With a loud crashing sound, the meteor crashed into the stele that The Boss used to shield himself from the attack.This did not mark the end of that, because there was a sound that came right after the crash of the meteor. This sound was accompanied by the visual cue that was spiderweb cracks.All eyes turned to the stele, and they saw without mistake that the stele in front of the boss had cracks running through it."Impossible!!!"This was The Boss' first reaction to the cracks. He took another look at the stele, and then the realization dawned on him.He turned to look at Aiden's armored figure with an identical stele floating behind him. His expression changed immediately…"You… You stole it from me. You have no idea what you hold in your hand… You are unworthy of its magnificence"For the first time since The Boss transformed himself into a fire angel, his voice lost its calm nature. He was agitated… So much so that he raised the stele and smashed it into the ground.As the final
"Let's get this over…"The two attacks seemed to vanish the moment they were released.The moment both attacks reappeared was only a moment later but it did so with a piercing sound that seemed to cut deep into the ear.This brought Diane, Andrew, and his friends down to their knees as they tried to block the sound by covering their ears.The collision between both attacks led to a push and pull from both attacks…Aiden's spear tried to find a way to pierce through The Boss but the attack The Boss sent was not having any of that. It stood as a barrier that tried to keep the spear away while pushing its way to Aiden.The grating sound continued for a few seconds with none of them finding a way to complete their destructive missions.The Boss let out a smile and snapped his fingers while Aiden clenched his fist at the same moment.This took both attacks from deathly to terrifying in the blink of an eye… There was a bright white light that washed over everything when both attacks took a
Aiden had a lot happening in his mind at that moment… Zarek stood beside him watching his expression many times.His figure laying on the platform suddenly had a change in expression.From the pained and disturbed expressions, he had been showing, to nothing; his expression went blank, an indifferent look plastered to his face.Zarek continued to watch, waiting to see whatever changes would ensue. However, from the moment that Aiden's expression settled into an indifferent one, it no longer changed.Meanwhile, in the room opposite Diane's, three people sat in different spots around the room. They were having a conversation and Andrew who sat on one of the beds wore a poker face as he listened to his friends."Do we really need to stay in this crappy hotel? Your father already arranged something better before he sent us here…", one of them said."Zakari is right… They saved us but what, if we want to leave, we should be able to", the other affirmed.Andrew stopped talking and drew in a
Diane led the way into the second room they rented, and before she even asked her question, Raven gave answers to them."Getting his memories back will be troublesome. I have no idea what cheat he used on him", she began. "Getting his memories back is something only he can do. Trying to jolt his memories back is the fastest way to get it done but the trigger can be anything...I wouldn't get my hopes up, at least not between now and the start of the selection"Diane turned around for a moment, her expression did not show indifference as it usually did. Raven chose this moment to annoy Diane for some bizarre reason."Oh… You care about him a lot, huh? Must be hard having your boy-toy lose memories you find…"Before Raven could finish that statement, she yelled out in pain. There was a long cut on her back…"Annoy me again and I will make you regret it!!"This was all Diane said before walking out of the room.Raven stood there dumbfounded for a moment as a thin line of blood ran down h
One step after the other, they helped him walk. His legs still felt like jelly, but helping him like that gave him the support that ensured he could try without fear of collapsing.They went over it, to and from the nearest wall for about twenty minutes before they put him down.Sitting on one side of the bed with his legs on the ground, he put in more effort.Little victories indeed because his legs were now like hardened jelly, instead of the soft jelly it was when he first stood up.Princess Diane laid down on the bed beside Aiden for a nap. She closed her eyes and finally got some sleep.Aiden continued to push his legs while Raven sat in the corner of the room. Andrew, Gadiel and Zakari left the room not too long after, returning to their room.The night returned to its ambient state of quiet until the early moments of dawn when the city slowly came to life.When Diane woke up, she opened her eyes to find that Aiden was not in his bed... She snapped to an upright position before
Walking through the gate, they found themselves in another crowd of people. The stair test had eliminated a lot of people but apparently, it had not done enough.They found their place among the crowd and proceeded to wait. The sun was coming up by now and light had started to flood the place.They could now make out the features of the people standing next to them. The same as everyone else did, they looked around to see those they would be competing with.They waited for about an hour when they saw people turn to look at the gate. Just three people were walking in, but you could see that they were important from their poise. They were like Princess Diane but they carried themselves a tad bit better than she would."Have you seen any of those who came from Sur?", Princess Diane asked Aiden."I have not", Aiden responded.The three girls walked to the front of the crowd without pause, and everywhere they passed, the crowd broke up and parted to let them through."Those three girls loo
