422 Trials Ground : Trap
BOOM!
An explosion occurred as the walls of the palace started falling.
"ALYSSA!!"
"SAVE ME ALYSSA!!"
"I AM DYING!!!"
Burnt corpses shouted as the fire engulfed, while they crawled towards Alyssa who was standing still in her place.
Her hands were shaking, her steps were faltering.
Moments ago,
"So this is the entrance?" Alyssa muttered as she looked at the palace entrance.
All around this huge palace was lava, and the monsters that lurked within that lava.
Alyssa floated down to the stone pavement and looked around.
She could see the entrance in front of her, but there were also stone statues of people wearing armor and holding their weapons guarding the entrance.
The scenery, alerted Alyssa as she carefully made her way but her expression worsened as she could now see the statues more closely.
All of them had a strange expression on their faces, an expression of fear.
It looked abandoned as there wasn't a single thing she could sense in her vicinity, but just observing the surroundings was enough to make her cautious.
She had tried to conserve her strength while traveling till here, but it was a hard thing to do. There was a wound on her right arm, that she got while dodging the fierce attacks of the monsters that lurked in the lava.
But she closed that wound by using her ice magic to freeze that area.
Suddenly wind started flowing through the entrance of the palace making Alyssa stop in her tracks, as she looked around the weather above her was changing.
The sound of thunder resounded loudly as Alyssa looked up and the sky was covered with dark clouds.
Crumble!
Alyssa turned as the bridge of the entrance started crumbling and falling into the lava.
Although the palace looked suspicious, Alyssa now had no choice but to enter the palace, and she did exactly that.
Before the bridge fully crumbled, Alyssa entered inside as the giant doors behind her closed.
The trials were unique and Alyssa still had no idea what her trial was, but soon as she saw the interior of the palace change.
She figured out what the trial truly was.
The interior changed as the broken walls were on fire and she was standing in a hallway.
With dead bodies around her of people wearing servant uniforms that she still vividly remembered.
After all, how could she forget them, it had been over a decade since she had seen that uniform, these walls, that always would haunt her in her dreams.
The memories that brought only pain and suffering, and the fuel behind her revenge.
Her arms started shaking as she heard the screams.
"Young Lady, help me!!"
A woman shouted as she ran through the hallway, but the pillar around the broken wall fell on her.
Alyssa looked at the scenery, as her heart started beating loudly.
She was ready to face anything that came her way, but she never expected it would be something like this.
"I-I..," Alyssa tried to remove the pillar above the woman with her magic, but the whole wall crashed before her.
The path ahead of her was blocked as she turned around to look behind her.
The way that was open was something Alyssa remembered vividly, after all, it was the place she would visit a lot.
It was the way that would lead her to the garden that she loved so much, but right now that was the last place she wanted to visit.
Because she knew what exactly waited for her there.
Alyssa stepped back as the fear inside her grew.
The nightmare that haunted her for the past decade, was the place where all her suffering began.
She wanted to go back, but there was no way back for her.
Alyssa clenched her fist as her eyes were shaking and turned cold as she calmed herself down.
"I can do this, I can do this, I can...," Alyssa started telling herself.
Stuck in the trials of her own nightmare, Alyssa was making her way forward but for someone, the nightmares weren't simply illusions.
Asher's body was still present in the dense mana pool, his subconsciousness was circulating the mana. But that too had its limit, and slowly cracks in his aura started forming.
Usually, the effects of Rune of Eirdin would match, the capabilities of the mana core of the person that had it.
But right now, the Rune of Eirdin was strengthened by the Overseer, and it became Rank A.
Right now, things seem fine but the cracks that were slowly forming would result in the collapse of his aura armor.
And the dense mana would flood his body, and what awaited Asher was death.
But despite the predicament he couldn't do anything as he was stuck in the effect of Rune of Eirdin.
***
"I can't believe Xander Demarcus died," Neyman muttered with a saddened expression.
"The news would surely cause an uproar," Elsa said.
Xander Demarcus, the Vice Principal of World Academy had passed away, and this news was causing an uproar in the whole academy.
For Asher, he was sitting in his training room as he practiced the movement technique that Xander taught him.
"I guess, I am not normal," Asher muttered.
Asher criticized himself for not feeling anything, but there was a slight emptiness that he was sure wasn't what others would feel in his situation.
After a few hours, Asher received a text from Damian.
<Are you okay?>
Damian was concerned about Asher, but Asher himself didn't know what to feel about this situation.
Xander Demarcus was someone who started teaching him himself out of nowhere for a reason only Xander knew.
<Yeah>
Asher replied as he could only wonder what he was supposed to feel in this situation.
'Maybe, I would never be normal,' Asher thought in his mind.
But that feeling soon changed, as Asher started becoming more normal something he never knew was possible.
"Hah, you wouldn't find anything in that book," Asher smiled as he looked at Alyssa.
Four months had passed, and things had changed in World Academy.
"I wouldn't know until I try myself," Alyssa replied.
"Did you like the painting I gave you?" Alyssa asked as she glanced at Asher.
"Yeah," Asher replied with a small smile on his face.
Alyssa smiled as she felt happy something she never thought she would feel again.
Both of them got so used to each other's presence, that they didn't even notice the change in their personalities.
"Take this one," Asher passed a book.
"This one has a detailed study about things that will help with body-strengthening potions," Asher said.
"Thanks," Alyssa replied.
"It's only a temporary solution, so don't exert yourself too much," Asher said.
Asher turned towards the bookshelf Alyssa looked at the book that Asher gave her bitterly.
Her condition had gotten worse, but she didn't want to tell Asher.
She was sure if Asher knew he would try to help her in any way possible, but she knew that normal potions wouldn't help her anymore.
Till now, she had taken a B Rank Healing potion by using all her GP, but it didn't help her at all.
She knew that, her condition was beyond help, maybe when she was young they would have helped but she was sure that her current condition wasn't simple enough to be solved with them.
And there was one more thing, her state after the constant use of gravity magic.
Alyssa floated the book towards her as Asher turned and slammed that book on the table.
"I told you, don't use that magic too much," Asher said.
"It doesn't affect me too much, don't worry," Alyssa replied.
"Still, don't use it unless necessary," Asher took the book and put that near her.
"Gravity Magic is different from Pure Space Affinity," Alyssa said.
"The mental strain is not comparable to what a mages with spatial element would feel," Alyssa explained.
"But still don't use it for small things like this," Asher said.
Asher sat on his seat as he suppressed the mana around him forcefully suppressing Alyssa's magic.
It was Asher's bloodline ability that nobody knew about except Alyssa who had experienced it herself.
"You are not allowed to use bloodline abilities on students outside duel and spars," Alyssa said.
"Like I care," Asher replied as flipped the page.
Alyssa smiled as she opened the book, and started reading.
She gazed out the window at the clear sky, a bitter expression crossing her face.
