[Bonus thanks to Chronotitan <3]
Sylas and Nosphaleen shot through the air with a blazing pace. With their Wills meshed into one, Sylas might not have been sure what his stats were currently, but what he did know was that it was fast enough to cut through this desert in what felt like the blink of an eye.
Nyssa hadn’t been lying. The later you joined, the more troublesome it was to participate in the Trial. The fact that it was so lax with their starting times to begin with was already odd, but that was because what the organization was testing was very different from what one might be expecting.
The Petals of the Seeing Thorn was an information network, and it rewarded the resourcefulness of its women, not their individual strength, though the latter of these two was certainly helpful.
However, observing the progression of those that entered before you was obviously still a bit cheap. So when new participants entered, they did so from worse starting positions, both in terms of distance to travel and dangers to face.
Yet, one would think that Sylas was making a joke of their Trials.
Every time an earthen creature rose from the sandy dune, Nosphaleen’s body would simply flick out a finger, and they would lose their heads.
Fast, deadly, and without the slightest hesitation.
Rivers of blood streamed, and the browned golden sand was dyed through in a rusty color and odor.
…
In the outside world, Nyssa watched with a slight twitch in her lips. Sylas hadn’t explained to her what he was going to do, but he knew that Nosphaleen was someone that called him master. She was so completely obedient—and beautiful, for that matter—that it was hard for her not to take second, third, and fourth looks at her.
Nyssa wasn’t opposed to Nosphaleen’s appearance. One of her best friends, the woman standing right by her side this moment, was also from a snake-like Race. But this…
When had a woman so powerful appeared?
She was an Overlord of their galaxy, or else there wouldn’t even be a chance to join in the first place. So how had such an outstanding woman gone unnoticed for so very long?
“Who did you bring, Nyssa?” Erythra practically gasped out.
Those creatures were all at least Level 30, and not normal Level 30s either. They were probably at least F+ Grades as well, and there was just such a shocking number of them.
Sylas had barely crossed a kilometer, but he had already come across four of them. In fact, they only seemed to be appearing more and more rapidly as the commotion they triggered increased.
In response, the number of people paying attention to this new recruit also increased.
…
Nosphaleen’s tail swayed, and large streams of energy took shape. Sparkling scales of silver danced beneath the sunlight, her wings spreading out and casting a large shadow on the land beneath.
The power coursing through her right now was intoxicating. She was very much aware that she was fused with Sylas right now, but she wanted more….
Sylas found that Nosphaleen was giving more and more of herself away to him, as though she wanted to experience what it felt like to be him—to be on top of the world.
He gladly obliged.
Three earthen wyverns leapt out from the soil at once, their long, snaking bodies twisted and causing whirlpools in the sandy dunes below. In that moment, it looked as though the entire desert had sunken an entire several meters, holes of unfathomable depths opening up beneath them.
Sylas spread out Nosphaleen’s arms, his Rune control coming back a measure as Nosphaleen released more control to him.
Chi.
Their fingers only pressed out three times, and a bloody hole appeared in three heads the size of small hills. The wounds seemed too tiny, so insignificant. And yet, in a breath of time, their Wills had been completely and wholly snuffed out.
They didn’t stop in the air for even a moment, blasting through the encirclement as the desert gave way to cracked lands, and then from cracked lands to sparse grass, before finally becoming a long river extending from what looked like an almost barren ocean.
The ocean was dark and so salted, just standing above it made Sylas’ nose twitch. The beach near it was rock and salt formations, forming seas of grey, white, and black that played off of one another.
But the river looked even more eerie in a way, its winding body looking particularly black, almost like oil running across smooth rock and bending to the paths of the shores.
To the other side, however, there was a forest. Though it started off sparse, the further into the distance you went, the more beautiful it became, until green-capped mountains could be seen in the far-off landscape.
‘Interesting…’
Sylas felt his perception being warped here. His Luck was telling him that Cassarae was in the direction of the greenergy, but something felt off about it.
He tilted his head slightly, trying to get in touch with more of his Rune Mastery. He hadn’t realized until now just how much Total Merge dimmed his Rune usage ability, but clearly Gogo being a blank slate made that much harder to notice in the past. It seemed he would have to factor this in more as Gogo matured.
Nosphaleen seemed enamored with the feeling of Sylas’ strength, so she relinquished more, and slowly, an odd picture began to form in Sylas’ mind.
‘Hm… A maze…’
Sylas realized what was happening.
Both directions were correct. One was shorter than the other. Somehow, the dead sea was the better option. The green forest was the worst option.
The deadly river was the best option.
‘There has to be another clue here somewhere,’ Sylas thought. ‘The level of Rune Mastery you would need to figure it out like I did is way too high.’
Sylas knew more about his relative position in the world now. He knew that none of the participants could possibly be expected to do what he did just now. Which meant…
‘I see…’