Asada continued to walk forward at a steady pace, growing closer and closer to the crystal enemies before her.

Once she drew close enough, they all attacked simultaneously. Each of the five enemies blocked a direction of escape.

Keeping focus, Asada barley shifted her position. With a simple flick of the wrist, a circular slice was made all around her, cutting the entire group of crystal enemies in two. The pure power behind the attack even managed to cause the top half of three of the enemies to burst into pieces. The remaining two then cowered in fear.

"I see, so these creatures are capable of feelings." she said. "Which mean their acts of aggression could have meaning behind them." Asada proceeded to slowly approach the immobilized crystal monsters. Once arriving, she shattered both of their heads with her foot. "However, whatever that meaning is.. is irrelevant. They put my life at risk, so no matter what, they needed to be killed."

Further up the tunnel, a massive amount of the crystal beings pulled themselves out of the walls, just like their predecessors. Asada didn't give them much time to live, though. She sprinted down the hall, and used her scythe to shatter heads, slice torsos, and make many piles of tiny crystal.

"Would you say that you have been impressed?" Cereo asked Blank, looking as if he thought there was a chance that he'd say yes.

"Tch, please. Not in the slightest. While she's certainly more impressive than you, it takes much more than that to reach my level."

After defeating all that stood before her, Asada lightly panted. She turned back to look at her three temporary companions, and made a slight gesture with her head. "Well, are you all coming?"

"Yes, yes of course." Firose happily joined her. "Wow, you really are amazing Asada! You were right, those things didn't stand a chance!"

"Thank you. And yes, it's as I said, losing to something like them is something I can't afford."

With that, the group resumed their journey through the tunnel. Nothing noteworthy occurred for sometime, and conversations continued.

"Hey uhh, Blank?" Firose tugged on his coat.

"Hm? What is it that you need?"

"Nothing in particular I just.. wanna get to know you better since we'll be traveling together for a while. I mean, right now we're basically strangers, this should make things a little less weird ya know?"

Blank sighed, and placed his hands into his coat pockets. "Unlike most, you've made a valid point. It's not like there's much else to do on this walk anyway. Fine then, we'll converse."

"Hehe.." Letting out a small giggle, Firose looked around. "Alright then, well, I wanted to ask some things. Firstly, I think the most important part about someone is what their goals are. You know, why are they here. What's their reason for living." She looked up at him. "I'm sorry if it's too deep but, what's yours? Your.. reason for living?"

Blank didn't answer for a while. He kept his head forward. "My reason for living, huh?" he finally said. "That certainly is a deep question. Especially for your first."

"I know, sorry about that. You don't have to answer if-.."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"Let's start with Queen Myosis, I'm sure you've heard of her."

Firose smiled warmly for a moment, but then it faded. "Not exactly, you see where I'm from, there isn't really a single noteworthy person living there. Seeing as how we're super far away from the capital, nobody bothers sending any news our way. The ruler we last heard of was King Myosis, but I guess I can put two and two together to figure out who the queen is. Is it his wife?"

"Daughter." Blank responded. "King Myosis is dead, and I'd rather not speak of what happened to his wife." his eyes shifted ever so slightly into a faintly noticeable look of distraught. "His death is actually why we're here. The parasites we've been speaking of take over the body of a human, and alter their personality for five years before transforming them into a disgusting monster. That pathetic oaf Cereo claims he's developed a cure, but the source of the infection must be eliminated first."

"Yeah.. I was wondering why taking that thing out was so important."

Blank nodded. "But that's not what we're discussing... let's get back to the Queen. When I was younger, she took me into her household as an orphan. Behind her fathers back.. she was such an idiot. She claimed that she saw something in me, something that was special, and that even if it was against the King's will, I would be joining the Royal Guardians."

The eyes of Firose were glowing with curiosity. "Royal Guardians... they sound important."

"Important is an understatement, members of the Royal Guardians are among the strongest beings on the planet. They directly serve the throne, so you can probably guess how shocked I was."

