Instead of wasting time, taking one step at a time, Arin slammed his foot down, breaking the circular staircase. He leaped down, continuing his destructive path directly to the bottom. He was slightly roughed up but that didn’t matter when death was directly behind him.
Once he reached the bottom, pieces of debris accompanied his descent. Arin could hear something speeding up directly above him. It did not sound safe. The eerie call of death followed right behind him.
Wasting no time, he ran forward, moving as fast as possible. Any slip-up would unironically lead to his demise. No matter how well-prepared he was, the dangers within the Trials should never be underestimated.
Running as fast as possible, Arin could hear the voices of temptation right behind. It wasn’t the type where he could understand it. It was the kind where one’s curiosity would cause them to act out.
As he sped through the dungeon halls, he saw an odd person immediately show up in front of him. Based on his clothes, he was a prisoner. He looked extremely naive with his wide eyes and kind smile. The type that didn’t look like they’d seen the world for what it was.
This was not the case for this particular man. His hands were stained with fresh blood, obvious that he wasn’t as innocent as he looked. He had a pike in his hands, the very same weapon that the first guard had.
When this young man saw Arin running straight at him. His first instinctual move was to prepare for battle. He took his stance, readying himself for battle. From his form, it was apparent that his technique was much more refined and polished than the guards.
His eyes didn’t have the same steady look as the guards from before but the passion behind them was brighter than anything else. He knew that the person in front of him wasn’t the kind of rabble that would be easily dealt with.
“I don’t want to fight!” The young man shouted out at Arin. “Luther, I don’t know how you got so strong but there’s no need to fight against-”
Arin didn’t care about the man’s words, immediately running past him. The young man was immediately caught off guard as Arin just ran past him. Arin didn’t even risk killing him in the wariness of the time it would take.
The young man looked behind him, noticing that Arin just completely ignored him. This caused him to sigh in relief, he didn’t want to fight more than he wanted to. His ease then suddenly turned into suspenseful terror when he looked in front of him.
The angel that had descended was rushing in at full speed. Its intentions were unknown but its course of action was clear for Arin. It was out to kill every single person here.
The young man reacted just in time to run away in the opposite direction. Due to his weaker physical attributes, he was a lot slower than Arin but he had enough distance to make up to try and follow up on Arin.
“Dammit, Luther! You could’ve said something!” The young man even abandoned his pike, opting to make himself as light as possible to be as fast as possible.
Alongside Arin’s path, there were a few other captives searching for something they could use to escape. Whether it was a path or an item, they all desperately tried out all their options. They still haven’t seen the patrolling guards here so they planned on arming themselves.
Seeing Arin rushing past them, they were all confused as to how Luther could be so fast. They all knew just how much of a weakling Luther was, the sudden change wasn’t something they expected.
Arin didn’t even bother talking to these corpses at all, he gripped the small chest in his arms and kept rushing forward. The eminent feeling of death hasn’t been alleviated at all. He needed to get the iron restraints he had dropped back then.
While he was going at max speed, the audible sounds of verbal pain appeared right behind him. He was running out of time. Those prisoners who just escaped were killed by this angel. Their eyes were scorched and their eyes bled, their very souls evaporated.
Arin had made a mistake, he should’ve just kept everything he needed on himself. If that was the case, this wouldn’t have happened at all. His carelessness caused this extremely dangerous predicament.
It was not underestimated that his very life was in danger. It wasn’t the sheltered simulation in Seal Academy, this was a genuine Trial with genuine consequences and genuine rewards.
“Just a little further!” Arin recalled the walls of this dark dungeon extremely clearly. He was just about to reach the first guard’s corpse. The very same place where he dropped his iron restraints.
The beckoning of temptation behind him started invading his mind.
The angel had used this song to bleed his victim’s ears, forcing them to be disoriented. The people subjected to this song would lose control over their limbs and muscles, forcing them to stare at him so that he would be able to deliver the divine punishment.
This monster had fully expected Arin to be embraced by the temptation of its song, letting it reap its soul for its own benefit as it had done for an extremely long time. One would call this an unfair mechanic. This was a completely unreasonable thing to happen.
As unfair as it was, this was how Trials worked, even Seal Solvers would suffer greatly and might even lose their lives if they went in a Maze-level Trial that completely worked against their favor.
With this Maze-level Trial forcing Solvers to be unable to use their Malum, it was the kind of Trial that would still be dangerous for Seal Solvers. One should never let their guard down, if this angel managed to reach a professor of Seal Academy then they would undoubtedly die.
Arin could feel his mind finally start to feel numb, the chants of an unspeakable language started to invade his mind. If this was any normal person, this was certain death. Lured with such brainwashing power, only a person with a unique will could preserve against it.
Finally catching the perpetrator that took what it owned, it slowed down as its song reached Arin. Never before had a being been able to escape its song before. It was essentially a guarantee for it at this point.
As it started slowing down, Arin continued running away, never slowing down one bit. The angel was quite confused as this kind of situation had never happened before. The song that it had prided itself on did not work on this mere mortal.
