"You're ways are merciless as always Admiral."

"What are you doing here. You should be doing your test at this time, Loonie."

A man covered with a thick layer of clothes and a dog was talking somewhere in the middle of the desert. Far away from their position, the pillar of black flames could be seen.

If people from the test could see these people, they would easily recognize them.

Cujo who recently came out of the flames was discussing with the examiner of the wind mages. Although his face was showing displeasure towards the other party.

"I got tired of watching over my side. There were no entertaining people to observe so I came here." Loonie complained.

"I don't care about your reasons. Go to other examiners if you want to waste time woof~"

"You know they hate my presence. I'll get kicked out in no time."

"Same goes for me. If you don't leave now, I'll throw away by force woof~" Cujo started pulling the collars of Loonie.

"Wait! Wait! Can I just stay for a while? It's not like you're doing anything. I heard you've got some interesting people here."

"Hm? Who are you talking about? woof~"

"Don't act like you don't know. You should have seen those people. One of them even has already escaped your puny flames."

"Ah, those spoiled brats from the clans. They don't impress me woof~"

"haha... I should have known. Nothing impresses you, Admiral. You should really look for some hobbies to change that serious face of yours. You will look cute and I bet many will want to pet you."

Cujo gave him a deathly stare and that's all it took for Loonie to keep quiet. Although it seems like Cujo has given up throwing him away and let him stay for the meantime.

"Loonie."

"Yes, Admiral-sama."

"Was there any case where dark mages were able to cast other elements other than their own? woof~"

"Not that I heard of. Why do you ask?"

"Nothing. I was just curious of something woof~"

"Woo, looks like finally, someone has taken the interest of our Admiral. Tell me who's the lucky girl or guy."

"Say one more word and I'll rip one of your clothes off woof~" Cujo placed his claws on the back of Loonie

"Noooo! anything but my clothes! Oh- Looks like another person escapes from the flames."

In the middle of escaping the threats of Cujo, a woman was running away from the test location. It has been quite some time since the flames were ignited.

Cujo who was busy chasing around Loonie stopped and set his attention back to his test. The black flames were already meters tall and it was a matter of time before anyone who was left inside to be burned alive.

"You have the least scholars again this year Admiral. But at least you have two people, unlike last year where no one was left alive. We got into huge trouble because of that. Their families and clans went storming in our school to complain. Good thing our headmaster shoo them away and kept your professor title."

Cujo didn't answer him back. He was focused on what's happening on the other side. No one knows what he was thinking.

Loonie realized that Cujo will not reply to him anymore and it would be useless to annoy him further. Both just watch the final minutes of the test in silence.

*******

The heat from the flames was getting more unbearable by the seconds. I was having trouble breathing because the oxygen was almost non-existent at this point.

Subaru beside me was lying down waiting for the inevitable. However, he was still better than the unconscious guy on the side.

"You're very calm even in this situation, Silva-san," Subaru said with great difficulty.

"I am familiar with the feeling of death. If anything else, I'm more frustrated than afraid."

"Yeah, it's frustrating. I can't believe our examiner is him. I heard from last year that all participants that specialize in fire element died during the test. I thought it was all rumors since many of us were removed from the beginning but was still left alive. Yet here we are.

"Here we are indeed..."

For some reason even though death was inching on us closer and closer, I've been feeling weird. I may have told Subaru that I was frustrated but that was only in my mind.

My body and thoughts were mostly occupied by the sudden insatiable hunger I was feeling right now. I could imagine myself eating fifty bowls of ramen and I would still not be satisfied.

I was looking for anything that I could eat and the next thing I know, I was hearing whispers out of nowhere. I assume I was hallucinating because of the lack of oxygen so I just went back to finding something to eat.

'What am I doing?'

The little reasoning that was left in me was telling me that there was nothing left to do but wait for the end. However, my body wasn't doing the same.

I stood up and unsheathe the sword I was carrying the whole time. My actions confused Subaru and the final words he said before becoming unconscious were, "You're a swordsman?"

I ignored his comment and continue to stand in front of the flames. It has already eaten up the other mage who was with us during this predicament. Few more steps and I would be inside the torture of the Nirvana Flames.

But I don't care anyway. I moved forward with nothing but hunger in my mind.

The finger where my ring was began to itch until I felt through my whole body. I remember a similar occurrence where this happened but I was also filled with wrath at that time.

This time, I don't feel any anger at all instead, the desire for something to consume was much greater.

Like before, my dark magic starts to shape into the shadow of what once was the object of fear for a Grandmaster mage. A giant mouth that was darker than the black flames emerge from the inside of my body.

It didn't charge in like last time but instead, it was waiting for me to do something. Instinctively, I know what to do.

I stab my sword into the flames and the flames stick itself in the blade on my sword and went to crawl on my body. Strangely, it didn't melt my sword or burn any parts of my clothes off. The agonizing pain that I should experience when touching the flames was also non-existent.

The Nirvana Flames that was on my body was being sucked by the shadow at my back. It was a slow process. Every time I stab a part of the pillar of flames, the shadow was there to suck it. This happened until I created a straight path without any signs of flames.

The hunger that was killing me also subsided and I was able to get my rationale back. I'm not sure what I just did but it looks like the flames don't have any plans of closing in again. I took my time and carried the unconscious Subaru out of the flames.

When we stepped out, the flames that have no signs of stopping vanished. No, it was more appropriate to say that it returned to the pillar Cujo activated in the first place.

The pillar was the only thing left after the chaos that took place. No bones or remains were left on the scene. Every trace of the other participants was cleaned up neatly.

The Nirvana Flames were formidable. I can't imagine the genuine Nirvana Flames.

It would be difficult to know where the exit of this desert was. The only thing that tells me the rough direction was the position of the sun. I followed where it was pointing and hope that I was going the right direction.

The intense fatigue hit me when I reach about half of the path of return while Subaru was on my back. My body has given up on me and I wasn't able to stop it from falling.

I am now facing the blinding sun and laying on the burning sand but it was still better than being surrounded by those black flames. Now all I can think of was sleep.

'The desert isn't the best place to sleep but it won't kill us, right?'

Those were the last things that entered my thoughts before there were two unconscious people in the middle of the desert.