SET THE BEAST FREE (2)

Ciemnosc was semi paralyzed as he looked at the newcomers. The students in their seats were equally confused. Only the staff members of the academy were fine, even expecting something like this to have happened since earlier. And as he looked at the headmaster, he too had an expression that said it all, and it showed all over again.

“There is no going back. Give your answer, Clann.” The old headmaster, Isol, said with most of the academy’s staff members on her side. On the other side, the headmaster himself and those who were in the same party as him were nervous, as well as feeling defeated. The entire neutral party of the academy suddenly changed, and just because of the old headmaster’s intervention, which was supposed to always be neutral and only for the benefit of the academy.

“I do not.” Even as some from his party began walking towards the other side, the headmaster kept his ground, facing the old headmaster, also stepping slightly towards Ciemnosc. Some others accompanied the headmaster, being a bit more than half the party that supported Ciemnosc, while only a minority left and joined the other side. This confusing sight brought annoying silence to the crowd, the students and other staff members with not high enough in status or power to be here in person.

“I see, headmaster. You still can’t see the truth.” The old headmaster said, her arms crossed in front of her chest as sect master Holoriu took place to stand beside her left. She then added, without much care for the headmaster’s face, “I will take your position as the headmaster away and become the temporary headmaster of the academy, at least until a…”

The old headmaster looked to her left, for a moment, before looking at the headmaster again, “Suitor new headmaster for this academy. But fear not, even without me taking such an important position, the academy wouldn’t have allowed you to have the entire academy dragged back into the flames of war because of your wrong attachment to such a scheming little monster.”

“Since we are the majority and much greater than yours, the academy thus will reveal the truth of this monster and show it to the world, the darkness that he almost brought into everyone’s hearts and minds. We were also almost fooled, but it was only with wisdom that this little monster’s trickery was discovered. Observe!”

Peewium.

As soon as the temporary headmaster announced to the auditorium and more, a few unnecessarily large screens all over the auditorium began sliding from below to the surface, revealing to everyone who was intensely watching to change their eyes to lock into those screens. And for those who were not within the auditorium, their screens simply switched to what the others who were up there could see. But lost all sight of Ciemnosc and the rest.

Ciemnosc only needed to raise his head to see what was being transmitted. His face was so impassive though… A battle seemed to be ongoing. But that actual battle seemed more like a distant one, for all that could be seen was just a bunch of cannons firing away and 3 ships all struggling to keep their stability as they kept firing. It was then that Ciemnosc appeared and dodged here and there to arrive before the barriers of one of the ships.

Just as Ciemnosc seemed to want to use a Mortal weapon to break through the barrier, his feet were somehow anchored to said barrier - as were his nails. The angle changed slightly, and not only did it zoom into the front of Ciemnosc’s feet, they were even clearing up the image and allowing everyone to see… claws!

“There you have it,” the temporary headmaster was feeling more than glad as she returned her eyes to Clann, who was now with slumped shoulders and a dark face, and Ciemnosc, who was just returning to face her with his head raised to watch the show. However, on the latter’s face, not a single trace of surprise was visible.

“... You… you didn’t have permission to do that…” Clann said in such low volume that only the group on top of the stage could hear him, but was obviously ignored as the temporary headmaster had a smile of pressing her lips together and shaking her head slightly.

“It is the academy that has decided, and you are no longer capable of holding a vote,” as she spoke, the rest of those who were with Clann to still show support for Ciemnosc mostly left them. Isol then spoke again, this time demandingly, as she took a step forth, “Step away, Clann. He will be punished for his acts.”

“...” Ciemnosc was still without saying a thing, his entire visage as impassive as ever. The previous headmaster, Clann, was however stepping away in little steps. Not towards Ciemnosc or the temporary headmaster, but down the stage with the few others who dared to remain on his and Ciemnosc’s side. In the end, the other party accompanying the temporary headmaster also stepped down the stage. And since Ciemnosc didn’t move, they didn’t try to hold him in place.

“You will now receive punishment.” The temporary headmaster said once everyone but Ciemnosc had left the stage, the sect master Holoriu remained on the spot and was even slightly being held by Isol’s hands on his right arm. Ciemnosc, still, said nothing and looked into the temporary headmaster’s eyes… lifelessly.

