Aliya had changed her mind.
At first, when she left with Bobby and Li, she told herself it was the correct decision. Ezra had clearly wanted them gone, and his voice had carried that quiet authority he often used when sothing serious was about to happen.
But the further she walked away from that corridor, the heavier her chest felt.
Her thoughts kept circling back.
What if sothing happened to him?
She tried to ignore it.
Tried to convince herself Ezra could handle anything like he always does, but then...The explosion ca.
A violent sound rolled through the maze corridors, echoing off the stone walls like thunder trapped underground.
Aliya stopped walking.
Bobby and Li froze as well.
Dust trembled loose from the ceiling stones.
That was when she made up her mind.
Even if Ezra got angry at her and even if he told her to leave again.
She would not regret going back, she didn’t care whether he needed help or not.
Just like Ezra enjoyed doing everything by himself...Aliya was the type to always follow her own heart and right now her heart refused to move forward.
If sothing happened to Ezra, she knew sothing inside her would change forever.
For soone she had only known for a short ti, she had beco strangely drawn to him.
Before the boys could say anything, she had already turned around and started running.
***
When they arrived back at Ezra’s location, the first thing Aliya saw was a storm.
Needles were raining down through the air in a dense tallic wave.
Without hesitation she joined her rods together.
Click.
The two rods stretched and locked together, forming her staff.
She poured Cognis into it while running.
The staff extended, the tal thickened and the structure hardened.
Her arm muscles tensed.
Then she threw it.
The staff flew forward with force.
It passed Ezra’s left cheek by only a few centiters before stabbing deep into the stone floor.
Aliya leaped.
She enhanced her legs with Cognis and ca down hard on the planted staff.
Boom!
The force dragged a massive slab of ground upward.
The stone cracked loudly as the earth itself lifted like a shield.
The rising slab blocked the incoming storm of needles.
tal clanged violently as dozens of projectiles embedded themselves into the newly raised wall.
Dust burst outward.
"Ezra!" Bobby shouted; his voice filled with worry as he ran toward them.
Li followed behind him, both of them still several ters away.
Ezra glanced back once.
Then forward again.
"Why did you co back here?" he asked calmly.
There was no anger, no surprise.
His face just looked as plain as ever.
Aliya stared at him.
"Huh?" she snapped. "You can’t even say thank you for saving you, and why are you looking at like that? It’s annoying."
"Aliya! Duck!"
Ezra’s voice suddenly rose.
Aliya reacted instantly.
She bent down.
Cale burst through the broken slab of earth above them, descending with a double-leg kick aid straight at Ezra’s head.
Ezra crossed both arms and blocked.
The impact forced him back several steps.
"You foolish girl!" Cale barked, turning his blade toward Aliya. "Why did you co back?!"
His sword cut toward her.
Aliya slid to the left, pulling a revolver from her space bag with one hand while keeping her staff behind her with the other.
Clash!
Clash!
Cale deflected her shots with quick sword movents.
Then...
Nile appeared on her right.
Aliya noticed imdiately.
Her revolver swung right, at the sa ti she thrust her staff forward.
Cognis surged through the weapon.
The staff extended again, forcing Cale to block as it shoved him back slightly, but Nile’s sword flashed.
Slash!
The blade cut clean through the barrel of her revolver.
tal fell to the floor.
He imdiately followed with a thrust aid straight for Aliya’s stomach.
Bang!
Bang!
Nile abruptly twisted his body.
Two bullets fired from Ezra’s Glock forced him to abandon the attack and block instead.
"Tsk."
Nile clicked his tongue as he stepped backward.
Ezra’s aim was precise.
Every shot targeted a weak opening.
Nile had to remain constantly on guard.
So bullets grazed his sleeve and one scraped his shoulder.
Cale charged at Ezra to stop his focus on Nile.
He weaved through the incoming shots while blocking others with his sword.
Then he swung.
Ezra shifted the Glock in his right hand and used the tal fra to block the blade.
The impact rang sharply.
Then...
Ezra raised the gun.
First aiming at Cale’s face, then lowering slightly.
Bang!
The bullet struck.
Cale tried to retreat.
Too late.
The round pierced his stomach.
"Argh!"
He dropped to his knees in front of Ezra holding his stomach and breathing heavily.
"They are more people," Jadon said as he stared at the chaotic fight unfolding in front of him.
The clash of steel and gunfire echoed through the narrow stone corridor of the maze, sparks flashing each ti weapons struck against one another.
"And Aliya is helping him?" Jadon added, his brows tightening slightly as he watched her movents.
The girl standing beside him followed his gaze and shrugged lightly.
"Well, he did join Sir Veda’s team," she replied calmly.
