As smoke left Lyrian's hand, he unclenched his fist and held it down to his side. The Kailion squirmed around some more, but Lyrian quickly grabbed his sword and sheathed it before reaching into its neck cavity and obtaining the core.
He needed both hands to take it out of the Kailion's body, and as he tore it out, the life force of the beast escaped. Its dangerous eyes faded into a dull nothingness, as its body ceased all movement.
*Ding* [Achievement unlocked!]
[Congradulations! You have slain a creature whose rank is within the second Layer of Genesis]
[Acheviement reward: +1 Soul Storage]
As Lyrian heard this, a slight smile appeared on his face. He lifted the large core, which was as big as an apple, in front of him. Its mesmerizing, golden glow took every aback in awe. That was it, the final goal that everyone was going for.
Kang was defeated, his expression bleak. Both of his teammates had been taken out, and Zolidth was soon to be eliminated. He sheathed his sword, looking down at the ground. 'What do I do now?' He sorrowfully thought to himself.
***
"He did it huh?" Julius said, looking at his mana crystal back in Anaviotis.
Yesan, the Chancellor of Yaltas, placed his feather in front of his face before smiling, "What a beautiful boy. He will do just fine." His eyes looked to be mesmerized as he stared at Lyrian through the orb.
Another examiner, one with a long gray beard, spoke up, "Theageld hmm?"
With this, whispers spread around the dark room, as everyone exchanged their thoughts about the situation to the person beside them. As they all did this, Julius had a bright smile on his face. Finally, he announced, "I wonder who will be the one to get the next one." As he said this, everyone else also smiled slightly and looked at him.
***
Just then, with everyone around Lyrian fully in awe, the golden orb in front of him was suddenly overcome with a dark wave of energy to quickly surged around it like a tsunami hitting a piece of landmass, covering it in its entirety.
Lyrian's face immediately turned concerned, "What the hell?" He retorted, looking at the orb.
Kang looked up from his sorrow, equally as confused as everyone else. Alten stood up, walking over to where Lyrian was, "It... turned black." He said, "Why? Is that just the color of the orb?"
Lyrian listened to Alten's question and didn't hesitate to answer, "I'm sure it's supposed to be golden." He said, continuing to think to himself about what the hell was going on.
'The Kailion was using some sort of dark magic. That has something to do with this thing turning black, but what is it?' He pondered for a while longer, before suddenly coming to a realization, "Its name... Yin. It means darkness."
Alten was confused about where Lyrian was going with this, "Yes? That's common knowledge. So what of it?"
Lyrian revealed his discovery, "Another common thing is the Yin Yang circle of balance, of light and dark." He paused, as Alten also stayed silent to see where he was going, "That means, we have defeated Yin, darkness, and gained his dark core... but we only have half of the puzzle. We need to find the other half, the creature of light, not dark. We need to find Yang."
A few gasped slightly as they heard this in surprise, Alten too was taken aback by Lyrian's genius, "That's right! What you just said is totally plausible!" He exclaimed.
Although Alten was genuinely surprised and excited about Lyrian's discovery, he also thought, 'I should have come up with that, it was right there, almost obvious!' But he decided to hide those feelings.
'Next time... next time I will use all my brain to think of a solution to help Lyrian.'
"Nice, Lyrian! I didn't think you were so smart!" Leon said from below, a slight smile on his face as well. Inwardly, these actions were more intriguing for him and made him want to research Lyrian even more. Of course, there was a specific reason behind this...
Just then, Kang turned around and began walking away. His sword was already sheathed, and he clearly had no will to fight any longer.
Seeing this, Alten didn't hesitate to call him out, "Hey! Where do you think you're going!?" He shouted from atop the Kailion.
Kang looked back, "Don't think just because you've seen my back, you've seen my cowardice. Especially you, weakling." His eyes were like blood-lusted tigers, and his expression was furious. He turned his head back to face forward, "This won't be the last you see of my Lyrian. Take those cores that Hashus had, at least one of you will be able to pass from that." He said, jumping into a pool of water before seemingly disappearing.
Looking over to where Hashus was eliminated, Lyrain retorted, "Huh..."
"Over here." Leon suddenly said, holding out a large pouch that seemed to be stacked with cores.
A slight smile of almost pride came onto both Leon and Lyrian's faces as Lyrian turned and began walking toward the middle of the large Kailion body.
With this, the others who had failed to pass get the golden tiered core also left. As Han, Hugo, and Cedric began to make their way out, Lyrian shouted out, "Take the cores on Arthur, guys!"
As he said this, Han and Hugo turned around immediately, a mix between shock and hope appeared on their faces, "Wh-- really?" Han spoke.
An angry expression shadowed Alten's face as he looked over at Lyrian, "Lyrain! Who knows if they were part of the betrayers or not? They could have just been faking not knowing anything to appear like good guys."
Lyrian chuckled as he heard this. The expressions of Han and Hugo turned almost guilty. They were clearly sorrowful, 'We just had to get involved with them... now, I doubt we're gonna be able to pass this exam. They had all our cores too. But... it's right for Alten to say what he's saying. It's our fault that we sided with the wrong guys...' Han thought to himself, looking down in defeat with all hope gone from his body.
"I trust them!" Lyrian suddenly declared with a smile on his face. For him, it was almost as if there was a certain feeling that told him to believe them, "Take the cores! You worked hard for them. If you aren't lying, you are my friend, and I won't take those cores from you. If you are lying and you are my enemies, then so be it. We will meet again before this exam ends and I hope you will be even stronger by then so I can have a food fight!" He smiled widely.
ραndαsnοvεl.cοm The bright grin brought hope into Han and Hugo's eyes once again, "Thank you! Thank you, friend!" Han said as they made their way over to where Arthur was thrown and eliminated.
During this time Cedric didn't speak, looking at the ground with a guilty, almost sorrowful expression on his own face.
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