The Nightmare of the Past

          The sky is getting dark as it approaches 7:00 pm. The students are stretching and warming up for their upcoming race. They have seventeen hours to reach the Silver Gates. Students are given enough time to get some sleep by camping out and traversing the fifty-kilometer trail. Both zones have combined into a single group. Yaketsuku stands in front of the students while staring at the watch on his left wrist. He raises his right hand.

          "Three… two… one… go!" Yaketsuku swings his arm down, and all the students run. Multiple students use their magic to try and take the lead. Adrion creates a large platform under him and the group consisting of Ringo, Ivika, Lina, and Ritsu. A yellow aura surrounds the whole platform from Ritsu's magic. Every student here a massive crash, and when they turn to look, they see the ground destroyed with no one in sight. Once they look back ahead, they see a yellow glow and the platform landing with a group of students on top.

          Ritsu makes sure they land ahead of everyone, and the group quickly gets a move on.

          "We still have a ways to go before we can catch up with Alia's and Kazuo's team," Adrion tells them.

          Ringo laughs, "I can't believe they got first place in their zone. If you ask me, Kazuo is being carried by his team, haha."

          "What's more shocking was the one who helped them out," Ivika brings up. "I had bad opinions about Hideo, but I guess he changed."

          Adrion thinks about when the two zones merged a few hours ago, and Hideo approached him to apologize. He smiles, thinking about people changing, like his friends showing more potential in strength and people like Hideo and Spiro having a change of mind. Adrion increases his speed.

          "Hey, wait up!" Ringo shouts to him as they all speed up to stay close to him.

          Yaketsuku returns to the cabin. Nine of eleven proctors are here with their assistants having a little party.

          "Welcome back, sir," Vanera approaches him and hands him a drink.

          "Still nothing?" Yaketsuku asks.

          "Dragana and the other two are on patrol along with Olev and Abelone. We also have people watching the cameras at all times, and a magic-detecting barrier has been put up. Should anything happen, you will be notified immediately," Vanera tells him.

          "Good."

          Zoltan approaches Yakestuku, "hey there. How's it going?"

          "I'm doing fine. And yourself?"

          "We're all doing good," Zoltan speaks for everyone. "We were just talking about the nostalgia from when we all had to do this. We may have been in school at different times, but we were all Platinum Plates. We were also placing bets on who'll be platinum plates from this class. What are your thoughts?"

          "There's a lot of good candidates this year. More than I've ever seen in a given year," Yakestuku says.

          "Tell me about it," says Olga, a proctor from the first trial. "I've seen some of the reports, and it's quite scary," she laughs.

          Another proctor from the first trial, Terumasa, chimes in, "were there any students that finished in the first hour of the evening hunt?"

          Yaketsuku nods his head, signaling yes, "Four of them."

          "Four?" Zoltan says in shock. "When I was a 1st-year, it was only me. You rarely even see two in a given year."

          Yaketsuku continues, "I only witnessed one when I was helping the kitchen staff. Later, Dragana informed me about the other three. The strangest thing is that they're all from the same region."

          "And what region would that be?" Olga asks.

          "Alia, Adrion, Roland, and Honoka are all from the Emerald Woodland region. In fact, there's a hand full of other promising students from there as well," Yaketsuku tells them and takes a drink.

          "The Emerald Woodland region? Quite rare to see so many students enroll from way out there." Zoltan comments.

          "Wait. I thought Alia was from the royal Leoh family. Isn't she from the High Taryx Plains?" Olga asks

          Yaketsuku nods no, "that's what many people think, but she was born in that woodland region and spent a chunk of her childhood there until her mother passed away. So many students enrolled because the current first position Platinum Plate held an entrance exam there. Between the four I listed earlier, it's tough to pick who will take the first position. There is no doubt that all four of them are bound to make it into the Platinum Plate. My personal favorite is Henry's kid, Adrion."

          Most of the proctors seem confused. "Who is Henry?" Zoltan asks.

          "Oh, sorry. Henry is an old friend of mine."

          "An old friend?" Vanera questions him. "I seem to recall you mentioning he beat the crap out of you back then."

          "Woah. Someone is capable of beating you of all people? Kind of hard to believe, given how strong you are. Why haven't any of us heard about him then?" another of the proctors asks.

          Yaketsuku laughs, "haha. Because he's just a regular civilian, he never enrolled in Cacumen. Quite frankly, he doesn't like the school, which is why I was surprised to find out his son had enrolled. He's my age and beat me up when we were 1st-years. I was in the second semester doing a mission near the Emerald Woodland region. It was well deserved to be honest. I was a complete ass back then. I believe he changed me for the better. I wouldn't be here in my position if it weren't for him. Nowadays, I'm sure I can easily beat him unless he's been training. Hahahaha."

