Night passed without incident, the trio sleeping in shifts to keep watch for monsters. Nothing attacked under the cold cover of darkness—only the distant cries of beasts howling at the moon filled the night air.
As the first light of dawn bled across the ruined city, Damien, currently on guard, shifted from his spot and moved to wake the others.
Luka was sprawled out, snoring loud enough to attract half the Island's predators, while Summer tossed and turned restlessly in her sleep.
Damien crouched down and gently shook them awake, careful not to startle them into making noise. The last thing they needed was to alert anything-or anyone—to their location.
Summer woke easily, almost like he was pulling her free from a nightmare. Luka, on the other hand, started flailing his arms wildly, nearly clocking Damien in the face more than once.
Damien ducked and hissed under his breath, "Wake up, you idiot."
Minutes passed with him weaving around Luka's chaotic punches before the brute finally stirred awake, squinting at Damien like he'd just committed a personal betrayal.
'Are you an idiot? Do you want to sleep through the trial or something?' Damien thought dryly, shaking his head.
Unfortunately, the sarcastic voice bound to his soul chose that exact moment to chime back into his life.
"Hmm," it mused, smugly, "I remember saying the same thing not too long ago to a very grumpy little goblin."
Damien rolled his eyes to the ceiling. 'Oh, shut up.'
The only reply was laughter echoing inside his mind.
Finally awake, Luka and Summer sat down beside Damien, forming a loose circle on the intact floorboards.
For a few moments, none of them spoke, the morning light creeping into the crumbling room.
It was Summer who broke the silence."What should we do today?" she asked, voice soft but steady.
Luka shrugged lazily, then grinned. "Kill monsters, get tags, maybe hunt down a top-three team if we're lucky." His grin stretched even wider at the last part, the thrill of the idea clearly exciting him.
Summer gave him a deadpan stare, then turned to Damien instead. It was clear the two of them looked to him for direction now—he hadn't earned the academy's respect by brute strength alone. Strategy had been his real weapon.
"We move toward the tower at the center of the Island," Damien said, pulling a small stack of battle tags from his pocket. "On the way, we will locate a water source and collect more tags."
He held up the tags so they could see: three smaller ones, trophies from the rabbits they'd killed, and one larger, gleaming tag stamped with a bold number ten.
"Considering we already have thirteen points," Damien continued, "we're doing better than most teams out there. We can afford to take our time a little, but this—" he held up the team's tag "—has to stay safe, no matter what."
There were only three ten-point tags in the entire trial, and they had one of them. It gave them an enormous advantage, but it also painted a target on their backs.
Luka nodded unseriously, and said, "Like I said. Kill monsters, find water, protect the tag."
Damien and Summer exchanged a look, unimpressed by the simplicity of his summary, but they let it go. Luka was Luka.
Then Summer spoke up again, frowning slightly. "Okay, that's great and all, but what about food?"
Damien's gaze drifted toward the nearest rabbit carcass, the memory of yesterday's hunt still fresh.
"We're going to have to eat monsters," he said.
He could see the discomfort flash across Summer's face, but there was no other option. This was survival. Luka, naturally, looked positively delighted at the idea.
'What a maniac,' Damien thought, shaking his head.
"Alright, let's get going," he said, slipping the tags onto a cord and securing it around his neck.
With that, the trio packed up what little they had and moved out, the ruined city stretching endlessly before them.
As they made their way through the ruined city, Damien couldn't help but feel a growing fascination with it. The shattered houses and crumbling buildings told silent stories—proof that life had once thrived here, long before monsters claimed it.
'How could there have been a civilization on an island crawling with monsters?' Damien wondered, his brow furrowed as he scanned the decaying remains around him.
His inner voice piped up, as irritatingly casual as ever.
"What came first, the chicken or the egg?"
'What kind of dumb question is that? The chicken, obviously,' Damien shot back, not missing a beat.
But the voice pressed on, unfazed by his sarcasm, "So wouldn't it be possible for Deviants to have existed before the Islands?"
Damien slowed a little, initially confused by the connection his unwanted teacher was trying to make, but the more he thought about it, the more it clicked.
'If the Islands are the egg... and the Deviants are the chickens made from the egg... the logic kind of checks out,' Damien admitted grudgingly, almost proud of understanding the weird analogy.
Naturally, the voice couldn't leave Damien feeling good about himself. "Wow," it said dryly, "truly a genius worth having a god inside of him."
Damien rolled his eyes and refocused on the winding, broken brick road stretching ahead.
They had been walking for what must have been ten kilometers by now, yet the city remained eerily empty. No monsters or signs of life. Only the hollow wind threading through the skeletal remains of the town.
"It's strange," Damien said aloud, breaking the long silence.
Summer glanced at him, curious. "What's strange?"
Before Damien could answer, Luka cut in first.
"We've been walking for ten kilometers and we haven't seen or heard a single monster yet," he said, his voice low, as if speaking too loudly might summon something from the shadows.
Damien nodded grimly. "Exactly, we should've seen one... probably more than one by now."
'Is it luck... or something else?' Damien wondered uneasily.
But before he could chase the thought further, something appeared ahead—something that turned his blood cold.
A body.
It lay twisted and torn open on the road, a pool of dark blood soaking into the broken bricks. Intestines spilled from the gaping wound, glistening sickly in the morning light, and perched atop the corpse... was a monster.