"Super shocked." Firose said in a serious tone.

"Tchh.. uh, yes. Super shocked." Blank's blindfolded eyes scanned many of the shining crystals they had been walking past for hours. "At that time, I was nothing. Just a kid who lived his life awaiting a parent to take him in. To this day, I'm still in the dark when it comes to what happened to my blood relatives. They could have died in a tragic accident, or they may have been scumbags. It doesn't matter much to me, because I never had a relationship with them. Who I did have a relationship with though, was Myosis. She's the one who raised me, taught me, and created the weapons I use today. Believe it or not, the Queen is an exceptional inventor when she has the time."

"Awh, you're really lucky to have someone like that. I grew up all by myself. I was given necessities by the people in my town, but no one ever told me I was special. Especially not someone like the queen!"

Blank smirked. "I am pretty lucky, and grateful." he then tightly clenched a fist. "It's why I'd do anything she asks, without hesitation."

The look on Firose's face was neutral, but quickly turned into one filled with glee. "That makes me so happy for you Blank! Really... even though I don't know you all that well, it makes me glad anyway."

"I suppose I should give my thanks, then."

"Can I ask you something else?"

"What?"

"..why are you so mean sometimes?"

The two's conversation was interrupted when up ahead, finally, something of note appeared.

It was yet another person grasping a staff, only this time they were male. Something that didn't change, however, was that they stood in front of a large gate.

"Ah, splendid. You all have arrived." he said.

Asada stopped, and calmly peered forward. "And who are you?"

"It's rather obvious." Blank growled. "Seeing as how this low life is nearly identical to the women at the other gate, this is going to be another sickening test."

"Hm? What other gate?"

"Nngh.. what..? You're joking with me, right?"

"No. This is the first gate I've come upon."

"What an interesting revelation." Hand on his chin, Cereo thought out loud. "Our dear friend here seems to have entered the mountains untested."

"She's far from a dear friend, we only met her hours ago." Blank complained.

"No matter. Let's not waste our time on trivial details such as how I refer to her, I'd like to hear if this man is going to assign a test that I am no longer able to complete."

This made Firose smile. "I'm glad you don't wanna kill anyone anymore, I never talked about it that much, but it was pretty creepy the way you just barged into my house when we first met."

"I'm aware.. and that is why I will make sure to never stoop to that level again."

The staff wielding man pounded his staff's handle against the ground. "I assure you, this next test is nothing like the one some of you previously took part in. That one challenged you mentally, while this one challenges you physically."

"Good, that basically guarantees our advancemen-.." Blank stopped near the end of his sentence, realizing that Firose would need to compete this time. "Question." he then resumed. "A few, actually. Firstly, why is it that only myself and Cereo were required to complete the first test. As a matter of fact, I didn't even take part at all."

The man seemed to be holding back a chuckle. "Well.... the test was deemed to be unnecessary if the person in question had already unintentionally completed it in their past."

Both Cereo and Blank's attention were caught. Cereo looked at Asada and Firose, he was stunned. "They've... killed someone they hold dear..?"

Asada didn't react, while Firose stepped back a bit, slightly covering her face.

"Hm. What spectacular people you've brought along with us." Blank sneered. He returned his attention to the man with the staff. "Whatever you say. Secondly then, will this be an individual test? Or will we attempt it together?"

"This test will see each of you individually face off against a capable, and powerful creature of the mountains that I captured and deemed worthy of this specific test. Upon its defeat, you will pass. The only means of failure is your own death. I have plenty of creatures of similar strength, so there's no need to worry about running out of opponents."

"Don't assume what I worry about, if you only had one creature that'd just be stupid. Obviously you had a plan for that." Softly placing his hands into his coat pockets, Blank began asking his final question. "Lastly.. why have you been keeping tabs on us? The location we're in was incredibly hidden, only one of us could even see it. Yet somehow the second test is here. It's not a coincidence. The jig is up." he paused for only a second. "Tell me, what exactly is going on?"