Dark aura emitted from the large entity’s figure but the feeling was akin to when he had met the Void in the void space and Killian felt safe.

Its long dark hair fell over his shoulders in waves as it hugged him from behind.

Then it asked what it had been called.

"Swords," the words left Killian instinctively. "A horde."

The vortex grew even wider, earning cries from the panthers who could sense their death.

Stretching to almost five times the width of Killian’s back, the vortex birthed dark ominous swords.

They slid out of the vortex glowing with dark mana, coating their blades. Their edges were rugged, carved like the untamed edges of flames, while sharp as the end of an ancient weapon.

A horde of the blades appeared behind him, pointing at the panthers who were raised above Killian to perfect the view.

The entity spoke again, and the ends of Killian’s lips curved. The swords moved, swiftly stabbing through the helpless pack of panthers, creating holes that let sunrays filter through.

Their body parts rained on Killian, drenching his uniform with the scent of fear and blood, yet he watched with an expression akin to satisfaction and awe. The smell of metal and dirt mixed with breeze of the surroundings and the skies grew darker.

Killian looked around him, noticing how small the forest seemed with fresh eyes. He couldn’t tell if it was because time had passed quickly or the darkness emitted clouded the sun.

He stared down at himself. There was still no visible change, and his consciousness had slowly returned to him.

But he was sure that he was different. The tendrils let go of the tattered carcasses of the panthers, and consumed it immediately. Killian moved his shoulders slightly and the entity pulled away. He shifted his eyes to it.

Only the long dark hair and ten-foot inky frame were noticeable feature. Its head was lowered but he knew it hid bright pair of glowing orange orbs for eyes.

The skin looked akin to the shell of the egg he had trapped in the Abyss and it piqued his curiosity.

He looked away from it, then looked upwards, wondering how to dismiss this skill since it had a physical body.

"Well you should leave now. I have to go back—" 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

He felt the cold touch around his back again. It clung so tightly that he frowned. "I don’t do well with being touched randomly..."

It spoke again, a chilly soft tone, asking for another favor he couldn’t refuse.

Killian’s shoulders loosened. "Alright then. But leave before anyone sees you."

Its hair wrapped around his frame, feeling unusually soft for a mass of shadowy nothingness. His body didn’t phase through as it hardened, keeping the light away from his face.

The tendrils snuck back into his body, no longer lingering under his legs as his entire form pulsed with the Void.

Killian sighed softly, closing his eyes as he felt the entity drift past the forest at high speed unnaturally for even animals.

’So it isn’t a higher creature of same species as the egg? It might be a totally different type of Void-Born.’

His thoughts drifted away as he fell asleep, while the entity phased through the trees and rocks, tracking the location of the portal’s exit leading to the academy.

"Congratulations, Killian, You are now a—"

"I am trying to sleep."

"Oh, right. Yes. You need it before the trials. Go ahead."

.

.

At the end of the portal, a dark entity hovered over the man-made portal, moving around it like a pacing mother awaiting the arrival of her child.

Enclosed within its long hair, Killian slept soundly having no idea what time of the day it was, and completely unaffected by the incessant ringing of his phone and the pinging of notifications on his WLog.

A singular tendril dug into his pockets, raised the phone and dropped it. But the entity caught it carefully before it crashed on the ground.

Its hair elongated from the part wrapped around Killian, as it moved further away, and placed the ringing phone on a rock. It returned to Killian’s side with a rather pleased air around it.

"Bring it back," Killian asked groggily.

The entity sped back, retrieving the phone and placing it over Killian’s weakly stretched hand. He answered the call.

"The. Trials. Start. Now."

Killian slowly lifted off where he laid, his red eyes focusing on a tree in front of him before he processed the words. "Right now?!"

The hair surrounding his body vanished and the tendrils returned into his body. Killian frowned at the entity and it lowered inside the vortex that had been active all the while.

"I wouldn’t dismiss the skill yet, so you can stay close to me. However, on no account should you come out. Is that clear?"

The entity spoke, agreeing, before eagerly rushing into the vortex that snapped to a static close afterwards.

A long sigh left Killian before he returned the phone to his ears. George had been talking even when the phone was away from his ears.

The conversation didn’t make sense but Killian quickly agreed to whatever George said at the end. "I will do as you said. Sorry."

It was his fault that he had remained in the realm anyway.

And going through a painful evolution that he could’ve easily endured in his private room without the danger of beasts, and now sleeping five hours afterwards.

"Since you know your fault," George breathed in and out. "I will send you this location’s coordinates. Scan the portal screen with it and bring yourself here, immediately."

Killian agreed with a hum. The line went off, and the coordinates arrived almost immediately. He scanned the portal with them.

While it synced with the portal in front of him, Killian rubbed his sweaty head. The day had been a long one, and he had barely trained with the Fire and Sound as he planned.

He stared at the Orbs of Scorch that had been active. "At least, they would be a bomb when I finally detonate them. They must’ve absorbed so much of that initial heat."

Even the heat from the beasts.

The portal hummed to life. Killian checked around his surroundings and there was no sign of any tendrils, and just before he lowered his hand, he had already stepped into the portal.

"What the hell..." he stared at his hand. What should’ve been sweat was thick streams of blood and dirt all over his frame.

His uniform was covered in blood and dirt, looking like he was the sole survivor of a battle with a whole realm. ’Or am I?’

Truthfully, he couldn’t be sure there were survivors in the realm since he had killed a whole pack.

He appeared within a very bright stage and all the noise died down.

Killian’s heart slammed into his chest when he realized he had arrived in the middle of the trial, with the eyes of thousands of trainees looking at him.

He locked eyes with his opponent, who he had never met. The boy stepped away, eyes shaking with something Killian couldn’t identify.

----

[A/N: bro is like "oops, I’m late and covered in gore"}