"It looks like some of them have let down their guard" Gradier Xanatus said internally while watching the participants on the screens.
"RELEASE THE MOBICLES!" He commanded with a loud voice.
Within the test location, the participants suddenly paused whatever they were doing when they sensed something.
Vrrrmmmmm! Vrrrmmmmm! Vrrrrmmmm!
Openings were formed high above the ground.
It looked like the space was torn open, forming circular blue tunnels in the air.
Swweeii! Swweeii! Swweeii! Swweeii!
Baby palm-sized blue machines started raining down from above.
These small machines were spherical and had very smooth surfaces. Thousands of them were dropping from the sky.
Everyone was surprised at the sudden development.
The group of participants that sat down to rest were about to jump to their feet when the ground started quaking.
Dhmmm! Ghrmmm!
Most mixedbloods lost their footing, but surprisingly they didn't fall.
They didn't fall because the grass below their feet had grown in length and coiled around their legs without most participants realizing what was going on.
When this was happening, some participants noticed it and found a way to protect themselves while others didn't.
The participants that the plants grabbed made use of their bloodline abilities to free themselves from the grip of the plants. However, in the process of doing that, the weird spherical machines falling from above made contact with the ground.
Skrryhh!
The ground split open in different places, immediately contact was made.
"KIAARRHHH!"
Screams rang out as several participants fell into the openings on the ground after they finished escaping from the entanglement of the plants.
Some were unable to free themselves from the entanglement and were thrown into the plants' openings.
Due to the unique chain of events, more mixedbloods were disqualified at this point.
Those who could escape the cracks and opening points on the floor moved to a safer spot.
They stared at the landscape ahead with a look of bewilderment.
The spherical machines glowed green before burrowing into the ground and disappearing.
Right before their very eyes, the structure of the entire landscape started changing.
Small golden-coloured rivers began to appear ahead, along with mountains and trees.
Some grass patches became bigger and taller. The grasses with sentience started thrashing around all in a bid to grab the nearby participants.
A sky also suddenly appeared high above.
The participants could see clouds with their blue colour, but the yellow sun was missing. In place of the sun, the participants could only see the green ball of light they were supposed to follow.
Everything in the space looked so real that it could be compared to normal outdoors. The only differences that the participants could spot were the golden rivers and the green ball of light that replaced the sun.
The outlook of the entire landscape had gone through an unbelievable transformation.
"I knew getting to the blue light wasn't going to be as easy as they were making it out to be," Gustav muttered while observing his surroundings.
He stood at the top of a small thirty-meter-tall rock and stared at the landscape ahead while activating God's eyes.
"The changes were caused by those machines. Such immense energy... Able to transform the environment to whatever the MBO wishes for it to be," Gustav said as he furrowed his eyebrows.
The rock he was currently standing on wasn't there at first. It also came into existence after the spherical machines rained down from the sky.
Gustav was also surrounded by plants that tried to hold him down, but he destroyed them easily.
When the rock sprouted out of the ground, he leaped onto it to check the vicinity from a higher point.
He was able to see the high amount of energy points each machine had, and he determined after an observation that the little machines caused the change.
"Hmm? It looks like it was not only the surface structure that changed... Things just got a little more interesting," Gustav said with a smile on his face.
Several thousand meters ahead of his standing point, Gustav could see a small forest that had blue and yellow trees.
"What a good cover-up," Gustav said while staring ahead.
They were still very far from his position, but he was able to see the trees and what awaited within.
Gustav jumped down from the rock and dashed forward with speed.
He had no intention of avoiding the forest.
If Gustav wanted to travel around the forest, he would have to turn left or right, but since the start of the second phase, he hadn't changed trajectory as everyone did.
Everyone travelled in a straight line because they felt that changing trajectory would increase the time it would take for them to reach the green ball of light.
Gustav felt that everyone was probably transported to positions where they only had to keep moving forward to get to the ball.
Turning towards the left or right would mean you were travelling in the wrong direction, but that didn't mean you couldn't get back on track by simply turning to face the large glowing ball in the distance.
Swoooshhh!
Gustav arrived within the forest in a few seconds and streaked past the yellow and blue trees.
The forest was so dense that the leaves from different trees formed large canopies that covered the entire region, causing the vicinity to look dark blue and yellow due to the colour of the trees.
Swhhhii!
A circular blade with numerous spikes on its edges suddenly flew across the air towards Guatav's chest from up a tree thirteen feet away. Due to the number of leaves covering the tree, this blade was well concealed and wouldn't be noticed until it was about three feet away from making contact.
Swerve~
Gustav moved his body towards the side immediately the blade was sent out, dodging it with ease.
As the blade travelled past him, it was in fairly slow motion from his point of view.
He could see it clearly as it travelled forward. It was as big as a person's head, blue with a yellow light beeping on its surface.
Gustav stretched out his hand and grabbed the blade, hindering its movement.
Grip!
His strong grip on the blade stopped its spinning immediately.
Gustav quickly spun around and flung the blade back to the direction it was sent from.