Lily and Leon soon arrived at the base of a gargoyle statue.

Extracting a long silver rod from her Storage, she stabbed it into the stone ground, as the gargoyle’s eyes flashed gold.

Then with a slow thud, the gargoyle slowly split open, revealing a dark passageway.

“Do you have any light Skills?”

When Leon shook his head, Lily sighed in disappointment. “Guess we’re going without light.”

As they walked down the long hallway, Lily asked, “You know, you looked scary during that duel. But for some reason, you don’t seem like that right now. Is it all just an act?”

Leon walked in silence, wondering what he should say. Finally, he said, “I don’t know.”

And that was the truth. He didn’t know. The fostering rage deep in his soul was still raging, not letting him feel any joy. Was his current personality faked to contain his rage?

Walking in silence, they arrived at a wooden door. Pushing it open, they appeared in front of a room filled with fifty or so people.

It seemed like most were in the older years, with many wearing the blue and crimson-styled uniforms that signaled them as 2nd and 3rd years.

The room was surrounded by four enormous statues, their faces cloaked, their bodies covered by four stone wings. On their chests were a glowing symbol, glowing blue, white, red, and black.

Walking towards a seat, they sat next to each other, as a 4th year (wearing his orange uniform) approached the stage.

He was a tall demon, with a face that was scarred on the left side. However, he seemed like he had once been very handsome, judging from the right side.

On his side was a horrifying creature, a creature that looked like a huge scorpion, but had the faces and arms of a man.

Lily leaned over to Leon, whispering, “That’s an Aqrabuamelu. Super rare. He captured and tamed it during the aftermath of the Crimson Massacre.”

Leon nodded silently, looking more warily at the 4th year senior. He had learned about the Crimson Massacre during his history class. It had been a disaster where a Beast Tamer had gone awry, unleashing all her beasts into a public market. Luckily, Velereth students had been there, diverting most of the damage, but many lives had been lost that day.

The demon walked up to the stage, introducing himself as Fenrir of the Lust Clan.

“Thank you for coming to our first initiation of the new year. We will begin our sorting now.”

As Lily stood up, Leon followed her, as did many more first-years. Leon noticed Luke as he stood up, waving at Leon.

‘That bastard. He didn’t even tell me I had to come here. Was he trying to make me seem like a fool?’

They all began heading to the stage when Leon noticed something etched into the stone wall.

The Society of the Knowing.

Underneath the words was the same symbol as the tattoo Leon had.

‘Is this what this group is called?’

As they all approached the stage, Leon began feeling strange, as if something was clawing at his mind.

Shaking his head to relieve the pressure, he walked onto the stage, standing in a line.

Fenrir smiled. “Thank you for your support. If you would please, let us make a binding contract to ensure that our organization will remain secret.”

The boy pulled out a bowl of amber liquid from his Storage. Setting it onto the ground, he beckoned for them all to hold their hands out. As they did so, a huge Mana circle appeared, looking similar to the ones that Elvis could create.

Chains burst from it, surrounding all the initiate’s wrists.

[A Binding Contract is being attempted to be placed onto you!]

Seeing the notification, Leon grimaced. He didn’t like the idea of having a contract. However, as Fenrir began speaking in a weird language, a new notification appeared.

[The Binding Contract has been canceled]

Leon tilted his head in confusion. ‘Why does this keep happening? Maybe it’s because I’m not part of this world?’

Fenrir had not noticed, as he finished his incantation with no hesitation. After finishing, he bowed in thanks, sending them all back to their seats.

“To the new members, this is our motto. Memorize it and ingrain it into your souls.”

“The First, the Last, the Eternal.”

Fenrir smiled, his eyes glinting. “I recommend you to say it every day before you go to sleep. This will help steady your determination.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Leon rolled his eyes, thinking, ‘What is this, a sermon?’

Leaning over, Lily whispered, “Why is he so obsessed with the motto? Did he make it or something?”

Shrugging, he looked on as Fenrir continued.

“You may have heard the rumors. How we control everything in this Academy, and that we have created nations and kings.”

He walked to the edge of the stage, smiling even sider.

“That is true.”

“King Abbadon is part of our ranks, and even Archduke Leviathan is part of our group. We have created many influential demons, and we control them. And you can now be part of that.”

“It’s just as simple as a… snap.” As he said that, Fenrir snapped his fingers. Immediately, every demon suddenly bolted upright, their eyes glazed over.

‘Fuck.’

As Leon stared in shock at the standing demons, Fenrir noticed him, the only one still sitting.

“Ah. The Blessing of Abbadon. As expected of you.”

‘Is this a Skill like [Mesmeric Trance]?!’

Leon slowly stood up, his legs begging for him to start running.

“Are you really the Society of the Knowing?”

As Leon spoke, Fenrir smiled.

“Of course not. They were all wiped out in the Crimson Massacre.”

‘Fuck. Why does this keep happening to me?’

As he withdrew his falchion, Fenrir backed away, hands raised.

“Wait. Do you wish to kill me?”

Of course, there was no way that Leon could defeat a 4th year, let alone kill him. But Fenrir didn’t know that.

‘Should I use [Dice]?’

Upon thinking about the idea, he shook it away. To start with, that was too risky, and Leon felt like it was a Skill that would eventually demand something from him.

“How about you join me? If you’re powerful enough to avoid my Hypnotism, we both could benefit from each other.”

‘Is that the only way out?’

