Everyone panicked.
Even Matilda seemed distressed by what was happening.
It was never their intention to live in this kind of predicament.
Most came with the idea of going through a regular academy, but reality isn't kind.
One vial from theirs, and one from another.
A simple rule, and yet nobody dared to make the first move.
Each one eyed their own vials and then others' vials, hoping that somehow, they could see which one was the antidote. But it was futile. The liquid inside has an identical pale red color. Nobody could discern between the two.
Kai, on the other hand, wasn't like them.
He popped the seal on one vial and downed its contents in a single, bitter swallow.
Everyone watched in silent surprise.
And once the entire content was gone, Kai dropped the lid, and his body became hot.
On his wrist, the greenish veins spread up his arm at a visible rate.
It was the poison vial.
Kai didn't panic. He raised his other vial to show the others, "I have the antidote."
Almost instantly, Matilda drank one of her own vials. Since Kai made himself a safety net for the others, she quickly took the risk. Since the rite is to filter the strong from the weak, there will no doubt be deceit.
Nobody trusts the other in this chamber.
But Kai made himself the safety net.
And like him, the vial she drank from was also the poison.
Matilda walked over to Kai and knelt down before him.
At this point, the poisoned veins had already reached Kai's neck.
He was a minute away from dying.
Matilda tried to take the vial from his hand, but he wouldn't let go. She placed hers on his other hand, and only then did Kai let go of the antidote vial. Both drank from their exchanged vials.
Slowly, Matilda drank the contents bit by bit.
She felt a warming sensation spreading across her body.
It was the poison being broken down by the antidote.
But as she was at her last mouthful, her eyes widened when Kai collapsed sideways.
Blood bursts from his mouth.
Considering that the vial she gave should've been the antidote, she was taken aback. She looked down at Kai and saw that the poison was spreading even faster. His greenish veins throbbed, pushing him closer to death's door.
'I… I have two poison vials?!' Matilda thought in horror.
Snapping out of her stupor, she drank the last bit of the antidote but didn't swallow.
Instead, she sank down—and sealed her lips against Kai's. And with a gentle push of breath, she passed the last of the antidote from her mouth into his. Cradling his head, she lifted it a little, allowing gravity to push the antidote down.
Matilda watched anxiously, hoping that the remaining antidote was enough for him.
And fortunately, it was enough. Barely enough.
Kai breathed silently, allowing his body to recover from the poison.
"Circulate your mana out of your Divine Lock," Matilda patted his thigh. "It'll help."
Exactly as she instructed, Kai closed his eyes and focused on his mana.
Ever since entering the void expanse, he had already felt his mana. Pushing it out from his Primordial Lock is a new thing for him, but it's not that hard to do. He could already feel the effect taking place.
His mana enhances the antidote's potency and gets rid of the remaining poison.
"I distinctly recall Professor Hera said we all have one poison and one antidote," Kai said breathlessly, eyeing Matilda with a clear frown on his face. "But you have two poison vials. Is there a reason for that?"
"I don't know," Matilda turned away in contemplation.
Kai could tell she knew something. At least a suspicion, but she didn't tell him.
Bree said she's Athena's Supernal. Athena has a very high rating. Many must want to kill her.
Kai had seen it several times on TV.
Young Supernals who had only awakened with strong bloodlines were killed due to their low Divine Locks. Most were found drained of blood. Pale, hollow shells of what they once were. The pattern was clear out there; someone had the method to harvest a bloodline's power and graft it onto a new, more talented host.
At least, that's what Kai thought and read.
On the other side, the other students had also come to a conclusion.
Kai and Matilda watched as the other student squatted down beside the blue-haired student, who was now clawing at the air. He was poisoned, and the other, timid student only watched as he slowly died.
It seemed both of them adopted Kai's method.
But unlike them, the timid student only drank the antidote and didn't give his.
Now, the blue-haired student's fate was sealed as the poison reached his heart.
"Fuck you, bitch!" the blue-haired student managed to let out curses before dying.
Matilda looked at the timid student with a bowl cut; there was confusion behind her eyes at what she was seeing. "If both of you also got the poison vial, why did you not give yours to him?" She asked. "Why did you kill him?"
"Ah," the student scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Professor Hera said we have to earn our right to live. I assumed there would be more trials ahead, so I decided to take him out of the competition.
"He looked… threatening." He added with a mild smile, like he had done no wrong.
No guilt in his tone.
It was almost like he had only killed an animal.
Matilda could only be glad that at least Kai is not like this student.
And Kai was also glad that Matilda was like him.
Clank—!
