As Axel relaxed against the wall, letting his nerves calm down, his body was reporting that everything was about to return to peak, but the adrenaline still pumped in his veins. When the after-combat shakes stopped, Axel also noticed that Lyra had empty hands and a very pale complexion. Axel did have to wonder which of her cores got which ability, though if she had other standards, it would be vibration with the reflex and lightning with the healing unless she was a special variant mutant on top of being a true healer.

Axel, not wanting to let Salmar know that Lyra had just integrated into her second cycle, just patted Lyra on the shoulder as he passed in a silent congrats. Then he checked on everyone else in the group, finding Sky and Aria still a bit shaken but on the rebound, and Salmar frowning into the air while moving his hands. Axel walked up with heavy steps so he did not surprise the man and waited for him to respond.

“We are about three hallway junctions from my prey, but as we get closer, I am beginning to get nervous. We have run into several Crimson that were stronger than normal and Stalkers in a hallway,” Salmar said to the air in front of himself.

“I assume you have a plan for this one?” Axel asked.

“Yes, but after that last fight, I, well, shit, I am a terrible leader,” Salmar said, much to Axel’s surprise. “I should have told Lyra to move in front with her shield, I should have tossed you my light gem knowing that we were still likely being stalked, I should have designated targets for our back line.”

Salmar then blinked, but not in a way, Axel thought was changing his journal, and a single, almost silver tear rolled down his face, leaving behind a sparkling metallic trail. Salmar then grabbed a cloth and cleaned off the evidence quickly.

“I want you to know, Axel, that I failed you and will try to do better,” Salmar vowed in a solemn voice. “Also, it is about time for everyone to get moving if you are recovered?”

“I am good, though the adrenaline is still there in my system,” Axel gave an affirmative.

“You humans and that dangerous chemical. I will never truly understand why the Goddess gave humans that evolution.” Salmar shook his head and called for everyone to gather.

When everyone grouped back up again, they began to head in the direction of the Zone Walker. As the group walked, Salmar handed Axel his spear for a moment while he dug something out of his bag. After a short time rummaging, he pulled out four large beast gems that glowed with a black light.

“So if the Zone Walker is in the room I hope it will be, we will need to get these gems into each corner quickly,” Salmar explained while handing out the gems. “They will stop it from fleeing and reduce its mobility greatly.”

After the explanation, Salmar traded a gem for his spear with Axel and looked over the group one by one. “I will need you all to block the door as if it gets out of the room, it will be gone in moments.”

“Alright, but is there anything else we can do to help?” Lyra asked.

“No, this is my fight and I will get my prey,” Salmar shook his head. “Just make sure it can’t get away and you will have done your part.”

The conversation felt off to Axel, but as he was about to say something, they arrived at the room. Standing in the room was a large humanoid that almost looked like it was in armor with a pair of curved single-bladed swords in its hands. It was semi-translucent with what looked like stars filling its body, and as it turned to the group, a cloak of dense stars swished out.

Axel also noticed that the room had several corpses scattered about in tattered clothing and mostly bones left. The room also held four doors and a high ceiling. Salmar quit talking and focused on the Zone Walker with all he had, failing to give out any more directions. Axel took over and gave hand signals his group had trained in the Storm and further refined under Rex. Aria was sent to the far side while Axel took the right, and Lyra was sent left. Sky connected everyone’s minds, something she did not enjoy as it was a strain with just her natural gifts but trained as they would not have a lot of time to shout if someone needed help.

‘We have your back, Salmar,’ Sky mentally sent. ‘Go kick some ass!’

Aria was already shooting for the ceiling and sent, ‘Aria will keep this to the room.’

Axel and Lyra only sent a ‘Go!’

