925 Approaching An End

The space crack behind Varian continued to expand. Unlike before, the aura of a Sovereign creature fully began to leak from the other side and a heaviness filled the air in this core region.

The giant turtles slowly opened their eyes and glanced at their master. They were as old as this world itself!

When the Primordial Gods realized this world was a success, they've put up the Turtles as a guardian for it.

Of course, for their own entertainment and experimentation, each god created their own playground.

Primordial God of Life & Death created the Twilight Zone. The experiment was to throw in all sorts of beasts and keep them in a cycle of endless reincarnation.

To keep the toys from escaping, the boundaries—the 'turtles'—were created. And to keep the boundaries from getting old and dying, the Primordial God allowed them to draw vitality from his power.

That's the reason these creatures could keep living even for hundreds of millions of years.

Of course, the amount of time they've stayed awake would hardly be equal to a hundred years.

So, while they lived for long, the turtles themselves still felt young. And to them, this new master only invoked curiousity.

Yesterday, the Primordial God was ordering them to guard. Today, this new owner was telling them they have to destroy something.

And now, he's talking something to that blonde female.

"This world is a…priceless treasure," Varian sighed but didn't say why.

Sarah too didn't ask for more. After being with him for so long, she figured that sometimes, more knowledge about some things doesn't necessarily meant a good thing.

Somethings would have to be hidden for her own and Varian's safety.

Varian also sensed the mood and changed the topic, "The Fifth Trial is called the Great Fall. The authority of the Trial would suppress everyone's aura to level 1. Then the have to fight."

"...?"

"They have to fight a level 3. No attack treasures allowed."

"Wait, level 3 as level 1?" Sarah raised a brow. The power differential is high, okay?

"In other worlds, it's level 2, which is actually doable with team work. But here, it's level 3," Varian also shrugged as if it's something that can't be helped.

Sarah continued to talk while Enigma at some point had fallen completely silent.

Her silver hair turned brown and her violet eyes turned golden. Sia looked at Varian's back and sighed.

A lot of things happened since she left. Now, she's just overwhelmed and didn't know how to respond.

But unlike Sarah, she knew something.

Varian was in pain. Likely due to the space crack that was stupidly delayed. But he's pain for certain.

His subtle facial expressions, the body language and his choice of words all gave it away.

Sia went from behind and hugged Varian. For some reason, since that day, the restriction on her darkness power was slowly being lifted. It was as if 'She' was no longer responding or caring about it.

It's also the reason Sia didn't appear for a long time after leaving earlier. She was trying to control the darkness power completely and before she knew it, all of this happened.

But finally, she too gained the third path.

Feeling the softness and warmth from behind, and especially the low but existing resistance, Varian was startled. "Sia?"

Sia didn't say anything and pushed her darkness mana into him. Unlike the rampant and abrassive darkness in her attacks, this one was smooth, soothing and comfortable.

Varian's pain steadily fell and he let out a deep breath in comfort.

'So I still got found out, huh,' He shook his head inwardly and was about to explain when a thin finger was placed on his lips.

"Shhh," Sia rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

Sarah was puzzled by her actions, but feeling Sia's weak aura, she didn't say anything.

— — —

"Level 3? Not level 2?" Sapphire Prince couldn't close his mouth.

They're in a small forest and standing in front of them was a goblin barely one foot tall.

It waved its cub at them with a fierce expression and licked its lips aggressively, as if proclaiming its the predator and they're its prey.

Its just a level 3 that's no different from pebble for the Prince.

But since appearing in this forest, all of their strengths were suppressed to level 1.

So, this goblin actually could kill them all!

"No offensive treasures allowed. I guess we can only use the defensive ones and wear him down." The Sovereign proposed the safe solution.

"I guess…" Sapphire Prince retrieved the treasures from his storage ring with an expression close to crying.

The treasures would also be suppressed. So, he'd be sacrificing many precious treasures just to suppress a puny level 3!

He already lost his defensive treasure in the last trial. Now, the cost of these treasures was already piling up. His net worth was shrinking rapidly.

"This better be worth it," He gritted his teeth and slapped the treasures onto the goblin.

A couple of barriers formed around the goblin and the mad creature started indiscriminately attacking them.

The Prince witnessed his Sovereign grade treasures used on a level 3 and bowed his head in shame.

Thankfully, a few minutes later, the exhausted goblin was killed by the team and they're sent to the next trial.

— — —

"This trial isn't that hard if you have some defensive or locking type treasures, which Princes typically do," Varian said. "So, this trial only eliminated about 2% of the contestants."

The space crack behind him stopped expanding and was slowly consolidating. It's already too big to be captured in a single glance.

One giant turtle after another had lined up on the other side of the Space Crack, ready to enter at any time.

"Four more trials, huh," Sarah muttered, "How many do you think they can pass?"

"They'll likely cross the sixth trial, seventh is possible, eighth…I don't know." Varian pursed his lips. "But ninth is impossible."