Satoshi, who was still slightly dizzy from being smashed into the ground, had to come up with a new strategy. His teleportation wouldn't work, and without it he was unable to withstand lomger periods of attack from Yuki. But she wouldn't give him the time to think, as she immediately ripped a tree out of the ground with gravitational magic and threw it at him, hiding behind it to move with it towards him. Satoshi however saw it coming and casted another hammer, this time only one that was perfectly out of Yuki's eye sight because of the tree. The hammer swung on the invisible axis and completely crushed the tree, with Yuki behind it who was barely able to react due to how fast it actually was. She managed to cast a protective barrier that was instantly destroyed upon collision with the hammer, which then hit her directly and threw her away. She managed to slow herself down just before she hit the ground, after falling down completely limp. That actually hurt a lot.
"…"
"I told you, you are too weak. I wonder why Yamato keeps you around. I guess you managed to protect him last time. But I'm sure he's already dealt with now. Seeing as you are here and he's alone now."
"…"
"Won't you say anything? You're about to lose, y'know? One who loses quietly does so out of shame."
"......….."
"You private wonder why it matters to me so much. The thing is… Like I said, I've been all alone… My family is very wealthy, yet I can't buy happiness. It's always been said, yet I tried. Loneliness is the curse of the talented, which not even money can lift… It really hurt me when I thought I found someone, just for it all to be for nothing. It's like, hey look, the thing I always searched for! Just for it to be a hallucination… An illusion… A fata morgana. Whatever you want to call it. A new depth of despair. Truly the lowest low point of happiness… It is-"
He gets cut off as Yuki dashes forward, grabs his neck and throws him all the way down onto the ground again. However this time he created a fluffy shadow cloud, to soften the fall. But Yuki didn't just throw him, she flew after him and stomped onto his stomach, kicking him right through his fluffy shadow cloud into the ground where he completely crash lands. The force almost knocked him out, if not killed him. But the cloud still softened it just enough to prevent that. She then grabbed his his collar and flew straight through trees, with him as shield so his body was used to burst through each tree, leaving a clean hole behind as they flew into the next one. After about twenty or so, he lost count, she stopped, holding him in the air. As he was about to say something, nothing but a cry of pain, she threw him onto the ground again and dragged him on the ground, while flying around with no real aim, just to lift him up every now and then to punch him right back into the ground while moving. It was a miracle he survived. Well, not really as he used every defensive spell he knew to not just die the next time she threw him down. He was severely wounded already, with multiple broken bone, scratches and bruises everywhere multiple teeth punched out. He couldn't feel most of his body anymore, but the parts he did feel all hurt. Yuki noticed a near by mountain, at the edge of the exam border, marked of course by a barrier. She took him there, pushing him directly into a cliff. But behind the cliff was a cave or something like it, so the both just broke the wall and flew right through it into the cave. For some reason, her wings appeared and was not able to hide them anymore, which irritated her. It was completely dark and the only light shined in through the hole they just created. But even that light was dim as she had blocked the sun. And that she could navigate with was a sound of a liquid dripping on the ground. In her surprise of crashing through the wall and her wings appearing , she must have let go of Satoshi, who was not in her grip anymore. She lit a flame on her finger tip and as she did, she saw Satoshi, who was pierced through the stomach by a spear-like rock on a wall. The sound from earlier was his blood dripping from the stone.
"Oops…"
She didn't quite know what to do now. He was still alive, but he wouldn't be for long. She tried to use healing magic, but she couldn't for some reason. Just like she couldn't ise her disguise spell to hide her wings.
Just as she was thinking, she heard footsteps at the hole to the cave. As they got closer, everything just seemed to go south right now. Suddenly a hand pulled up on the edge of the hole, climbing into the cave was…
"Yuki, I've been searching everywhere for you and-…"
"…Hey, Master!"
"Okay, what the fuck…"
"It was already like this when I got here!"
"I leaver you alone for a day, Yuki…"
"You said I can deal with him any way I want!"
