Tatsuki jumped down and stood in front of the gate, while everyone stared at it.
I took out my phone and called the other three teams.
In a minute or two, all of them arrived.
"What is this monstrosity?" Daiki said when his gaze met the gate.
The others were nothing short of speechless and just didn't know what to say.
Even Ryota looked somewhat scared and was sweating.
Some people's attention drifted, but the more people entered the mall, the more had their attention drawn to the gate. Tatsuki went ahead and started talking with the gang; meanwhile, I jumped down and approached them myself.
"What is this monstrosity, Kuroto?" Misora asked.
"I'm just as clueless as you are. I already told you what I knew, and that was that the gate just appeared—nothing else," I answered.
I didn't understand what this gate was. Standing near it gave me shivers, and a cold pressure emitted from it.
I decided to ask VoidMind if it knew anything.
VoidMind: "Unfortunately, I know nothing of this gate—absolutely nothing of this sort."
"Damn it."
I was panicking... but suddenly I came to myself.
I took a deep breath, in and out, five times. It helped me calm down.
I was the leader. Even if I said there was someone better suited to lead, I still needed to do my duty.
"Everyone," I got their attention. "Head inside."
"Are you crazy? You think we can beat that gate? No, we can't. We don't stand a cha—" I cut off Haruka.
"I didn't ask for your opinion. I didn't ask at all. It's an order, not a request," I said, giving everyone a death stare, releasing Fear particles from my eyes. It made the stare scarier than any they had ever seen.
My death stare snapped them out of it. They all sighed in sync and then nodded, their hearts pounding and their eyes full of terror.
Everyone around us wondered why the heck we were being so dramatic, but they didn't know the terror this gate gave off. Anyone else would've turned away and run from the mall, traumatized to never return.
But this gate made us feel like it held something important.
Something we couldn't miss—something that, if we did, we'd regret for the rest of our lives.
"Let's go," I said, turning back and heading inside. My voice was half-raised, as if I wasn't scared… but the reality was different.
Hands in my pockets, I started walking inside, expressionless.
We entered the gate.
Complete utter darkness… but it wasn't that there was no light. Even Daiki's Night Vision didn't work.
But something was different.
Unbeknownst to us, the gate outside suddenly reacted electrically, making it impossible for anyone outside to enter. The electric reaction turned the gate from a light blue to a dark blue color.
"What is this? My Night Vision isn't working," Daiki yelled.
"Neither is mine!" Chihiro shouted too.
Haruka tried using her fire magic to light up the place… the fire lit, but the darkness didn't fade.
VoidMind: "It could be the work of Absolute Darkness. If Absolute Darkness is spread, no light or any ability to see in the dark could ever work, since it devours all concepts of light—including wavelength, frequency, and amplitude. It's utterly useless to attempt anything. Not to mention, in Absolute Darkness, four of the five senses and the ability to sense mana or pressure don't work. The only thing that works is hearing."
"How's that even fair?" I yelled.
But then I realized something.
With Absolute Darkness, the pressure we felt earlier was gone—no longer intimidating us.
It was sudden.
We heard a voice… a voice I recognized, but it wasn't any of ours.
"Welcome all candidates. You're going in for a ride for True Awakening. Be prepared, because you're not going easy," the voice said.
Suddenly, I felt myself being teleported somewhere.
Still in utter darkness, everyone had been teleported elsewhere—though none of us knew that.
But that was the least of my concerns, because the voice I heard wasn't just anyone.
It was the God of Absolute.
"What's this guy doing here?"
I heard another voice… but it wasn't the God of Absolute's.
"Candidate No.7267: Daiki Iwasaki. Candidate No.7268: Haruka Murakami. Candidate No.7269: Misora Kurogane. Candidate No.7270: Chihiro Murakami. Candidate No.7271: Ryota Sugiyama. Candidate No.7272: Riko Iwasaki. Candidate No.7273: Tatsuki Fukumoto. And Candidate No…" the voice began to glitch and stopped for a few seconds. "Candid… Candidate No. Error 404, God's Mistake. All of you have been chosen by the Primordial Dungeon to take the test for True Awakening. Be prepared, because the test is about to start."
"What was that?"
The voice was robotic. Somehow, I knew it was the dungeon itself speaking—as if it declared so.
I didn't really understand, but I didn't think I should concern myself with questions. It'd only lead to my own demise in this situation.
