Chapter 400: Lucky to be alive
Vrooom!
Boom!
The beam struck the ground around Zenith and Isla, scorching the grass beneath their feet and sending a wave of heat rippling outward.
Elion tensed instinctively.
For a brief moment, he was worried something had gone wrong. But Zenith looked toward him through the radiant light.
She was smiling. She raised one hand and gave him a thumbs-up before blowing him a playful kiss.
Elion released a breath of relief and smiled back.
The figures of Zenith and Isla gradually began to blur.
Their bodies became faint and indistinct as the brilliant pillar stretched endlessly into the sky, carrying them upward until they seemed to merge with the radiance itself.
Then they vanished. The light lingered for a few seconds longer before fading away completely.
All that remained was a scorched circle etched into the ground, along with several strange markings burned into the surrounding earth.
Elion stared at the empty space for a moment.
No doubt, the sudden appearance of such a massive pillar of light would cause quite a bit of alarm back in Haven.
But that hardly mattered now. They would be leaving this world soon as well.
A familiar notification appeared before his eyes.
[Time Remaining Until All Participants Are Teleported Out of the Trial World and Into the Second Trial: 57 Seconds]
Aeron and Zenovia were still staring at the scorched ground in wonder. Eventually, they snapped out of their daze. By then, fewer than ten seconds remained.
The three of them exchanged meaningful glances. There was no telling where the next trial would send them.
No telling whether they would remain allies.
No telling whether they would even see one another again.
Aeron smiled faintly.
"I wish you both the best of luck."
"Likewise," Elion replied with a smile of his own.
Zenovia nodded lightly, "Try not to die."
Elion raised a brow, "That almost sounded like concern."
Zenovia scoffed, "Do not flatter yourself."
The final three seconds began to pass. Each one sounded like the deep toll of a gong rolling across the sky.
Three.
Two.
One.
The timer reached zero.
[Congratulations on completing the First Trial, Aspirants.]
The layered female voices echoed through the air once again after what felt like an eternity.
[However, this is only the beginning.]
[Good luck completing the remainder of your trials.]
A single chime rang out as the voices faded. Elion felt a sudden heaviness settle over his mind.
His vision blurred.
The world around him slowly dimmed as his consciousness began slipping away. Aeron and Zenovia were still standing nearby, but their figures soon became little more than vague silhouettes against the dark plains.
Then even those silhouettes disappeared. The world faded completely, and Elion’s vision went dark.
...
Back in Elion’s world, Reinhardt was scouting the area near the Church’s territory, close to the border of the Great Forest, when a deep, reverberating hum suddenly echoed down from the heavens.
Vrrrrm!
He raised his head sharply.
A brilliant white pillar of light descended from the blue sky, striking the earth several hundred metres away with enough force to illuminate the surrounding forest in an ever brighter light.
"What in the Goddess’ name is that?"
Reinhardt watched the radiant pillar for several seconds before it vanished as abruptly as it had appeared.
The disturbance sent countless birds fleeing from the surrounding trees. They scattered into the air in a frantic swarm, flying away from the impact point and passing overhead in the opposite direction.
Reinhardt frowned.
He immediately circulated mana throughout his body and burst forward, crossing the distance at great speed.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the source of the disturbance.
His eyes narrowed.
A massive, smouldering crater had formed in the earth where the pillar had landed. A thick cloud of billowing smoke rose upward from its depths, and the grass surrounding the impact site had been scorched black.
Reinhardt raised a protective barrier around himself before leaping into the crater. His boots struck the steep, burning slope, and he slid downward through the smoke until he reached the flattened ground at the bottom.
For a moment, he could see very little as the smoke gradually began to clear well enough to see. The sight waiting for him below made his body stiffen in shock and fear.
Two women stood at the centre of the crater.
Both of them were breathtakingly beautiful, perhaps even comparable to the Holy Mother and Holy Daughter. Reinhardt had never seen either of those two clearly without their veils, so he could not make a fair comparison, but the pair before him were easily among the most beautiful women he had ever laid eyes upon.
One of them appeared human while the other had striking blue skin. And she was the one who made fear grip Reinhardt’s heart.
The pressure radiating from her body was terrifying. It’s depth felt comparable to the aura he had sensed from the Holy Mother.
No, perhaps it was even stronger. It definitely felt much more unfathomable. Like a bottomless abyss, he could stare into forever without ever glimpsing its end.
For several long seconds, Reinhardt forgot how to breathe. The blue-skinned woman looked toward him, and their eyes met within the rising smoke.
His entire body shuddered, and the strength drained from his legs, and his knees struck the scorched ground before he could stop himself.
He wanted to speak, to beg for mercy. To insist that he had seen nothing and would tell no one what he had witnessed here.
But his voice refused to leave his throat. Clearly, he had stumbled upon something he was never meant to see.
A figure of this woman’s strength could kill him with little more than a thought, silencing him before he had the chance to take another breath.
In his terror, Reinhardt did not even register the obvious implications of her blue skin.
Perhaps, if he had realised that the overwhelming figure standing before him was a demon, his fear would have been mixed with fury.
Fortunately for him, Zenith spared him little more than a passing glance. She reached for the other woman’s hand, and both of them vanished without leaving the slightest trace behind.
The crushing pressure disappeared with them.
Reinhardt collapsed forward, catching himself with both hands as he began coughing and gasping desperately for air.
It took him several moments to force himself back onto his feet. He stared at the empty crater, his face pale and his breathing unsteady.
He had no idea what he had just encountered.
But one thing was certain: he was extraordinarily lucky to still be alive.