"I'm surprised, Prince Adrian. Your sister has refused to show her face even when The Selection is starting… Does she despise being seen with the rest of her mates?", Griffin asked in a quiet voice that was still loud enough to be heard by those around them.Beside Adrian, Princess Caitlyn frowned, but asides from that, Griffin got no reactions from the two as they watched the scoreboards come to life with the first hundred names; all of which were at zero.Of course, a few eyes glanced at Adrian for a moment when they heard what Griffin said, but they knew the rivalry between the two, so it felt tedious to intervene.A few minutes later, a bright light shone from the direction of The Royal Palace. From the light, three people could be seen approaching the gathering.On the ground, there were a lot of people either standing or sitting to watch the test while above them, on platforms, the nobles, royals, and other important people sat on luxurious chairs to watch the test.Above all of
Not many of those watching noticed the cracked glass phenomenon that the projection captured and showed to them, but those who did almost had their eyes popping out of their sockets.This reaction was seen on the faces of the more important people sitting above the crowd on the ground. Their reactions grew even more exaggerated when they saw Princess Eleanor and the group of noble scions standing in front of the barrier.Looks were exchanged and Emperor Ivrea called out to one of the three dressed in robes, that came with him on the floating platform."Find me Ajax?", he said.The man also had a look of urgency on his face and nodded when he heard the order. He vanished from the spot, leaving lightning in his tracks… It was hardly five seconds later when he appeared again with small arcs of lightning slowly fading from his body.Beside him, the old and familiar Lord Ajax appeared out of a small ripple, as if he faded into existence; the exact opposite of what it would like to fade out
The crowd was pulled from the tragedy that the nobles caused, and some people started to point to the group suspended above them, whispering and murmuring various pieces of gossip.This was a topic that excited them all, however, the ones who were most excited for the revelation were the nobles who finally knew the people who beat them to occupy the highest floor of the tower.They did not hide the wicked grins on their faces and Aiden saw these grins on their faces. He also saw that the group were starting to descend from the sky into the midst of the crowd. That was bad and was quickly made worse when he noticed the nobles setting their hounds on the group.He could guess their thoughts. Even if the group was stronger than they were, given the position they occupied, they did not believe it and wanted to know for themselves how powerful they were.This gave Aiden a headache and his mind began to spin quickly, looking for a big enough distraction that would give the group a chance to
None could ask the other for help because each had someone attacking them, however, they were not noble scions for nothing. Despite being overpowered by the golems, they dealt some damage over time.It was not immediately obvious, but they managed to hold their own, and avoid grievous injuries even though there were several close calls.It took them each about an hour to circumvent their respective golems and deal enough damage to break through their chests.Hadrian was the first followed by Oscar shortly after with Tristan clocking in third, a few seconds behind Oscar. He was unhappy with this but he had no time to be unhappy because his face soon changed into a somber look. Oscar who had just tried to pick up the glowing multi-coloured orb was surprised to find the orb roll away from him and float up to meet the orb that came from Tristan’s golem. This also meant that the orb in Hadrian’s hand was the only one that remained.Oscar and Tristan noticed this, but they could do nothin
No one cared who had said that word because they all ran. The sight of the gray tentacles rising like pillars from the depths of the abyss was enough to scare every one of them.At the same moment, there was a rumble that spread across the skies of the city at that moment. Everyone heard it. Aiden, sitting in the restaurant was jolted from his thoughts and joined everyone else as they looked up at the ruin.He witnessed a few of the tentacles of the beast appear on the edge of the ruin as he had seen before they entered the ruin.‘That bridge, huh? They might be lucky enough to escape'.He did not care much if these people beat the ruin and made it to the temple. He had gotten his rewards and he was happy with that.Tristan and his group had immediately dashed off the bridge, but the tentacles came down on the bridge at a lightning-fast speed.This attack ripped the bridge apart, leaving just three people from Tristan’s group unscathed.Tristan’s face was painted with horror like ever