Salmar shot forward at a blistering speed just as everyone made their positions. As he moved, he began to pressure the Zone Walker with his spear, blurring snakelike strikes, as the Crimson weaved a mesmerizing pattern with the swords. This gave Axel a worse feeling as this was too advanced for this level of Crimson. Weak Crimson were more one-dimensional with their abilities, while as they got closer to a Lesser, they would pick up sub-powers until they evolved to Adepts.

That was when he heard something coming down the hallway to saw a large muscular ironman.

‘What the hell was an Iron Titan doing in this part of the Trial?’ Axel mentally sent to everyone. ‘Did a shift really happen?’

‘Aria is seeing a pair of Shatter coming,’ Aria then said.

‘Crap, a beast-looking Crimson just came around the corner and it seems to have a mane made of fire and from the look of the hallway it is really hot as the stone is glowing red,’ Lyra sent.

‘Sky does not see anything on her end,’ Sky’s chipper reply.

‘Lyra, you are looking at a Blaze,’ Axel sent as a reply. ‘They are the main source of fire abilities, but that one sounds very advanced based on the description.’

‘Plan?’ Sky asked through the thought link.

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‘We could retreat as this seems to be bad,’ Lyra suggested while looking at a large fireball heading her way, forcing her to duck out of the door as it hit right in front of it.

‘Aria does not think Salmar will though,’ Aria replied while shooting several arrows down the hall, only for the sound of them shattering to break up the constant ding from the back and forth between Salmar and the Zone Walker.

‘These Shatter are cheating,’ Aria also complained. ‘They are taking turns knocking Aria’s arrows out of the air.’

‘Aria and Lyra change doors fast,’ Axel instructed. ‘I will hold the Titan. Lyra, you will have to take the Shatter as they will rip Aria to shreds if they get a touch in. Aria, you wanted fire, go get it.’

‘Sky, you are back up if any Crimson makes it past us or if another comes down your hallway, give us a warning,’ Axel finished and took position while putting his halberd to the side and hitting it against what looked like a living chunk of iron seemed futile and likely to damage his weapon.

Axel cracked his knuckles and gave the command to activate Berserker. When he received a warning over the side of his vision:

Warning: Safe use of this skill is still on cooldown. Excessive use will breach the containment setup and cause user to suffer backlash.

Axel focused on overriding this warning and another message appeared:

User wishes to override safety? Y/N

Axel focused on yes and began to feel his focus sharpen. Just before his enemy arrived, one more message appeared:

Safety overridden. Please deactivate as soon as possible.

Things became floaty as Axel sidestepped a swing and then felt a great weight on his body. It was as if he had put on hundreds of pounds, but with his current power, this did not slow him down except for the moment it changed. That moment sucked as it was when he was about to dodge the follow-on punch. Axel still dodged, but the air pressure from the graze sent him tumbling into one of the hallway walls.

The Titan seemed happy that Axel was out of the way and looked to want to help the Zone Walker, but Axel would not let this thing get around him. He rushed forward to grab it from behind and, with all his power, lifted it to either slam or throw it back down the hall. This only worked for the first few inches off the ground as the Titan's weight doubled and then tripled moments later.

Axel didn’t care and, with all his power, slammed the Titan up and over his head. The extra weight then helped Axel as the Titan landed with a powerful boom. Axel then rolled to the side so that the Titan could not squish him with the rest of its body. A small part of Axel saw that he had destroyed muscles all over his body; both arms and his back were heavily damaged. Regeneration and his Blessing were working overtime when he staggered to his feet with his back to the door.

Axel then felt an air pressure pop behind him, and he ducked on reflex as a translucent sword flew over his head. Axel then felt the pop again, followed by a metallic clang, which Axel just knew was Sky covering his back but did not have time to confirm. A cracked and damaged man of iron was rising unsteadily back to its feet. It was at this point that Axel came up with a plan to hopefully beat this thing as the slam seemed to have done a lot of damage to it.

