The eighth trial was cleared by only nine teams so far. It's because these nine teams had geniuses that killed either only a few people or didn't kill anyone at all. They became stronger solely with herbs, elixirs, and other goodies.
For these people, the eighth trial was the easiest. But in a way, they just cheated their way out. Of course, Varian team's victory also cheated by taking help from the turtles.
But if they really did try to clear the trial in an upright manner, the three of them needed to face by themselves the army and powerhouses that killed ten turtles, each of which was a powerful Sovereign!
There's just no way they could've won. The probability of success, no, the possibility was plain zero.
In other words, the trial was meant to be unbeatable. And the only way to beat it was to cheat.
"Finally," Varian slowly landed on the ground and looked around.
The pungent smell of blood filled the air and with each breath, the scent only grew stronger.
And the sight…it was no longer enough to call it a mountain of corpses, it was a sea of corpses. Wherever his eye could see, there was a dead body. Even under the horizon, there were broken body parts!
And the ground that wasn't covered by the corpses or the body parts was dyed dark green. The blood flowing from the abyssals formed large green lakes.
Varian fought many battles and saw death on a large scale. He personally wiped out more than abyssal cities, and slaughtered the abyssal army from thirty planetoids, creating two of the biggest massacres.
Yet, he felt his heart twitch when he watched the battlefield. Finally, he sighed in gratitude. And he knew exactly who to be thankful for, "Thanks, Abyss Kings and Queens."
Shortly after Sovereign Kreo died, to prevent Mirage Queen from attacking Mars, he sneaked into Mirage Abyss with the help of the ghostship and destroyed ten abyssal cities, killing more than ten million abyssals in the process.
It alarmed the other abyss rulers and they diverted the abyss will and started closely monitoring the entrance.
As a result, Varian had to drop his plan of entering the abysses and destroying the cities, and killing millions more.
If the abyss rulers didn't do that, and if they let him repeat his actions even in at least one more abyss, he'd be facing a much stronger force today in the eighth trial.
Given the fact his team was pushed to the brink to pass now, they'd have surely lost in the alternate scenario.
"If they know properly defending their abyss allowed me to succeed, will they cry in regret?" Varian smirked and raised his head.
Shortly after Emperor clone's death, the world began breaking apart. Like a paper being crumpled, it folded onto itself and collapsed into a bright white light.
Varian, Sarah, and Sia appeared in an empty white space with seemed to stretch on forever.
In the visible distance was a blood-red vortex inside a huge purple gate. The gate's pattern had three pairs of shining eyes, each with a color of yellow, blue, and red.
'Even if they're created by the gods, they're long dead. So, why…' Varian closed his eyes and tried to focus back on his recovery.
But the creepy feeling wouldn't just go away. Even though he confirmed they were not living and posed no danger to them, those gazes were imprinted into his mind as if it was imprinted by a hot branding iron.
No matter whether he closed or opened his eyes, Varian felt the disturbing gaze of those eyes.
Turning around, Varian saw Sarah and Sia meditating, focused on their recovery.
'Is this really happening or am I just hallucinating?' He couldn't help but wonder.
[You're cursed, Host,] The System's voice sounded, [And only you are cursed.]
'Cursed?' It was Varian's first time hearing something like this. 'What curse? And by who?'
[The curse will drop your powers for the next trial. And the ones who cursed you are the creators of the palace,] The System said in a lightly pissed-off tone. It seemed that it didn't like Varian being cursed either.
Varian's brows drew together into a frown. By common sense, the last trial should be the hardest. A curse like this could prove to be disastrous.
'Of course, the last trial's difficulty would fall for me. But I don't know how bad this curse would be…' Varian tapped the ground with his index finger and asked again. 'And why the curse?'
The system fell silent for a while and replied, [If you win the last trial, you'll win this world—the one and only perfect world that the gods have created—the world that they poured their everything for.
But why should the gods generously give away their prized possession? Even better, what are you or any trial paying them in return for taking their world?
The authority arranging the trial must've felt you might likely clear the next trial and win everything. That's why it cursed you.]
Varian already knew this palace was meant to be unwinnable. That's the reason these trials were so hard and weird. No one would be able to clear them.
But even he didn't expect that the gods were so hellbent on this even long after their death.
Varian looked at the three pairs of eyes and the eyes shone brighter in return. It was as if they were mocking him for his arrogance and announcing his downfall.
"If I ever find your grave, I'll get Kyle to write an epitaph for you," Varian sneered. "You'll wish you died, oh wait, you're already dead. So, you'll be rolling in your grave."
[…] The System maintained a minute of silence for the dead gods.
After two hours of recuperation and rest, the team moved to the ninth and final trial: The Shadow.
They appeared on a huge stage made of red, blue, and yellow. Standing against them were three shadows.
'It looks exactly like my shadow, a shadow version of me, huh,' Sarah looked at the shadow in front of her and narrowed her eyes.
The thing had the same height, curves, and battle posture as her. Even the way its index finger gripped the sword was the same as hers.
'It has the same power as me,' Sia noticed the aura coming from the shadow in front of her and clenched her sword.
"Your mom!" On the other hand, Varian didn't even glance at his shadow and cursed out loud.
The moment he appeared here, his divine paths were all suppressed to starting of low level 9 and his combat power dropped to mid level 9 from high level 9.
On the other hand, while the authority still failed in copying him and only made a shadow of six paths, it got a very strong mid level 9 combat power.
A beginner mid level 9 vs a strong mid level 9 in pure combat power—the gap was overwhelming and the outcome was obvious.
It's possible to win against an opponent with divine paths ahead of you.
It's hard to win against an opponent higher than you in combat power either through clever planning or combat experience.
It's next to impossible to win against an opponent with a higher combat power and the same combat experience.
So…
Varian could've won the trial easily thanks to the imperfect cloning that led to a six-path opponent.
But now the situation deteriorated to the point where even Varian found it extremely hard to win.
"Fucking curse!"
