With heavy thuds that seemed to echo off the walls surrounding the arena, the monster charged up the stairs, quickly catching up to them whilst screaming in rage. It was wildly swinging its blade arms ready to chop up anyone who got in range of them.

Looking back to see the monster, Bo warned everyone of the incoming danger and asked them what they should do. “Do we turn to fight, or continue running?!”

“We ain't gonna outrun that bastard so let's push it off again!” Sera answered and gently shoved the wounded women into the blonde leader's arms. “You guys go on ahead, we got this!”

“We can't let you do everything for us! We can fight with you!” The leader screamed back, he wasn't gonna let them do everything.

“Do you want your friend here to die? Someone needs to take her and get to the top while we hold off the monster!” Sera pointed to the leader's pale looking friend, weakly resting in his arms on the last legs of her life.

“Edgar, you take Stacy! Me and Kira will help hold the monster off!” The leader ordered his comrades who didn't hesitate to follow through.

Edgar and his clone picked up Stacy and ran up the temple stairs while Kira, the lady who summoned the frog, came down a few steps and stood with the rest of them. They watched the monster get closer and were preparing themselves for another round of battle.

That's when they felt a large vibration shake their bodies, Iris herself almost stumbled over but managed to catch herself and looked at what had caused the vibrations. To their left only a few dozen feet away was what Iris could only assume was the adversity for myth.

Laying on the ground was a massive elephant sized three headed hound with flaming drool that dripped out of its mouth and sizzled against the temple. The hound shook its head and stood up similarly angry like the monster and looked around to see their group standing nearby.

An ax that glowed with cyan blue came flying in from out of nowhere and cut into the hounds back causing it to scream in pain. Following the ax, Zorn came flying from above and slid off the hounds back, slicing it some more with his other ax.

He landed nearby and turned behind him to see Iris, Bo and Sera, He nodded at them who all looked confused. Didn't Zorn leave a month ago, why was he only here now?

Sera, as the vocal one among their group, asked him. “Yo Zorn, why are you here?”

“Hm, what do you mean?” Zorn looked confused then stared at Iris and seeing her no longer wounded made his confusion deepen. “Aren't you supposed to be injured?”

“That was a month ago.” Iris spoke up.

“A month ago? I left the mansion yesterday, how could that be a month ago.” This was the most Zorn has ever said since he was a little lost with the situation.

“It's a time anomaly.” The blonde leader spoke up.

“A what anomaly?” Iris asked as her interest peaked, was there some anomaly she didn't know about?

“In certain books there are records stating that for some challenges that involve having a set number of individuals, that when a person arrives first, they may be frozen in time until the set amount has been reached. There was even a record of someone waiting for over a year but to them, it was like they just arrived.“ The leader explained.

Thinking about it was kind of horrifying. They felt like they just arrived but if they were held frozen in time for months like Zorn?

Well they didn't have time to think any longer as they saw the leader's look behind them and yelled, “They're here!” They all turned to see both monster and myth charging at them with anger in their eyes.

An all out brawl pursued after his shout. Badge weapons were defending and attacking, embers and artifacts were getting used left and right, while at the same time, they slowly climbed up the temple trying to not have their way forwards blocked. Now that they had to face not only the monster but the myth as well, they were beginning to lose energy. It was an uphill battle in both the literal and figural meaning.

Lucky for them the timer of the monster pillar had ended and the monster vanished into thin air, now they only had one creature to fight back against. The second the monster disappeared, Zorn had enough leeway to bolt up the stairs, abandoning them.

“Zorn?” Bo yelled but got no response from Zorn— he ignored Bo.

The three headed hound wasn't as hard to deal with as the monster, especially because its four legged form found the stairs awkward to navigate. It didn't take long until— with the help of everyone— that Sera managed to push the thing off the stairs. It stumbled down and down, blood leaking out of its wounds, then it slammed into the ground level far below.

During that time no one hesitated to rush up the stairs as they were almost there, just another few dozen or so steps.

“Last one. Madness.” The Apostles' voice sang out and that's when things got bad.

Bo didn't feel anything at first but then he noticed something was off, he could hear a strange buzzing noise. He turned back to what was happening and saw the hound already right next to him.

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He jumped out of the way of its paw attack and scrambled to his feet.

“Help me Bo!” Iris cried out to him and he saw she was being attacked by the leader. He rushed over to her but tripped and fell before he could reach her. Looking back up, Iris was not even there.

‘What the hell is happening?’ Bo saw the hound lunge at him and take a bite at him which he managed to roll out of the way from.

Then it locked onto him and went to bite his face again, he closed his eyes waiting for the inevitable bite but then felt nothing. He opened his eyes and the hound wasn't there anymore, it had vanished.

“Bo. Bo. Bo.” The voices of Iris and Sera both rhythmically saying his name sounded in his ear, they were both standing in front of him with blooded bodies while repeating his name.