All turned when the steel door to the side made a clanking noise. It was unlocked.
Matilda stood up first and stepped outside. Others followed her from behind. Right now, they seemed to be in a cave tunnel. It has quite a high ceiling at around ten feet, and it's really dark.
Others couldn't see well.
But Kai, with a couple of blinks, was able to see through the darkness.
No other doors, and the other side is a dead end.
"There's only one way," Kai said, pointing ahead. "Let's go. I'll lead the way."
Matilda and the other student nodded.
Both noticed the way Kai's gaze swept their surroundings. Calculating—not lost. He was clearly able to see fine in the darkness. A minute into the silent trek, an eerie sound crept into their eardrums.
Skittering noises that echoed from ahead.
Four pairs of sickly green eyes ignited in the dark, upside down on the ceiling.
The massive silhouette of a spider detached itself from the ceiling.
Others behind it also turned towards them; there are at least five man-sized spiders.
None of them has mana in them, so these weren't monsters from the Blue Void. Must be normal animals that were forced through mutations. "Spiders," Kai muttered. "We have no choice but to go through them."
"Avoid its front side," Matilda readies to fight. "It's venomous, I'm sure."
Even though the tunnel was dark, she and the other student's vision adjusted a little to the gloom. And with the man-sized spiders' glowing green eyes, fighting these things should be doable as long as they are careful.
No weapons nearby. Only their hands.
But they weren't normal Humans; they are Supernals.
Just their raw strength alone would allow them to punch through concrete.
Matilda charged first. Like an Amazonian warrior, she ducked an acid spit and slid across the ground, reaching the first spider's underbelly. She propped herself up and punched it from below, slamming it to the ceiling.
She then tackled another, avoiding its mouth, and wrestled it back.
Behind, Kai came in.
One spider lunged at him from above and pinned him against the wall. He held its face back as it tried to bite him. Even though it has no mana, its physical strength is still comparable to that of new Supernals like them.
Surrendering to instincts, he kneed the spider's head from below.
That freed him, allowing him to attack its leg joints.
Each punch and kick snapped one leg, lowering its speed.
Kai felt sluggish as he avoided the legs' trashing, but whenever he struck, everything suddenly felt natural for him. That was the reason why, in a moment, he managed to disable all of the spider's legs.
Another sneaked from the ceiling and spat green acid towards him.
It came out of nowhere.
Kai noticed it late and got hit on his elbow, forcing a hiss out of his mouth.
He gritted his teeth and lifted the legless spider overhead, using it as a shield. Since its body was hollow, it wasn't that heavy. Then, he threw it straight at the other spider, toppling it from the ceiling before attacking it relentlessly.
A few minutes are all it takes for them to take out the spiders.
Matilda took down two and was unscathed. Kai also took down two while his elbow was burned by the acid. And the other student took down one, and seemed to also be in a fine condition.
"Do you need to rest?" She asked, looking down at the kneeling Kai.
"No," Kai stood up and walked past her. "Let's continue."
The group of three continued through the tunnel. With the appearance of the spiders, they were now more alert than earlier. Mainly because they don't have a weapon right now, and were basically naked, only in their underwear.
Soon, the group came to a dead end again.
No way out, as they anticipated.
Even after checking around to make sure, they found nothing.
"I thought this was a cave," Matilda muttered with a frown. "Are we underground?"
"Should we dig up? But with what?" Kai also frowned.
Considering that this was some kind of trial, there must be something the academy wants from them. Driving them to insanity in this tunnel and forcing them to claw out sounded insane, but plausible.
Fortunately, that wasn't the case.
Kai saw the same metal cylinder on the ground.
And from it, Professor Hera appeared again.
"Congratulations," She announced, noticing that one of them was missing. "Now, the second trial is going to start. The wall is going to collapse in fifteen minutes, which would lead you to the surface of Ixos. Wear your masks before that happened, or else all of you would be disqualified."
After saying that, Professor Hera disappeared again.
Wear our masks, or else we're disqualified? What does that even mean?
Kai was confused.
Wearing a mask should be simple. It shouldn't take a long time.
But the fact that there was a time limit meant they were going to struggle.
Then, the metal cylinder sank into the ground before a metal platform climbed out.
On it were the masks they were supposed to wear. It was a normal mask, exactly like the masks they wore normally. However, there were only two masks on the platform, and there were three of them.
Almost instantly, they knew exactly what was happening.
Kai and Matilda exchanged a look, and almost on cue, they turned to the student.
It was then that the student unconsciously took a step back, realizing he was the one going to be sacrificed.