CLEAVER OF SIN

As Asher slowly opened his eyes to the world around him, he found himself once again within the same lobby where they had previously been told to wait at.

The familiar walls and arched ceiling of the Academy greeted his vision, yet this time, there was a subtle difference in the atmosphere. No one around him doubled over vomiting or clutched at their stomachs in discomfort as they had done before. Everyone had already adapted to the strange transitions of space by this point.

The moment Asher appeared, he immediately sensed a presence. His head snapped toward the direction of the presence. However, he was not alone in noticing it, others in the room turned their heads at the same instant.

And there she was, Instructor Jane.

The woman's figure seemed to command the room without effort. Her gaze swept over the group with a calm indifference, and upon seeing their heads turn toward her, she began to speak in her usual steady tone.

"Congratulations on passing the first test," Jane said. "I am certain it was not what you expected, but expectations are meaningless here. Put them aside, and instead prepare yourselves for the next test."

At the mention of the words 'next test,' the students' gazes sharpened instantly.

Jane continued, her voice devoid of warmth or emotion, "Meals will be provided at five o'clock in the afternoon and again at eight o'clock in the evening. As usual, anyone who is not in their rooms by the designated times can kiss their meals goodbye."

Not a smile, not a frown, not even the faintest twitch of an expression touched her face as she delivered this statement. It was as if her entire being had been stripped of outward humanity.

At this point, Asher had already categorized her in his mind as a strict, uncompromising woman, someone who tolerated no foolishness and no wasted time.

"By tomorrow," Jane went on, her voice carrying a note of finality, "all of you are required to be in this lobby by exactly ten in the morning. I do not need to explain what happens when one is even a single second late."

Everyone nodded immediately, the warning already etched vividly into their memories. After all, they had seen with their own eyes what had happened to those who failed to arrive on time before, they had been instantly sent back to the Canestane Barony territory, their dreams shattered in an instant.

"That is all for now," Jane added. "A word of advice: be at your best tomorrow. You will not waste your time with oral questions this time."

Her words carried a weight that pressed against the students' hearts. None dared to imagine what sort of test awaited them next.

With those final words, Jane's body rose smoothly from where she had been leaning against the wall. Space itself twisted faintly around her form as she prepared to vanish.

But just as she was about to disappear entirely, the flow of space froze, and her gaze turned sharply toward a boy who was staring at her.

In that instant, an immense and crushing force erupted outward from her, slamming upon everyone in the lobby.

The pressure was overwhelming. One after another, the students dropped to their knees as though invisible mountains had been placed upon their shoulders. The weight was unbearable, suffocating, and dreading.

Asher himself was not spared. His body buckled beneath the immense force, and he too found himself forced to his knees.

Jane's voice rang out once more, but this time it carried an icy chill that froze their very souls.

"It seems some of you believe you can look upon me with lustful eyes simply because you passed a single exam. It seems… an example must be made."

The indifference that had characterized her earlier tone was gone, replaced by a chilling sharpness that sent shivers down every spine.

In a blink, Jane vanished from where she stood and reappeared before a trembling boy. The boy's entire body shook more violently than the others as he tried in vain to withstand the oppressive force. Slowly, he dared to raise his head, meeting Jane's pitch-black eyes.

And in that moment, all he saw was a terrifying vision, a woman seated upon a mountain of corpses, her body bathed in rivers of blood.

Before he could even process the nightmarish sight, Jane's hand flashed. The boy had not even blinked before his world went completely dark, as though all color had been stripped away from existence.

Something warm and wet splattered across his face. His trembling hand instinctively moved upward, touching the strange liquid. The realization struck him instantly.

It was blood. His own blood.

He did not need to be told what had happened. His eyes… his eyes were gone. Jane had taken them directly from their sockets. He could not scream, his mind still paralyzed by shock. He simply knelt there in disbelief, his empty sockets bleeding profusely as the agony caught up with him.

Jane's gaze swept across the remaining students one final time. Then, as though space itself bent to her will, she vanished completely. With her disappearance, the suffocating weight pressing down on everyone dissipated at last.

For a moment, silence reigned in the lobby. Then, slowly, everyone turned their heads toward the boy, the fool who had dared to look at an instructor with lust in his eyes. His delayed scream tore through the silence, echoing violently as pain erupted in his skull.

"Does anyone have any healing abilities?!" one boy shouted as he rushed toward the blind, screaming boy.

But no one responded. They simply stood back, exchanging uncertain glances. It was not that they refused outright to help, but rather that they silently understood the unspoken truth: this was one less competitor to face in the exams.

In this world, healers were not fragile weaklings who could be dismissed easily. On the contrary, those with healing abilities possessed supernatural physiques of their own, capable of wielding weapons and techniques just like any other awakened individual.

Healing was simply their awakened ability, but it did not strip them of combat prowess.

After a few tense seconds, another boy finally stepped forward with calm determination. Kneeling beside the injured youth, he placed a hand gently upon his head and spoke with a steady voice.

"I can stop the bleeding," he said, "but do not expect me to regenerate a pair of eyes out of thin air."

A soft white glow pulsed from his palm, spreading across the ruined sockets. The bleeding slowed gradually, and after several minutes, the injuries were at last stabilized.

No one interfered with his efforts. None of them believed the injured boy could possibly adapt to his blindness in less than twenty-four hours, and thus, in their eyes, he was no longer a threat.

One less opponent, nothing more.

Besides, he had brought this fate upon himself. To look at someone infinitely stronger with such reckless lust, that was sheer stupidity.

None were surprised that the healer had been unable to restore the boy's vision. After all, he was only eighteen years old. If he possessed the ability to restore lost eyes already, he would not be a student, he would be an instructor at the Star Academy himself.

With the matter settled, the crowd slowly dispersed. Some ascended the staircase back to their rooms, seeking rest after the mental strain of overthinking an exam that had turned out to be nothing more than a series of bizarre questions.

Others quietly exited the building, continuing their exploration of the Academy's outer grounds from where they had left off the day before.

And just like that, another day at the Star Academy pressed on, carrying with it the heavy reminder that strength was the only true currency of survival in Crymora.