This completely angered it, it sang its song even louder than before. The musical hymns that came out of its mouth echoed throughout the walls, causing damage to the other humans still alive at this point.
The young man from before had managed to find a hole in the wall to escape it. His body started convulsing, feeling his consciousness escape him. He very well knew what would happen if he let go of himself at this point in time.
He mercilessly took out a small knife hidden under his garments and ruthlessly stabbed his own ears. This wasn’t the time to deliberate whether he would or wouldn’t. If he wanted to survive, he needed to do everything no matter how self-destructive it was.
His mind which had started to wander into the distance finally regained its clarity. Feeling his safety be secured for the time being, he now had to face the consequences of his actions. His sense of balance had been completely messed up, he could only lay down as he suffered in silence.
As for the other prisoners, some were just as ruthless as the young man, piercing their own eardrums so that they wouldn’t be able to hear the angel. While others didn’t have the guts to do something as merciless as that, their own weakness caused them to die a gruesome death.
Arin, despite being the sole target of the angel, had been running forward without being affected at all. No matter how loud the angel became, Arin didn’t get affected, only causing pain to everyone else in the vicinity.
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Never had it expected that Arin would be unaffected by its brainwashing ability. With its pride shattered, it completely ran forward, screaming an uncanny screech. Like nails to a chalkboard, it was an unsettling sound to be heard.
Arin was nearly there, and despite hearing such a horrid howl, he kept going.
“I’m almost there.”
At the corner of Arin’s eyes, he could see the guard that he had decapitated earlier be completely deprived of his armor. Everything except for his undergarments was stolen by the inmates. Right beside the body, the iron restraints that had accompanied him since the beginning were there.
This was it, Arin tightly held the small chest in his arms. He tried to keep up the pace yet there would be no outrunning the angel. With the disparity between their strengths, the angel instantly appeared right behind him, reaching out to try and pierce Arin’s back.
Having his instincts ingrained with his well-developed battle sense, he felt something reach out for him. Arin had no other choice but to dodge to the side, still letting the angel pierce his sides. This was better than letting the angel pierce his spine, which would render him immobile.
Taking the best course of action, Arin had a gigantic piece of flesh be ripped out from his stomach. There was no point in feigning at this point, Arin gritted his teeth in pain.
The angel had its razor-sharp hand barely hooking his body at the edge. A small piece of flesh was hanging on by the side, it was the only thing preventing the angel was letting go. Arin didn’t even think it through, by complete instinct, he grabbed the angel’s hand and forced it to move according to his wishes.
The angel’s sharp arm made Arin’s hand bleed. Holding it tightly, he pushed it to the side, causing the small piece of flesh in his stomach to be completely ripped out. A massive chunk of his body was now ripped out. Arin was profusely bleeding.
He was two meters away from the iron restraints. This was the longest two meters of his life. There was no way he could fight against this monster, he needed to escape.
The angel mechanically took out the chunk of flesh and organs in his hand and slid it off its arm. Using both of its hands, he wanted to strike Arin’s back once more.
Arin had still been running at this point but with this double attack, he couldn’t take another hit like that. Forced to act fast, Arin crouched, rolling forward to gain as much distance as possible. Fortunately for him, he acted just in time to limit his injuries. He received skin-deep slices on his back.
With this small maneuver, he was only a meter away now. With such a terrifying creature behind him, he was completely forced against the wall. The angel winded up one more attack, with this Arin had no time to dodge. His momentum had been killed.
With the Trial’s restriction, he couldn’t use Malum, not that he could in the first place. He had no tools he could use… no there was one thing he still had in his possession.
Arin glanced down at the small chest that he was tightly gripping and had no other choice but to use it. As the angel struck him, he accurately placed it right behind him to where the angel would strike.
He still couldn’t look at the enemy behind him due to it being able to kill him if he made eye contact. Doing his best, Arin made use of what he had in his possession and used the chest.
As the angel’s hands struck the chest, Arin used the momentum from the strike to move ever closer to the iron restraints he had. He was flying with the force that the angel had used.
The force was so great that Arin overshot the iron restraints. With the pain of having a massive chunk of his body missing and the suspenseful note that if he ever looked back he would die, the mental fortitude to keep his calm and act correctly was far too difficult.
Even with everything against him, Arin reached out his hand just in time to catch the iron restraints on the floor. This was it, there wasn’t any moment to waste. As Arin was flying through the air, he had no other choice but to close his eyes. The risk at this point was far too much to see.
He took out the key from his pocket and reached out for the iron restraints. He completely ignored the small chest at this point, it was a non-issue for him. Survival was the key point.
With his vision gone, all he could do was use his spatial understanding to move with pinpoint precision. He could hear the angel rushing at him with such speed that he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. At this rate, his body would be sliced into pieces.
He had one shot.
Arin took the iron restraint in one hand and a key on the other. When he did so, he smirked.
“I killed an Emperor while blinded. This should be no problem.” Arin’s body had been shaking from the blood loss at this point. Adding on the fact that he could hear an ear-piercing motion, the pressure was gigantic.
