The Silence.

In the provisional command post, the tension among the three instructors was unbearable.

"I'm not staying here doing nothing," growled Asa Sato. Without a second thought, he leapt from the observation platform, landing onto a vehicle. He started the engine, determined not to waste another second.

But before Kyosuke or Natasha could follow, the door to the command tent flew open. A communications officer rushed in, his face pale.

"Urgent report!" the officer shouted, panting. "The sensors have detected mass movement! The zone's creatures... are moving toward the students' positions!"

Kyosuke and Natasha exchanged an alarmed look. "Moving?" Natasha repeated.

"Yes, ma'am. They are advancing."

"That's impossible," muttered Kyosuke. "Calamity creatures are irrational beasts. They don't set ambushes. They don't hunt in packs."

"Something is happening," said Natasha, gritting her teeth. "This is no longer an evaluation. Everyone to your positions! Get your students out of there, Kyosuke!"

Without wasting another moment, both instructors charged into the forest, moving with a speed no normal human could match. The old Okutama training grounds, which had been safe for years, had suddenly become hostile territory.

Oblivious to the chaos unfolding on the surface, Ken and his group continued their descent into the heart of the ruins.

Tanimoto's team (Squad A) was advancing efficiently on their end. Shinji and Yamato's group was also holding their own, relying on one's brute strength and the other's intelligence. They could survive without Ken for now.

But Team 2 was descending into the lion's den. The crater was deep and damp. They climbed down in silence. Upon reaching the bottom, a surreal sight brought them to a halt.

On the cavern walls, torches of blue flame ignited on their own, sensing their presence, illuminating a circular arena of black stone. And at the center, something enormous stirred.

An Ushi-Oni (an Ox Demon).

It was a nightmarish creature straight out of an ancient story. It had the body of a giant spider, with six hairy legs ending in steel claws. But where a spider's head should have been, a thick torso emerged, crowned by the head of an Oni with ox-like features: twisted horns, an elongated snout, and a jaw full of yellowish fangs.

The beast roared, a guttural sound that vibrated in the novices' chests.

"My God..." whispered Hiro, taking a step back.

Naomi, though trembling, kept her analytical calm. "It's an Ushi-Oni," she said quickly. "They were first seen in the Heian Period. Legends say they live on coasts and enjoy eating humans for sport, torturing them before killing them. But it doesn't make sense! These things don't live in mountains or underground ruins."

Fear threatened to shatter their formation, but Kenta raised his sword. "Listen!" he yelled, his voice cracking but firm. "If this thing is here... it's because the higher-ups think we can defeat it! It's part of the test! If we kill it and bring back its head, we pass!"

The words, though naive, had an effect. They all clung to that logic. "He's right," said Sato, readying his spear. "We're Kijin now."

With renewed resolve, they drew their weapons. Ken, for his part, cracked his knuckles and dropped into a street-fighting boxing stance. He didn't need a weapon. His fists were enough.

The Ushi-Oni stamped its legs on the ground, preparing to charge.

Kilometers to the west, in the forest, Asa Sato's vehicle.

The instructor jumped down, his immense Ōdachi in hand. The place was silent. Too silent. It was slightly south of Ken's Team 2 position, in a wide area where Squad C should have been conducting their exercise.

But there was nothing. Only corpses.

"No..." Asa whispered, a rare word for him.

Scattered around the area lay the bodies of his boys. The seven students of Squad C. Lifeless. They hadn't even made it to the entrance of their designated ruins. They had been killed in an open field.

Asa walked among the corpses, his face stern but his eyes burning with fury. He knelt beside one of the bodies to inspect it. There were no bite marks. No broken bones. They were cuts. Clean and precise.

But the most terrifying part wasn't the cut itself, but the wound edges. The flesh around the cuts was black, instantly necrotic, as if the weapon that killed them was imbued with some kind of poison or curse. And they all had the same marks. Black stains that looked like ink moving under their dead skin.

A few meters away, Asa saw a discarded radio, half-crushed but with its power light blinking. He picked it up and pressed the transmit button.

"This is Sato," he said in a dead voice. "We have a Code Black. Squad C has been eliminated. No survivors."

On the other end of the line, in the middle of their dash through the forest, Natasha and Kyosuke slid to a stop, skidding on the dirt. Asa's words hit them like a physical blow.

Natasha clenched her fist so hard her glove creaked. "DAMN IT!" She spun her body and unleashed a brutal punch against a centuries-old tree beside her. The trunk exploded into splinters and the tree fell heavily, shaking the ground.

"Clean cuts?" Kyosuke asked over the radio, no trace of jokes left, his face contorted. "Are you saying it was a weapon?"

"Cuts with black necrosis," Asa responded via radio. "This wasn't the work of a wild animal. We have a high-level intruder in the zone."

Natasha and Kyosuke exchanged a look. They knew what that description meant. They started running again, this time doubling their speed. They had to get there before it was too late.

Halfway there, Natasha saw something glinting in the bushes. She veered off for a second to retrieve it. It was Squad C's surveillance drone. It was destroyed, but recognizable. "What is this doing here?" she murmured. "This is kilometers from where Asa is."

Someone had moved the drone.

And Ken and his friends were alone at the bottom of a hole, believing they were in a simple exam.