          "The great and kind Yaketsuku being an asshole in his first year of school? Now that's something I never thought I'd hear. Even coming from you, it sounds like a lie," Zoltan comments.

          Over with Olev, he is patrolling the area ahead of the students. Yaketsuku's team covers the mountain's base, up to where the cabin is near zones one and two. Above that, Olev and Abelone patrol. He has a flashlight turned off, only needing it when he needs to investigate thoroughly. It's been an hour since the students were released. They should reach around this far up the mountain in half an hour. He continues walking in the dark and hears a tiny stick snap. He turns around and see's nothing. After staring for a few seconds, a dark shadow passes his field of view from left to right. He turns on his flashlight and points it out, revealing a tall, pale woman in a dark dress.

          "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to identify yourself. Who are you, and how did you get here?" Olev asks. With his other hand, he reaches for his phone to notify the others. The lady turns around, revealing her black eyes and golden iris. "What the hell?" Olev questions before shouting, "who are you?"

          "There's no need for me to give you that information," says the woman with a smug smile.

          Before Olev can blink, let alone send the distress signal on his phone, a golden-colored material heads straight for him.

          "Magic Negation!" Olev holds his arm out. "What the?" Olev shouts and moves out of the way. The strange material crashes onto the ground where he was standing, turning most of the stone into fine dust. The strange material disappears into thin air. "Why didn't my magic negation work?" he asks.

          "Don't be a fool. It's obvious that your ability doesn't work on things that aren't magic," says the witch.

          "Huh?" Olev points the light back to her. His face shows visible fear as he stares at eight more of those large metallic rods. They're positioned like spider legs behind her, where they go upwards, sprouting from her. They then angle down, impaling the ground. In seconds, the sound of a tremendous explosion hits his ears, coming from the base of the mountain. He turns back and sees the massive thick dark smoke rising. He faces the enemy in front, "Are you responsible for that attack?"

          "Oh, no. I wouldn't do something so flashy. That must be my little puppets," she replies.

          Three of the strange rods move up and face Olev. All three travel to him at hyper speeds. He moves to the left to dodge the first one, then grabs the second one to pull and launch himself upwards to dodge the third one. While in the air, the first three disappear, so Olev can't use them as a platform. Two more attacks come his way. "Crap!" he yells.

          He forcefully tries to move his body in the air and strains his muscles. He completely avoids one of them, but the other scrapes the side of his torso. "AHHH! Damn it, that hurt," He says while grunting. He pulls out his phone and unlocks it. "I have to let them know," he mutters. The phone is destroyed in his hands by a thinner rod impaling the phone and his hand. Olev cries out in pain as he holds his left wrist with his right hand. He falls to his knees, and the rod impaling his hand disappears. He looks up and sees another attack coming. He struggles to move, but it impales him through the guts. The rod keeps going, stabs a tree with great force, and destroys it. The golden material going through his gut disappears.

          "Now for the finishing blow. Hahahahahaha," laughs the witch. She controls the last 'spider leg' and aims for Olev's head. Jelena lands on the ground and picks Olev up. Creating a massive spiral of wind, she flies away with Olev in her hands. The attack crashes into the ground, making a crater where it hits.

          Jelena lands from her massive leap and jumps again with her wind. "Oh god! Why didn't you call earlier?" Jelena asks as she looks like she's about to cry at any second.

          "She's too… fast," Olev replies.

          "We need to find medical help immediately!" Jelena tells him.

          "Notify… Yake… tsuku…"

          "Alright, I will. Just save your strength, and don't talk anymore."

          Earlier in the cabin, everyone is drinking and chatting. They all feel a rumble in the ground. Yakestuku receives multiple text notifications at once. When he picks up his phone, a powerful explosion goes off, shattering all the windows and lights in the cabin.

          "What the hell was that?" Zoltan yells as he stands up. All the other proctors stand up and rush outside the cabin. They look in the direction of the mountain's base and see the massive fire and an insane amount of smoke rising.

          Yaketsuku rushes outside, "We're being attacked from multiple locations! Everyone, get ready to fight!"

          "Right!" They all yell.

          Yaketsuku surrounds all of them in flames, and they all seemingly disappear. The only trace left behind was the massive split in the ground from Yaketsuke's great power.