Whoooooosh…

Suddenly, Ciemnosc felt his vision blacken, his head spinning without any movement from his body or; from the surroundings. His limbs were as if either in water or falling from the sky, helpless to hold against anything as everything was black, and he was more or less immobile. But he was calm and waited, until a spot of light slowly turned into a scene that was happening.

Ciemnosc found himself standing at the exit of the academy, but he was not alone. In front of him were his teammates, and they were walking towards him from a distance. However, as they came closer and closer, Ciemnosc realized that it wasn’t just them walking here but that they were being held hostage by the academy’s strong, powerful, and stern supervisors.

“Ciemnosc! Please surrender. Please do so!” Missa yelled, her neck bleeding slightly from the front as a supervisor held her, grabbed her hair from the back, pulling it and her up as she struggled with the pain of her skin being slightly cut.

“Free us, Ciemnosc, save us!!” Gallah was next, and though e was forced onto his knees, he was with his back straight. He looked at Ciemnosc directly, defiantly to both their captors and Ciemnosc, not being afraid of life. Beside him, Leen was down with her thighs against her stomach. A supervisor who couldn’t stop looking at her in this position from above struggled to maintain his stance.

“Ciemnosc… please!!” Leen cried out, her face against the ground as she felt humiliated. On the other hand, Fatima was silent, but she looked at Ciemnosc with narrowed eyes. Though those eyes were brave and struggling, they were imploring him, too.

All of that, all of this. Ciemnosc was very clear about what everyone wanted and needed. They just wanted to live.

“...” Ignoring them, however, Ciemnosc looked at the center between his feet which, strangely, was the only place with a slabstone while everywhere else was just yellow dirt. He kept looking at that place, ignoring their pleas and sounds of either agony as they died or were raped, and just looked at that slabstone on the ground that was as if shy and trying to be hidden from his eyes.

Pshit.

Suddenly, there was another change yet again. This time, everything returned to black, but instead of there being dark for at least some minutes, the scenery around Ciemnosc quickly returned to that of the stage and the auditorium. Ciemnosc never stopped looking below at the center between his feet.

When the dark went away, and everything revealed itself to be the same before darkness first clouded his vision, Ciemnosc was facing the temporary headmaster, who now had an unsightly expression on her face. Ciemnosc, on the other hand, was as lifeless as before and didn’t even make a simple remark.

‘Your illusion failed.’ Ciemnosc thought as he saw the temporary headmaster stare at another peak Obsidiafying realm cultivator and gesture for him to do something. Then, Ciemnosc felt the array formations below his feet and the stage he was on, alone, begin changing as it was now emitting completely different energies, while the air up the stage was changing.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You really have no salvation, Ciemnosc!” The temporary headmaster said, just as she saw Ciemnosc look around unpreoccupied and with his darkest eyes darting all around. She then added, as she was being ignored, “Even the thought of surrendering to save others’ lives isn’t in your nature. You deserve this death more than anyone else!”

“Spare me the shit, old fart.” Ciemnosc spat out, looking directly at the temporary headmaster. Just then, there was a terrible dread sparking in her heart, so she shouted with urgency and ordered those in charge of the array formations. “Activate it!!”

Pf pf pfuum! CRACLE- CKKRRKK- BRFRUUM!

Right at the next moment, from Isol’s yell, a towering wall of fire was ignited with the stage as its epicenter! The entire auditorium watched as they saw the clouds of gray up above part away, revealing the insane heights this tower of fire reached in just a few short seconds!

However, after being incredibly astonished at the sight of such prowess - their heads returned to look below, where the stage’s corners could still be seen and where everything had turned orange and red, surging into the skies. It wasn’t just the perimeter of the stage that was burning. It was instead the entire stage that had become the beacon of this fire - a fire that was now reaching higher and higher up into the skies, and some darkness beyond this world could be seen!

“Die! Burn in the flames! That will be a fate better than you deserve, Ciemnosc!” The temporary headmaster said, not caring nor realizing that her left hand was holding onto the sect master Holoriu’s right hand. She even added, louder and with veins appearing to the sides of her jaw connected to her neck, “Even in these times to execute some evil like you. It’s us who show the better side of life. Get that in your mind as you slowly die, little evil kid!”