Jadon exhaled slowly through his nose, his annoyance fading back into his usual calculating expression.
"Nothing will change," he said quietly. "Let’s finish this."
He turned his head slightly and looked behind him.
The five mbers of his group had already gathered together, placing their Acu-Vector Mk.I. handguns side by side while adding additional tal materials to the circle forming beneath them.
"Be fast," Jadon ordered.
The five clapped their hands together at the exact sa mont.
Cognis surged outward.
Joint Alchemy.
The air around them vibrated as a dense wave of Cognis spread through the maze corridor.
Ezra felt it imdiately.
The mont the wave reached him; his eyes shifted toward them.
"Aliya!" he called out.
"I’m busy!" she shouted back.
At that mont Nile’s sword cut through the air toward her shoulder.
Aliya twisted her body sideways, the blade barely grazing past her sleeve before she countered with a fast swing of her staff.
The two weapons collided again and again.
Clang!
Clang!
Both of them blocked each other’s strikes in quick succession, neither gaining advantage.
Ezra opened his mouth to continue.
"I’m going to stop those guys in front, so y..."
His words stopped halfway, his hand moving instantly.
Without turning around, he reached behind his back and caught a wrist.
A dagger had almost reached his waist.
Ezra turned his head slowly.
Li stood behind him.
"Ha... ha... ha..."
Li laughed awkwardly, though the laughter sounded forced and uneven.
"You really are sothing," he said while staring straight at Ezra with a twisted grin. "You don’t even look surprised."
Ezra’s eyes shifted briefly toward the ground.
Bobby was lying there.
Unconscious.
His body sprawled against the stone floor.
"Don’t worry," Li said quickly when he saw Ezra looking. "I didn’t kill him. I only knocked him out."
He pressed the dagger harder with both hands, forcing the blade closer to Ezra’s waist.
"I don’t want Sir Veda to hate after all."
Ezra held the dagger still with one hand, his grip steady and unshaking.
He looked at Li.
There was no surprise in his eyes.
That was because he had already expected sothing like this.
The first mont his suspicion began was when they reached the seventh stage.
When he ntioned that Pala might co after him.
At that ti, he had felt a strange reaction from one of his teammates, a hint of blood lost, but he wasn’t able to trace who it was directly.
Then Pala actually appeared.
Too quickly, too accurately.
An ambush.
In a maze this large, randomly finding him and preparing an ambush in such a short ti was almost impossible.
Which ant they had a way to track him.
Ezra rembered sothing.
There was a tracking thod that required herbs.
Only a Flora Alchemist could perform sothing like that, but he was sure Bobby couldn’t do it.
His level was too low.
Maintaining a long-term tracking alchemy was impossible for him.
Which left only one Flora Alchemist that he knew was skilled enough to do sothing like that.
Page.
Felix’s teammate.
It would be easy for Page to mark Bobby since Flora Alchemists would often encounter one another when buying herbs in the Market area, but that wasn’t the most suspicious part.
The real problem was how did Felix know Bobby would be with Ezra.
That ant Felix had soone inside Veda’s group.
Soone who passed information to him and if soone knew Bobby would be placed in Ezra’s team...
Then that person had to be soone present during Veda’s earlier planning.
Ezra had reached his conclusion almost instantly.
Li.
That was why he had sent them away earlier.
He wanted to remove the unstable elent from the battlefield, but unfortunately...
Things didn’t go the way he planned.
Though honestly, Ezra didn’t seem bothered by it.
"Li!! What the hell are you doing!!"
Aliya’s voice echoed loudly through the corridor, filled with both anger and shock.
"Focus on , Aliya," Nile said coldly.
He slamd his blade into her staff with brute force.
The impact pushed her backward.
Aliya crashed hard against the stone wall behind her.
The wall cracked slightly, but before Nile could follow up, she rolled away across the ground just as his kick smashed into the exact spot she had been pinned against.
Stone fragnts scattered.
Aliya stood up again.
But she was clearly being pushed back.
"Good job, Li," Jadon said calmly, his voice loud enough to reach their side clearly.
At that mont the joint alchemy behind him finished.
Eight shotguns with a rifle’s firing structure erged from the glowing circle.
Baske 1945.
One for each of them.
Including Pala.
"Shit," Ezra muttered under his breath as he turned back.
He understood imdiately.
The delay caused by Li had given them enough ti.
"Sorry for you," Li said with a grin. "But you angered soone who you sh..."
Bang!
Ezra suddenly moved.
The Glock 17 in his hand smashed directly into Li’s head.
The impact echoed loudly.
"Argh!"
Li’s body collapsed sideways as the right side of his head slamd against the stone floor.
He dropped instantly.
Ezra didn’t look at him again.
His gaze was already locked on the group ahead.