          Dragana leaps back to get away from attacks heading her way. She is near the source of the explosion. She'd be seriously injured if it wasn't for her magic type. Dragana inhales, and she consumes the surrounding flames. A chain goes through a wall of fire, and the large thick spike at the end of it just barely knicks her.

          "What the? My magic!" she says in surprise. "Whoever wields this chain must have some sort of magic-consuming ability."

          Dragana hears the sound of the ground crushing behind her and spots most of her allies being led by Yaketsuku.

          "Zoltan, Milko, Rakel, Cheryl, take your assistants and head to the left and find Aaron. Cornelio, Olga, Terumasa, Juzo, take your assistants and go to the right and find Remi. Vanera and I will stay here with Dragana."

          "Got it!" They all reply and scatter.

          "You guys are far quicker than I anticipated," says a deep voice from the other side of the flame wall. The chain is reeled back swiftly. Yaketsuku stomps on the ground and removes all the excess flames, revealing the man with the chain and an army of forty men standing behind him.

          "Who the hell are you guys?" Yaketsuke sternly asks.

          The man holding the chain removes his hood, revealing a face full of deep scars. The man slowly spins his weapon, gradually increasing its speed. He laughs maniacally, "muahahaha. What kind of idiot would reveal their identity that quick."

          "Apparently one foolish enough to cross me," Yaketsuku says. In a blink of an eye, he vanishes and appears in front of the enemy. The man tries leaping back, but his face is grabbed by Yaketsuku's large hand. A blazing red hot flame erupts from his palm. The heat increases and turns blue. Dragana and Vanera have to cover themselves from the intensity of the flames. The flames turn a bright violet color, and the rocks around Yaketsuku melt away from the heat. Yaketsuku stops the flames and removes his hand from the incinerated body. The body collapses, and Yaketsuku notices something, "what going on here? A body would have turned to less than ash."

          A thick spike held by a chain is launched and nearly hits Yaketsuku, except he punches it away, nearly melting the metal in the spike and chains completely.

          "It's quite concerning that you know that fact. How many people have you incinerated like that?" asks the deep voice from further back. The man reveals himself as the man with a face full of scars.

          "Even touching that chain drains my magic," Yaketsuku comments.

          "Hehehehe. It doesn't matter how strong my opponents are. They're all useless when they run out of magic."

          "Yaketsuku, there is an issue," Vanera speaks up.

          "What's going on?" he turns around.

          "Olev has been gravely injured. There is an enemy up there with the students,"

          "What? How did they get past the magic barrier?"

          "I don't know. Jelena stated that Olev needs medical attention immediately or he won't make it."

          "Tsk. Damn it," Yaketsuku clenches his fist. "Flame Magic - Fallen Angel," The entire vicinity is lit up by what appears to be a miniature sun a few kilometers in the sky. The sun starts to fall, and the heat and brightness increase greatly. "Dragana, deal with whoever is left and be careful. I'm taking Vanera to heal Olev, and I'll protect the students. Vanera, get hold of Abelone and tell her to get her communication magic user to notify all the students to gather in one location."

          The miniature sun crashes into the ground, obliterating everything in its path.

          "Okay, I'll take care of things here," Dragana responds.

          Yaketsuku grabs hold of Vanera and uses his flame magic to move at hyper speeds.

          As Adrion and his team are sprinting, He feels a sharp pain in his right shoulder. He comes to a stop, "ow. What gives, Dark Splatter?"

          "Are you alright, Adrion?" Ivika asks when she catches up. Adrion takes a few rapid breaths as if almost hyperventilating but then calms himself.

          "Hey, pal. Something wrong?" Ringo asks Adrion.

          "There's a big threat ahead," Adrion tells him.

          "What do you mean?" Ringo asks.

          "She's here," Adrion tells him.

          "Wait. You don't mean…" Ringo says, and Adrion nods his head, signaling yes.

          "What's happening?" Ivika asks.

          Ringo takes a deep breath, "if she's here for you, I'll fight alongside you. She's not going to get you again."

          Adrion shoots his head up with a look of realization, "she's currently fighting…. I'm not her target. Someone else is in danger. I'm sorry, but I have to go."

          "Let me come with you," Ringo tells him.

          "I can't risk that. The more people there are, the harder it would be to defend against her. I need to save whoever is in danger. I'm the only one who can properly defend against her attacks. You guys can continue moving up on your own but avoid going in that direction." Adrion tells them while pointing ahead, a few degrees to the left. He breaks into a full sprint and heads in the direction of the threat.

          "Can you explain what's going on?" Ivika yells at Ringo.

