lord. With a single thought, he can devour the souls of countless weaker beings. When a Risen Lord appears and uses his heart… anyone below seven rings just becomes fuel. But… they're not allowed to attack the galaxy directly.'
Darian cut in: 'Can he give part of that heart to someone else? Has that ever happened before?'
'Hmm… I've never heard anything like that. But the abyssal heart is both their greatest power and biggest weakness. It's like having multiple rings and handing one over to someone… I think. All the rings are connected—if one gets destroyed, he can't make another, and he weakens fast, making him easy to kill. I think it's inconceivable he'd do that… if it's even possible at all.'
Darian took a deep breath. Things just got way more complicated.
He was still just a rookie, only doing the beginner trials… he was about to take first place, and now everything had changed.
He knew everything now… but what the hell could he do?
Warn people, maybe? But he had zero proof. In this tense situation, who'd believe him over some famous warrior? That'd be suicide.
And on top of that, there was no way to just ignore this and skip the Nest. The rules for Summoners were absolute—disobedience wasn't a thing.
Not to mention that traitor wasn't acting alone—he had help from Elders and other Summoners. Darian had knowledge and… two rookie Summoners under his control after what he did in the tests. Well, better than nothing.
By now, the whole courtyard was pretty much empty. The only ones left were the rookies who'd just taken the trial a short while ago.
The Elder in charge of the test turned to them and said, "The Trial is canceled. Sadly, your chances of surviving are close to zero. But to give you some hope, we'll split all the test rewards between you."
"That's not fair! I was in second place—I deserve more than the rest!" one elite rookie Summoner shouted, pissed.
"Welcome to reality. In war, there's no such thing as fairness. I can't hand out rewards based on your rankings, because the test wasn't completed. But the few rookies who make it through this... you'll be the only ones for an entire year. So you'll get such a huge boost from the academy that everyone else in the future will be jealous." The elder said coldly to everyone.
"Anyway, everyone's results have been recorded. You can trade them in for resources and use them right away. You heard me—there's only a few hours left to prepare."
All the rookies swallowed hard. The elder hadn't said it directly, but it was clear: only a tiny fraction of them would survive. But whoever did... would gain way more than the test could've given them.
'Niara... let's go to the room. We need to get ready.' Darian said seriously, and she nodded.
Once they were in the room, she handed him her spatial ring. Inside were the corrupted weapons and all the stuff they'd bought earlier.
Niara watched as he pulled one of the weapons out.
Darian asked her to remove the inscriptions that were sealing one of them. Anyone else would think he was completely insane. Doing that in a closed space with no escape route, in the middle of the academy? That was beyond reckless—it was suicidal.
But she just nodded and started carefully undoing the seal.
As soon as she removed it from the first one... a white light flowed from the slug, covering the weapon.
In an instant, all the corruption was gone.
"What the..." she muttered, swallowing her words. She'd already thought his healing powers were scary. Now she honestly didn't know what to say.
Darian didn't waste a second. He took out all the weapons and purified them. Then he did something he might seriously regret later, but it was the only idea he had.
He focused on the twenty weapons and burned all his remaining white energy, transferring it into their cores. Maybe that would help somehow. He was desperate—he had to create some kind of opportunity.
He turned to Niara: "Let's use the situation and head back to the city. If we sell these to the black market... with all the Summoners desperate for anything that could help them in battle, they'll probably advertise the weapons and sell them at insanely high prices. No one's gonna hold back on spending money now. I mean, if they die, they won't be using it anyway."
She nodded, but when she realized how much money they could make, she almost jumped.
"Too bad when we fought those assassins, our combo attack destroyed their weapons and armor... we were pretty stupid." Darian muttered.
During that fight, they were both so full of rage they'd just wanted to kill the guys in the worst way possible. Now he understood—acting like that wasn't smart at all. He had to focus on getting the most gains, not letting his emotions take over.
After that, they went to collect the chaos crystals they'd gotten from the academy. Only 30,000 each—a small amount that all the rookies received equally.
At the Celestia Academy, there probably weren't even five weapons with a core available for sale. As soon as the wealthier Summoners found out about these twenty, they'd burn everything they had to get them.
They could stay hidden and negotiate through the black market, keeping half the profit, and still walk away with an unthinkable sum. Normally, something like that would be impossible without revealing their identities, since everyone would try to find out who got so many at once.
But the profit for the black market would be so ridiculously high, they'd treat that anonymity as part of the payment. After all, there were only six hours left, and they'd be totally focused on selling as fast as possible, not on investigating who was behind it.
"What are we gonna do with the money in this situation?" Niara asked quietly.
"The Celestia Academy sells stuff you can't easily find in normal markets, right?"
Darian asked, and she nodded. There were items only Summoners could get and use. Sometimes a few popped up on the black market, but they were extremely limited.
"I think all the good stuff's already been taken by the other Summoners," she said, giving him a serious look.
He stared into her eyes and then gave a small smile, trying to shake off his own doubt.
"It doesn't have to be that good. I've got a plan... or something close to it. The chances of it working are tiny. But whatever—we already agreed we'd have to do everything differently if we want to survive and move forward. Sounds crazy enough to be worth trying."
She nodded and took a deep breath, "We're going to survive. You still owe me, don't forget. You're not allowed to die until you pay that back."
Darian scoffed. She wasn't going to let that go. But yeah... he did want to pay her back. And he'd probably regret it too.