927 A Realm Of Divine

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"Huh?"

"What is he talking about?"

"Is he cursing his brother to die?"

"Weren't they close? Is it all an act?"

"What a vicious younger brother! He's jealous of his elder brother's talent!"

The King clenched his fists and the entire capital felt a heaviness in the air. Glancing at a one-armed guard, he said. "It seems Prince Shak's illness is more serious than we thought. Take 'good care' of him."

The one-armed guard, reputed as a maniacal torturer, nodded with a big smile. He never tortured any royal and decided to exploit this opportunity to the fullest.

Prince Shak's body shook as he realized his fate. But looking at his brother's bewildered face, he gathered all the air in his lungs and yelled. "Brother, please listen to me! You can ask any psychics to test if I'm lying. I beg you!"

Prince Sohan bit his lip and was about to step forward.

Even if Shak was lying, he wanted to find out what was going on. And moreover, his younger brother genuinely admired him. It's odd he's doing this now.

"No need to listen to a child's ramblings," One of the chief guests on the stage, Army Chief and Prince Sohan's master, stretched his arm in front of him and stopped him.

"Let him be taken away. I'll make sure he's lightly punished. You know how important this adventure is for you, right? If you miss it, you won't get the chance even in another hundred years."

His spaceship also arrived and the door opened.

Prince Sohan gritted his teeth as his gaze alternated between the path to his adventure and his younger brother who was being dragged away from the stage.

"I…Argh…" Prince Shak opened his mouth to speak, but an unbearable pain passed flooded his mind.

A psychic guard here was wrecking his mind, telling him not to mess around.

Prince Shak's mind was shutting down and he knew he'd faint at any moment now. Pulling every last bit of his strength, he yelled one last time. "I...If yo..go, I'll diiiee!"

With a muffled sound, Prince Shak's eyes closed and he fainted.

The guests were all whispering about the ridiculousness of this meeting. The foreign guests began chuckling in contempt. The whole scene was a mess.

The King tapped his finger in the air and the venue abruptly fell silent. Glancing at everyone with a neutral gaze, he turned to Prince Sohan. "Go, make us proud."

"I…" Prince Sohan closed his eyes and bowed to his master. Then, under the shocked gazes of everyone, he ran toward his younger brother.

The moment he took the first step, the sky began to dissolve. The second step took away the air. The third made the capital except the venue vanish.

On the sixth step, only Prince Sohan and Prince Shak remained in a weird white space.

Everything and everyone disappeared.

"—ak, Shak, Shak!"

Hearing his name being called repeatedly, Prince Shak slowly opened his eyes.

And he saw a familiar face filled with anxiety.

"B-Brother?" Prince Shak endured the pain in his body and grabbed his brother's hands. "Don't go! Please don't go!"

His cries echoed in the white space but Shak was so focused on his brother that he didn't even notice his surroundings.

"I won't go. I won't go anywhere." Prince Sohan smiled warmly and raised his hand to ruffle Shak's hair.

As Shak waited for the familiar warmth, his brother's hand dissolved and vanished.

"Brother…"

With a warm smile on his face, Prince Sohan too disappeared and a white light engulfed Prince Shak.

— — — —

"This trial is an easy pass for these Hybrids since they have no emotions. They don't really have any regrets. The Sovereigns and Princes would have to struggle though." Varian smiled.

The space crack was now almost stabilized and soon, the first turtle could come out.

Thankfully, Sia was helping him ease his pain. So, the space crack was going to be finished in just half the time.

On the other hand, Sarah was preparing herself for the trial seriously while being continuously amazed at this trial.

Unlike Enigma or Sia, she didn't travel around much and was thus curious about new places. But more importantly, after recently losing Varian and going through an emotional hell, she was very happy just hearing him speak. His words, his voice, his expression, they were all reminders that he was alive.

'…every second is a blessing.' Sarah looked at Varian's face and sighed inwardly.

Tapping her cheek, she asked. "…but creating a real world out of their memory, even to the extent of making people with the same personality, powers, and treasures, tell me how is that not omnipotence?"

"The souls of the creation are different from the original," Varian shrugged. "But yeah, this is already in the realm of the divine. In other synthetic worlds, the world is only a mental construct, but here it's a real world! No wonder, this trial eliminated 10% of the contestants."

"Wait," Sarah pointed to the Palace which was now starting to change colors much more frequently. "What happened?"

"One, no, two are eliminated," Varian clicked his tongue.

"What will happen to them? Will they be sent out?"

"Nope. They'll remain inside until all of their team fails and then the judgment would be made." Varian said casually.

— — —

As Varian declared, two members failed.

Sapphire Prince and Sovereign of Emerald Duchy.

Both of them had treasures to fight against the mental world in this trial but when the world became real, they couldn't even put up a proper fight.

Still, the surviving team members were sent to the next trial.

It's just that with the loss of a Prince and a Sovereign, the chances of these teams advancing had plummeted.

— — —

"The seventh trial should be the last one they can manage," Varian played with Sia's soft hair on his shoulders and said. "We'll have to clear eight and nine ourselves."

"What about one to seven?" Sia opened her eyes and asked softly.

As the time has come, Varian informed them of the plan.

"Once all the teams fail, the palace will go into a resting mode of sorts. The trials then will be weakened. We can pass them. The challenge will be in the last two trials."

"Will we need so many Sovereigns?" Sia pointed to the ten turtles that lined up. The first turtle was slowly poking its head out of the space crack and coming to this side.

"If they're lucky, one or two might survive the eighth trial," Varian said.

"W-What the hell? What's even in that trial?" Sarah asked.

"Madness. Fucking madness," Varian sighed.

The makers of this trial really designed it to be unwinnable. No way anyone could fucking clear it. The eighth and ninth trials were living evidence of the craziness of the creators.

But to get out of this world and return to earth, he had to clear the trial.

Or else, even if he can dominate and rule the natives, he'd remain trapped in this world forever and get some funny nickname after death.

'Thinking of being trapped here, the time flow here is different from that of earth. How many months had it been there? I...hope nothing happened while I was gone,' Varian could only hope for the best.

With the Abyss Emperor being so eager, the Abyssals would surely be up to something.

The only way to end that problem was to finish off the Abyssals once and for all.

"Oh boy~"