Axel moved as the Titan just finished standing and slid between its legs, where he then rolled back to his feet and made it look like he was going for another slam. The weight cranked up to five times, causing even Axel to breathe a bit harder, but instead of doing a slam, Axel went for the knees and used the Titan's height and new weight against it. With the sound of a shoulder snap, Axel slammed his body into the knee joint and toppled the Titan again.

The quake that accompanied the fall took Axel off his feet. Out of reflex, Axel tried to use his right arm to get up, but there was no response, likely because it was too damaged to get him up. The left still worked, and Axel got to his feet as the Iron Titan was turning into motes of light. Axel, breathing heavily, tried to pull that focus back, but when he did, the pain was an almost overwhelming flood that followed. It was getting harder to think with this focus, and there were ever more alerts, but the worst was Axel's mind already seeking the next fight.

He felt the need to keep fighting and to destroy all that was in his way. Axel’s vision was hazing to a red hue when three loud shouts hit his brain like a hammer.

‘AXEL!’ Lyra, Aria, and Sky screamed at the same time, bringing Axel back from an edge he didn’t know he was about to step over.

With this moment of clarity, Axel assessed the situation and his condition. Lyra was bleeding but whole, her sword shattered at the hilt, but the two smoking Shatter bodies that were changing into motes of light showed she won her fight. Aria was still standing, slightly burned and her hair curled from the heat, but holding a glowing red orb absentmindedly in her hand while looking over at Axel. Sky had slash wounds all over her body and a heavily damaged metal shield barely floating in the air protectively near her.

Salmar lay in the room holding a blue-green orb in his hand, bleeding from many wounds, many of which looked very serious. Axel then saw his status and was surprised he was alive as the red alerts showed that he would likely die of shock the moment he felt the pain, and his core was down to about eight percent and falling.

Warning: Crimson corruption has reached 4%. Please disengage Berserker.

Warning: Crimson corruption has reached 5%. Please disengage Berserker.

Axel could see that this warning was rising every minute that he had his power going. As it increased, Axel could feel the red haze creeping over his mind and had to make a choice now while he could. Walking with slow and heavy steps, as if his body was fighting his order, Axel knew there was only one thing he could do, and that was to take in the Iron Titan material and upgrade his core. He could use the energy from the upgrade for his regeneration and cut off Berserker.

Leaving his life in the Goddess’s hands, Axel picked up the orb and received the prompt:

Integrate Elemental Power: Gravitational Field? Y/N

Power flowed through Axel as time slowed down again and the vision of the Goddess appeared before him. She looked over the scene with a dispassionate gaze, then turned her head to Axel and a small, almost imperceptible frown appeared on her face. This was the first time Axel could remember her changing expression, though it was only the second time he had seen her face to face.

“You almost did something very foolish, Axel,” the Goddess said, then touched her finger to Axel’s head. The alert that was slowly appearing stopped, and Axel felt the focus begin to lessen.

“Please don’t override safety like that,” she said in a cold tone. “Your body cannot handle the full might of your proto core.”

“It was this or let my friends and companions die,” Axel replied calmly, as he felt drained of emotions at this time as Berserker faded.

It felt harder to draw up any emotion until the Goddess sighed and touched his forehead again. Axel felt his body heat and something leave his body through the pores. In this time dilation, his clothing started to stain black.

“It is a good thing that you have regeneration as this would kill you in your injured state otherwise,” the Goddess Hope informed Axel. “I was going to help you access more systems in your journal, but I think the purge function is what you need right now.”

“Purge?” Axel asked though he was beginning to feel his emotions again.

“Yes, it will help you remove corruption from your body much like a Medic could or what you call a Goddess Blessed healer,” Hope replied. “This will not be pleasant, but after our meeting, you will likely pass out for a time as even with the energy boost, your regeneration will take… thirty-two minutes to fix that damage and purge your body.”

“I am nearly out of time for now. Please be careful as you are walking into…” Hope vanished midway through her sentence. Well, she did not vanish as Axel’s brain shut down and he was plunged for the second time that day into unconsciousness.