          Ringo sighs, "it's hard to believe, but there's a scary threat that has haunted Adrion for some time now. He's only told Kazuo and me about it, and even then, we don't know all the details. Adrion has devoted most of his life to getting strong enough to eliminate this mysterious lady after what she did to him seven years ago. From what I was told, magic does not affect her. The only reason Adrion is still alive is that his black fluid is effective. If you think about it, that black fluid is immune to many things that affect magic."

          The detonation of a massive explosion cuts off Ringo. They turn their heads in the direction of the mountain's base. The group stares at the illuminated sky and the rising smoke. After a few seconds, the shockwave hits them. They all cover their face, and the girls are blown back.

          "What the hell is that?" Ritsu yells.

          "There's no way this is a coincidence," Ringo mutters. The wind calms down, and the girls get back up. "I highly doubt this is a part of the race. Something is going on down there. We're sandwiched between two threats," Ringo says.

          "Okay. Now your little story is starting to sound true," Ivika says.

          "We have to find Kazuo and the others. They're further ahead, so they're in danger," Ringo tells them. They all nod their heads in agreement.

          Alia is darting through the forest. She left her previous teammate because of how slow they were. Even hearing the explosion, she is focused on reaching the gates first. With her excess magic, she feels something heading her way. She halts and then jumps to her left as something hits the ground. Alia creates a large orb of light to light up the area, and she turns around. Her eyes widen then her inner brow lowers in anger as she grits her teeth. Twenty orbs of light appear around her, and she fires them without delay. The rays of light hit the target simultaneously and pound away at the ground. Alia keeps creating more orbs and shoots them as quickly as she makes them. This goes on for a couple of minutes until she stops her attack. She exhales loudly, and the dust cloud clears. Alia is shocked to see her target is still standing in the same spot and still has her right hand holding her right hip. Alia stares at her smug grin and then her golden eyes.

          "That was quite the greeting. Did I do something wrong?" asks the witch.

          "Shut up!" Alia shouts. Her hand glows brightly and intensely. She extends her hand out and fires a concentrated beam of light. The beam hits the witch in the chest and appears to have no effect. Alia's eyes widen again when she stops her beam and notices the witch is completely unfazed. "What's going on? Why do my attacks have no effect?" she thinks to herself.

          "Hahahaha. Look how cute you've become. It's a shame your strength hasn't grown as much as you have. I'm disappointed. Perhaps I should take you with me and see if I can change that. Hahahahaha."

          "I'm not going anywhere with you!" Alia shouts. The sky grows bright, and the witch looks up.

          "Alright. I'll give you some credit. That does look pretty strong. It's quite unfortunate that it won't affect-" the witch is cut off.

          Alia swings her hand down, "Heaven's Call!" The giant ray of concentrated light flows down. "It needs to be more condense…" Alia thinks. The ray turns thinner as it hurls down. "… more!" she shouts as the ray gets even thinner. It crashes into the witch, and the light expands, blinding everything in pure white light. The ground shakes with the impact of the condensed and concentrated light that continues raining down. A hum resonates from the light from how condensed Alia made it. Once the light fades, the witch darts out toward Alia and sends two of the mysterious golden attacks. Alia rolls out of the way to avoid the first one and shoots the other with light rays. The second rod persists through the attacks, but as Alia continues firing at it, the rod breaks away a meter before hitting her.

          The witch reaches her and attempts to grab her arm. Alia fires a beam of light to the witch's chest and uses it to push herself back. The witch misses grabbing Alia's arms and is punched in the face by her. "You dare touch me like that?" the witch says angrily. She creates eight of her spider leg-like rods but with flat tips. She attacks Alia relentlessly, but Alia's swiftness allows her to maneuver herself through the attacks and gets further back. Alia also shoots rays of light into the witch's face. Even if it doesn't affect her, it still blinds her.

          Alia decides to approach the witch since the only thing that seems to be effective is the punch from earlier. She continues blinding the witch to make it easier to avoid the golden rods. Once Alia gets in front of her, she does a series of punches. Alia detects the golden attacks coming for her, so she backs up and blinds the witch again. Alia confronts her again and punches her. This repeats a few times, a barrage of attacks, backing up, blinding her, and attacking again. When Alia approaches the witch, the golden rods sprout from the witch's body and hit Alia back. All eight of the spider legs collide with Alia.

          When the rods move back, Alia lies on the ground panting. Her fingers twitch, and she slowly gets up. "I'm still not… done," she says. The eight spider legs crash into her again. Alia faces up and breathes heavily. She slowly raises her right arm and fires a ray of light at the witch.

