The helicopter didn't exist.
That was the first thing Hiko noticed.
They weren't riding in some futuristic aircraft, or flying platform, or mana carrier.
They were walking.
Through mist.
Through mud.
Through a world that felt wrong from the very first step.
The air was thick. Not just humid—thick in the way blood is thick. Every breath felt like it carried weight. The ground beneath their boots wasn't soil, it was something half-liquid, half-rotting, sucking gently at their soles like the swamp itself didn't want to let go.
Goram Swamp.
The name alone felt unpleasant.
Goru looked around slowly, eyes sharp, hand hovering near the Glorious Claws beneath his gloves. Dimensional senses stretched outward instinctively, but even space itself felt distorted here. Distances warped. Sounds traveled strangely. The fog didn't move like normal fog—it pulsed.
Like it was breathing.
"This place is disgusting," Goru muttered.
Hiko didn't answer immediately.
His cursed flame was reacting again. Not violently. Not flaring.
Just… uneasy.
The heat in his palms twisted in slow spirals, like something inside him was trying to curl away from the environment.
"That's because it's alive," Hiko finally said.
Goru frowned. "The swamp?"
Hiko nodded. "Not literally. But places where too many people die start to remember it."
They took another step.
Something squelched.
Not mud.
Too soft.
Neither of them commented.
Behind them, the metallic silhouette of Yogan's mech stood at the edge of the swamp, half-submerged in fog. The red glow of its core barely visible through the mist.
Yogan's voice echoed through the speakers, distorted by moisture and distance.
"This is Goram Swamp."
No emotion. No tension. Just a report.
"For the past six months, travelers, merchants, and low-rank sorcerers have been disappearing here."
Hiko glanced back. "Low-rank as in…?"
"Rank 3 to Rank 1," Yogan replied.
Goru felt his stomach tighten.
Rank 1 dying like that wasn't normal.
Yogan continued. "Survivors report a shadowy beast. No fixed form. It drags victims into the swamp and consumes them."
A pause.
"It is classified as Grade 0."
The words landed heavier than any explosion.
Grade 0.
Not Semi.
Not almost.
Actual.
Goru exhaled slowly. "So… why are we here?"
The mech's head tilted slightly.
"Because Elite Class candidates are expected to survive encounters beyond their rank."
Hiko's eyes narrowed. "Survive. Not win."
"Correct."
Silence stretched.
Then Yogan added calmly, "I will not interfere unless both of you are on the verge of death."
Goru looked at Hiko.
Hiko looked back.
Neither smiled.
"Great," Goru muttered. "No pressure."
The mech powered down partially and remained at the edge of the swamp like a dormant god.
Yogan's final words echoed.
"The beast's magic is Shadow. It can manipulate darkness, form constructs, and merge with the environment."
A pause.
"It is intelligent."
Then the speakers went silent.
And Hiko and Goru were alone.
---
The swamp swallowed sound.
Every step they took felt muted, like the world itself was dampening reality.
Trees rose like skeletal fingers from black water. Their bark was pale and cracked, oozing dark sap that dripped slowly into the swamp with soft plops.
No insects.
No birds.
No frogs.
Nothing lived here.
Or rather—nothing that wanted to be heard.
Goru crouched slightly, scanning the water's surface. "We can't see more than thirty meters."
"That's intentional," Hiko said quietly.
They advanced slowly, keeping close.
The fog shifted.
Something moved beneath the water.
Not a ripple.
A shadow.
It slid under the surface like oil, stretching unnaturally long, then vanished.
Goru felt it too.
Space bent for half a second.
"Did you feel that?" he whispered.
Hiko nodded. "It's testing us."
Then—
The swamp exploded.
A massive shadow surged upward from the water behind Goru, forming a limb made of pure darkness, thick as a tree trunk.
Goru barely reacted in time.
Space folded.
He twisted sideways, dimensional distortion pulling him just out of reach as the shadow slammed into where his head had been.
The impact sent a wave of black water spraying across the area.
Hiko turned instantly, cursed flame erupting from his hands in spiraling arcs, burning through the fog and slamming into the shadow limb.
The fire didn't burn it.
It warped it.
The shadow recoiled, shape destabilizing, parts of it evaporating into black mist.
But instead of retreating—
It laughed.
Not a sound.
A vibration.
A pressure in the air.
The swamp around them darkened.
The fog thickened.
And slowly…
The shadow emerged.
No single form.
No face.
Just a massive, shifting silhouette made of layered darkness, with multiple limbs forming and dissolving continuously.
Eyes opened within it.
Dozens.
Hundreds.
White pinpricks of light inside black void.
Goru felt his heartbeat spike.
"That thing's… watching us."
Hiko swallowed.
The cursed flame in his hands twisted harder.
"It's not just watching."
The shadow surged.
The entire swamp floor liquefied.
Black tendrils burst from the water, wrapping around Goru's legs instantly.
He felt pressure constrict, pulling him downward.
Goru clenched his jaw and slashed.
Dimensional energy tore through space itself, severing the tendrils—but the shadows reformed immediately.