They never expected to kill Ciemnosc, who already had a high resistance and durability towards anything. But they were at least sure he would be unconscious and close to death by the time the fire from the array formation was wasted. By then, they could do whatever they wanted with him and not be afraid of losing his body.

“Boring~...” Ciemnosc’s voice suddenly sounded from within the array formation. Even as flames raged on and up, his calm and soft voice, quiet as the night, was heard like a needle piercing into the minds of everyone.

“!!!”

“Put it down. Deactivate it!” The temporary headmaster shouted with most of her strength after waking up from hearing Ciemnosc speak. The array formation instantaneously lost all source of power, and flames no longer raged on, much less moved upwards into the skies. As the stage stopped with the flames, the towering pillar of fire spread about in the skies and beyond them, almost sending out waves of fire down the auditorium but dissipating way before reaching it.

“You!!!” The temporary headmaster was shocked but also enraged. Everyone saw as the flames were no longer encompassing the stage, and now its floor was so red it could start melting at any moment. While the fake grass and ‘nature’ around the stage were scorched black. Meanwhile, on top of it was Ciemnosc, who stood naked with a naturally bestowed body, though he had slightly pale skin.

“What else you got?” Ciemnosc dressed immediately with his Spirit Sense covering his body and the Covert Space bags at the same time, he just needed to move his hands to his stomach, legs, and feet to have clothes and shoes on him. Those clothes were, naturally, the humble-styled ones which are incredibly looking and more on him.

“Ghrrm!” The temporary headmaster genuinely growled to Ciemnosc before signaling with her left hand to someone else. Yet, this time, Ciemnosc’s face changed as he felt a powerful surge of poison coming from way below the auditorium and perhaps even the mountain coming up at him with some strange mix of pure energy that only worked to make that poison more powerful. Only poison could heart Ciemnosc, and he was about to be blasted as the epicenter of such!

Whoosh. Rustle, flap.

Ciemnosc dashed out of the way from the stage. In a slowed motion, Ciemnosc’s body jumped from the stage; just when a tiny cluster of starry, purple smoke came from the center of the stage. The next instant, that cluster became a cloud 3 meters in diameter, but before it could enlarge itself anymore, it imploded, and its content invaded the air surrounding the stage.

But by then, Ciemnosc, who had jumped out off the stage and targeted the temporary headmaster, Isol, was already clawing around her neck to a tight grip with his body dancing in midair as he twirled on the left side of her body to end up standing right behind her. As for the sect master beside her, even holding hands, he had been sent flying backwards like a cannonball with just a fully empowered kick at his chest just before strangling the temporary headmaster.

Ka-poom.

“Gasp, what was that?!” - “The fire disappeared just like that? But why was Ciemnosc still fine?” - “What’s going on?” - “It exploded?” - “AH! He’s here, he- h- he is doing something!” - “Holy shit! Get away, get away, he has host- is the headmaster!”

People were barely starting to realize something was wrong when they heard and saw Ciemnosc after the towering fire on the stage. But before they could process that, another situation had developed, and it was no longer consequential whether Ciemnosc was alright or if the array formation didn’t end up killing him.

“...” Ciemnosc dashed once more, just as he was seen with the temporary headmaster in his hands, his right hand gripping her neck tightñy. He simply moved somewhat close to the stage but not close enough. The poison was still ongoing, so he just stood there alone with Isol in his hands and a nervous sect master Holoriu following close with widened eyes.

“Ciemnosc, let her go!!” Sect master Holoriu hollered. He showed peculiar concern about the temporary headmaster. More than even the staff members who followed her from the get-go. Yet, as Ciemnosc held her in his clutches, his face was terrifyingly dark as his eyes were serene and ultimately cold, but even lifelessness was added to them.

“If you keep threatening me, just what do you think will happen to her?” Ciemnosc’s calm and quiet, soft voice that is most terrifyingly seductive, enchanting, and soulstealer; spoke. Threatening back to those who threatened him, everyone could see him already with both his feet falling off the cliff.