With one swift motion, Arin inserted the key into the iron restraints and twisted. The bloody dungeon turned to light, and the painful sounds of the outside world no longer troubled him. Arin weakly opened his eyes only to find out that he had already escaped.
As Arin was met with the outside world, the experience of nearly dying at the hands of the monster almost felt like a dream. His mind was immediately notified of his results.
“Completion Rate, 65%.” Arin viciously smiled. “Nothing’s ever easy. Death at every step, pressure to always improve, no gain with sacrifice. I wouldn’t be able to reach the top if not for this.”
The injuries he had experienced inside the Maze-level Trial were still there. The massive chunk of flesh from his stomach was still gone. His eyes landed on a fight that was about to occur.
“Break it off.” Arin’s words caused the mark on their bodies to glow, signifying that it was working.
Sefi was about to duke it out with Noah when she saw his currently pathetic appearance. His body was literally on the brink of death. With this opportunity, she wanted to take back her freedom but the slave mark on her forced her to act otherwise.
The teenager in the medical tent, Rion, showed up to tend to Arin’s wounds. Although he had seen Arin’s completely pathetic appearance, he wasn’t as flustered as one would think. He calmly and quickly acted.
Taking out a few pills from the cabinets, Rion gave them to Arin to consume. He took some pills, causing them to immediately act.
The enslaved students saw a miracle happen. Arin’s open wound where a large piece of him was missing, was mending itself, completely healing him. Malum was converted into flesh, although it was a common concept, the speed of how it happened was well beyond what they expected.
Noah’s eyes glittered, he was very interested in pills that could have such efficacy. As far as he knew, there were pills that could do this but they were far too experimental with too much risk for commercial use.
Rion saw the confused and surprised expressions on these three. This was the first expression that everyone would show once they saw Arin’s completely monstrous regenerative capability using those pills. Even then, he wasn’t compelled enough to explain it.
Arin moved his body around, feeling better than ever, especially when he finally received his reward. Malum.
He could feel his body be filled with power, though it wasn’t the kind of power where he felt invincible, it was the kind where he felt something latent within himself. Without a Fragment to use, this was essentially useless, only increasing his physical strength at most. Even then, the efficacy of using Malum this way without a medium was terrible.
“I need to rest. Get them accustomed to the city for now.” Arin ordered everyone as he went into the medical tent. He lay down on the bed and started thinking about what happened.
“Good thing Malum doesn’t work in that Trial, otherwise Fiona’s disgusting Malum would’ve stopped me from doing anything. If I want to do this right, I should focus on this Trial and hopefully get a Fragment in the Sephirah Trial like last time.”
“But to do that, I need to figure out more about Luther. It just can’t be a coincidence. Trials go on cooldown after going through one so I’ll have to rely on other people…” After saying that, Arin visually showed disgust. “If it wasn’t for her then I wouldn’t be like this.”
On the other side, Fiona had been catering to her shelter. Instead of letting them do whatever they wanted, she started being more proactive, giving them an active choice. Either start contributing to her cause or have less priority in terms of resources.
Compared to her previous actions, she had started acting out in a smarter manner. Instead of letting people take advantage of her, she was acting in a fairer manner. This of course made numerous people in the shelter dissatisfied with the change but with the overwhelming support on her side, the voices of discontent were quickly drowned out.
“Am I doing the right, thing?” Fiona had drastically changed her actions ever since her battle with Arin. She held a fountain pen in her hand, the same pen that Arin had used as a makeshift weapon. Her father had given her this without saying anything else.
“Arin’s a completely bloodthirsty psychopath. He’s a cruel man who only serves himself. Anyone else that he deems useless will be taken advantage of. Using everything he can to benefit himself even at the expense of others.”
“Even still… he wasn’t completely wrong. I’ll show you, even as distant as my goal is. I’ll never stop trying to achieve it. You say I’m too weak to do what I want. You are correct, so that just means I have to get stronger. If I can’t get stronger to show my resolve then how else will I find other people who will believe in my cause.” Fiona looked up at the sky, feeling the breeze that she hadn’t felt before.
The burden of facing an uncertain future was weighing her heart down. She had taken risk after risk after living so safely this entire time. Even so, this was something she firmly chose to do. Reality had finally set in on her, nothing would change if she didn’t change herself.
She arrived at the courtyard that had been fixed from the prior fight. Taking an extremely deep breath, she calmed herself down. This place now held significant importance to her, as the place that showed both what she was capable of and what she was lacking.
“Combat Technique, Pure Maiden.” Her motivation to make her dreams come true was sparked.
For the first time in a long time, her Combat Technique which had grown stagnant was finally showing signs of improvement. The monster that had slept as it swiped away all contenders with ease was finally striving as well.
She is currently a Bind Solver in strength, infinitesimally nearing the breakthrough in becoming a Seal Solver. If she had tried wholeheartedly this entire time, she would’ve been even more terrifying than she was right now.
Fiona, the publicly and privately acknowledged most talented person was already considered as such even with a lack of effort on her part. Now that she had finally set her sights on power, it was only a matter of time before another person joined the ranks of being a Labyrinth Solver.