Kage had crushed us relentlessly. His dark magic was in a league of its own, and surely would be strong enough to take down an anomaly level unusual, perhaps even an aberrant! It was astonishing how strong some of these people were.

After a couple of hours of training, dueling, and cooling down, the three of us decided to get lunch before making our way to the final examination, which was set to begin in less than half an hour. It was finally time to take on my toughest challenge yet.

Eritoakademi's campus was full of exquisite restaurants, run by students and faculty alike who had extraordinary abilities involving cooking. Some of them were better than public restaurants. We stopped at one, grabbed our food, and ate it on the way to the examination building.

When we arrived, we noticed that the pool of people from before had shrunk considerably. Only 700 of us remained, and who knew how many of us would make it through to the end of the final evaluation...

Mr. Otsuka came out to address us when the clock struck 2:00. It was officially time for the final evaluation to begin. He stepped outside and up to the microphone.

"Welcome back everybody. I see you all have your envelopes with you. Please, if you will, sort yourselves by envelope color. If this goes right, there should be four groups, green, blue, silver, and gold."

Silver? There was a silver envelope? Perhaps that signified someone breaking the top 50. I hadn't seen anybody holding one until this moment. They were decorated just as the golden ones were, the only difference being the color of course.

We sorted ourselves into our respective groups. It was just as I had suspected. There seemed to be 50 people holding a blue envelope, 40 people holding a silver envelope, and 10 people holding a golden envelope. The rest were green, they were our placements...

"Now that you all have sorted yourselves, please take this time to get familiar with your group. These are the four groups you will be in for the final evaluation. Allow me to explain what I mean by this."

"Green envelopes, there are 600 of you. You will be split into six groups of 100 each, and be sent to different simulations to defeat anomaly level unusuals. Please follow your instructors."

"Blue envelopes, the 50 of you were skilled enough to be amongst the top 100 candidates. You 50 will be sent to a special simulation where you will work together to take down a mix of anomaly and aberrant level unusuals. Please, follow your instructor."

After hearing this, it became clear to me how this evaluation worked. The better you placed, the tougher of a battle you would be fighting... my group began to walk away, and I followed them. I kept my ears open though to listen to what the silver and gold envelopes were doing.

"Silver envelopes, the 40 of you made it into the top 50. You all will be sent to a simulation similar to the blue one, except there will be exclusively aberrants in this simulation. Good luck, please follow your instructor."

"Golden envelopes, you ten are my top candidates. Congratulations. But listen closely, your battle will be difficult. The ten of you are tasked with working together to take down menace-level unusuals. They are dangerous, usually only assigned to 2nd and 3rd years. Please, be careful, and good luck to you all. You may follow your instructor."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Menace level unusuals? If the top ten were all as strong as Kage was, I wouldn't see any problems with this, but still, a menace-level unusual is strong enough to wipe out parts of a city...I hoped they would make it out alive.

I waved to Kage and Akisada as I left the area, and they waved back, wishing me luck. We followed our instructor for quite some time before we arrived at our simulation. Our instructor was a boy with spiky white hair. They had a "K" badge like Ryuko and Akira...

When we arrived, our instructor turned around to explain to us a bit more about our simulation. The room was gigantic, full of synthetic trees and other materials that resembled a forest.

"Welcome everybody, my name is Itsuki Nagata, I'm a 5th-year student and current third seat of The Kanpeki. I will now be explaining your task further," he said, as he pressed a button on his hip.

After he pressed the button, fog machines stationed throughout the room activated, surrounding the area in a dark ominous haze...it was unsettling, almost as if an unusual could pop out at any moment and kill us.

"From this point forward, you will be attacked by unusuals ranging in threat level from anomaly to aberrant, the two lowest levels. Be careful though, aberrants are known to be unpredictable in their movement."

"Your goal as an individual is to kill a single unusual, though, if you kill more than one, your chances of admission will significantly increase! There are 70 unusuals in this room, that should be enough for everybody to kill one and still have some leftover."