“Ciemnosc, no!!! Leave her, let her be right at this instant! You cannot harm her, she is the academy itself. Let her go at this instant! Do not harm her!”

Yet, there seemed someone who did not care and shouted at Ciemnosc with such might but also unending worry. It was a voice that was worried for more than one reason and anxious at the same time for different purposes. It was the previous headmaster’s voice, Clann, who had spoken!

“...” Ciemnosc changed his eyes to the left, where Clann was, stepping towards him and the temporary headmaster, who kept trying to struggle free from Ciemnosc’s hands but was worse than even a chicken held by its neck.

The previous headmaster, Clann, stopped and looked at Ciemnosc, whose face was… one that made him feel heartbroken, but not enough to stop him from saving Isol. He opened his mouth, his lips showing his teeth, “Listen to me, accep- kuh! NOOO!”

Just as the previous headmaster was talking, 3 parts stern, 3 parts begging, and 4 parts demandingly. Ciemnosc released his right hand slightly, still gripping the temporary headmaster’s neck. However, just as the sect master of the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect and Clann’s eyes widened slowly with glints of hope, Ciemnosc’s right hand released Isol’s neck, only for his teeth to cave in and chunk a piece of her neck the next moment.

Crrreeesshhhhkk.

It was done smoothly and at a rather slow pace. But it gave no one the chance to even blink by the time Ciemnosc had pulled his head back up and began munching the piece of flesh in his mouth while looking into Clann’s eyes, his terrified and regretful face.

“Ciemnosc…” Breathless, Clann said his name. While sect master Holoriu, on the other hand, was as terrified and shell shocked as the temporary headmaster whose neck was being eaten, not his.

“Here you have. Your ‘or worse’, do you like it?” Ciemnosc said with a quiet voice. His throat almost whispering those words out, that simple. He then added, his head tilting to the left before going back to eat from Isol’s neck as her skin began paling to match Ciemnosc’s skin color. “I enjoy it. It’s very nutritious to me, just what I needed, oh.”

Crrreeesshhhhkk… crreeshhk, crreeshhk, crreeshhk, crreeshhk.

Ciemnosc continued eating the neck, digging into it instead of keeping on pulling piece after piece from her shoulder or neck. Everyone else, watching, was utterly in dismay and paralyzed seeing Ciemnosc feast on a… on a human’s body!!

Meanwhile, Isol didn’t even have the chance to pull any more strength from her body or cultivation base. She couldn’t scream, let alone put any force into her body as Ciemnosc dived his nose into her body and bloodied his own face as he ate her body, even playing with some bones as he encountered her shoulders and collarbone, then kept eating after tearing apart some sections from said bones.

“MOONSTEEERR!!” Finally, the hero to save the day from the demon appeared. The sect master of the ‘strongest’ organizations from the ‘major’ organizations shouted with all his fury and indignant. He took out a huge axe from his Covert Space bag and wielded it in the air, its flatness facing Ciemnosc as he ran towards him.

“Oh, let me keep the snack for later.” Ciemnosc casually said as he waved his right hand and the corpse of Isol was stored in his Covert Space bags. That made the half a step into the ‘next cultivation realm’ Holoriu surprised but insanely enraged right after!

“AAAAAAAAAHHH!!” The hero roared, saving all his strength and mentality to avenge Isol, whose lifeless body now lay in her murderer’s hands. Everyone saw the hero go at it, and they could feel his impressive, most powerful cultivation base. But didn’t someone with the same level of cultivation fall to Ciemnosc? And rather easily at that?

Whoosh, whoosh… whoo-futomp, WHOOSH.

The axe was first swung down and slightly backwards. Then, Holoriu raged as the axe was swung to the front in an arch, going for the top of Ciemnosc’s head to cleave him into two! Yet, just as the axe was half a meter from Ciemnosc’s top of his head, Ciemnosc lifted his left palm, and with his fingers widely spread… he caught it.

The air surrounding them then went into a burst as the Mortal grade axe was not just stopped… it also cracked slightly. It didn’t have an ounce of Power Energy protecting it. As the surroundings became rough with wind bursting about, more cracks started appearing within one of the axe’s sides.

…