Aiden was dumbfounded. How was this a reward? It simply contradicted itself. The problem it caused was having him be a prime target for the Zaltyr, but it would also save him from them once.Then, is the mark erased once the life-saving opportunity is used?[Yes, everything returns to normal after that]This made him heave a sigh of relief. He tried to look at this from a positive perspective. This meant the mark was not meant to specifically protect him from the Zaltyr, its main purpose was to protect him from every other thing that tried to kill him.Thinking about it this way made it easier to accept the fact that he was going to be in trouble with the Zaltyr sooner or later, albeit only slightly.Elder Zarek watched Aiden go through his thoughts for a few minutes while he thought of the command he had received from The World Seed.Aiden had recovered his thoughts at this point and decided to check on his elemental seed. He was elated to see the changes to his elemental seed.The mu
None of the thirty remaining survivors was stupid and they took things as calmly as they could. There was no visible harm to resting till a problem was identified and this was something they unanimously agreed on.As they expected, there was something that was out of the ordinary and it was found after two hours of waiting.The quiet rumble that came from the depths of the chasm was enough of a wake-up call.Theo of the Arco twins was the one who made the first comment, breaking the silence. None of them believed that crossing the bridge would be easy from the start, however, the realization that some unknown danger lurked beneath was enough to bring them flashbacks of their time in the maze.“There’s something down there as well? Why is this trial so difficult?”“Good thing we were patient…”“Patient? What does that do for us?”“Theo is not completely wrong. Every stage of the trials had been harder than the last”, Oscar took a deep breath.“Indeed… Something that can cause such a ru
“You just had to jinx it?”Raven rolled her eyes in response.The orb glowed and the rubble spread across the hall was drawn to it. One piece after the other, they mashed together and barely a moment later, a statue had formed.This statue looked the same as the ones they fought before, save for a few important differences. One, this new statue was massive, at least three times as tall. Two, the statue now had a weapon – A halberd which it swung around. Three, most importantly, it had lines running all over its body. Looking close enough these lines were runes just like the ones Aiden and the rest had, but these were very close to being complete, easily dwarfing the ones they had.Their expressions turned grave as the glowing eyes of the massive statue locked onto them.It was a golem, and it wasted no time. With a roar that sounded like thunder, it wielded its halberd and charged at them.There was no running from it, because, a sweep of its halberd made the hall feel claustrophobi
Raven who had suggested was the first to move, and the moment she did, everyone else followed her one after the other. They got to the stone coffin amidst their careful creeping without any problems. The unnerving feeling that they felt from the statues kept them on their toes as they expected everything to go wrong at any moment. "Now what", Raven asked. Aiden and Connor stepped here, and as he instructed; "Keep an eye out", the two of them pushed the lid off the stone coffin. They were right to be worried, because the moment the stone coffin opened slightly, light burst out of the opening. They were taken aback by this absurd light show, however, the light was like a tonic, one that breathed life into the surrounding. Life into the several warrior statues that lined the walls. Each of their eyes opened with a snap, glowing a bright orange, followed by cracks that came from the loosening of the joints on the statues. Gadiel was the first to speak regret about the situation, but
With Aiden and Connor leading the way, they stepped onto the rope bridge. The silence that fell on them at that was quite unnerving, but it helped them keep their focus. This meant that their reactions were spot on as they responded immediately to Aiden making any signals.This was the moment that they finally understood the danger that lay in the chasm beneath them. Apart from the scary chasm that looked like a bottomless pit, a sight that already promised them death should they fall into it, there was something else living in the chasm, and the dreadful atmosphere it brought with evidence of its existence sent chills running their spines. The conclusion here was very simple, there was trouble and they needed to be careful.Listening carefully, they heard the silent rumbles gradually fade away, taking with it the tense atmosphere they felt. You would expect Aiden to make a sudden dash to get across as quickly as possible, but he didn't. He was taking no chances, so continued steadily
"Three days?!", Raven started."Oh, don't get worked up, it was more like two and a half days", Princess Eleanor chipped in.Unfortunately, this did not change the reaction Raven had; in fact, her reaction got worse at that moment as she got frantic and almost lost her mind as she looked around."Calm down, Raven. Things are not as bad as you think. We are out of the grassland maze; of course, we had to wait for everyone to de-petrify before we continued…", Deirdre explained."So, what trial do we have now?", Raven asked and immediately got a response."Oh, the long rope bridge, strung across the chasm that has a tentacled beast living in it", Deirdre responded like that piece of information was of no consequence.Raven was silent as she stared off into space for a moment. When she got her mind back, she asked almost immediately… "Are we crossing now that I am awake?"A question to which Princess Eleanor answered in a snarky and sarcastic tone… "Hopefully". Her comment got a few gazes