          "At least you don't give up easily," says the witch as she reels back the legs to attack again. She launches the rods. Just before reaching Alia, there is a loud clang as the rods hit something hard. The witch calls back the rods and sees a large metallic sphere in front of Alia. "What this?" says the witch.

          "I don't know who you are, but this is too much. There's no way you're a proctor," Hideo says. Next to him are Kazuo, Harper, and Sylvie.

          "Hmm. More interference," the witch says scornfully. Hideo summons his knight, Kazuo warms his body, Harper creates an exoskeleton around her arms, and Sylvie creates a few vine whips.

          "Get out of here…" Alia quietly tells them.

          "No can do," Kazuo says.

          Hideo commands the knight to charge after the mysterious woman. The Indomitable Knight pulls out his sword and runs forward. In an instant, multiple rods impale the knight, and it disappears. Hideo shoots three spectral arrows, and they all collide with the witch. When the debris clears, she is unaffected.

          "What going on? The arrows did absolutely nothing, and my knight was taken out that quick?" Hideo questions everything.

          "I have no need for you guys. You can just die," says the witch as she commands her golden spider legs with sharp tips to attack. Kazuo runs forward and unleashes a heatwave. The witch's attack melts and distorts before disappearing.

          "Guys, I don't think we should be here," Kazuo says after noticing her eyes. He gulps down his saliva in fear. "Hideo, grab Alia, and let's get out of here now."

          Hideo opens the sphere and picks up Alia. When the fortress closes, more golden rods impale the sphere easily, and it vanishes. She sends in more attacks, and Kazuo releases another heatwave. Sylvie throws out her whip to grab Alia, but it is shredded instantly by the witch's attack. Kazuo releases three more heatwaves to protect against the continuous attacks that head their way. Kazuo sways his head from being loopy due to all the heat waves. Kazuo's heat wave falters in the next series of attacks, and one of the rods hits his shoulder. Harper grabs him and jumps back before it can impale him.

          "Damn, that's hot," she says, and let's go of Kazuo once they're safe from the attacks.

          Sylvie and Hideo run towards Alia. When the witch sends her attacks on them, Hideo shoots at the golden spider legs with his spectral bow. Sylvie is only focused on getting Alia. She wraps her vines around Alia and hears Harper cry out.

          "Watch out! Below!" Harper yells. Sylvie turns around and sees a rod impaling into Hideo's thigh.

          "Ahhh!" Hideo yells and grunts. Kazuo and Harper rush to him.

          "This isn't looking good at all," Harper says. Kazuo wraps one of Hideo's arms around him to help Hideo walk. The witch creates eight more spider legs and launches her attack. Harper grabs Hideo's other arm, and they attempt to run. Sylvie also runs with Alia wrapped in her vines. Kazuo turns back and sees the rods only a few meters behind them.

          "We're not going to make it," Kazuo yells. As they run, they hear the golden rods crash into something hard. Harper turns around and sees a massive black shield.

          "Adrion?" Harper says. They see someone dash past them as water droplets splash onto them.

          Kazuo turns around, "Hey man, she's back! She wants Alia for some reason. Come on, let's get out of here."

          "You guys go on ahead. I'll hold her back. Get your arm and Hideo's leg checked up. Make sure you get Alia to safety."

          "Are you sure you can handle her?" Kazuo asks.

          "Probably not, but I've got a plan," Adrion replies.

          "If things get dicey, you get out of here. Got it?" Kazuo tells him.

          Adrion looks him in the eye, "yeah."

          "Oh my. I didn't expect you to show up. Unfortunately, I'm not here for you."

          Kazuo and the others run off, and Adrion puts down his shield. Every student has a glass orb appear in front of them.

          "Attention, all students. The race has been canceled. Please return to the starting line immediately. If you see any strangers, please avoid them and get to safety. I repeat, get back to the starting point and await further instructions." The glass ball disappears.

          "Dark Splatter, come out!" Adrion yells. The black sludge-like fluid pours out of Adrion's sleeve and creates a giant puddle in the ground. The black substance metamorphizes and grows as tall as Adrion. It forms arms, legs, and a head. His eyes open, revealing his red pupils. He opens his mouth with black fluid strands still connecting his upper lip to his lower one. Dark Splatter roars viscerally as his body compresses and flexes. He locks his eyes on the witch.

          "So you've grown up too. Hahahaha," the witch laughs.

          "Alright, buddy. Are you ready?"

          Dark Splatter growls and makes a noise that resembles "yes."