"…"
"Besides, it was a genuine accident…"
"Why didn't you heal him then? And why are your wings visible…"
"I can't, and I don't know…"
"What do you mean you can't and don't know…"
I can't use healing magic right now and also not hide my wings and I don't know why!"
"When did your wings appear?"
"When I entered the cave…"
"You mean when you made that hole in the wall?"
"Yes…"
"Go outside for a monent."
"But…!"
"Just-… Do what I tell you to."
"Fine…"
As she left the cave, her wings disappeared again.
"That's strange… That's super strange, Master!"
"So it is… So what happened here?"
"Well, I tried healing him when I noticed he was still alive and-"
"-He's alive… And you tell me that now?"
"You didn't ask!"
"Okay, that's fair… Just… Fuck, Yuki this…"
"And he has the objective."
"…Great."
"Should we…"
"Shut up for a second… Or like, 10…"
"...…."
"Okay… Okay…"
He walks over to Satoshi who can only groan in response due to his injuries, both Yuki inflicted and the rock, which is also Yuki inflicted. He walks up and puts a hand on his neck and one under his chin.
"Shhh… It's alright… I have a potion, that will work even if magic doesn't. You need to stay absolutely calm, okay? Just relax…"
Yamato's voice was so soothing that despite the pain, Satoshi relaxed. Then Yamato snapped his neck.
"Oh… That's one way to do it…"
"Sigh… He saw your wings, heard us and just knew too much. Now we need to lose this exam."
"Whaat?"
"Don't think I didn't notice what you did… We talk about this when the exam is over. Now we need to lose since he was the one carrying the objective, and therefore us having it would just be like admitting we killed him. Since this place prevents even you from using magic, the school will not be able to know anything either. Unless they come here personally… Which is why we have to hide the body."
"Ooh, like in a murder mystery movie!"
"…Once class 1 won by getting our objective, the exam will be over… Then Satoshi missing will become evident. Tell me about your fight. Did he tell you anything about himself?"
Yuki told Yamato about their entire exchange, word for word while he searched Satoshi's pockets.
"Sounds like he'd be the type to… Disappear after being disappointed by his opponents, leaving without telling anyone in search for someone who is strong enough to understand him. All I need for that is… Ah, there it is."
Yamato found a note book in Satoshi's jacket.
"I knew he'd be the type to have one on him, with all the philosophical talk he did with you…"
"Do you have a notebook on you, Master?"
"What? No, why would I? Anyway, with this I can copy his handwriting and forge a letter in which he officially drops out."
"Ah, like you forged prof. Reeds handwriting whem writing the secret rule in the test exam!"
"Exactly. This seems like a big cave. Look if there are any deep drops and then drop him in there."
"Okay!"
She walked around for a bit, as Yamato wrote the letter with paper from the notebook.
"Master, I found something! You should take a look at this one though…"
"Just throw it in. I'm almost finished."
"The hole is fine, but there's something else here!"
"What now…"
He went to where Yuki was. There was an engraving in the wall.
"Looks like a text… But I don't recognize the language. Can you read that?"
"Uhm… Let's see… So, it looks like a language that was used in the early days of humanity, like one of the first actual languages. I never kept too much track of that… Kinda boring, y'know?"
"Can you read it or not?"
"Sure I can! It reads the following… Ahem,
The sky will turn dark. The ground will be burned. The air will be polluted. Death spread across the ground.
The sins of mankind will come down to earth as 7 chosen prophets, that shall end the world for all its evil.
The four heirs of justice shall fight to the death to save the world.
One of the heirs shall take on the heritage of the duty that comes with the title of Sage."
"Sounds like a doomsday prophecy… And Sage? Heirs of justice? Some kind of heroic figures… Sins, seven prophets… Maybe the seven deadly sins… But why prophets? As in, incarnations? The beginning sounds like a war, burned ground, death on the ground as in bodies and dirty air and sky… Is that all?"
"Well, it looks like when we crashed in here some stones got thrown over here and stretched against the wall… At the bottom seems to be a whole chunk broken off, probably fell into the hole here where I wanted to dump the body."
"Well, it sounds finished… But maybe not… We'll see. Let's get this over with. We have a lot to do still."