"Wait… what?"
Listening to the voice's words, Valyr instantly felt a great amount of confusion. "Aren't I supposed to fight against nine opponents in total?"
"If so, why's the voice telling me that I'm facing my eighth and final opponent?"
Scratching the back of his head as he mulled over it, he went over the rules the monotonous voice had given him regarding the Trial of Nine Stars once more.
From what he could recall, he would be fighting a total of three sub-trials, with each sub-trial being made up of three opponents that got progressively stronger.
Aside from that, his opponents would either push him towards combat, or towards his other specialty, which was forging.
So far, the two sub-trials he had passed with flying colors more or less followed that mechanic. In fact, the same could even be said for his forging duel with Nila, who had a level of strength right at the early levels of Rank 6.
With that, he began to wonder why the voice had phrased its words that way, wondering if the final sub-trial had been turned into something else due to his exemplary performance so far.
Thankfully, the answers to his questions revealed itself not long after the voice's announcement.
Whoosh!
From a fair distance away from him, a large ray of golden light shone down from the heavens, radiating a terrifying force that reminded him of what kind of opponents he would be facing.
Though, as he looked at this ray of light for a bit longer, he noticed that it was considerably bigger than all of the previous lights he had seen so far.
Just as he thought that the size of ray of light corresponded to the size of the being he would be up against, the large ray of light split into two all of a sudden.
And it was there that the young man finally understood what was going on.
"The eighth and final opponent," muttered Valyr to himself, wryly smiling as he thought that he had been thinking too deeply into the matter.
"Truly a case of semantics."
Not long after, the young man let out a long sigh, slightly shaking his head as he began to distance himself further from the rays of light.
"At this point, it really seems like the Gates of Awakening wants me to surrender," said Valyr to himself, his attention still fixed towards the golden rays.
"Is it even possible to clear the Trial of Nine Stars? Was it even intended for people to clear the Trial of Nine Stars?"
As he asked himself these questions, the young man eventually fell silent, instead deciding to make use of the time to prepare more plans that would allow himself to tip the scales to his favor.
After all, he wasn't just going to go up against a being at the middle levels of Rank 6…
He was going to have to face someone like that, as well as someone at the peak of Rank 6.
At the same time.
Whoosh!
With there being two rays of light, it took considerably for the golden rays to be replaced with the opponents Valyr would have to face.
Nevertheless, the two final opponents for his trial had eventually made their appearances, prompting Valyr to do a double-take as he looked at them.
"Twins," muttered the young man, somewhat understanding why the Gates of Awakening had decided to have the two appear at the same time.
From his perspective, the two were at least a head taller than he was, causing their bodies to faintly radiate a naturally imposing aura.
Nevertheless, with their chiseled jaw lines complementing their short yet neat pitch-black hair, as well as their toned musculature, the two looked like fashion models he would have seen on Earth.
Even their getup reminded him of what some fashion models wore, with both of them sporting a pair of plain white shirts and loose dark gray pants.
Thankfully, even though the two of them appeared more or less the same in every aspect, there were still two things that allowed Valyr to tell the two apart.
The scars running down their faces, as well as the auras they emitted.
"Hey there!" shouted one of the two at Valyr, his scar running down from his right eye to his left cheek. "Are you our opponent for this round?"
Taking note of the man's considerably weaker aura, the young man nodded. "I am. And before you ask, you two are my final opponents before I clear the Trial of Nine Stars."
"Had a feeling after getting a feel of how much strength we had," replied the other one with a chuckle, the scars on his face looking more like whiskers than scars. "In any case, before we begin, let us introduce ourselves."
"My name is Dawan. Dawan Lee," said the man soon after, flaring his empowered aura with a prideful expression.
Unsurprisingly, the one with the weaker aura found his twin's showing of force to be slightly annoying, scoffing as he proceeded with his introduction. "You can call me Daon. Daon Lee."
"Dawan and Daon Lee…" Valyr muttered as he nodded, an amused smile soon creeping up the edges of his lips. "Your parents definitely have a unique naming sense."
"That's what a lot of people say," replied Dawan with a faint smile, having an idea of what was going on in the young man's mind. "Anyways, now that we've introduced ourselves, could you introduce yourselves to us?"
"Valyr Zeihardt?" The young man nodded, deciding to make his introduction succinct. "Nice to meet you."
"Who knew we'd be up against a Zeihardt," said Daon with a hint of surprise, only to let out an amused chuckle soon after. "Say, Valyr. Care to tell us what's currently going on in Veldanyr?"
At those words, the young man raised his eyebrow in curiosity, prompting the other one to add more context to Daon's words.
"I have a feeling that you already know that these things are just extensions of our actual bodies," said Dawan, to which Valyr nodded as a sign that he did.
"With that being said, we're currently on another planet, though we've been trying to keep ourselves up to date with happenings on it."
"We were born and raised there, after all," said Daon, to which Dawan nodded in agreement.
"Though, I don't really have any problems with that, why don't we proceed with our fight first before having a lengthy conversation?" Pondering in silence for a bit, Valyr eventually looked at the two as he asked this question.
In response, Dawan and Daon looked at each other for a bit before looking back at the young man as they shrugged their shoulders.
"Sounds fine with me," said Dawan, to which Daon slightly nodded.
And with that, the final fight had officially begun.
