When the students woke up the sky was cold and grey, heavy mist curling low across the clearing like breath from a slumbering beast. Birds circled high above, distant silhouettes against a pale sky.
It was quiet.
Not peaceful but still.
Over five hundred and fifty students stirred. Some stood alone, arms folded. Others huddled in groups, sharing food, warmth, and wary glances. The dying campfires crackled at the center of the camp, casting a flickering halo around the few figures standing just beyond it.
Zeke, Ella and Tala, stood silently, watching the students wake up, seemingly closer than they were yesterday, a bit of distance was still between the two groups but they weren't as tense, not on gaurd.
Seeing that everyone was waking up and moving towards them, Ella stepped forward.
Gone was the crazy, defiant executioner from the night before. Today, she wore presence like armor. Her eyes burned with determination and fury.
"You all know why we're here," she began, voice slicing through the morning chill. " The Academy, who threw us into this trial expected us to fight, kill, and break under pressure."
She scanned the crowd. "And some of us did. We fought. We broke. Some of us even killed our fellow classmates."
The atmosphere was solemn, students shifted uneasily, some of the executioners looked at the ground guiltily.
"I was one of those people," she continued, quieter now. "When they told us we needed to kill ten students to pass… we believed them. Not because we wanted to, but because we were terrified. I watched friends lose their minds. I watched the people I trusted turn on each other. But something happened… something no one expected."
Her eyes flicked to Zeke who was standing behind her, curiosity and respect etched on her face.
"You all started organizing. Rallying. Saving and protecting each other. Making noise. And that noise, it shook the trial itself. The Academy's watching us now, closer than ever. So now… we will give them something they can't ignore."
She turned to Zeke as she stepped back.
Zeke walked up slowly, his air misted in front of him as he let out a sigh.
"We're going to find the source of the Hollowed," he said, plain and clear. "We think there's a central point controlling all this, maybe an anchor, a spawn pit, something along those lines."
Murmurs spread through the crowd, some were curious while others shivered, frightened at the possibility that there was something that existed which could spawn those monsters.
"If we destroy it," he continued, "we disrupt everything, the threat of the hollowed, the trial, and most importantly we will be done with this hell ."
A hand went up in the crowd earning a few chuckles.
"What if that doesn't end the trial?"
Zeke shrugged. "Then we keep pushing until it does. But the moment we destroy whatever they've planted in here, we force their hand. The trial ends on our terms."
Another curious voice chimed in "How do we find it?"
Zeke looked to Tala.
"She might have the answer, Well I hope so anyways, even if she doesn't we will keep going crazy until we destroy everything, Tala, you got anything to say?"
Tala stepped up. She looked exhausted but it didn't hide her unique beauty, she walked past Zeke, her hair tied up in a messy bun leaving strands falling across her face, her eyes were tired, she scanned the crowd.
"I don't know much about this trial but when it comes to the hollowed I would say there is no one here who knows more."
"The Hollowed… they aren't just mindless monsters. Not all of them," she began. "There's structure. Hierarchy. And if we're dealing with something coordinated… then we're dealing with the upper classes."
She paused. "Honestly there's so much I could talk about but we don't have time, so let me break it down for you all."
"There are seven classes of Hollowed, that is, the amount I know anyways lets get back on track" Her scholarly aura mixed with her unique appearance earned her a few admirers in the crowd who were listening to every word as if it was a holy scripture.
"The first are the Wretches; the ones you've all seen. Fast, stupid, usually in swarms. They're weak, equivalent to what the military calls 'first stage' humans. The lowest of the low, basically, strength wise they are a little stronger than the average human, the only advantage they have are their unique physique and abnormally high reflexes, in other words they have stronger bodies, better sense, better reaction speed and better fighting capability but, they are the weakest hollowed."
Zeke watched the crowd closely. Most of the crowd were listening attentively, this information was new to most but having fought with these monsters for the past weak, it was easy to process.
"Next come the Stalkers," Tala continued, "They're, well stronger than Wretches."
"No shit"
Pffftt! The crowd broke out in laughter, Rian the one who made the comment earned a small punch from Zeke.
Kaito raised a hand lazily. "Why all the names, it's fine to just call them all hollowed right?"
Tala smiled faintly. "Yeah, it's fine, if your uneducated, someone give him a punch for interupting me."
"Anyways, Stalkers are a little rarer than wretches. They're smart. They wait. Ambush. Trap. Some of you fought them without realizing it, the ones that mimicked cries for help? well, that was a Stalker."
"Not all of them have the same strength so if stalkers are found patrolling near lost cities, the army will send anything from third stage to sixth stage humans"
Most of the crowd looked at eachother curiously, they weren't familiar with the militarys grading system so they didn't even have a clear idea of their own strength, let alone the strength of a 'sixth stage human'.
Tala seeing the confused looks answered them with a smile, "Basically Zeke should be around the 7th stage, I'm not entirely sure but I suspect he has awakened his core or maybe he is using a power system from another country, the rest of you would be around stage three to four, that is to say, you were tested by a drug addict on the side of the road, realistically your all normal humans with a bit of mana so lets just be nice and say your all stage two."