But, I didn't understand why instead of my name, it said 'Error 404: God's Mistake'. But I didn't have the time to concern myself with these things.
Suddenly, a light around me spiked.
"What?"
Around me, a five-meter radius lit up—no light source, it just lit that area.
VoidMind: "Whoever is in control of the Absolute Darkness can decide which part it should affect. It most likely just unapplied Absolute Darkness in this area."
"So that's how it works, huh?"
Then, five more meters lit up on all sides, and then another—and after a second, another.
Every second, five meters of darkness faded away, lighting that area.
It wasn't long until the entire room was lit up.
It was a giant room… I mean, an enormous room.
The entire space was just mossy cobblestone and nothing else. It was approximately 300 by 300 meters, with a height of at least 50 meters.
Third Person POV:
As the dungeon spoke everyone's name and the room lit up, everyone—including Kuroto—prepared themselves to deal with whatever came.
Everyone felt a heating pressure of mana from behind. Something dangerous was there.
"What?" they all said before turning around.
On Chihiro's side, when she looked back, there was a creature.
She immediately got on guard, because what she saw was nothing short of terrifying.
The thing was fifty meters away from her. It was an extremely dangerous monster in the form of a bird—twice as big as Chihiro herself. The bird had a giant gray beak that took up more than half its face. Its small, all-black eyes were terrifying. Its gray legs looked like tree trunks, and its feathers resembled dried-up leaves with a slightly dark gray color. It didn't radiate any aura but looked like a monster full of pride by the way it stood—even while unconscious.
The bird suddenly became conscious and looked around, its eyes now even sharper.
Then it locked its gaze on Chihiro as it noticed her.
She stood completely still as a drop of sweat fell onto the mossy cobblestone.
The bird flapped its wings and flew straight at her.
It flew like an eagle, its wings cutting the air at a speed no ordinary bird-monster could ever hope to reach.
Chihiro reacted and jumped to the right, dodging the sonic-fast bird.
"What's with this bird's speed?" she said, shocked.
Still in flight, the bird instantly noticed she had dodged. In less than a second, it flapped its wings forward, canceling its momentum, and turned to face her.
Chihiro's heartbeat spiked as she quickly thought about which ability to use.
The bird flew again—but this time, not at her. It rose at a steep angle, about sixty degrees, soaring straight above her.
"What?" she muttered, confused as the bird didn't charge at her.
As she watched, the moment the bird was directly above her, it aggressively flapped its wings once.
Two spiral-shaped stone drill missiles fell from its wings. They spun so fast they appeared motionless, their speed enough to break the sound barrier.
Chihiro reacted quickly.
"What should I do?" she asked herself.
But she knew the answer.
She punched upward toward the falling stone drills. A burst of wind—shaped like a small, human-sized tornado—launched straight at the two drills.
Upon impact, the tornado instantly vanished, but it completely broke the drills' momentum. Chihiro was able to dodge them as they crashed into the ground.
"That was a close call," she said, worried about what the bird would do next.
The bird studied her and seemed to get an idea of one of her abilities.
This time, Chihiro decided to attack.
Suddenly, a fluffy cloud appeared beneath her and floated upward as she stood on it.
Chihiro had the power of Weather. She could control weather at will—including clouds, wind, water and temperature. Both hot and cold temperatures bent as she willed.
This type of power was extremely unique and rare. And if she learned more techniques, it could become deadlier than anyone could imagine.
She made the cloud able to support her weight by changing its properties to be half-cotton. This allowed her to not only control it at insane speeds but also stand on it with no concern of falling.
Chihiro rushed at the bird, who was flying in the opposite direction—but she was faster.
While flying, literally standing on clouds, she raised her right hand forward.
A sudden gust of wind began to form, but she struggled to control it.
She was only a few meters away. After a lot of concentration, she completed her weapon.
An almost invisible sword—manifested entirely from wind. The only struggle was that she had to consciously think about how the wind should be shaped to keep the sword manifested.
The bird sensed something in her hand due to the mana pressure, but it couldn't tell what it was.
It turned around and aggressively flapped its wings at her again, releasing another stone drill missile. This time, only one—but it was far more powerful.
Chihiro countered by releasing the same tornado-like attack, but this time from her sword. The small tornado hit the drill and slowed it down significantly, but if it hit her directly, it would still leave a deep wound.
She swung her wind sword at the drill, cutting it in half—saving herself just in time.