The moment Jax said begin, the room stretched.

Not visually — spatially.

What should have been a small examination room, now pulled away itself and elongated like rubber, walls sliding back untill the floor felt humongous and the examiner Jax and Jeanne's figures felt smaller. Both of them were now at the corner-most place inside the room.

I raised my guard immediately.

The man walked a few steps back.

But still didn't rush at me.

He tilted his head, studying me, then casually lifted his hand and scratched the side of his neck.

Once. Twice.

The sound of scratching became audible as his skin split, blood ran down his fingers in a slow line, dripping onto the floor.

He didn't even flinch while his eyes studied me the whole time.

...What the hell!.

This was definitely not normal.

I didn't wait for any longer.

Focusing the mana into my palms, a distorted black flame appeared on them. Then I pulled lightning in the same way from my core, the thin volatile streaks of red wrapped itself around the edges of the black distortions on my fist.

Ever since the Integration process, it came naturally to move my affinities through my body as I wanted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Jeanne leaning forward slightly. Jax's eyes gleaming with anticipation.

I launched

Using the gravity on my feet, I decreased my weight and closed the distance fast, too fast, and drove my fist directly into his chest. Gravity followed first, the compressed gravity amplifyed by the lightning — hit like a truck.

He slid back by a metre.

But, didn't look even fazed, by the punch.

He shook his hands.

A black metallic baton came out from his sleeves.

I didn't stop.

I followed with a knee to the ribs, twisted mid motion and slammed my elbows on his collorbone. He blocked the attack with the baton, the shock rattled upto my arm and into my shoulder.

Pain flared across my joints.

I closed the distance once again, I pivoted, hooked my leg behind his ankle, used the gravity to add the extra weight, just as his body dropped, I punched his jaw at the same time. Lightning crackled. Blood sprayed.

He staggered.

Then the baton smashed into my ribs.

Hard.

Air exploded out of my lungs like a deflated balloon. I felt something crack. I rolled with it, forced myself to low, I hammered short punches to his gut— fast, no technique. Just violence, stacked damage.

He grunted once.

Then headbutted me.

The impact made me stumble, I felt a warm liquid trickle down my nose.

But i didn't let him escape.

I grabbed his wrist midswing, added gravity to my hands, dragged his entire arm down with my left hand, and using the right hand smashed my fist on his face.

He grunted loudly.

The baton, came low this time and clipped my thigh as he yanked free, I ignored it and rushed again.

I punched.

He countered.

I elbowed.

He countered.

I used my shin and smashed on his ribs.

He countered with the baton again.

Every hit landed heavier than the last— but i could feel it.

He was still stronger and faster.

But there was one thing, I hadn't tested yet.

I forced the gravity to compress tighter.

The distortions finally smoothed out with minimal margin, but it was enough, my footing locked in.

Half step forward.

I made my shoulder twitch.

Fake swing.

He bit the bait.

The baton whistled past my head as it ruffled my hair, I was already inside his range. I dumped gravity into my legs and jumped in the air slightly, into him. My knee slammed into his chest, gravity accelerating the impact mid-air.

Bone cracked.

We hit the floor together.

I mounted him instantly.

Fist came down.

Gravity dragged it faster.

Lightning amplified it as soon as the attack launched.

His head bounced against the floor with dull, wet sounds. Teeth shattered. One eye swelled shut immediately.

He tried to grab me.

I crushed his wrist under gravity and punched again.

And again.

And again.

As I was lost in the moment, i heard Jax cough— laughing.

"Ooh... you don't know, how much I needed this" he said, voice light. "You should know it by now, right?, this one's a corrupted soul".

The word corrupted hit me harder.

My eyes flickered back to the man beneath me.

Then i noticed, the tattoo on his neck wasn't just for decoration, it pulsed. Black veins crawled outwards from it.

His corneas weren't fully white anymore. There was black creeping in, like ink bleeding through a white paper.

A brand.

Abyssal mark.

Often infested, when a Abysswalker corrupts your soul or due to– too much time spent with corruption, rotting inside your body from the exposure to corrupted mana. Either way this man here was going to get killed or just experimented upon in the name of research.

I slammed his head down once more and looked up — straight at Jax.

