Chapter 84
Nille watched the fire for a moment before asking another question, his tone more serious now.
"Were there times in the past when any Malignants crossed over… or went outside their realm?"
Eruko let out a slow, tired sigh, as if the question itself carried centuries of history.
Then he nodded.
"So many… too many to count."
He tossed another piece of meat onto the fire and adjusted the skewers before continuing.
"That is why your kind placed so many traps, seals, and barriers across the separated and isolated realms."
His eyes shifted briefly toward the dark sky above Sector 11.
"Not just to keep us in…"
"But to keep everything else out."
A brief silence followed.
Then Eruko glanced back at Nille.
"But young man…"
His tone deepened slightly.
"If you think these are the only realms that exist…"
He shook his head slowly.
"You are wrong."
The fire crackled between them as the Ogre's words sank in.
"There are countless more."
Nille's eyes narrowed slightly.
Eruko continued.
"Realms you have never heard of."
"Domains that are sealed far tighter than this place."
"Some were locked away so completely that even beings like Lykos and I only know they exist… not where they are."
He leaned back slightly, resting one arm over his knee.
"This island… these sectors… these divided lands…"
"They are only fragments of a much larger structure."
A pause.
Then, more quietly,
"But unlike this place… those realms were not merely isolated."
Eruko's gaze sharpened slightly.
"They were sealed."
The word carried more weight than the others.
Nille remained silent, processing the implications.
Because if even this already dangerous island was only a fragment of a larger system…
then the world he understood was far smaller than he had ever imagined.
And whatever existed beyond those sealed realms—
had been intentionally hidden for a reason.
Nille asked quietly, his tone more focused now.
"Do you know who created the twelve realms of this island?"
Eruko let out a deep sigh, as if the question had no simple answer.
"I don't know either."
He leaned back slightly, resting his arm over his knee.
"We only noticed it after we tried to venture beyond certain boundaries."
His gaze drifted toward the distant horizon.
"This place is contained within an unseen barrier."
A brief pause.
"And every time you reach what should be the edge…"
He shook his head.
"You end up stepping back inside again."
Eruko's expression turned heavier.
"The only way in and out is through the paths your kind use."
His eyes shifted toward Nille.
"The same paths used to train young ones to kill us."
The fire crackled softly between them.
"Methods passed down from those you call instructors… teachers… shamans."
He gave a low grunt.
"Some of those you trust are not fully human."
Nille's expression tightened slightly.
Eruko continued calmly.
"Many of our kind once swore allegiance just to gain the chance of freedom—to move beyond these cages."
He tapped his chest once.
"Even among your own instructors, there are those born from Encantos."
A pause.
"That is why the system here feels… organized."
His tone was neither angry nor proud—just factual.
"Beings like us, who you call Malignants… we are simply what remains inside these isolated sectors."
He gestured slightly outward.
"But if you were to step into the other realms…"
His eyes sharpened.
"You would find cities."
"Empires."
"Entire civilizations of sentient beings."
"Dragons."
"Elven clans."
"Half-breeds and hybrid races living under structured societies."
Eruko leaned forward slightly.
"The lower you go in the hierarchy of classification, the more… misunderstood they are."
Nille finally spoke.
"You're saying even I am part of that system?"
Eruko studied him for a moment, then gave a small nod.
"Level 11 perception… and yet still intelligent enough to question what you are told."
A faint hint of approval entered his voice.
"That is rare."
Then he added more quietly,
"Hundreds of years have passed in these realms… and many things have changed."
He looked toward the fire.
"But mortals still fear what they do not understand."
A brief silence followed.
"So they label us monsters."
"And we respond the only way we are treated."
He gave a slow exhale.
"With violence."
Nille's frustration slowly faded as Eruko finished eating. The Ogre rose to his full height, towering over the campfire, and carefully wrapped the remaining roasted bear meat in a large leaf bundle before placing it inside a rugged sack. He secured it with practiced ease, as if preparing for something far more important than a simple meal break.
Then he looked at Nille.
"After this… we begin."
The air around him changed instantly.
No hostility.
No malice.
Just intent.
Eruko rolled his shoulders once, his massive frame shifting like reinforced steel under tension.
"I will not hold back."
His voice was calm, but absolute.
"This will be a full-out fight."
Nille exhaled slowly and stepped back, adjusting his stance. The Celestial Cloth tightened slightly around his body as Nyx stabilized his perception and combat synchronization. He nodded once.
"Accepted."
The moment those words left his mouth—
Eruko moved.
There was no warning.
No buildup.
Just disappearance.
