The celebration of the victory over the Iron-Hide Boar was short-lived.

Damien descended into the valley like a dark cloud, followed by his two terrifying "assistants."

"Good kill," Damien said, looking at the steaming carcass of the boar.

"Sloppy execution, terrible footwork, but good kill."

As a teacher, he, of course, could not give them too much praise on their first trip, otherwise it would go to their heads.

So saying this, he kicked the boar's corpse, rolling it over, revealing the metal plating stitched into its belly and the glowing green wires protruding from its spine.

The students gasped.

"What... what is that?" Elena asked, covering her mouth. "is this necromancy?" as an elf she had more information than the rest of her classmates

"Worse," Damien corrected.

He pointed toward a dense cluster of red vines clinging to the cliff face.

"Lyra."

The grey-skinned Elf moved with a blur of motion. Her daggers flashed, shredding the thick vines in seconds.

Behind the foliage was metal. A massive, reinforced blast door stamped with a symbol: A crescent moon eclipsed by a jagged, bleeding sun.

"The Twilight Association," Alaric whispered, a chill running down his spine.

He had read about them, not just mad scientists, but a cult of fanatics dedicated to the Abyss and Void, declared enemies of the state fifty years ago.

"I thought they were wiped out."

Beside him, Elena stumbled back, her face draining of color. She didn't see history like Alaric, instead, she saw a nightmare.

A wave of nausea hit her as she stared at the sigil. These were the ones.

The shadow that had fallen over the World Tree. The monsters her mother had whispered about, the ones who had besieged the capital and summoned a Demon General to kill her the very moment she was born.

"Roaches are hard to kill," Leona grunted, remembering the past. She, too had just been rescued by Damien when she encountered them in the elf forest

Now every time she heard their names, she remembered her weakness from back then.

cracking her knuckles a terrifying smile appeared on her face. "Want me to punch it open, Young Lord? It might be loud."

"No," Damien said. "We are teachers today."

He turned to Lukas.

The fire mage was still panting from the fight, his hands soot-stained.

"Mr Lukas," Damien said. "You proved you can heat a shoulder plate. Can you melt a Grade-2 Magitech Lock?"

Lukas looked at the blast door. It was three feet of solid enchanted steel.

"Professor, that's... that takes a lot of mana," Lukas stammered.

"Then you better be efficient," Damien replied coldly.

"Focus your flame. Do not let your mana waste! Sharpen it!."

Lukas swallowed hard. He stepped up to the door.

He recalled the feeling from the fight. The pressure. The fear.

'Don't explode,' Lukas told himself. 'Condense.'

He placed his index finger against the lock mechanism.

HISSS.

A jet of white-hot flame, no thicker than a pencil, erupted from his fingertip.

It drilled inward. The metal groaned and turned cherry red, then liquid orange.

Lukas gritted his teeth, sweat pouring down his face. "Burn... burn..."

CLICK.

The locking mechanism liquefied. The heavy tumblers inside melted into slag.

The blast door groaned and slid open a few inches.

Leona stepped forward, jammed her fingers into the gap, and wrenched the heavy doors open with a shriek of tearing metal.

A rush of cold, chemical-smelling air hit them.

"Inside," Damien ordered. "And touch nothing. Unless you want to grow a second head."

…..................

[Location: The Specimen Hall]

The facility was a nightmare brought to life.

The walls were lined with rows of glass tanks filled with glowing green preservative fluid. Cables ran along the ceiling like black intestines, pulsing with mana.

But it was the contents of the tanks that made the students stop breathing.

Chimeras.

Inside the glass were abominations. A bear with a human arm grafted onto its back.

A goblin with mechanical spider legs bursting from its chest.

A human head kept alive by tubes, its eyes darting around in panic.

Alaric gripped his broken sword hilt, his face pale. "This is... hell."

"This is a factory," Damien said, his voice devoid of emotion.

"They are trying to mass-produce soldiers for the Abyss and Void."

Elena was walking at the back, her face grey. As a High Elf, she could sense the life force of these creatures.

They were in agony. It was a cacophony of silent screams echoing in her mind.

Suddenly, she stopped.

She stared at a large tank near the center of the room.

Inside floated an Elf.

She was missing her legs, replaced by the lower body of a serpent.

Metal pipes were drilled into her chest. But her face... her face was untouched.

"No..." Elena whispered.

She stepped closer, placing a trembling hand on the glass.

"Alice??"

The eyes of the creature in the tank snapped open.

They were milky white, blind, but they focused on her mana signature.

The creature's mouth opened, silent bubbles escaping. It mouthed a single word.

Kill... me.

"It's Alice," Elena choked out, tears spilling from her eyes. "She... she was a diplomat. He went missing two years ago on a peace mission. They said she was lost at sea."

She raised her hands. Golden light gathered in her palms.

"I have to save her. [High Heal]!"

"Stop," Damien's hand shot out, catching her wrist.

"Let me go!" Elena screamed, her composure shattering.

"She is alive! I can fix her! The World Tree's light can fix anything!"

"Look at her core, Elena," Damien said, his grip like iron. "Look closely."

Elena froze. She looked past the flesh, using her mana sight.

Alice's mana core was gone. In its place was a black, mechanical pump pushing sludge through her veins.

"She is dead," Damien stated brutally.

"That is just meat with a pulse. If you heal her, you only prolong the torture."

Elena's knees gave out. She slumped against Damien's hold, sobbing. "Then what do I do? She was my friend..."

Damien pulled her up. He turned her to face the tank.

"You can't save her," Damien said. "But you can set her free."

"I can't kill her," Elena wept. "

"Yes you can," Damien hissed in her ear.

"In fact, only you can set her free"

He pointed at the tank.

"And by doing this, you can also set yourself free."

"Become stronger from this, Elena, so you never lose anyone again"

Elena looked at Alice. The creature was trashing feebly, the pipes tearing at his skin.

Her sorrow began to curdle. It turned hot. It turned into rage.

'They did this to her,' Elena thought. 'They turned a daughter of the forest into a monster.'

She raised her hand again.

This time, the light wasn't the soft gold of healing.

It was a blinding, harsh white. It hummed with a high-pitched frequency that made Alaric's teeth ache.

"Do it," Damien commanded.

[Photon Lance].

ZWAAMM.

A beam of pure, condensed light erupted from Elena's palm.

It punched through the reinforced glass like it wasn't there.

It hit the creature's chest, instantly vaporizing the heart and the mechanical pump.

The tank shattered. Green fluid flooded the floor.

Alice's body fell out. She was dead before she hit the ground but her face was peaceful.

Elena stood there, her hand smoking. She stared at the corpse.

She didn't cry anymore. Her emerald eyes were cold. Hardened.

"Good," Damien whispered, releasing her.

"Professor," Elena said, her voice hollow. "Who did this? Who runs this place?"

"The Twilight Association," Damien replied.

Elena turned to look at him.

"Teach me," she said. "Teach me how to use the light to burn them all."

Damien smiled behind his mask.

"Take out your notebook, Miss Elena," Damien said, stepping over the green puddle.

"We're going to the Core Room."

He looked back at the rest of the horrified class.

"Lesson Two is over, let's start Lesson Three."

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