Horror was in everyone's eyes. Each one of them has stopped running. They could see Cyziel struggling to keep himself from being pulled away by the tendrils that pierced and latched on his body. They knew that they do not have the power to help him. The only thing that they could do was to watch.

"Help him! Anyone!" Ru was crying. She wanted to help but Draka pulled her back. She had never felt this useless. She had always lived a great life, being born with a silver spoon. It was the first time that she wanted to be more powerful.

Vera also wanted to help. He was the first guy who defeated her. He was someone that she started to look up to without her noticing. She never thought that a day would come were she would think that she was so weak.

Volus, who was currently standing beside Cyziel, was racking his brain for solution. He tried to touch him but Cyziel casted a gust of wind spell and blew him back. Cyziel did not want anyone else to die with him.

"Get back! Go leave me!" Cyziel shouted.

Ortix stood up and wanted to charge again but hearing Cyziel shout, he stopped. He closed his eyes and gripped his fist. He was once again trying to muster all energy he can and it was all going to his forehead but nothing was happening.

Cyziel was lying flat on the ground. He was clasping hard at the doorway but the tendrils kept on piling up. He was losing strength to keep up. His body was beginning to disappear, starting from his feet. He was now not able to feel his legs. He was finally losing hope. The only thing he could do is to say his goodbye then he could let go. He would at least try to bring down the creature with all his energy left. At least try to injure it.

He smiled and then he looked forward. He wanted to see his friends one more time but what he saw was..

Lucia. She was kneeling on the floor. She didn't ran. Tears were falling from her eyes but she was still staring at him. She was actually scared of him. She was scared of the darkness in him. She was curious of what he was hiding. Was he actually some devil? But for some reason, right now, she could also see a little light in him but it was slowly starting to fade. It confused her but this time, none of that really mattered. The thought of him saving her life made her acknowledge that he was someone good.

Seeing Lucia, Cyziel suddenly had an epiphany. He heard a question that was asked of him previously. Is it because of the darkness within you? Lucia asked him that but thinking about it, Volus and Vera are also sensitive to light but they had never had a problem with him. Volus can be an exception because he also has both an affinity to light and dark but Vera was not.

Cyziel thought that it could only mean one thing. It was not the light and dark elements that she was seeing. She was probably seeing the remnants of the abyss energy within me but wouldn't Volus and Ortix also have those? Why does it seem that I was the only one that she was looking at strangely? Maybe she has the same special energy that I stored inside me. Wait! Its missing! Is it the reason why I can't remove my ring? No, there would be more time to think about it later. I just need to hope that my speculations are correct.

"Lucia! Lend me your divine energy!" Cyziel reached out his left hand. His legs had already disappeared. If his torso would also disappear completely then he might really die.

"I don't --" She wanted to say that she didn't know what he means but she was interrupted again by his pleads.

"Please!" Cyziel shouted.

She was still confused but she knew that she needed to grab that hand. She ran forward but the creature felt the sudden danger. It separated one of its tendrils and attacked Lucia. If it hit her, then it would be an instant death for her. She was not as strong as Cyziel. She dived towards Cyziel to dodge the tendril.

But it was not yet over, she was still a few meters away from him. She started to crawl towards him but the creature again attacked. This time the people behind her didn't just watch. They were first startled when Cyziel suddenly shouted but this time they need to protect her with all that they can.

Draka dashed forward and with her huge axe, she tried to cut the tendrils but it was too hard for her. Still, she was able to smack it to the right and it was not able to immediately retract and come back for Lucia. Volus made a string of white light that entangled with the tendril. He was pulling on it. Seeing what Volus did, Vera channeled all her light energy on the string made by Volus.

Another tendril separated and it was again going for Lucia who was crawling on the ground. Ortix immediately dashed. He placed all his strength on his fist and he tried to smash it down. He then pulled his two daggers, injected it with a lot of aether, then stabbed it downards. The dagger was able to pierce the tendril and it was able to impale it to the metastone ground. Yes. The special material the dagger was made of was able to pierce the metastone ground. But the dagger was too short, the wiggling tendrils would soon be able to pull itself out.