The ground cracked beneath the Ogre's first step as he vanished forward with a burst of raw acceleration that shattered the air behind him. Nille barely reacted in time, twisting his body sideways as a massive fist tore through the space where his head had been a fraction of a second earlier.
The shockwave alone blasted the surrounding grass flat.
Nille countered instantly, drawing a compressed disintegration edge through his palm and slashing upward toward Eruko's exposed flank. The strike landed, but instead of cutting cleanly, it scraped against hardened muscle reinforced by spiritual conditioning, sending sparks of distorted energy outward.
Eruko grunted slightly.
Then smiled.
And retaliated.
A second strike came down like a falling pillar.
Nille raised both arms to block, and was launched backward across the clearing.
The impact shattered the ground beneath him, carving a trench through the earth as he slid violently through dirt and stone before recovering mid-motion. Before he could stabilize fully, Eruko was already there again.
Too fast for his size.
Too precise for his build.
Another punch came in from the left.
Nille twisted under it, feeling the wind pressure rip past his ear. He countered with a knee strike aimed at Eruko's ribs, followed immediately by a palm thrust infused with condensed spiritual energy.
The Ogre absorbed the knee without flinching and caught the palm thrust mid-contact.
For a split second, their eyes locked.
Then Eruko tightened his grip.
And threw Nille into the air.
Nille rotated mid-flight, stabilizing with spiritual flow adjustment, only to see Eruko already leaping after him.
The Ogre's jump was absurd.
Not graceful like a Lycan.
Not magical like an Encanto.
But pure explosive muscle force propelling a massive body into the air with terrifying momentum.
He came down with both fists together.
Nille crossed his arms and reinforced them with Celestial Cloth layering.
The impact detonated in mid-air.
A shockwave erupted outward, tearing through nearby trees and flattening the battlefield below them. Nille was driven straight into the ground, creating a crater on impact.
Before the dust could settle, Eruko dropped into the crater with him.
A downward elbow followed immediately.
Nille rolled out just in time, the elbow smashing into the ground and splitting it open like broken stone.
He countered with a disintegration strike aimed at Eruko's shoulder joint, attempting to disable movement. The attack connected partially, slicing through outer muscle layers—
but the wound began closing almost instantly.
Regeneration.
Fast.
Too fast.
Eruko exhaled and swung again.
Nille blocked, redirected, and countered three times in rapid succession—each strike aimed at vital points, each counter met with brutal resistance. Every time Nille tried to gain distance, Eruko closed it instantly, reading movement not through sight alone, but through vibration, sound, and pressure shifts in the air.
Even Nyx's camouflage was useless here.
The Ogre was not tracking vision.
He was tracking existence.
A final heavy strike landed directly on Nille's guard, sending him skidding backward again.
Nille steadied himself, breathing controlled but heavier now.
Eruko rolled his neck once.
"Good."
He stepped forward again.
"You adapt quickly."
Then he vanished once more.
The battlefield exploded into another exchange of collisions, each impact heavier than the last, each counter forcing Nille to push his limits further, realizing clearly that this was not a fight he could win through precision alone.
Eruko was not just strong.
He was a force of constant pressure.
A hunter who had refined combat into pure inevitability.
The battle dragged on deeper into the cratered clearing, the ground already broken into layers of shattered earth and scorched stone from their earlier exchanges.
Nille pushed forward again.
His breathing was controlled, but the pressure was rising.
Every attempt he made to create distance was erased instantly. Every feint was read, every counter met, every opening closed before it could even form.
He shifted his approach.
Instead of close combat, Nille extended his spiritual energy outward and formed compressed disintegration projectiles, firing them in rapid succession. Thin, controlled bursts of destructive force cut through the air toward Eruko's vital points, heart, throat, joints, and spine alignment zones.
The Ogre did not dodge blindly.
He adjusted.
Some projectiles were deflected by sheer muscle movement, others absorbed through hardened tissue, and a few landed cleanly, but the results were the same.
Eruko's regeneration immediately began closing the wounds.
Fast.
Too fast.
Even when Nille managed to create deeper cuts, the damage did not last long enough to matter. The Ogre's body repaired itself almost as quickly as Nille could deal harm.
Eruko finally exhaled, as if evaluating something.
Then he spoke mid-fight, almost casually.
"You rely too much on external physical force."
Another step forward.
Another heavy strike.
Nille blocked and slid backward.
Eruko continued.
"Your spiritual energy… you only use it as projectiles."
A second strike followed immediately.
"No internal shifting."
Nille countered with a palm strike to the ribs.
