I am the Only Son of Nyx

"That’s very kind of you."

Matilda emerged from behind a tree.

She had been following and watching Kai hunt down the remaining survivors, and even told him about each one of them before he killed them. At least, what she knew about them. And Bob was one of the worst ones from Team Hyperion.

Initially, she thought he was going to make it a painful death.

But he didn’t.

Every kill he did was seamless and tidy.

Either he killed the target first and then used his power to devour the Divine Locks, or if the target was compliant like Bob, he would simply devour the target. Matilda had felt the touch from the Deep Slumber Legacy Skill, and she knew that it wasn’t painful.

Just an intense amount of sleepiness that attacked the mind.

"Does making it painful change anything?" Kai raised a brow. "No. In the end, he’s dead."

Matilda didn’t argue with him.

But her look showed that she clearly didn’t believe that Kai believed what he said.

And she was right.

For the entire night, with the help of Matilda, Kai hunted many of the survivors. She knew the rough area where the survivors were hiding, as most of them rushed past her. Kai utilized his Primordial Lock to absorb their Divine Locks and then devoured the body.

Just earlier, his mastery over the Deep Slumber increased.

Kai could devour others and make sure the darkness was left behind the Divine Locks.

Bob was his experiment, and it was successful.

Once the darkness devoured him, two glowing beads dropped to the ground.

No need for him to kill the target first to absorb their Divine Locks before using the Deep Slumber.

"Are you ready to return?" Matilda asked, observing his face to search for the answer. "You’re doing this to complement your one Divine Lock and fulfil the first requirement, as you said, but this should be enough, no?

"I don’t know what kind of mutation happened to your Divine Lock, but you have devoured more than a dozen Divine Locks already."

Of course, Kai also wanted to return.

But he said he’d be away longer, and right now, it had only been a day.

So he wasn’t in a rush to return.

It still only grew a little bit. I don’t know whether it’s enough.

Kai checked his Primordial Lock, and not much had changed after devouring that many Divine Locks. He didn’t know if this was enough to cover a second Primordial Lock in order for him to pass the third trial.

And it doesn’t feel right to return right now.

It seemed premature.

"Go back to the camp on your own," Kai finally said.

"But Kai... If I don’t return with you, I don’t think th—"

"Just talk to Dorian and tell him that you’ve met with me. He’ll let you in and handle all of the blowback from the other students."

Kai turned away and gestured for her to leave, "Go."

"Okay. Come back soon," Matilda turned to the opposite side. "Don’t be late. I’m sure you’ll be fine." She wanted to leave, but stopped again. "I’ll also have Dorian watch me go apologize to our classmates. You can confirm it through him."

Once she said that, she dashed away, leaving Kai alone once again.

Silence enveloped the area.

It may be choking others as the silence was deafening and eerie, but Kai quite liked this atmosphere a lot. Not many distractions. Only he, the night, and his sister. He clenched his fists hard, and his lips curled into a smile.

But the smile didn’t last long.

"I still need to feed the Primordial Lock more," Kai looked around like he was searching for something. Since there are only a handful of survivors now, and they were hiding well, he had nothing else to devour. "No. There’s still more.

"Perion," Kai called.

Almost instantly, a hulking figure emerged beside him.

Kai looked up at Perion with a hopeful gaze, "Did you find it? Did you find where they were kept?"

Perion nodded, and that put a smile on Kai’s lips.

Moments later.

Despite being massive in stature, Perion could simply turn into a phantom and navigate the forest easily. Kai was following closely from behind with eager steps. He wanted to see if there really was the place he had asked Perion to find.

During hunting earlier, he already anticipated this problem.

Not having enough to progress his Primordial Lock.

And that’s when a thought struck him.

Since he found the main mana ore mine that was used by the academy to replenish the smaller mines accessible to the students going through the third trial, it should also be the same for the Awakened Monster.

Every Blood Rite meant the death of one Awakened Monster.

Kai assumed that there was also a place to grab a new Awakened Monster from.

A place for them to breed or be made.

That’s the last place he could use to make another push until the end of the trial came.

Soon, Perion stopped.

Kai stopped beside him and gazed down into the deep cliff. It plunged so far that the bottom was lost to sight. And though darkness swallowed everything below, he could pick up faint noises that came from the void.

Growls and hisses, which could only belong to the Awakened Monsters.

"Good work, Perion," Kai tapped his stone leg. "Couldn’t do it without you."

Perion seemed pleased by the praise.

Its face could not show anything, but from the way it moved its knees up and down, it was easy to tell that it was happy with the praise. Kai then looked down at the cliff and rubbed his chin, "Now, how do I get down there saf—"

Crack—!