Seeing what was happening, Jorak dashed forward then threw his sword towards Ortix. Ortix caught it then used it to stab again the tendril. It was successful. This time, it won't be able to escape. A lot of things has occurred but all of this has only happened in an instant.

Lucia was now in front of Cyziel. She reached out her left hand then the two hands joined together. She could feel herself getting exhausted. Cyziel was right. She possessed a little bit of divine energy inside her. She has an affinity with the divine. He absorbed the energy within her as it flowed through his hand. He then looked at his pinky finger.

The ring was materializing. The once invisible ring that the others cannot perceive was now discernable. It was a beautiful gold and silver ring. Cyziel has no time to be mesmerized by his own ring. He let go of Lucia's hand then he let go of his right hand that was clasping at the doorway. He was immediately pulled away by the creature. He touched the ring with his right hand then pulled it off. When the ring left his finger, it suddenly vanished to nothingness.

Aether energy gushed out from within Cyziel. All the tendrils latching at him were burned away. His aether body was being recreated. His legs that become incorporeal was now becoming physical again and all his injuries seemed to be recovering. Even the aether energy of everyone seemed to be regenerating at fast speed. Cyziel pushed the ground to help him stand up. He then turned around to look at the creature behind him.

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In this instance, there was no fear in his eyes. There was only anger. He was walking towards the creature and around him was an aura of aether. He was now able to combat the nether energy that the creature was releasing. No. He was overwhelming it. Each step he made burned the aura around the creature. The creature released more nether energy but it seemed pitiful compared to the aether being released by Cyziel.

The creature tried to fight back. It lashed again with its tendrils but it has no effect. It would burn away when it got close to Cyziel. It was the same when Cyziel bombarded him with magic but its nether aura burned the spells away. But this time, the tables have turned. It tried to run away but Cyziel would not let it go.

The air became heavy. No it became as still like a solid. The creature tried to move but it could only wiggle for a bit.

"That magic! He stopped all the air particles!" Vera shouted, her knowledge of magic made her understand the difficulty of the magic Cyziel has casted. "That's an air lock! I have read it in the list of high level spells but I have never seen anyone who could cast that! You would need quite a lot of wind essence and aether essence to use that."

Ortix was now smiling. They finally won again against the odds. He cannot count how many times they had a miracle. "Nothing is impossible against that guy. Specially if he took his ring off. To be honest its quite underwhelming compared to the first time I saw him take it off. Probably because he was still recovering like me."

Cyziel's rings were there to help him when he was young. It helped him control and master elemental spells that he tried to study. But as he grew older, it kind of became useless to him. It was only in Daraksta that he was able to learn that the rings were also a restriction of some kind. He has only been able to take two of his rings off but that enabled him to combat an abyssal lord. With a huge sacrifice and the help of his friends, they were also able to beat it.

He continued to walk towards the creature and stopped before it. "You actually scared me back there. I thought I was almost a goner and I was afraid that you would also kill my friends. Additionally, you have killed a lot of my people so just think of this as a revenge. Do not worry, since you used my people then I will also use you."

He reached out his hand on the spherical black creature and gripped it. His hand was just on top of the creature. It was currently facing away from him. He was injecting pure aether in the body of the creature. It started to screech loudly but he ignored it. "Boom!" It's body exploded. Condensed pure nether energy was released in the air. Then it rushed out towards Cyziel. He was absorbing all the energy it released until nothing was left of it.

He turned around and a smile was again in his face. "This is considered winning right?" He did not just win. It was an overwhelming victory. Everyone wanted to rush to him but then Lucia fainted. It was Cyziel who rushed to her and so did the rest.

"Is she alright?" Ru asked. She was worried that the creature was actually able to hit her but she was not able to see any visible injuries.