Eruko barely reacted.
"No flow adaptation."
A knee came in.
Nille barely avoided it.
"You separate your energy from your body instead of merging it with it."
Eruko's fist collided with Nille's guard again, sending shockwaves through his arms.
Nille was forced back once more.
Eruko stepped forward without pause.
"That is why your damage output is shallow."
The Ogre suddenly accelerated again, closing distance instantly and striking in a continuous chain, left, right, elbow, shoulder slam, followed by a downward strike that forced Nille to the ground.
Nille rolled out, barely escaping a finishing blow that cracked the earth beneath him.
He tried to rise, but Eruko was already there.
Another hit.
Another impact.
Nille was launched sideways into a broken ridge of stone.
The Celestial Cloth absorbed part of the impact, but the force still rattled through his body.
He pushed himself up again.
His movements were slower now.
Eruko watched him.
Not aggressively.
Observationally.
"You have good instinct."
A pause.
Then, "But you lack refinement."
Nille surged forward again, forcing a close-range exchange. This time he chained his attacks faster, elbows, palm strikes, short-range disintegration bursts, combined with footwork designed to disrupt Eruko's balance.
For a brief moment, it looked like he was gaining rhythm.
But Eruko adapted instantly.
He absorbed the pattern, broke the timing, and interrupted the sequence with a single heavy strike to Nille's centerline.
The impact folded Nille backward.
He hit the ground hard.
Tried to rise again.
Eruko stepped in and struck once more.
Nille was thrown again.
A second attempt to stand.
Another counter.
Thrown again.
A third attempt, shorter, more desperate.
Blocked and broken.
A fourth attempt.
Eruko didn't even change expression anymore.
Just stepped in and ended it with a controlled strike that forced Nille to one knee.
The fifth fall came shortly after, quieter than the others.
Nille remained down for a moment, breathing heavier now, his body finally registering the accumulated strain.
Eruko stood above him, rolling one shoulder slightly as if the fight had simply been warm-up.
Then he laughed.
A deep, echoing laugh rolled through the crater, settling into the broken earth like a weight.
Eruko shook his head slowly.
"If you challenged Lykos like this…"
He exhaled through his nose.
"You would have been torn to shreds in seconds."
A brief pause followed.
Nille stayed on one knee, catching his breath, but his mind was no longer fully on the fight.
Something about Eruko's words clicked differently now.
Not fear.
Not doubt.
But recognition.
He had been lucky.
Not because he was stronger.
Not because he was ready.
But because of circumstance.
Because when he had stood before King Lykos earlier, the situation had not been purely combat-driven. There had been interference, subtle distortions in perception, layered influence, and the lingering effects of Imto Dimas' enchantment curse that had twisted intent in ways even the Lycan King himself had been forced to resist.
Nille's eyes narrowed slightly as he replayed it in his mind.
Lykos had not been fully "clear."
Not entirely himself.
There had been moments, small shifts in aggression, hesitation, and emotional misalignment that did not match the disciplined presence of a true sovereign predator. At the time, Nille had attributed it to the chaos of battle and overlapping external pressures.
But now, after facing Eruko directly, the contrast became obvious.
His tone softened slightly.
"You are only alive because of luck."
Eruko stepped back, allowing space between them.
The battlefield slowly settled, dust drifting in the broken air.
The Ogre looked down at Nille with a calm, unreadable expression.
"But luck is not useless."
"It is what keeps beginners alive long enough to become something more."
The silence that followed was heavy, but not hostile.
Only the weight of realization.
Nille had not been defeated by cruelty.
He had been shown a gap he could not yet cross.
A deep laugh echoed through the crater as Eruko shook his head.
"If you fought Lykos like this… you would've been torn apart in seconds."
Nille stayed silent as he caught his breath.
But deep down, he understood Eruko was right.
He had only survived his encounter with King Lykos because of luck.
More specifically, because Lykos was not fully in control of himself at the time.
Nille now realized how dangerous Imto Dimas' enchantment curse truly was. It did not completely control the Lycan King's mind, but it subtly influenced his thoughts and emotions little by little.
It twisted judgment.
Pushed anger further.
Made violent decisions easier to justify.
At first, Nille had not fully noticed it during the confrontation. But after fighting Eruko, the difference became obvious.
Eruko fought with a clear mind.
Every attack had purpose.
Every movement was controlled.
But Lykos earlier had felt unstable, as if something was constantly pulling at his instincts and emotions from behind the scenes.
Nille slowly exhaled.
If Imto's curse had pushed Lykos just a little further during their first meeting—
Nille would have died.
