As Varian's trio and the turtles reached the gate, the palace flashed brightly once before its intensity fell to normal levels.
Prince Shak's team lost.
"Wait a moment,"
Right after Varian's words, an invisible ripple emerged from the palace and passed through them.
The Palace would only enter a low energy state if it determines all the trial takers had taken the trial.
And after scanning the world, the Palace dimmed down, signaling it indeed entered a lower energy level.
The Palace should've identified Varian and the girls as participants but thanks to the partial authority he had, he was able to fool the Palace. But that'd only work for a few trials. Sooner or later, the Trial authority would realize the truth and return to its trial mode.
But till then…
"Hurry up," Varian shot up the stairs and pushed the giant door between the pillars.
A bright light burst out from the palace and took them in.
They appeared in an ash space. There was not a grain of sand or speck of dust here. It was just plain ash-colored land and sky and a colorful vortex far away.
The most noticeable thing was the invisible pressure. It needed at least the strength of a mid level 9 to bear!
The first trial "Expedition" was a test where you have to walk to the exit gate under tremendous pressure. It's usually a peak level 9. But thanks to the palace's state, the pressure came down to a mid level 9.
Contrary to the teams of the princes that had to walk slowly, Varian's team sprinted to the vortex and passed the first trial.
The second "Rainbow trial" had the same twelve gates corresponding to twelve different paths and needed the participants to unlock at least six gates to pass the trial.
Varian single-handedly took them through this trial.
The third trial "Survival" was usually considered difficult because there would be a couple of hundreds of monsters that would be created to be equal to the weakest member of the team. And all of them were replicated after the member with the weakest path — 'Varian'.
Not so surprisingly, the trial authority judged Varian as having eight paths as an error and downsized it to six paths.
The reasoning was justified—the origin of any being with that many paths is just unstable and should collapse by itself. It's only thanks to the fusion of Order-Chaos slivers, Varian's origin remained stable under the chaos, becoming an outlier.
Of course, the trial authority didn't know this. So, it only sent them a few hundred creatures with six mid level 9 paths.
Even though they're glad the enemy was significantly weaker, facing hundreds of mid level 9s was no joke. Here, the turtles came into play and destroyed the horde in minutes.
The fourth trial "Mirrors of Self" was a trial where clones of team members would be created. You have to pick any clone other than your own and destroy it to pass.
There seemed to be a genuine problem here.
Now, Varian was the strongest of the three. Sarah was second. Sia and Enigma were third, even though the gap between them and Sarah wasn't high.
Varian could pick Sarah or Sia and defeat their clone. Sarah could defeat Sia's clone. But Sia wouldn't be able to defeat Varian's clone.
And since each individual was taken to an isolated space for this trial, the turtles couldn't help.
What to do?
"Just go in and pick me," Varian assured them.
"Alright,"
The one to pick Varian's clone was Sia. After the battle with his clone started, she immediately realized why Varian was so calm about it.
'It's the same error again!'
The trial authority still judged Varian to be a six-path mid-level 9.
'Why aren't his body and lightning paths copied?'
It was another pleasant surprise. Varian's strongest paths weren't present in his clone.
'Did he do something?' Sia fought hard as she slowly started to gain an edge. She's confident in finishing this battle within five minutes.
'He surely did something!'
Indeed, at the beginning of this trial, Varian asked the system to reduce the presence of his strongest paths.
Of course, no matter how concealed his paths were, they wouldn't be able to escape the trial authority.
But since the authority wanted to pick only six paths from him, so it picked the most visible ones.
Varian was the first to clear the trial. The second was Sia. Sarah was the last and when she came out, she was severely injured and on the verge of fainting.
Worried, Varian healed her with his plantae powers, and only after her full recovery did they go to the next trial.
The fifth trial "Great Fall" was a trial where everyone's paths would be reduced to level 1 and they'd have to fight a level 3 monster.
But when Varian's team checked the monster, it was clearly a level 2.
"Oh, the Palace is in low energy mod—"
Before Varian could even finish his words, the palace shook and lit up brightly. The low-energy mode ended and the monster's aura also rose to level 3.
"My crappy luck," Varian cursed as the level 3 goblin rushed towards them with an axe.
Everyone, including the turtles, became level 1. Even if a dozen level 1s joined forces, they wouldn't be able to win a level 3.
The Princes passed this trial using precious treasures and Varian's team didn't have that luxury.
"I have my own path," Varian smiled and ran to the goblin.
The powers of eight paths were used in harmony and an impossible battle between a level 1 and level 3 commenced.
Dozen level 1s were different from a single level 1 with eight paths.
It's like twelve children fighting a wolf in contrast to a single adult fighting a wolf.
And indeed, exploiting his natural advantage and combat experience, Varian slayed the goblin after a hearty fight.
But the price was still high as he collapsed from injuries shortly thereafter.
Compared to the feat of defeating someone two levels above, this was a small price to pay.