Cyziel touched Lucia's forehead. He was trying to check the status of her body. "She's okay. She is just exhausted. I tried to forcefully extract her divine energy because there was no time."

"How did you know that she got divine energy?" Volus asked inquisitively. Everyone then looked at Cyziel. They were also curious when he started to shout.

Cyziel scratched his head. "Uhmm.. It was just an intelligent guess!" He chuckled.

Everyone didn't find it funny because if his guess was wrong then he would most likely die but since it actually worked out, they didn't reprimand him anymore.

"But your ring. Why did you think you need divine energy to materialize it?" Volus added.

"Believe it or not. Divine energy is the only energy I don't have any affinity so I can't generate it by myself but for some reason I was able to acquire it while we are fighting in Daraksta. I don't know where I got it but you should know I could absorb any energy and essence inside my body." Cyziel shook his head. "I actually only noticed that the divine energy I stored was already missing when I looked at Lucia so it might be a requirement to remove my ring."

"So you can't just take it off whenever you like?" Ortix found it strange but it does make sense since he remembered that Cyziel told them before that the first time he took it off was in Daraksta.

"Yep. Quite a bummer really. It means I would need to be thrifty with the energy I stole from Lucia." Cyziel sighed. "I could probably only use it one other time."

"Then does that mean that without divine energy..... I am stronger than you?" Ortix started laughing. He was actually just joking but it might actually be true.

"You could try me anytime!" Cyziel confidently said. "Okay. Let's go. I'll carry Lucia. Let us make use of the time before my ring starts to come back."

Cyziel stood up carrying Lucia in front of him. Ru was looking at the two of them while Jorak was smirking at her. Draka offered to carry her instead but Cyziel refused. It was a way for him to thank her.

They were not able to appreciate the atrium before due to the darkness that covered it. But right now, they could see how big and beautiful it was. It was like inside of a cathedral. The floor and walls was made of an alloy of gold and metastone. There should have been a hanging chandelier in the middle but it was now missing. There were fallen lamppost that are not giving off light anymore.

The ceiling has an image of a man holding some kind of spherical artifact and behind him were a lot of people following him. They seemed to be going towards a barrier. Behind the barrier seemed to be an art of nature.

"Where should we go?" Ru asked. "This place was really well made! It was like our churches." She was the only one who was actually admiring the beauty of the place.

"This place should be a trial room." Cyziel was observing the area around. "There should be something hidden here."

"How did you know that?" Jorak asked.

"No point in hiding it anymore. I could understand the symbols." Cyziel turned to Ru. "Sorry for lying!"

The people wanted to ask Cyziel some more things but there was no time for that. They went around the atrium to check for some hidden secrets.

"Here!" Vera shouted. She was standing in the northern part of the atrium. There was a broken altar in front of her.

The group walked towards it and they saw a trap door underneath it. The creature might not have been smart enough to check it. They opened the door and there was a stairs going even further down. The group immediately rushed in. They needed to make use of the time that Cyziel was in his peak.

Cyziel, on another hand, has lots of questions in his mind. Since this was made by his people then what was its purpose. Why didn't he knew it before? Why would a creature like that appear here? Was that the trial that was written on the entry of the hallway? Or might it be something else?

Another pathway was seen underground but fortunately there was no marks of danger that were found. It was just a straight silent path for them. It didn't take long for them to reach its end. What they saw was a room as high as the atrium before. In front of them was a huge white wall with a huge opening in the middle. It was a large golden archway. There were also symbols in the wall. Like the "Harmony of speech", some magic was casted in it. Everyone was able to understand what was written in it.

The symbol in the left side of the archway says...

"A Trial of This World"

While what was written on the right side was..

"The Labyrinth of Beginning"

Cyziel knew that this part was not created by his people. The symbols were not written by them. The materials used in the wall are also not familiar to him. The wall's appearance was similar to a white marble with golden streaks in it but it was giving off an otherworldly feeling. Whoever created this was beyond his understanding.