Leon spoke, putting back the falchion into his Storage. “But tell me first, why did you do this in the first place? What’s your goal?”

Fenrir laughed. “There wasn’t a goal. I was just planning on them killing each other. It would have been entertaining to watch.”

At that instant, Leon realized what kind of person Fenrir was—a person who simply couldn’t be allowed to remain living.

A maniac.

Remembering the killer in his parent’s basement, Leon’s eyes hardened.

[You have activated the Skill [Dice]

[You have rolled a [Snake Eyes]

[You have lost]

‘Fuck.’

Sensing the use of the Skill, Fenrir’s smile slowly faded. “I see. I guess you don’t want to work with me.”

He activated his Storage at the same time Leon did, and they both pulled out their weapons. Fenrir’s was a hook sword, its edges curved into a hook. He menacingly pointed it at Leon, his smile slowly growing again, but this time into a more maniacal one.

As Fenrir propelled towards Leon, he quickly backed away, dodging a sharp slash.

‘Why are all the people I fight stronger than me?!!’

Cursing his luck, Leon began running, dodging multiple jabs of metal.

[Shadow’s First Step: Shackles of Darkness]

Dark hands began reaching out from the shadows, gripping Leon’s arms and legs. Hurriedly, Leon tried to cut them off but failed miserably. His sword simply moved right past.

Quickly, Fenrir moved closer, thrusting his sword towards Leon’s heart. Crying in pain as Leon desperately twisted, breaking bones in the process, he dodged the sword, as he crashed his head into Fenrir’s.

As Fenrir stumbled back, the black hands disappeared, enabling Leon to move again. As Leon dashed away, Fenrir quickly recovered, following Leon’s fleeing form.

‘I need to get him away from all those demons.’

As Leon ducked into the stone passageway, Fenrir activated his Skill Tree again, probably worried about Leon escaping outside into the school.

[Shadow’s Third Step: Dark Prison]

As an overpowering darkness came over Leon, he smiled a bit.

‘I survived that long inside of the Darkness. This is nothing to me.’

Dodging a slash, Leon did a couple of combos of his own, forcing Fenrir to back away a bit.

Growling, Fenrir, suddenly appeared in front of Leon, grabbing his neck and throwing him into one of the statues.

“AGH!”

Coughing up blood as his spine cracked, and his ribs collapsed into his lungs, Leon screamed in pain.

Grabbing a handful of the cracked stone, Leon forced himself to stand up. He barely managed to bring his sword up in time to block the attack by Fenrir.

Crying out again as his wrist was wrenched by the pressure of the hook sword, Leon ducked as another cut nearly sliced the statue into half.

‘If I die now, I’ll be so mad.’

He stumbled into the clearing, using the frozen body of a demon as his shield. Wincing as Fenrir cut the demon down without a second thought, Leon fell onto the ground as a sudden pain in his back overtook him.

‘Fuck, fuck, fuck!’

As he lay there trembling in pain, something crossed into his field of vision.

A red orb rolled in front of him, coming to a stop right in front of his eyes.

When Leon looked back into this incident, he wasn’t sure what made him do what he did.

Groaning in pain, he lifted the orb…

And ate it.

***

As soon as he ingested the orb, something flared to life inside of Leon. He brought his hand up and then shot a ball of pure flames towards Fenrir.

As Fenrir barely managed to dodge the blast, Leon quickly followed with several more shots, all of them crashing into Fenrir’s body, sending it flying.

As Fenrir tried to recover, Leon realized where the red orb was from.

The statue had been cut in half by Fenrir’s slash.

The symbol on its chest was now faded, but Leon could bet a thousand bucks that it had been red.

Screaming in pain as he stood up, Leon pulled the sword back and slashed through the stone of another statue. Normally, a weapon wouldn’t be enough to cut hard stone, but this was a Bound weapon. The metal slid through the stone like paper.

As the stone crumbled, Leon reached inside, and sure enough, he pulled out a blue orb. Quickly ingesting it, Leon fired a torrent of water towards the recovering Fenrir, pushing him into the wall, as the stone trembled against the pressure.

Fenrir activated a Skill that generated a barrier around him, as he gasped for air. Activating his Skill Tree, he prepared to fight again.

Sweating as the water poured out of his hand, Leon desperately cut down another statue. Quickly removing another orb, he gulped it down, this time showering the room with a sharp streak of light, burning Fenrir’s eyes as he screamed. Even a barrier couldn’t defend against light.

Limping to the final statue, he cut it open, removing a black stone. Upon swallowing, Leon cried out as a sudden paralysis began gripping his legs.

‘So this is what a spinal injury is.’

Clawing out his hand, he poured out an inky black substance, which began devouring the room with its darkness. Its claws reached across the room, shoving matter into its hungry mouth.

As the blanket of black reached Fenrir, he screamed as dark tendrils began climbing up his face, black tears streaming down his face.

The scream was horrible, a strange gurgling as the black liquid sputtered out of his mouth.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he slumped down, eyes not seeing.

Stumbling down, Leon crashed into the ground. Although he had such severe injuries, he had done it. He had beaten a demon much more powerful than him.

However, as he was celebrating mentally, a growl suddenly came from his left.

From the body of the dead boy, a horrifying monstrosity began clawing out, its oily liquid trickling down from his hideous body.

As Leon slowly lost consciousness and water began pouring into his punctured lungs, he thought that he saw something.

An angel floating down, its light radiating through the cavern.