Eight Baske were now aid directly at him.
His pupils shrank.
"How did they get this many..." His voice stopped halfway.
Bang!!
Bang!!
Bang!!
Bang!!
The Eight Baske fired at the sa ti.
The sound exploded through the maze corridor like thunder trapped inside stone walls.
The bullets tore through the air toward Ezra at terrifying speed and they were getting closer.
Shit... this is bad. Ezra’s mind raced so fast that everything around him seed to slow down.
For a mont it felt like ti itself had stopped.
His thoughts moved quickly through everything he had left.
His coat.
Damaged.
His Glock 17.
Useless against Baske 1945 rounds.
Those bullets would tear through anything he tried to block with it.
If he had a Big-4barrel revolver, he might still manage to survive the barrage. With the explosive spread of the Big-4 he could at least intercept the incoming shots and create enough disruption to escape.
But that option was already gone.
There wasn’t enough ti to construct two Big-4 revolvers now.
Not with the bullets already flying toward him.
Not with the distance between them closing every fraction of 0.42 second.
What should I do?
Ezra’s mind froze for the first ti since entering the Trial.
For the first ti since he began fighting through this hell maze, he had no answer.
Felix got good.
His teeth clenched hard.
His grip tightened around the Glock.
"Like hell I’m going down!" Ezra growled.
His eyes sharpened.
He leaned forward slightly, ready to charge directly into the storm of bullets even though they were already dangerously close.
The ti it would take for the bullets to reach him...
He calculated it instantly.
0.15 seconds.
Cognis surged violently through his body, rushing into every muscle and nerve as he prepared to force his way through the impossible.
But...
Suddenly a powerful shove struck his body.
The force caught him completely off guard and sent him stumbling backward several ters.
Ezra’s eyes widened.
"What...?"
He looked up.
And what he saw stabbed into his chest like a blade.
The feeling was exactly the sa as the first day of the Trial.
The mont he had been tied to that chair.
The mont he was told to kill the child in front of him before the child killed him.
His chest tightened.
"Aliya!!!!!"
Ezra reached forward instinctively.
Aliya stood between the incoming bullets.
She turned her head slightly.
She looked back at him even though her face showed a bit of shock, as if to say ’I moved without thinking’, but she smiled.
A small smile.
Not forced, not scared.
Just... calm.
Then...
Boom.
Three of the eight bullets tore straight into her body.
The impact lifted her slightly off the ground.
Two massive holes exploded through her stomach, the bullets ripping through flesh and bone before exiting her back.
Another round struck her leg.
Her right leg was severed instantly below the knee.
Blood burst outward.
Her body collapsed.
For a mont everything beca quiet.
Ezra stabilized his footing.
His body moved automatically, without hesitation and without panic.
His hand reached into his space bag.
Steel bar, Glow stone.
Clap.
His palms struck together.
An Alchemy Circle appeared between them.
Cognis surged through the circle as he slamd his hands down onto the materials.
tal reshaped instantly.
A gun ford.
He did not pause.
He increased his speed with Cognis and rushed forward, catching Aliya’s falling body before it fully hit the ground.
Without even turning his head...
He raised the gun behind him.
The enemy group was already raising their Baske again, completely ignoring Aliya’s sacrifice.
They were preparing to fire the second volley.
Ezra pulled the trigger.
One shot.
The bullet flew straight toward Jadon.
Jadon’s eyes narrowed.
He imdiately signaled one of his teammates forward.
The boy rushed ahead and raised a shield to block the incoming shot, but the bullet never reached the shield.
Before impact...
The bullet exploded.
A burst of blinding white light erupted.
The dim stone corridor of the maze suddenly shone like a miniature sun had appeared inside it.
Light flooded every direction.
The ambushers scread.
"Argh!" Their eyes shut instantly.
Hands covered faces.
Even Pala staggered back, her vision overwheld by the sudden flash.
The entire exchange—from the mont Aliya stepped in front of the bullets to the mont Ezra fired the flash shot—had taken less than ten seconds.
Minutes passed.
Slowly the blinding light faded.
Vision returned little by little.
Jadon was the first to open his eyes again.
Pala followed shortly after.
But the place where Ezra and Aliya had been, was empty.
"He ran..." Pala whispered quietly, rubbing her eyes.
Her voice trembled slightly.
The realization had finally hit her.
She had killed soone she actually knew.
Her legs gave out, she fell to her knees.
What have I done? She stared at her shaken hands, pale of colour.
Jadon’s gaze moved calmly across the battlefield.
"No," he said.
"He will co back."
His eyes landed on Bobby’s unconscious body lying on the ground.
anwhile...
Ezra ran through the maze corridors carrying Aliya.
He turned down a path.
Another, then another.
