I exerted a powerful vampiric presence in tandem with Lillian as a strong vortex of carmine mist grew around me.

One of them appeared to be using some sort of lightning, but it didn't matter. My presence sucked away all of the surrounding magic, turning this place into a bloody hell.

Their spells were broken even before they could complete them. I tried to become the mist like what Lillian used against Jinhyung, but I couldn't quite pull it off yet.

Rather, my body entered a middle state, my blood was constantly turning to a very condensed fog and vice versa, in a perfect equilibrium.

Even though I couldn't teleport, I became way faster. In a couple steps I stood over the figure that tried to use electric magic against me.

I wanted to kill her, no, I wanted to dry her out of her blood. Long claws formed around my fist as I aimed for her heart.

When my sharp claws dug into her skin, immeasurable pain scattered through my entire body.

—STOP

Black chains strapped all around my body digging into my skin.

[WHAT!!?]

My speech sounded akin to a monsters howl.

—You would've died if I didn't stop you. Your frenzy made you forget the rules.

The sudden pain made me quickly regain my wits, a metallic taste filled my mouth and threw up onto the ground.

I tried breaking my link with Lillian but the black chains wouldn't let me.

[GET OUT!].

—I can't, the seal is taking over. Using the black chains woke him up.

As the black chain tightened around me, an endless abyss opened before my eyes, slowly but surely, I was getting sucked in.

Suddenly, a blinding white light flew past me and broke the chains, I immediately regained control and broke the connection. Lillian's magic heavily faltered as the flames tore the black chains from her.

[I took a hit, I can't anymore... I need... rest.]

A large bit of my presence and my claws disappeared as soon as I lost my connection with Lillian, but some of the mist remained.

"You spared Lillian?"

He didn't bother even looking at me. "She stopped you, I cannot kill someone who saved you," he calmly uttered while analyzing the situation.

The mages that attacked me lost consciousness and laid on the ground.

Luckily, I was stopped before I could kill them. A chill ran down my spine, I lost my mind earlier, why? I forgot about the rules of the 'Rest Train' and was ready to kill. Was it due to the sudden escalation of the spell? Last time I used such a strong carmine mist I gave control to Lillian, maybe it offset the mental strain?

"Where is Pierre?"

"I killed about twelve illusions, then they stopped coming."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Illusions? That was the first time I heard about such an elaborated spell from the adventurers. And above all, Pierre wasn't weak?

One of the shadows moved near the capsules and grew to human size, then it gained form and finally it colours. Another copy.

"Oh well, well, well, my intimidation plan failed it seems. You were lucky I didn't have time to bring more people." As he finished his sentence, Jinhyung slashed and he disappeared as fast as he materialized.

"Fuck, I hate slippery bastards." Exclaimed Jinhyung, punching the wall.

Compared to my blood lusted frenzy earlier, a peculiar weakness started to slowly take over, I clearly used a bit too much strength at once. I leaned against the wall as my knees felt weak.

"What are we going to do with them?" I asked pointed toward unconscious mages.

"Nothing, murder is prohibited here, you seemed to have forgotten that earlier."

"Hey sorry, I overused my newfound powers and got drunk… It won't happen."

I wished I could swear such a thing, but in truth I too feared myself, I feared that I would lose my mind if I continued using the carmine mist.

I looked down at my palms and some of the mist gathered at will. I am already able to use this much on my own, am I talented or am I getting eaten away?

It didn't matter as I had no choice anyway, if I wanted to continue this adventure by Jinhyung's side I had to use this power.

----------------------------------------

Jinhyung didn't answer and silently walked. The robots had finished filling the new items in and I took a look over the magical artifacts.

Nothing special, some more amplifying wands and one use crystallized spells. I grabbed a one just in case, it was the most regular and unoriginal fireball.

New people arrived from the elevators and some screams could be heard. I wondered what weaklings would be shocked by some unconscious persons.

At least they wouldn't get dragged into a car and killed there. Was that even good news? Weren't they from an enemy group?

My judgment has been quite weird lately, not even ten minutes ago I wanted to gut them but now I felt relief knowing they would survive.

Was I overly emphatic right now or was I simply hardly human back then? Could someone be still human if it met the criteria only sometimes? A feeling of disgust started to germinate deep down my guts.

While I was lost in my wits, Jinhyung quickly refilled our consumables; he handed me a little leather kit with some regenerative elixirs and magic refilling potions.

He walked behind me and held me by the shoulder. I tensed due to the surprise.

"Listen, I know what you are thinking right now. It happens to everyone to lose themselves in their might, especially when their growth is as steep as yours. You are still Friedrich, and of course, human. Besides, don't push yourself this hard, you don't need to be anything other than yourself to have me by your side."

I felt a slight warmth within my core as Jinhyung's words started to wither out my worries bit by bit. A hard ball appeared in my throat, impairing my speech.

"Thank you," I managed to squeeze out, in a cracking voice.

"I will always be there to find you back if you ever lose yourself again."

"..."

My eyes felt wet. I couldn't answer, but I doubted I needed to. By the way, I noticed something new in him, he didn't blame Lillian? Was he getting to accept her more? I hoped so.

Quite a bunch of new people arrived from the elevators, some of them looked astray or in small groups but about seven of them clearly belonged to the same party.

They were all dressed in matte black cloth with two golden dragon heads embroidered on the arms, they somewhat resemble Jinhyung's hanbok but a bit different.

Jinhyung let go of me and turned around to examine them a bit closer.

"Are they the 'Heavenly Sect of the Twin Golden Dragon'?" Chuckled Jinhyung.

"I guess so? They have matching outfits at least…"

"They are laughably weak, they probably learned to imbue some box moves with magic and called it a martial sect, pathetic fools."

Was he that insecure about his arts? Without a doubt they were clearly universes behind Jinhyung, but was that really a good reason to be that rude?

Suddenly, a familiar metallic voice filled our heads.

[The third car will be open in twelve hours for the top ten ranking groups, it will be exclusive to them for half a day. Thank you for your patience.]

"Exclusive access? Does that confirm that…", I thought out loud.

"We will have to fight adventurers," Jinhyung completed my doubts.

Objectively speaking, we were quite above the average power level. Depending on the rules of the trial, we wouldn't lose in a one-on-one fight to anyone but the 'King'.

But things could get complicated if the whole team fought at once, there was no way we could fight against the whole mage coalition or any large groups.

"Don't worry, Fred, I doubt they could bring us down if we fight together. I believe in you."

I recalled the destruction that a single Jinhyung's attack, albeit consuming, caused to the first car. And I too wasn't so bad either, I had a rather large magic pool and with Lillian's help I could unleash a truly terrifying power upon them, so terrible in fact, I was even more scared of it than anyone.