He was enjoying this way too much.

Jeanne noticed, but said nothing, though her eyes betrayed her body as they constantly flickered between me and Jax.

I kept my knee pressed on his chest.

He was still breathing, alive, barely.

I lifted my head and looked at Jax.

He was still seated on his seat, one elbow rested on the armrest, fingers propping his chin as he saw me.

Jeanne watched too, quiet now. Not intervening. Just observing us like it mattered more than the fight itself.

I looked downward, the man's face was now reddened with veins popping out of his skin.

The black veins slithered sharply on his neck.

I looked at Jax again, I knew if I wanted to get aligned with someone, it had to be Jax, as his authoraity could open doors easily than I could ever be able to do myself.

And I knew what had to be done to get him interested.

The thing was that this test from starting was neither of defeating or winning the duel. My objective since I saw Jax's face, was to make him interested in me for him to invest in me.

For that I had to kill him.

As it was stated in novel, sentinel Jax, he was said to be a person with severe hatred for the corrupted souls, and if I do something stupid like walking away, I knew this man would never look in my direction again.

I looked at the man, and this time I truly felt questioning myself, was I even ready to kill someone.

And the answer came— no.

I was not ready.

Even though since coming here, I had been torn apart, shredded, almost killed. But still my fingers shook, I hated myself for hesitating when it mattered.

Pathetic

Worthless

The words kept echoing.

Behind me, Jax sighed, bored.

"We don't have the whole day to do this, Raviel."

That did it.

I stopped fighting it.

MINDLOCK

The world dulled.

Color drained. Sound flattened. Emotion shut off like a switch being flipped. Fear, guilt, hesitation — gone. There was only awareness of my surrounding.

I tapped my index finger against my thumb on the storage-ring.

Black metal shimmered into existence.

The katana formed in my grip, its black sheath pulsing with red veins throbed faintly like a heartbeat. Even before I moved, pressure slammed into me. Jeanne.

Her presence bore down hard, stopping me from committing, whatever I was going to do.

My jaw clenched.

I bit my tongue until blood filled my mouth, to stop myself from fainting.

I pushed.

The katana trembled as gravity wrapped around the blade, forcing it down, inch by inch, through resistance that felt alive. The man beneath me thrashed once, eyes wide, the black pigment now spreading over all his eyes.

I didn't look at his face.

I aimed.

The blade slid into his chest.

Straight through the heart.

Silence

Then I stood up.

Blood dripped from the blade to the floor in slow, steady drops.

Behind me, I felt Jeanne withdraw her pressure. Her face was now thinned into something akin to anger.

The test was over.

Jax clapped his hands loudly, laughing like a madman.

"Bravo. Bravo. That was fun to watch. Indeed a spendid performance, Thanarion"

Something small flew through the air. Raviel caught it on instinct — a potion vial, shimmering with blue liquid. He didn't say anything. Just inclined his head toward Jeanne, a quiet bow, then turned and walked out without looking back.

The door closed.

Inside the room, Jeanne's gaze lingered where he'd stood.

"Why did you push him that far?" she asked calmly.

Jax waved a hand. "Don't."

She looked at him.

He cut in, his tone sharp but certain. "That was his choice. No one forced his hand."

He snapped his fingers.

The stretched space folded in on itself like it had never existed. The room shrank back to normal space, walls snapped back into their original place. On the floor, the corpse didn't remain a corpse — it melted, collapsed, and became a lump of thick black mass, already evaporating into smoke.

Jeanne exhaled slowly.

"His control over dual affinity is impressive,"she admitted. "Especially lightning. But tell me something, why didn't he use his soul weapon properly if he possesses one?"

Jax leaned back, hands behind his head. "Because he doesn't know how to use a katana."

Jeanne raised an eyebrow.

"His footwork doesn't match blade flow," Jax continued. "Too grounded and too direct. His style is built for fists, pressure and movementum. Not draw, cut and return. He's forcing the weapon to follow him, not the other way around."

A pause.

Then Jax smiled.

"Which is exactly why it's interesting."

Jeanne glanced at the door Raviel had exited through.

"…This year's batch," she said slowly, "might not be boring after all."

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