Kael felt a sudden, violent jostle. He snapped his eyes open.
Dean was standing over his bed, looking immensely relieved. "Good. I thought you were dead or something. You need to hurry; we have the dungeon excursion today, and we only have an hour to get to the assembly hall."
Kael heard the words but they were distant chatter. All his focus was inward, on the core of his being. The presence was there, a consciousness both alien and terrifyingly familiar. He felt the spiritual residue of the violation—the torn soul ache—that vast, catastrophic vacuum where a piece of his spiritual essence had been violently ripped away. The missing fragment was now the anchor of the new Entity, residing and shifting within the creature merged with his chest.
The emotions were the strangest part. They were not words; they were texture. A crawling need under his ribs, like insects knitting a throne from his marrow. They screamed: The open is dangerous. Build a hive. Predators might come and attack. These were primal, panicked instincts layered over a cold, calculated need for survival. He tried to shake the alien urgency but the urges lingered, clinging to the part of him that was no longer his own.
Kael slid out of bed, moving with clinical focus toward the washroom, his movements sharp and deliberate to avoid Dean and James, who were already strapping on their basic leather gear.
Inside the washroom, he stripped off his clothes. He tried to push the Beast out but it did not stir. It was not gone; it was asleep within him, waiting, changing, and evolving. He felt it morphing itself into a grotesque copy of his own soul fragment, which struck Kael with a cold terror. Yet, the presence was sickeningly wrong, it also felt simultaneously soothing, like a fever breaking—as if it had always been a part of him.
[Compendium Analysis: Soul structure of the entity incomplete.]
Kael realized he would need exponentially more soul mana before he could summon the full, physical Entity again.
He inspected his body. His nails had already grown slightly sharpened, the tips rigid and white. He ran his thumb along his forearm and felt the rasp of chitin under the skin—as if his body were wrapping itself in someone else's armor. Kael stared at the reflection with cold objectivity. He had not wanted this; he had created an abomination, for better or for worse. He was its host, yes, but Kael knew the matters of soul were nothing to be scoffed at.
Kael activated the anti divination ring, a silent bubble of magic covering the room.
Now, survival demanded a different calculus.
He let his inner sense fade into his body, searching for the Soul Devourer Aspect. It took time, but he located it near the primary mana gate in his stomach: a miniature face of himself. It was sleeping, mouth open, containing a darkness that did not feel like shadow, but the endless void itself.
The face was covered with chain like tattoos—the shackles that truly bound his being. Kael felt a deep, chilling fury when he saw them, a rage that had nothing to do with Kael the student, but with the real being he could never reveal. He embraced the righteous anger of his imprisonment.
He focused. He stopped routing mana toward the Compendium and channeled it toward the Soul Devourer Aspect. The moment the ambient mana touched the shackled face, it was instantly siphoned into the open maw.
For the first time, the face's eyes opened. They were ethereal blue and so cold, as if staring into the frigid emptiness of space itself.
All the general mana gathering from his gates flowed into the Devourer's maw and disappeared. Then, after a moment, a stream of pure Soul aspected mana began to pour back out. Only Soul mana was being produced. The Compendium was versatile, but he needed specialization.
Kael channeled the new mana, carefully weaving and braiding the Soul mana into a shape of flexible rope. Each weave felt like a small memory unwinding—a cold hole where the taste of some distant, forgotten porridge used to be. He then began to construct a cocoon of this braided rope around the Beast resting in his soul space. The Entity protested—a silent, grinding screech in the back of his mind—but the pure Soul Mana held it.
When he finished covering the Entity, he let go and sighed. He converted a little more Soul mana and began infusing it directly into his damaged soul, working to patch the catastrophic vacuum. He only had a few moments before his roommates would suspect his prolonged absence.
He finished his spiritual maintenance, took a quick, scalding bath, and infused a burst of Fire mana to instantly dry his hair and body.
He stepped out, calm and collected.
James and Dean were fully dressed in their basic leather armor. Dean looked up, smiled nervously, and said, "Kael, hurry up, or we are going to be late."
James echoed the sentiment, his hands visibly trembling as he fumbled with his leather straps.
Kael put on his simple robes. Dean and James exchanged pitying looks. Dean said apologetically, "Kael, I only have one battle suit. Otherwise, I would share it with you."
Kael dismissed the comment with a wave. "There is no need for that. It is not like leather is going to protect me that much. Okay, let's go. We don't want to be late."
The three of them moved into the corridor, joining the animated stream of students moving toward the assembly hall. Dean was quiet. Dean hesitated, turning to Kael. "You sure you are not—"
Kael cut him off smoothly. "I am fine. Just ready to get this over with."
Kael bumped Dean's shoulder. "Why are you so quiet? Is everything alright with you?"