The crowd,Zeke's brow furrowed. "So the stalkers, they're the strongest we have to face here right?"
Tala shook her head.
"Maybe, but I doubt that. Stalkers are not even close to the top of the strength heirachy for hollowed. What comes next… is worse."
"Wraiths. They're Stalkers that have evolved. Lost their physical bodies. Souls that literally outgrew the flesh, they fly around, phase through walls and can shift their body between a physical and spiritual state, basically unless you use magic or have an incredible amount of mana you won't be able to kill a wraith, in fact you would probably die without even knowing how. The main thing to take away from this is that if you see a wraith, either you are already dead or it thinks you will be soon."
Gasps rippled through the crowd, all these concepts seem so nonsensical, why then is society still functioning normally if there are these terrible beings running rampant in the world.
Kaito frowned. "Wait, are you saying these things evolve?"
"Exactly," Tala said. " Its basically like how a human grows from fetus, infant, toddler, child and all the rest of them, the military has already breeded hollows before, and they say wraiths are at the 'Evolutionary phase.' Once a Stalker gets too strong there is a qualitative change of life, they literally move up one level genetically. To fight wraiths head on would be impossible for any of us, you would have to go past the ninth stage and enter what is called the master level, just like the monsters, humans at the master level are genetically more advanced then normal humans, they are essentially better at everything and are incredibly goodlooking"
The crowd erupted, the students started talking with eachother, dreaming about the day when they could reach that level.
Rian folded his arms. "How many of those are out there?"
"The military has a few that are known, but i'm guessing they wouldn't show the world their numbers, but i'm guessing most of our teachers would be atleast master level, also don't be delusional, all people who reach the realm of master are phsycotic and crazy, infact being an unregistered master is illegal, mainly due to the fact that once you reach that level you unconsciously view 'normal' or 'mundane' humans as inferior leading to rape and in some cases mass slaughter." Tala said. "The only way to battle this is through family ties or extreme systematic discipline which is why alot of masters join the army, to keep themselves undercontrol."
"What do you mean by family ties."
Tala as if waiting for this question jumped forward. " Well, its simple, having ties to normal humans bridges the gap between feeling superior, like if you have a daughter or son who wasn't at master level you wouldn't think any less of them, infact you might cherish them even more due to their innate weakness, isin't it beautiful how being a parent transcends even genetic boundaries...."
"ahem.." Tala looked at Zeke who made a sound then around to see everyone looking at her with tired eyes, realising she was yapping on, a blush made its way on to her face before she continued.
" Erm, Anyways, Wraiths should be the strongest enemies we should be facing, even then I'm guessing the professors are watching and will supress their power to an acceptable level. We are lucky if wraiths are the strongest ones."
Zeke's expression darkened at the thought of stronger beings.
"There's worse?" someone asked.
Tala nodded solemnly.
"Above Wraiths, there are three more tiers, and these I only know from old unverified books, but still there's always a bit of truth mixed into legends."
She raised three fingers.
"Demons; powerful, physical entities. They still have bodies, but they're warped. Intelligent. Capable of speech like wraiths. Equavalent to what the military calls paragons, though due to an insane amount of influence from the eastern martial artists in the powered community everyone calls them Grandmasters."
"Demon Lords," she said next, "They're rare. They haven't been seen in forever. Equivalent to humans at the Saint level."
A pause.
"This last group is a little strange, following the naming style of the previous tiers majority of people call them Demon Gods, but in the books, the really old ones, they are often referred to as dwellers of the abyss. They're on the level of the Divine humans. Entities that command entire worlds of Hollowed. Walking catastrophes. Remember that us humans only have one divine rank, it is said that, it is said that they the only reason we haven't been invaded by devil kings in the past."
Silence blanketed the clearing as the processed these words, all of them warning themselves to never get arrogant, in the face of these impossible beings how could they, mere second stage humans have thoughts of being superior.
"Ok, thats all from me, I hope you take all this knowledge and use it well, also if you want to talk to me about it you can, as you can see I love this stuff."
As she stepped away everyone woke from their daze and looked at Tala with respect, She was talking for so long yet they paid attention to the whole speech, it was crazy.
"So…" Kaito muttered, scratching his head, "We're fighting Wretches and Stalkers, maybe a Wraith or two… and your plan is to gather the remaining students and fight?"
Zeke smiled. "Exactly."
Rian barked a laugh. "Sounds suicidal, she literally just told us wraiths are impossible for us to defeat."
"Only if we go in alone," Zeke said. "But we're not alone anymore, she also said the teachers wouldn't send a fully powered wraith to us."
"So we got our info, now we just need to look for the core." Ella leaned against a tree nearby, arms crossed. "So we move fast, keep together, look for heavy concentrations of mana in deserted places."
Zeke turned back to the crowd.
"We're splitting into three squads. We'll sweep the regions we haven't touched. Once we confirm where the density of mana is highest, we converge on that point, as it's highly likely the spawner will be there."
He paused.
"No more student deaths. We don't leave anyone behind. We end this together."
Cheers broke out, tired, but real.
And as the sun rose fully behind them the group began to move.