"If you feel that your life is in danger, please use your flare gun which I will now provide to you, and shoot a flare into the air. I will come to your rescue and kill the unusual for you, but please note that by shooting your flare, you are forfeiting the challenge, and will be sent home."

Itsuki walked around and supplied each of us with a flare gun. Each had three shots in it, probably as extras if you miss your first or second shot. If you missed all three, well, you were toast.

"Everybody have a flare gun? Good. Well then, I guess you may all begin the final evaluation now. Good luck, and may God have mercy on your souls!" yelled Itsuki as he leapt into the air, taking refuge in a tall tree that overlooked the entire arena.

Immediately after he left, a slight sense of panic began to ensue within the crowd. People fled in all directions, trying to escape the impending doom. I decided to go my own separate way, away from large crowds of people.

As I made my way deeper into the foggy forest, my sword began to glow. Celeste was trying to contact me for the first time since yesterday. I listened in to what she had to say.

"Hachiro, can you hear me?"

"I hear you loud and clear Celeste, what's up?"

"I'm sensing a lot of unusual motion around here. I know this is the final evaluation and all, but be careful. You're incredibly close to one right now..."

I quickly grabbed my sword and unsheathed it. I held it in front of me in preparation for what was to come.

"While I'm inside your sword, I can provide you with an extra bit of power of my own. Call it a signing bonus for picking me as a spirit, but I'm quite powerful myself," said Celeste.

"Whatever happens, I'm counting on you to guide me. This is the first time I've ever fought an unusual, I'd like it to not be my last," I said nervously.

"Don't worry, it won't be."

Suddenly, I began to feel a strange sensation come over me. It was a sensation I hadn't felt in a very long time... The only other time I ever felt it was when the old house was attacked when I was 2, that's all I remember from the attack...was this feeling.

It felt like a terrible evil spirit was trying to escape from my body and lead me in a specific direction. It felt strongest to my left, which was immediately confirmed by Celeste.

"Watch out, on your left!" yelled Celeste. I quickly turned left to see a man taking a swing at me. I jumped back and landed on my feet, dodging the attacker.

"Holy shit, who are you!?" I asked, shocked.

They were unlike anything I had ever seen before. They stood tall, with a humanoid figure, but something was off about them. They had white hair and dark spots around their eyes, and they were muscular. They were also quite fast.

The creature stood still and looked at me before he broke into a smile. They were wearing pants but had no shirt on. They cracked their knuckles before opening their hands out in front of them.

I had come face to face with my first ever unusual, and they were terrifying. Celeste immediately began speaking to me again~

"Hachiro, this demon is an aberrant, be careful, their motion is quick and unpredictable. It also appears to possess intelligence..." she said. Soon thereafter, the unusual began to converse with me. They were indeed intelligent.

"Oh, another one, you look strong, will you run from me like the rest of your friends?" asked the unusual. I stood in place, shivering. The very presence of this unusual shook me to my core. I was overcome with a horrifically nostalgic feeling.

"N..no, I won't run from you...I..I'll kill you!" I replied. The demon looked disappointed in me. He closed his eyes before speaking once more.

"All you humans know is kill kill kill. The devils running this place go around capturing us, and throw us into these fake forests until we die... listen, kid, if you don't turn around and flee, I'll end you myself."

"Wait, what do you mean capture you and throw you in here?" I asked, curious as to what the demon was talking about.

"What else is there to explain? Whoever is running this hell hole sends out hundreds of people each year to snatch us up and lock us in cages where we're held until we're released into these foggy death traps. It's a war crime, and every one of you deserves the death penalty for your actions..."

...War crime? What were they talking about? I knew that humans and demons had been at war with each other for centuries, but I wasn't quite sure of the details.

"You know what? I'll just give it to you right here and now. Consider yourself deceased, kid." said the demon, before cracking his knuckles, and approaching me. Celeste spoke up once more~

"Hachiro, I'd get out of the way if I were you, this demon's about to attack you, and it doesn't look like they're going to go easy on you either. I hate to say it, but your first unusual ever is going to be an aberrant..."