Out of nowhere, the edge buckled under Perion’s weight.

Kai’s breath was caught in his throat as he looked down, realizing that there was nothing right underneath him. Instinctively, he tried to grab hold of something, but Perion was so heavy that a big chunk of the ground was peeled away.

And his arm only amounted to half the length he needed to hold onto something.

"Woaah—!"

Darkness swallowed him as he and Perion fell into the bottomless pit.

Kai couldn’t reach the wall to slow down their descent, but Perion could. He stabbed his hand into the wall and caught Kai with his free hand. Both of them descended more slowly, but the crash still sent tremors across the ground.

Every single Awakened Monster was alerted by it.

And when Kai recovered from the impact and lifted his gaze, his breath was stolen away.

More than a dozen pairs of glowing eyes were staring at him.

The darkness swallowed their bodies entirely, but the height of their gleaming eyes told Kai everything he needed to know. These monsters were at least as large as the snake he had slain. Some were even bigger and stronger.

A cold weight settled in his stomach. "Ah, I’m in danger..."

Meanwhile, not too far away from the pit.

Three figures wearing cloaks and animal masks stood in front of a cave entrance.

"Lucky you, Professor Hera. Seems like one of your students is quite an interesting one," A professor wearing a bear-shaped white mask said while crossing his arms. "To think he would find the main mine and steal a lot of mana ores from it. Only a handful of students had done that in the past, and all of them are exceptional now."

"Indeed," Professor Hera smiled behind her mask. "He is going to be a handful in the future, I’m sure. Considering even Lion died at his hands." She gave a teasing glance at the other professor with a boar-shaped mask, Professor Richard.

She pushed her hair behind her ear and turned to the bear-shaped mask professor, Professor Ian.

"You also have fine twin High Angels. Shame what happened to one of them."

"A shame indeed."

Professor Richard clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

He had been Lion’s shadow throughout the third trial—the silent hand that helped him crush every obstacle. The two professors who had observed Lion’s tyranny had not forgotten. Their gazes now settled on him with cold, undisguised hostility.

It was a manageable problem. That is, if everything had gone as planned.

But Lion was no more.

And he couldn’t find the student who threw the knife.

Everything was for naught.

"Had your fun mocking me?" He barked. "This is unacceptable. We need to go and punish him for this. He’s a Lesser Angel! He can’t do something like this. It’s not his place to be exceptional."

"Hmm, is that so?" Professor Hera rubbed her chin in a pantomime of contemplation. "As you know, punishing a student requires the agreement of at least two professors." She pivoted smoothly toward Professor Ian. "Do you consent to the punishment of the Lesser Angel?"

"No. Not at all." Professor Ian answered with a shrug.

"So, that’s that," Professor Hera clapped her hands. "No punishment for the Lesser Angel."

Once again, Professor Richard was isolated.

He knew it would be like this after helping Lion that much, so Lion’s death was devastating.

Now, he became an enemy for practically nothing.

"I’ll go repair the walls again," Professor Ian entered the mine, leaving the two alone.

Professor Hera followed not long after, but stopped right beside Professor Richard. She placed her gentle hand against his shoulder and patted it, "If you want to be biased, then at the very least be smart about it and pick someone exceptional. Better luck next time."

"You—?!" He turned and pointed at Professor Hera’s back. "You did it... You’re the one who killed Lion, or at least helped!"

"That’s a really heavy accusation, professor," Professor Hera said without turning. "But you can think what you want.’

Back at the main camp.

It had been effectively one day since Kai had left the camp in order to handle his own problem.

Of course, the other students were confused and also worried when they heard the news.

All of them forgot that Kai had only one Divine Lock.

But still, Layra managed to calm them down and told them about his message.

Naturally, she also became the temporary leader until he came back, so they listened to her.

Most of the students had already opened their second Divine Lock, and now, there’s only one more before their team could march west and meet with the professors. In fact, their departure could happen as fast as dawn.

But tonight, sleeping was hard for them.

"PLEASE!! FREE ME! I’M SORRY!!"

Realizing that he had been overconfident about Lion, Snake was now begging to be freed.

It had been hours since he started to beg, but nobody heeded him.

"Should we do something about him?" Layra asked while staring at the struggling Snake.

"I don’t know," Dorian shrugged. "I don’t really care, to be honest."

"Kai told me to leave him there," A student near the bonfire chimed when he heard the conversation. "I think we ought to leave him there."

Just then, Layra saw something move in her periphery.

And when she turned and saw a figure emerging from the tree line, her face contorted.