Michael had gone down the wall and walked back into the city, specifically, back to the adventurer’s guild.
He expected it to have a depressing atmosphere, with the amount of losses they just incurred after all, however, it did not differ in the slightest.
Lyra saw him and waved at him, signaling for him to go upstairs to meet the Guildmaster.
He did just that and arrived right in his office, staring at the man sleeping as per usual.
‘How are they not affected at all?’ Michael couldn’t help but think, everyone was acting so nonchalantly even after what had just transpired not too long ago.
“Wake up” He commanded, to which the Guildmaster ignored, continuing his slumber.
‘…’
Michael knocked a few times on the table, trying to wake him up further, however, it was to no avail.
He proceeded to shake him and yell in his ear, yet nothing ‘The fuck? Is he dead?’ Checking his pulse he saw the Guildmaster was still alive, just unresponsive.
Looking around the room, he decided to check if maybe he found some information and placed it somewhere Michael could find if needed, however, there was nothing, it’s as if the Guildmaster and Lyra did not even try searching for it.
‘Did my progress get canceled out? Or are they just incompetent?’ Michael thought as it did not make much sense to him, wouldn’t they have something, even if it was not useless?
Yet there was completely nothing, so Michael decided to head back downstairs, leaving the Guildmaster alone.
‘Not the first time someone has failed me’ A sigh escaped his mouth as he turned the corner and saw the other people sprawled on the ground, everyone had fallen unconscious, even Lyra.
Michael realized this was no longer a laughing matter as this was no longer a coincidence, the matter at hand had become something unpredictable.
He ran out of the adventurer’s guild and saw people collapsing to the ground, some kind of energy traveling across the street.
Normally it would be invisible, however, due to Michael’s different kind of Eyes of The Healer, he was able to see it.
Following after it, he noticed it wasn’t sentient, it was more like a gassy mass that traveled across the street, bumping into buildings and changing directions.
Looking around, he could feel many more scattered around the streets, affecting the unsuspecting citizens.
‘Interesting’ Michael glanced around and decided to run back to the wall, maybe another hint would appear.
However, it was all the same, the blood on the ground had not disappeared, the fire or whatever that was supposed to come, hadn’t.
He was lost, unsure of what to do or where to go, however, those thoughts did not linger for long, as in the distance, he could see some sort of flame appearing, it was inside of the city.
Michael picked up his pace and headed over there to check what was going on, passing by the individuals who were unconscious and finally arrived in front of what seemed to be a fire pillar.
No buildings were aflame, only the pillar stood, the fire increasing in intensity, its height nearly reaching the sky.
Suddenly, more flame pillars began appearing all around the city at set distances from one another, it looked oddly symmetrical.
An ominous feeling lingered in the air as the flames rose in sky one by one, lighting up the clouds in a deep red color.
[First Trial: Trial of War – Phase 3 Final Objective: Survive]
[9:59]
[9:58]
The moment the red hologram descended, a timer appeared counting down the time.
‘Survive for 10 minutes? Holy shit?’ He thought as he glanced at the clouds that were a complete scarlet color now.
Suddenly, a bunch of fireballs descended from the sky, landing all over the city, some even near Michael.
The destruction it emitted was many times stronger than his own spells, the moment a fireball touched upon the ground, it created a crater and a massive explosion, sending waves of flame outwards.
The unconscious individuals were not spared, the flames did not discriminate against anyone.
However, Michael grew a bit more uneasy, while it might seem destructive and all, it was relatively slow, meaning not exactly difficult to dodge out of the way.
Coupled with a Mana Shield he learned to make by combining Mana Projection and Physical Enhancement, most of the damage was negated.
[6:36]
A few minutes had passed of him dodging them basically effortlessly ‘This was even easier than the previous phase’ Michael thought with a chuckle.
It was a pity he couldn’t save any of the people, even if he did, where would he go with them? He assumed after 10 minutes this whole place would have been destroyed.
“Aren’t you a cheeky human..” A voice resounded from his side as he was not paying attention to his surroundings that much.
Michael turned towards it and saw a short armored figure holding a greatsword, it was the goblin from before.
He immediately put his guard up and glared at it “What do you want.”
Michael assumed it did not want to fight as it had the perfect chance to strike him down while his guard was down.
“Hm.. Human, how are you alive? I thought I killed you” It said in a questioning tone.
‘Kill me? News to me’ He chuckled inwardly and was about to respond when he suddenly remembered something.
The previous battlefield, the massive scar on the ground…
‘I did not die, however, something did happen there.. I need answers’ He thought with a serious expression as he dodged yet another fireball.
“Was the fight that memorable?” Michael teased the goblin leader while also preparing himself for battle.
However, the goblin leader merely scoffed at him “Memorable? You ran in like an idiot trying to punch me, so I just slashed you in half.” It waved around its massive greatsword, gesturing a downwards slash.
‘Yeah, that’s definitely not me’
It would take half a brain to do something so stupid after witnessing the goblin’s power, running in fist first was the last thing he would do.
[3:42]
As the clock continued ticking down, Michael noticed something strange about the goblin leader, its playfulness from before had disappeared, replaced with nothingness.
It raised its massive greatsword and slashed towards him, annihilating everything in its path.
Except Michael, who had been preparing for something like this to happen so he was able to react, albeit the pressure was still immense.
If it wasn’t such a half hearted slash, he might not have been able to dodge it at all.
“What’s wrong? You got bored of standing still?” Michael taunted the goblin leader, trying to check if it was still all there in the head.
However, no response came, it just kept on slashing at him with attacks that lacked the power he boasted.
A few Swords of Mana flew right at the goblin, however, it did a small but fast movement, reflecting all the swords back into the ground, even launching some back at Michael which he swiftly dodged.
[0:14]
The battle had dragged on for a little while, eventually, the sky parted and a red sun appeared, emitting unparalleled heat, it reminded him of the time he saw the ashen ground back in Phase 1, the increasing heat was similar.
[0:06]
The goblin was still swinging his sword around, trying to hit Michael, however, it seemed to not even try anymore, purposely missing some swings.
They had traveled across the entire city while fighting and arrived back at the wall that Michael had been to the most, the one which was broken at first, then collapsed, then once again repaired.
[0:00]
As the timer finally ran out, the goblin’s movements halted, before its previous self returned “How did I get here?”
[First Trial: Trial of War – Complete]
This time a blue hologram appeared telling Michael he had finished the trial, however, for some reason he was not going back to the temple.
The goblin leader glanced at him and pulled his greatsword back, then suddenly, thrusting it towards Michael.
He couldn’t react to it, he couldn’t even see the motion of the thrust, however, it seemed the one it was aiming for was not Michael, but the wall slightly beside him.
Turning around, he saw a massive hole that had pierced it clean through, looking the same as when he first saw it.
‘Oh..’ He exclaimed as the surroundings began to heat up to the point where his skin was sizzling.
The goblin whistled to him and took off its helmet, showcasing gray skin.
However, what was most disturbing, was the fact that the thing he assumed was the goblin leader, in actuality, was some kind of a faceless being, similar to the statues he had seen back in the temple.
“Who the fu-” As Michael was about to kindly ask the ‘Goblin’ a question, he was finally teleported away, back to the temple.