That's when he felt a hand touch his shoulder before it caressed the side of him, working its way down until it found his hand which it then held. He couldn't see who the hand belonged to but feeling the small size and the way it rubbed the back of his hand in comfort, he could guess who this was— it was Iris.

He closed his eyes and ignored the voices echoing in his ears, letting the hand holding his own guide him instead. Presumably Iris led Bo upwards at a slow pace, not wanting to accidentally trip because they had their eyes closed.

“You're not even a real human, you know that?” Iris' voice chided him from the side. “Why do you even pretend to blend in?”

Bo flinched a little hearing the horrible things said in Iris’s voice but the hand holding him felt it and gently rubbed him again to calm him down.

Bo took a deep breath out and continued forward. ‘Is this… madness?’ Bo could only conclude this was the adversity for madness. Visual and auditory hallucinations— thats just fucked up.

Then he felt the hand guide his own upwards until it was touching someone's face, patting the face he couldn't exactly tell who it was but he could guess this was Iris telling him Sera was there with them as well.

Good, they were all there. Unfortunately they didn't have time to worry about the other group of four. Hopefully they were fine.

Eventually Bo took another step upwards but his foot fell down as there were no more stairs to be climbed. They had reached the top!

Bo tried to crack his eyes open to see if he could see the bell in front of him but instead he saw more hallucinations that tried a different approach to stop him. There in front of him was the naked body of Iris leaning towards him and looking at him seductively.

‘Oh shit!’ He closed his eyes again as they continued moving closer, the bell should be right ahead.

“Bo, you don't wanna take a peak?” He felt Iris whisper into his ear. “I'm right here, go ahead and look. It's all yours to see.”

He gulped but shook his head, getting the dirty thoughts out of his mind.

“Don't ignore me. Just take a look for a few minutes!” Iris moaned.

Before he knew it, the hand pushed his own forward and he felt it touch something cold and metallic— they had arrived at the bell. The hand drew back, before it rang the bell with both of their hands, and presumably did so with Sera’s hand on the other side as well.

“You've passed.‘ The Apostles' voice rang in their heads. “You may stop closing your eyes.”

Finally able to open his eyes, he turned around and saw no naked Iris standing there. He sighed in relief but then took a step forward to see further down the temple to see how the group of four were doing and gasped.

Dead bodies were strung about. There were the dead bodies of the leader and Kira near each other, while the bodies of Edgar and Stacy were even further down the temple, which meant Edgar probably tripped and they fell down the hard metal temple stairs.

All four of them were dead. They had no bite wounds or torn limbs but instead they either died from falling down the temple or from wounds caused by weapons— their own comrades' weapons. It seemed the leader and Kira had attacked each other in a fit of madness.

Bo couldn't even speak, he was shocked. This was his first time witnessing dead people, actual people and not just some humanoid looking creatures. These aren't just any random ones but ones they had just worked alongside, even if it was only for a brief time. The realization of how dangerous the Bridge was dawned on him.

This was no child game or fairy tale, this was a challenge you needed to put your life on the line for. Great rewards for the winners, cruel death for the loser. That's how the Bridge functioned.

He looked down to see the Myth climbing the temple heading for the dead bodies. It got there quite fast and then lay down and began to eat them one by one like a snack.

Before he could see anymore, his vision shifted and he found himself standing in a cave with a gorgeous garden full of colorful and vibrant blossoming flowers which surrounded a fountain in the middle.

Hovering a few feet above the garden was the Apostle that ran their challenge.

“You have successfully completed the special challenge, and in doing so, you have completed this trial.” The Apostle stated. “As this was a special challenge, you will receive a fitting reward. Now choose one— Monster, Myth, Magic or Madness.”

“M-may I ask what the reward actually grants us?” Iris spoke with an exhausted voice, her adrenaline and the shock of seeing the dead group of four still weighing her down.

The Apostle turned to stare at Iris with her silver eyes and responded, “You may not. Please choose one.”

“I'll go first if you guys wanna think about it first.” Sera said and approached closer to the Apostle. “I choose Myth!”

“Good. Now bathe in the fountain.” The Apostle replied.

Sera smiled at them and then ran and leapt into the fountain creating a big splash. “Aww it's so refreshing!” Sera moaned in comfort, the soothing temperature of the water breathed life back into her tired body.

The Apostle ignored the childish Sera and waited for Bo and Iris to answer.

“I'll take magic then.” Bo said and similarity leapt into the fountain to join Sera.

Now it was only Iris contemplating her decision with a 12 foot Apostle hovering in front of her, watching her every move.

Iris paced around a bit more before she made her decision. “I'll also take magic!”

“Magic it is. Step into the fountain.” Iris followed those instructions and stepped over the edge into the fountain before she let her body fall into the waters.

“You are now free from this trial.” The Apostle began to disappear into particles of light but before she left a smile blossomed on her face. “Good luck young ones.”

Then she was gone and all that was left was the three of them still bathing in the fountain.