Not because Lykos was weak.
But because even powerful beings could be manipulated if their minds were influenced at the right moment.
Eruko looked at him and snorted.
"You think too much."
The Ogre crossed his arms.
"That's also why you lost."
Nille gave a tired smile but did not argue.
Because this time, he understood exactly what Eruko meant.
Eruko suddenly laughed again, the deep sound echoing through the broken clearing.
"You know…"
The Ogre shook his head with amusement.
"I've never seen a human this hungry to learn and change."
He pointed toward Nille casually.
"Most mortals give up once they face a wall they cannot climb."
His expression became calmer afterward.
"But you…"
A grin slowly formed across his scarred face.
"Even after losing again and again, you still keep trying to understand what's in front of you."
Eruko crossed his massive arms.
"That is rare."
He looked directly at Nille.
"You don't fight like someone chasing glory."
"You fight like someone trying to survive long enough to improve."
The Ogre gave a low chuckle.
"Honestly… it's strange fighting you, you never showed killing intent"
Then he added more quietly,
"Even when the enemy standing before you is a wall too high to climb… you still search for a way upward instead of turning around."
For the first time since entering Sector 11, Nille felt the tension in his chest ease slightly.
Not because he had won.
But because someone stronger than him had acknowledged the effort behind his failures.
Eruko finally ended the fight after Nille collapsed for the last time.
The Ogre stood calmly in the middle of the destroyed clearing, his body barely showing signs of exhaustion despite the violent battle they had just finished.
Nille, meanwhile, remained slumped against the wrecked ground, breathing heavily as pain spread through nearly every part of his body. His arms felt numb, his muscles burned, and even with the Celestial Cloth reducing the damage, the difference between them had been overwhelming.
Eruko looked down at him quietly before speaking.
"Your speed is fine."
Nille slowly looked up.
"What you lack… is the skill to properly funnel your spiritual energy into your attacks."
The Ogre tapped his own chest once.
"You release energy outward too early."
"Your flow is unstable."
"You attack with force…"
A brief pause followed.
"But not with weight."
Nille frowned slightly, still confused by the explanation.
Eruko noticed immediately.
The Ogre simply gave a low grunt before placing his massive cleaver back into its sheath behind his waist. Afterward, he picked up the packed leaves containing the remaining bear meat and secured them inside his sack.
Then he glanced back toward Nille one final time.
"Meditate on what you lack."
"Understand your own flow first."
He adjusted the sack over one shoulder.
"Then challenge me again."
Nille remained silent, still trying to process everything Eruko had said.
The Ogre began walking away toward the deeper forest paths.
Without turning back, he added,
"I'll return in a few days to hunt again."
The heavy footsteps slowly faded into the distance.
Leaving Nille alone in the ruined battlefield.
The young shaman leaned back against the shattered earth, gasping for air while staring up at the darkened sky above Sector 11.
For the first time in a long while, he truly felt how far behind he still was.
Saying Nille was far ahead of the other students would have been an understatement.
Compared to ordinary first-years, his combat experience, adaptability, and growth speed were already abnormal. But after fighting Eruko, Nille realized something important—
being ahead of students meant very little in the larger world beyond the academy.
There were still beings far beyond him.
And Eruko was one of them.
By the time Nille gathered himself properly, the Ogre was already gone, disappearing somewhere deeper into Sector 11 without a trace.
Nille slowly stood up from the wrecked battlefield and brushed the dirt and mud from his damaged clothing. The moment he straightened his posture, pain spread across his entire body.
Every muscle hurt.
Even breathing felt heavy.
The fight had pushed him far beyond his physical limit.
Quietly, he reached into his belongings and took out a small healing potion before drinking it in one motion. Warmth spread through his body almost immediately, dulling the pain and restoring a small portion of his stamina.
Not enough to fully recover.
But enough to move.
Nille let out a tired breath.
For the first time since arriving on the island, he genuinely wanted rest.
No fighting.
No thinking.
Just silence.
Using the last of his remaining strength, he quietly asked Nyx to activate camouflage once more. The Celestial Cloth responded immediately, concealing his presence as he began moving through the outer regions of Sector 11.
Nille ran the entire way back, channeling the remainder of his spiritual energy into his legs just to maintain speed. His vision blurred several times from exhaustion, but he forced himself forward until the academy buildings finally came into view.
The moment he reached his dormitory and entered his small sleeping quarters, all the tension holding his body together finally gave out.
He collapsed directly onto the single bed without even changing clothes.
And within seconds, Nille fell asleep.