"Yes, I am fine, just nervous about the dungeon. Don't worry, I will be fine," Dean said, looking shy and distant.
Kael nodded, then asked what he truly wanted to know. "What do you know about the excursion happening today?"
Dean explained the rules: the Divine Labyrinth, random dungeons, the high advancement speed, and the danger of powerful, exponentially stronger enemies.
"If dungeons are so good at providing resources, why is the magical knowledge in the kingdom so lacking?" Kael asked, his mind already calculating the variables.
"Because the moment the formation is activated, it will judge your capability and transfer you to a dungeon you are capable of clearing," Dean explained, lowering his voice.
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly. He did not hear a warning. He heard an opportunity. The system judges based on visible power. It can't see the Soul Devourer. It can't measure the Entity woven into my soul. The Labyrinth would judge him capable of clearing the dungeon... but it had no way to sense the Soul Devourer Aspect hidden within the shackles. The system was flawed.
He smiled faintly. He wouldn't be judged on his true power. He would be underestimated. And underestimation was the highest value currency in the Labyrinth.
They reached the Assembly Hall and joined the throng of students. All the instructors were standing near a section of the wall that opened into an Archway, shimmering with unstable golden light. Beyond it lay an impossible, infinite space choked with pulsating mana.
And then Kael saw the Tree, massive beyond comprehension, radiating a Life Mana that felt like a spiritual roar. The air around the Archway thrummed with a low, bass hum that vibrated in Kael's teeth. He could feel the mana pressing against his skin like a living tide. The Soul Devourer Aspect sank lower, its spectral eyes narrowing with a deep, instinctive fear. The Tree's bark, covered in shimmering runes, contained the core techniques imprinted on the divine wood. He felt the truth of Lilian's cold assessment: he was a speck before a god.
Archmage Rodrick cleared his throat, his voice filling the hall. "During the Labyrinth's evaluation, it will factor in any significant power output, adding it to your difficulty perimeter. You might get a dungeon where you will face enemies far stronger than you."
Kael was focused on the next sentence.
"However, artifacts that have passive effects or utility aspects, such as spatial artifacts, do not increase the difficulty, for reasons known only to the Divine. You are only required to submit items that increase the combat ability of someone."
Kael remained immobile. He was safe.
Archmage Rodrick waited for the flurry of submissions to end. "The Labyrinth is a test of the Divine itself. This can be the most danger you could have ever felt and also the greatest opportunity you can get. Those who can conquer the dungeons get the greatest of the rewards. Also try and open as many mana gates as you are able to do in there, as mana density is much higher. Now please step on the formation one by one and you will be teleported to your dungeon."
Students composed a line to enter the Formation. It was made of the roots of the Divine Tree, a weave of power that felt naturally occurring. The complexity of the runes was too much for Kael's Compendium to fully record. The Compendium was entirely absorbed, struggling to copy the runes that defied his very understanding of five-dimensional geometry.
Kael was so absorbed that he barely noticed when James bumped into him. Kael looked up and saw James was sweating profusely, a fearful expression etched on his face. "Is everything alright, James?"
"Sorry, just nervous. I'm afraid I might not be good enough to survive." James's hands were trembling, his eyes avoiding Kael's entirely.
Kael nodded, his voice detached. "Don't worry. Just fight smartly, and you will be fine."
James lowered his gaze and turned his face away. Kael ignored him, returning to inspecting the Formation.
Dean turned around, his smile strained but genuine. "Good luck, Kael."
Dean stepped in. A shade of green aura surrounded him, signifying his destination bracket, and then he was gone.
Kael moved forward and stood in the formation. Mana flowed all over his body. It paused as it inspected his opened mana gates, then paused at his spatial artifact and moved smoothly. The aura had already changed to light blue—a low difficulty rating.
But then the mana paused again and stopped on his pocket. Kael felt a cold, sharp shock. He looked down. Tucked into his simple robe pocket, a small, heavily inscribed bronze token—a blatant, combat focused artifact—was glowing faintly.
The aura instantly changed to light red.
He looked up. Archmage Rodrick's eyes were wide with shock. But the fear on Kellen and Lyon's faces was much more frightening.
Then he saw it. The Harcott twins stood with James. James's hand was trembling as he half raised it—like he was drowning Kael with the gesture. His eyes said sorry. His smile said goodbye.
The Harcotts looked straight at Kael and waved their hands in a dismissive, mocking farewell.
Lyon was already moving toward him, lightning surging across his body, but it was too late. The light red aura flashed. The roots of the Divine Tree pulsed—a wet, visceral thud—like it was swallowing.
Kael didn't vanish. He was ingested. And somewhere in the dark, the Entity, safely cocooned, smiled with his mouth.