"Alex," a commanding and dignified voice echoed through the darkness enveloping me.

"Perhaps you don't possess the magic or the weapon that helped me and my knights drive out the darkness," a figure appeared in this empty space, bearing a majestic presence and clad in knight's armor. In their hands, they held a sword whose aura could very well be Excalibur itself.

"However, none of that is necessary for you. Your courage is the only weapon you need to dispel this darkness and raise humanity victorious."

Suddenly, a dozen knights appeared around the imposing king, their weapons in hand. They all raised them towards the sky and shouted in unison.

"Guide us to victory, Knight of the Ashes."

When I opened my eyes, there was nothing but a desolate field, with no one alive within a radius of one kilometer. Of course, invaders could be seen beyond. However, I focused on another matter. Although I had killed Malakar, the wave notification didn't appear.

I rose with great effort and began walking towards the pillar of light. Along the way, I stumbled several times, but with sheer willpower, I picked myself up each time. I removed the pieces of my completely shattered armor, as its weight made me pant and hindered my progress.

Upon reaching the vicinity, I noticed that inside the pillar was a kind of heart made of faint energy. Unfortunately, I didn't have a weapon or the energy to wield one, so I chose to jump into the pillar and strangle the heart with my bare hands.

When I finally destroyed the heart, there were three types of scaly eggs inside. I tried to destroy those as well, but as soon as I made contact with them, they somehow entered my body. Finally, the energy pillar vaporized my flesh until only ashes remained.

My consciousness was hazy, and I felt weightless and disoriented, stranded in the middle of this void with no idea of what to do. All I could do was reflect on the events. My father had always told me that it was the mark of a good warrior to reflect on their battles.

In some way, I felt guilty for the fate of my comrades in arms. If I had dealt with the council earlier, our chances would have been much better. I could have eliminated them before they became a problem, after all, if you knew they were a rotten apple, why not purge them preventively?

While I wrestled with my thoughts, an undefined amount of time passed until the space finally began to clear.

Suddenly, the space I was in started to brighten, and I realized I was in front of a large crowd, wearing my intact ash-colored armor.

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There were a total of seven people at the head of the crowd, and leading the seven was Ethan. Behind us were what felt like hundreds of thousands of people, all with confused faces, murmuring to those around them. However, it was challenging for them to communicate because not everyone spoke the same language.

Suddenly, shouts in a foreign language began to be heard, and many people began pointing in different directions.

Following these directions, I noticed that there were other people here, although calling them people would be odd. There was a large variety of species that surely weren't human; some had animal or insect-like forms, although all appeared anthropomorphic.

All these beings were arranged in a similar manner to us, with seven members at the head and the rest behind.

All the different species were arranged concentrically, and in the center, a being bathed in a greenish light finally appeared. It looked more like a tree than a person.

"First of all, congratulations to all of you for completing the trial."

The tree-like being made a clapping gesture that sounded like a chorus of birds.

"I must inform you of what comes next. Your worlds will be categorized based on your performance, considering two factors that will be weighed: firstly, how you fared as a planet overall, taking an average of all your trials, as well as the best result in absolute terms."

With another gesture, two enormous stone blocks appeared on both sides, as well as three more floating in the air.

"Based on these results, rewards will be given, both for everyone who makes up your worlds, as well as individual rewards. Without further ado, let's begin with the rankings."

All the races were in an uproar, and a clamor quickly erupted. Humanity was the same, but unfortunately, soon their clamor would cool down.

Out of the 124,000 worlds that entered the trial, Earth averaged around 123,000.

Earth's scores were absolutely pathetic, and I quickly noticed how the gazes of the other worlds changed to one of natural hostility. It was obvious they saw us as easy prey.

While I was immersed in watching how Earth was classified according to various parameters, I noticed that the other members of the table were trying to communicate.

"Hey, you in the armor, where are you from, man? How did you fare?" A woman spoke to me in a kind of Spanish that I found difficult to understand, even though I knew Spanish.

"Uh, hello, I'm Alex from England. I don't quite remember if I made it past the last wave; I think I died before."

"I see, well, it's normal, man, it was pretty tough, getting past level 20."

She spoke so quickly that it was hard for me to keep up with the conversation, but I think she got confused with the fact that Earth's average level was around 15, so level 20 must be where the rest perished.

"I actually made it to level 33."

A muscular man with a thick Russian accent spoke to us in English, so I replied in my language.

"I see, very impressive."

"Anyway, my name is Dimitri. If I heard correctly, you're Alex. By any chance, do you know anything about the guy who came first? I wonder at what level he got and how strong he is."

"His name is Ethan, and he reached level 99."

Everyone's jaws dropped immediately.

"You're not joking, are you, kid? How could you know?"

"I'm not joking; we were together during the trial; we know each other."

"I see, if he really reached level 99, then Earth might actually have a chance to improve its ranking."