Three minutes.

That's how long the silence lasted.

And in that silence, Aramith had two questions he needed answers to.

First, Lynnor mentioned that they had till sunrise, so did that mean the sun had risen?

Second, since the sky was still dark, did that mean the time they were given was a lie, or was this place like his realm, where time moved differently?

Lynnor's voice rang out again.

"Very well, after the test, only twelve teams were formed. The rest of you were unable to find enough partners!"

Aramith and Mozrael were on high alert. Lynnor was unpredictable, so if she was overseeing this, then anything went.

"For your punishment for failing, I will give you partners!"

Huh?

Portals suddenly appeared all over the forest, sucking them in and shuffling them once again.

Only those who were unable to get partners were pulled.

And when the confusion settled, they were all in groups of five.

Aramith looked at his group, and only two faces were familiar.

First was Mozrael, and the second student, after seeing Aramith, couldn't help but shudder.

He was none other than Sylas, and he looked miserable.

He clutched his left arm, which seemed to be broken, and shuffled back.

The other two students intrigued him.

One of them looked indifferent, with black semicircles under his eyes.

The other had the same markings, but red.

"Okay, now that you've seen your partners, here's what you're going to do."

Everyone tensed up.

"The next part of your entrance exam will begin shortly, but first, the newly formed groups will receive their punishment."

The orb flickered for a moment.

"All you need to do now is kill one of your members. You're five, so it's not fair for you to compete with those who worked harder to form their groups earlier. Once you've all reduced your numbers, the next part of the exam will begin."

Silence.

If this exam had taught them anything, then it was that their lives were at stake.

Aramith looked at the two odd boys, then he looked at Sylas.

Sylas gulped, knowing what was going to happen.

Aramith turned to the other two. "We have no choice but to remove one person from this group. Since we don't know what the next part of the test is going to be, we should get rid of anyone who will be a nuisance to us."

The black-marked one looked a him with indifference. "I know you." He glanced at Mozrael.

"The two of ou are together, so you don't want to lose her."

He jerked his head to the red-marked one behind him. "That's my twin sister, so I won't allow you to touch her as well."

Aramith noticed the resemblance, but he thought they were both boys.

That one has no one to support him here, so I say we should remove him."

Remove him?

Aramith squinted a little.

Anyone who casually spoke of killing someone so casually was no normal person. Even under these strange circumstances, they shouldn't have agreed so easily.

It almost sounded like this was something they'd done before.

Aramith nodded and stepped toward Sylas.

When Mozrael looked in Aramith's eyes, she noticed they had a little bit of darkness within them.

Sylas tried to leave, but fear paralyzed him.

He breathed heavily, sweating buckets as he remembered how terrifying Aramith was when he came at him earlier.

He calmly grabbed Sylas by the collar, pinning him to the ground.

Then he raised his other hand, but before he struck, he turned to the others, Mozrael especially.

"Don't look."

So they turned away as he demanded. The place went quiet.

Then—

"Done," Aramith said, approaching the rest.

He didn't make a sound when ending Sylas. And it was good they didn't see how he ended it.

When he'd grabbed Sylas's collar, he didn't ask the boy for any last words or allow the boy a chance to beg for mercy.

All he did was cover his hand in darkness and slap him. Sylas's head turned to mush, splattered across the floor.

Next, he grabbed the corpse and flung it far off.

When Aramith told them he was done, they searched for any trace of Sylas, but there was nothing to show.

Palm-sized crystals appeared before each of them.

And Lynnor's voice rang out.

"The first team to kill one member has succeeded. They've been rewarded with life-saving stones. Anyone who gets these will be saved even if they die. The last team to remove one member won't get this, so act quickly."

And with that, chaos settled as many groups argued over who to remove and who to keep.

IT didn't take long before Lynnor started to count down.

"...Fifteen!...."

Several groups were getting more and more chaotic as they couldn't make up their minds.

"...Nine!..."

It was getting more and more complicated for some groups.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Times up, everyone!"

Everyone looked up.

"So...four groups didn't decide what to do, so they will all be removed, unless they can get rid of one person in ten! Nine! Eight Se—Oh, that was fast. Well, you pass."

The said groups were groups that only included friends. Deciding who to kill was hell for them.

"And for the two groups that did more than they were asked to do. They both lost two people each instead of one, so they get no crystals."

Aramith observed his crystal.

"Now, all of you have already passed, so all you have to do is survive till I say time is up. There are lots of beasts. And the second thing is, if you end up meeting any other groups, you have to fight them and take their keys."

Golden keys suddenly appeared before each group.

"If you end up losing your key, you have failed, and if you meet any other group and fail to attack, you also fail. Good luck!"

The black-painted boy grabbed the key and threw it to Aramith.

"You won't fail."

Aramith caught it without uttering a word.

The boy pulled out two guns and handed one to his sister.

They nodded at each other and then crushed their crystals.

Aramith frowned, noticing how the energy from the crystal just didn't feel powerful enough to protect a person.

The boy and his sister both raised their guns, pointing at each other's foreheads.

Alchemy formations charged around them, then the boy spoke.

"We're going ahead."

BANG!

The guns shot charged energy right through their brain, and they dropped dead.

"Idiots," Aramith mumbled, then stepped on his crystal, crushing it under his foot.

"The crystals don't work," he said to Mozrael. "Lynnor lied about them. They are just there so they can kill one another easily without hesitation."

THe brother and sister wanted the easy way out, believeing they'd just end up passing without going through any trouble.

They didn't have time to brood over this before three leopards appeared.

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