NOVEL NEXT Chapter 218: Absurd Formation!
A few hours later…
The walk back to his dormitory felt like the longest journey of Creed's life, each step echoing through the academy's pristine white corridors with the hollow sound of defeat.
The late afternoon sun streamed through the massive stained glass windows that lined the hallway, casting colorful patterns across the polished floor that should have been beautiful but somehow only served to remind him of how spectacularly his day had gone wrong.
Other students passed by him in small groups, their voices carrying excited chatter about their own assessment experiences, and every word felt like a knife twisting in his already wounded pride.
He could feel their eyes on him as he walked, some filled with curiosity, others with barely concealed amusement, and a few with what might have been pity, which was somehow even worse than outright mockery.
The elite academy dormitories were located in the eastern wing of the massive academy, a series of unique buildings that housed students according to their year and ranking.
As the entrance exam champion and default class captain, Creed had been assigned one of the premium villas the academy had to offer, complete with a panoramic view of the academy grounds and enough space to comfortably summon and train with his companions.
Under normal circumstances, he would have felt proud of these accommodations, seeing them as a symbol of his potential and the bright future that lay ahead of him.
But right now, as he climbed the seemingly endless spiral staircase that led to his villa, the luxury felt more like a mockery of his failures than a reward for his achievements.
His room was exactly as he had left it that morning, which felt like a lifetime ago even though only a few hours had passed.
Creed collapsed onto his bed with a sound that was half sigh and half groan, staring up at the ceiling where he had hung a small crystal chandelier that cast dancing lights across the room when activated with a touch of magical energy.
The silence was deafening after the chaos of the assessment chamber and the humiliating conversation with Nicholas Grey.
In this quiet space, surrounded by reminders of his former confidence and ambition, the full weight of what had happened began to settle on his shoulders like a lead blanket.
He had failed. Not just failed, but failed so completely and utterly that he had set a new record for fastest elimination from an assessment that was supposed to last seven hours.
He was supposed to be the hope candidate, the student that everyone looked up to, the future hero who would make a difference in the world.
Instead, he was now probably going to be remembered as the cautionary tale that instructors would tell future students about the dangers of overconfidence and poor preparation.
But as he lay there wallowing in his self-pity and contemplating whether it would be possible to transfer to a different academy on a different continent where nobody knew about his humiliating defeat, a nagging worry began to creep into his mind.
His summons. Lilith, Tierra, and Meredith had all been with him during the assessment, had all witnessed the overwhelming power of the Greater Beast King, and had all experienced their own forms of violent death at the hands of that cosmic horror.
While he knew intellectually that virtual reality deaths weren't supposed to have lasting effects on summoned beings, the experience had felt so real, so visceral, so absolutely terrifying that he couldn't shake the concern that they might have been traumatized by the experience.
The thought of his beloved companions suffering psychological damage because of his decision to enter that assessment filled him with a guilt that was somehow even worse than his embarrassment about failing.
These weren't just magical tools or weapons to be used and discarded; they were beings with their own personalities, their own thoughts and feelings, their own capacity for fear and pain.
If his reckless ambition had caused them lasting harm, he would never be able to forgive himself.
With a heavy sigh and a sense of responsibility that felt like it weighed more than the academy's main tower, Creed pushed himself up from the bed and moved to the center of his living room where there was enough clear space to perform a proper summoning.
'Hopefully they take it like the champs they are.' He thought to himself.
He took a deep breath, centering himself and reaching out with his consciousness to touch the bonds that connected him to his three companions. Aka his tattoo.
The connections were still there, thank whatever gods might be listening, but they felt different than usual.
Where normally the links between them hummed with a steady, comfortable energy, now there was something else mixed in, a strange resonance that he couldn't quite identify.
It was like hearing a familiar song played in a different key, recognizable but somehow wrong.
"Alright, girls," he murmured to himself, his voice barely above a whisper in the quiet room. "Let's make sure you're all okay after that disaster. I'm sorry you had to go through that because of my stupidity."
He willed the tattoo inscribed on his chest to activate, which was the usual method of summoning his girls.
But as soon as the first traces of his summoning energy touched the bonds connecting him to his companions, everything went catastrophically wrong.
The moment his power made contact with Lilith's essence, it was like touching a live wire that had been connected to the fundamental forces of creation itself.
The energy didn't just flow through their bond; it exploded, cascading back through his own system with such violent intensity that he was thrown backward against the wall of his room.
The impact knocked the breath from his lungs and sent stars dancing across his vision, but even through the shock and disorientation, he could feel something vast and ancient stirring to life within the depths of his soul.
The dark lines of his tattoos summoning mark began to glow brighter, then brighter still, until they were blazing with such intensity that they burned afterimages into his retinas.
But the light didn't stop there. It began to spread beyond the confines of the simple tattoo, racing outward across the expanse of his body like liquid fire, creating new patterns and configurations that were far more complex and elaborate than anything he had ever seen before.
The lines twisted and curved and intersected in ways that hurt to look at directly, forming geometric shapes that seemed to exist in more dimensions than his mind could properly process.
And it was taking place all on his body!
He was getting a full body tattoo without his own consent and it didn't even look like his face was going to he soared from this tattoo!
As Creed watched in growing horror and fascination, the expanding formation burst through the walls of his dormitory room as if they were made of tissue paper.
The light carved its way through stone and steel and magical barriers with equal ease, spreading outward in all directions with the inexorable force of a cosmic avalanche.
Within seconds, the formation had covered his entire villa, then the street below, then the whole lane of buildings, growing larger and more complex with each passing moment!
The other students in the dormitory tower began to scream.
The sound of their terror and confusion echoed through the corridors as the blazing formation consumed everything in its path, not destroying or damaging but simply incorporating everything into its ever-expanding design.
Creed could hear doors slamming open as students fled their rooms, could hear the thundering of feet on stairs as they tried to escape something they couldn't understand, could hear the voices of the residential advisors trying to maintain order in the face of something that defied all explanation.
But the formation didn't stop at the dormitory tower. It continued to spread across the academy grounds like a wildfire made of pure mathematical precision, consuming the administrative buildings, the lecture halls, the training facilities, the libraries, everything.
From his position pressed against the wall of his room, Creed could see through his window as the blazing lines raced across the perfectly manicured lawns and gardens, creating patterns of such staggering complexity that they seemed to contain the blueprints for entire universes.
What the hell was going on?
What the hell had he accidentally triggered?!
Most importantly, was there even a way to reverse this?
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[A/N: A Message to My Amazing Readers]
Hey everyone,
I hope you're all doing well! I wanted to reach out and let you know that I'll be taking a short break from writing starting July 1st to focus on my mental health and recharge my creative batteries.
I know how much you all love following the story, and I promise this pause will be worth it! All new chapters will resume on July 18th with a special mass release to make up for the wait.
Your support means the world to me during this time. If you'd like to show some love while I'm away, any gifts or support would be incredibly appreciated and help me come back stronger than ever.
Thank you for being such an understanding and wonderful community. I can't wait to share what I've been working on when I return!
With love and gratitude,
[DungeonHunter]
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See you all on July 18th!