Olga’s flames lit up the darkness. And the monsters around us screamed and screeched in pain and torment as their skins melted off their emaciated forms, burning and smoldering as Olga unleashed massive plumes of multi-colored flames into the wind. Snow melted and steamed, and scores of the strange creatures fell from the abomination’s side, howling as they went. One of the monsters snuck through her field of fire and jumped me. It leapt high into the air; its dagger-filled maw was wide, overflowing with saliva. Panic… did not take me as I had expected it to. Somehow, the horrors here seemed… almost dull. The only measure of fear that passed my thoughts was a sliver of it, barely noticeable. I held out my hand and muttered, “Suek Ezeru.”

Magical power flooded me, taking shape at my fingertips, before lashing out faster than the blink of an eye. I no longer needed a wand. The change was good. My magic came quicker, without the usual flux that made my previous spells flicker out and away. It helped a lot that I could actually talk to my magic now; though, I was still not quite sure as to how that worked. Then again, how it worked hardly mattered compared to the fact that it did work.

The Heart Curse quickly took hold of the monster and the effect was immediately made known as it convulsed in the air, before falling, dead. Huh, that was easy. I pointed at another monster and mentally casted the spell again and, as the first one, the monster convulsed for a moment, before falling over, quite dead. There was a difference, of course. The second one had been further away and I felt the spell drawing on twice the amount of magic as the first one, but that amount had been a mere droplet.

I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Olga’s fist, which was wrapped in roaring flames, crash into the face of a monster that’d gotten too close; its face broke when it met Olga’s fist, its bones breaking and cracking and shattering like thin glass, before its skin and flesh were burnt by the flames. And then, Olga’s left hand lashed out, her palm impacting the monster’s skeletal frame and sending it flying away as though it weighed nothing at all.

Was Olga always this strong? I could’ve sworn she could just barely control her magic – the same as me – and she definitely wasn’t physically strong enough to send tall monsters flying with her bare hands. My eyes widened. How is she doing that?!

She was strong – stronger than I was, stronger than I thought her to be.

Why didn’t she show this strength when we first met? If she wanted to, she could’ve escaped the Dark Mages and made a life for herself elsewhere. She was powerful. Normal men with guns could not have been capable of stopping her if they tried. Why did she pretend to be weak? Why did she hide her strength?

For a moment, I wondered what else she might’ve been hiding.

Then again, was any of it really my business? Everyone had secrets of their own; it hardly mattered if Olga carried a ton of them. The only thing that mattered was that she was my friend. And, really, her being very powerful simply meant that I would have more protection from the threats within the Shadow Academy.

With an absent thought, I willed my giant abomination forward towards wherever the exit of this place was. Good thing the Ice Queen gave us specific instructions; otherwise, Olga and I would’ve been stuck here for… a very long time. My lumbering brute of a creation stirred and began moving forward. The monsters at its feet were trampled, but most simply climbed up its bulk to attack us. There were many of them; I didn’t bother counting.

Again and again, I casted the Heart Curse, killing and killing and killing until the world blurred and time lost all meaning. Olga’s flames roared in the background, setting the night alight in fiery bursts of ember rainbows that melted skin and flesh from the bones of the monsters around us. Those I laid my eyes upon fell dead as I repeated the spell in my mind so many times that it became a steady and linear thought streamed constantly. As such, it no longer became a set of two words, but something more; any living thing my eyes settled upon, if it had a heart, died. I felt it chip away at my magic, a small, but noticeably steady drain. It wasn’t a lot, but the amount the spell used each time I casted on instinct would accumulate; this battle couldn’t be allowed to last long. Otherwise, Olga and I would run out of magic before we ever reached the exit. And that… wasn’t good.

I breathed as the monsters howled and roared around us.

There was no end to them.

I roared and held out both of my hands and then, every living thing in my field of vision simply died. Hundreds of them fell at once, shaking and convulsing in the snow, taking a sizeable amount of my magical reserves. Strangely, even the trees around them withered and died and fell onto the white blanket that covered much of the ground. And yet, there were still more of them. The gangly, spindly, and sinuous creatures streamed out of the darkness and rushed towards us, screeching and roaring with their shrill voices.

Once, I might’ve been afraid. In fact, not too long ago, the very sight of this might’ve sent me into the very depths of fear and despair. Now, however, I could only sigh as I raised my hands once more and pointed at the creatures. And, again, they died in droves. And so the corpses of the emaciated monsters piled up around us as my abomination lumbered forth into the unknown.

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I don’t how long we kept fighting off the creatures. It might’ve been seconds. It could’ve been minutes, maybe even hours. Time lost its meaning when I could barely even think. The only thought that lingered in my mind came in the form of two words: Suek Ezeru. Olga, similarly, unleashed her flames again and again and again and again.

“There’s no end to them!” Olga shouted, roaring as she unleashed wave after wave of dazzling flames at the monsters down below. She must’ve already killed more of them than I did. Not that it was competition, but it certainly was surprising.