More wrapped around his arms.
His torso.
Dragging him.
Hiko reacted without thinking.
Spiral flames shot from his hands and latched onto the shadow tendrils like living chains of fire, burning cursed marks directly into the darkness.
The shadows screamed.
This time, actually screamed.
The sound tore through the swamp like metal scraping bone.
Goru was yanked free as the tendrils disintegrated.
He landed hard on solid ground, chest heaving.
"Okay," he gasped. "It feels pain."
The shadow shifted.
Its body expanded.
The fog collapsed inward.
The entire swamp darkened as if the sun had been swallowed.
And then—
The world disappeared.
Not physically.
Visually.
Everything went black.
Not darkness.
Absence.
Hiko couldn't see his own hands.
Goru couldn't feel the ground.
Their senses were being drowned in shadow.
The beast's domain.
A world made entirely of its magic.
Hiko felt something brush his shoulder.
Then his back.
Then his throat.
Hands.
Hundreds of shadow hands forming from nothing, grabbing, pulling, squeezing.
Goru felt pressure crush his ribs.
Something pierced his side.
Not physical.
Spatial.
The beast was learning.
Adapting.
Hiko gritted his teeth.
The devil in his mind whispered.
Not words.
Instinct.
Survive.
Hiko slammed his palms together.
Spiral flames erupted outward in every direction, not as an explosion, but as a rotating sphere of cursed fire that expanded like a living storm.
The shadows recoiled violently.
The darkness cracked.
Light returned in flashes.
Goru gasped as pressure vanished, falling to one knee, coughing black mist from his lungs.
The shadow beast screeched.
This time in anger.
Its form condensed.
Focused.
It stopped spreading.
And instead—
It sharpened.
The shadow compressed into a humanoid silhouette, taller than both of them, limbs thin and blade-like, eyes glowing brighter than before.
A predator form.
Goru stood slowly.
Blood dripped from his side, space itself trembling where the attack had grazed him.
"That thing just switched modes."
Hiko nodded, breathing heavily. "It realized area attacks won't kill us."
The beast moved.
Instantly.
It didn't cross distance.
Distance ceased to exist.
The shadow appeared in front of Hiko, arm piercing forward like a spear of pure darkness.
Hiko barely twisted.
The attack grazed his shoulder.
Pain exploded through his body.
Not burning.
Not stabbing.
Something colder.
Like his soul had been cut.
He staggered back.
Goru reacted.
He stepped forward and slashed.
Not at the beast.
At space itself.
Twelve layers folded at once.
Dimensional blades tore through the shadow's torso, ripping chunks of darkness out of its core.
The beast howled.
Its body destabilized violently.
But instead of collapsing—
It absorbed the damage.
The torn darkness reformed, thicker.
Denser.
Stronger.
Goru's eyes widened. "It's… getting tougher."
The shadow lunged again.
This time at Goru.
Hiko moved.
Not attacking.
Positioning.
He slammed his palm onto Goru's back.
Spiral flames transferred instantly, wrapping around Goru's body like a burning aura.
The cursed flame didn't burn him.
It fused.
Space around Goru ignited.
His dimensional slashes turned black-red, cutting through both space and shadow simultaneously.
The beast recoiled violently.
Its core finally cracked.
A glowing nucleus appeared within the darkness.
Hiko saw it.
"That's its heart!"
Goru gritted his teeth.
Blood ran down his face.
His hands trembled.
"Then we end it together."
They moved at the same time.
Hiko launched forward, spiral flames drilling into the swamp, using cursed energy to propel himself like a missile.
Goru folded twelve dimensions at once, compressing space into a single point ahead of them.
The beast tried to retreat.
But there was nowhere to go.
Hiko slammed his burning hand directly into the shadow core.
Goru's dimensional slash followed, cutting through reality itself.
The impact didn't explode.
It collapsed.
The shadow beast imploded inward, folding into itself, screaming silently as its entire existence was crushed between cursed flame and dimensional distortion.
The swamp trembled.
The fog evaporated.
Light returned.
And then—
Nothing.
The shadow was gone.
No corpse.
No remains.
Just silence.
Hiko collapsed to one knee.
Goru fell backward into the mud.
Both breathing like they'd just escaped death.
Because they had.
Minutes passed.
The mech stepped forward.
Yogan's voice echoed calmly.
"…You survived."
Hiko looked up, exhausted. "Barely."
Goru laughed weakly. "Grade 0, huh…? That was insane."
Yogan observed the swamp.
The fog was gone.
The darkness receded.
For the first time in months, Goram Swamp felt… empty.
"The beast is terminated," Yogan said.
A pause.
"Your teamwork was acceptable."
Coming from him—
That felt like praise.
Hiko stared at his hands.
Spiral flames flickered faintly, unstable.
Goru looked at the Glorious Claws, now cracked slightly from overuse.
Both of them felt it.
They weren't strong.
They weren't ready.
But they had crossed a line.
They had fought something that shouldn't have been beatable.
And lived.
Far away, in the academy—
The Elite Class exams were getting closer.
And now, something in the darkness of the world had learned their names.