I could only grunt and nod in response as I killed another dozen of the monsters. It wasn’t that I couldn’t answer, but I really just didn’t want to talk. I was tired – exhausted, even. I wanted to take a shower, eat, and sleep. I didn’t even care about the Shadow Academy’s library anymore. The place could burn for all I cared.

I just… wanted this to end.

But, I had long resigned myself to the horrors of the Shadow Academy and all the trials it would send my way.

Let them come; I was tired and very angry and whatever challenges they’d throw my way I would crush.

Like this challenge; it wasn’t particularly hard thus far, just annoying.

My gaze moved to the monsters below.

It was strange, really, to think that I expected… more from them. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but mowing down a horde of these… things, with relative ease at that, seemed almost relaxing. For all their fearsome and unnatural features, these monsters were weak. Sure, the situation would be dire without Olga’s flames, but I was fairly certain I could’ve found a way to keep them all fixed on a single general direction for the Heart Curse to kill them all in droves.

“This can’t be it,” I muttered, briefly glancing over my shoulder to see Olga punch another monster in the face, sending it tumbling down to its death. She didn’t seem out of breath or even remotely tired. “It’s too easy; everything’s too simple. I’ve not been in the Shadow Academy for a long time, not even a week, but even I’ve already learned not to expect anything easy.”

“There’s a powerful gathering of magic up ahead,” Olga suddenly said. “I believe these thin creatures were merely sent to test us.”

As she spoke, I noted the horde of monsters had begun thinning out. They still came at us, but there were less of them. With each one that fell, less and less climbed up. Olga was right; the Ice Queen likely only sent these things to test our grit and mettle and our patience.

I turned and glanced ahead, through the space between my abominations massive horns. In the distance was a massive pillar of white that pierced the clouds. Ice and snow and frost swirled around it, forming a howling vortex of cold silver that seemed almost like swirling streaks of cloud and dust. And I felt it in the air, the rush of pure magic, overwhelming in might and magnitude. For a moment, I reached out and felt the full breadth of its presence and I beheld… infinity, an expanse of magic that was so impossibly vast that I felt akin to the tiniest grain of sand in a massive desert. But that didn’t feel right; no, I was even smaller, a grain of sand in the cosmos.

I had never felt so much magic before.

Just what had I gotten myself into?

“That’s the Ice Queen’s presence,” Olga’s voice broke me out of my reverie. “She can’t hide it from us here, in her own realm; what you’re feeling is the fullness of her power, all the magic that she commands.”

My mouth hung agape. I didn’t like feeling small. And that was how I felt. “How can anyone be so… powerful?”

Olga had a disdainful look. “The most powerful of Dark Mages can devour entire worlds to further increase their power, absorbing the life forces of trillions. The Ice Queen is one of the most powerful Dark Mages, feared and respected by all. There are very few who stand above her.”

I gulped. So, that was the peak of power that I needed to climb to become powerful? I huffed; it was almost laughable how far away I was, how small I was compared to the Ice Queen and, I figured, my mentor, Lady Victoria. And yet, I did not despair. Instead, a fire blazed in my heart; something awakened within me, a drive to become far more than I was and am. They were powerful, these Dark Mages, but they would become my stepping stones; perhaps not now and not even soon, but eventually I would reach even greater heights and my magic would be greater. Eventually, I would become a god.

Eventually….

For now, I had to focus on keeping myself and Olga alive through this mess.

And, after that, I’d focus on just staying alive in general.

But that wasn’t enough; no, I had to aim higher and reach farther.

My eyes widened as the thought occurred to me. I couldn’t dream of becoming stronger than the Ice Queen just yet, no; I could, however, become the most powerful student within the Shadow Academy – so powerful that no one would dare challenge me.

“Good,” The Ice Queen’s voice echoed across the seemingly endless realm of ice and frost. I grinned. Soon, I thought, I would become even greater. That the Ice Queen reached this level of power meant that I was in the right path. “You’re still alive, but that’s hardly surprising, given the little shitstain who’s with you and the fact that you’re a Category 10.”

I glanced up the sky. “Thanks?”

“The gate that leads out of my realm lies not far from where you are now, boy,” The Ice Queen said. “All you have to do is survive what comes next. I’m sure it won’t be a problem. Good luck. My pet Jotnar has been dying to meet you.”

The ground shook and broke. In the distance, a titanic figure broke through the ice and frost, releasing a great cloud of dust and snow in its wake. A great shrouded shadow emerged, standing taller than any mountain and any building I've ever seen. My abomination stopped in its strides as something begun moving towards us. The distant giant took a single step and I felt the world shake.

"We have to get off this thing!" Olga screamed.

And I barely had a moment to react or answer as a massive ice-blue hand emerged from the shroud of dust and snow and grabbed my abomination by its head and pulled.