Finally, he reached a narrow dead end carved intentionally into the maze design.
He stopped.
Carefully, he lowered Aliya’s body onto the ground.
Blood covered his hands.
His sleeves, his chest.
The sll of iron filled the air.
His eyes darkened.
Aliya’s body still moved slightly.
Her Cognis was keeping her alive.
As an awakened Alchemist whose first star was almost complete, her life would not end instantly, it was a fail safe for Alchemist to be able to heal serious injuries, but that was only possible for Alchemist who were Adept rank, while for Alchemist below that rank.
It felt nothing more than a chance to say their last wish before death and Ezra knew the truth.
Once her star completely shattered...
She would die.
"Say... sothing..." Aliya whispered weakly.
Her voice cracked badly.
Her vision had already begun fading, and she could barely see Ezra’s face clearly.
She couldn’t tell whether he was angry, sad or sothing else entirely.
"I know... you could have handled it..." she said, struggling to breathe.
"But..."
Her voice trembled.
"Then why?!" Ezra suddenly shouted.
His fist slamd violently against the stone wall beside him.
The impact cracked the surface.
"Why?!"
He looked down at her.
There was no anger in his eyes, no tears, no sorrow.
Just confusion.
Pure confusion.
Why would soone do sothing like that?
Then...
The answer ca.
"It’s because..." Aliya coughed violently, blood spilling from her mouth.
"...I couldn’t live with myself... if I saw you get seriously hurt."
Her voice had beco much quieter.
Weaker.
But the words were clear and it made Ezra freeze, because the words felt familiar.
"Eh...?"
The sound slipped from Ezra’s mouth before he even realized he had spoken.
Then the mory struck.
A sharp pain stabbed through his head like a needle being pushed into his brain.
His vision blurred.
For a mont the maze corridor disappeared.
Instead...
Another scene overlapped with reality.
A woman.
She was lying in soone’s arms.
Soldier clothes.
Torn.
Covered in dirt and blood.
Ezra’s breath caught.
It was one of the mories from the man whose ability he carried. Those mories had stopped appearing in his dreams long ago, fading quietly into the back of his mind as if they had finished showing him everything they needed to show.
But now...
They returned and they returned at the worst possible mont.
Ezra’s heartbeat began to pound violently in his chest.
The mory grew clearer.
The woman was repeating the sa words Aliya had just said.
"I couldn’t live with myself if I saw you get hurt."
Her voice was weak.
Broken.
Her soldier uniform had been torn apart.
Her body was covered with bruises and wounds that told a story Ezra did not need explained.
She had saved the man, saved him from the enemy.
But during the escape...
She had been captured and what happened after that...
The mory did not hide it.
She had been brutalized, destroyed and assaulted.
Almost beaten to death.
By the ti the rescue team arrived and freed her, the damage was already done.
She did not die there, but she looked at the man who held her.
The man she loved and she made a decision.
Ezra felt the mory as if he himself were there.
The woman slowly took the pistol from the man’s belt.
Her hands were shaking.
Her eyes were already empty.
"I can’t live with you anymore..."
She smiled through tears.
"I don’t belong to you anymore."
Then...
She pulled the trigger.
The sound echoed in Ezra’s mind.
The mory ended with the man screaming the sa words Ezra had just shouted.
"I don’t understand!"
The two voices overlapped.
Past, present.
"I don’t understand!"
Ezra shouted again, his voice cracking as he looked down at Aliya.
Aliya’s hand slowly moved.
Every small movent looked painful.
Her fingers trembled.
But she forced herself to reach up and touch Ezra’s face.
"It’s... not like you, Ezra..."
Her voice was so weak it almost disappeared into the quiet corridor.
Ezra’s breathing was uneven now.
He stared at her.
Aliya gave a small, tired smile.
"You know... I like beautiful things..."
Her words ca slowly.
She had to pause between breaths.
"Girly things... pink clothes... silly talks about handso boys..."
Her voice beca softer.
"But... I also like people... who have that ember in their eyes."
She coughed.
Blood stained her lips.
"Sir Veda had that ember... that’s why I liked him at first..."
Her fingers moved gently against Ezra’s cheek.
"But you..."
She paused again.
Her eyes tried to focus on him.
"Your eyes... are different."
Ezra didn’t move, didn’t blink.
"Your eyes don’t look like soone who still believes in love..."
Aliya whispered.
"They look like soone who already gave up on it."
Her breathing trembled.
"But even then... you were still fighting."
Her voice cracked.
"Everyone here in this trial... many of them have families waiting for them... people who cry for them... people who hope they co back alive..."
Her gaze softened.
"But so of us... already know our families gave up on us."
She looked at him more carefully now.
"You felt like that kind of person."
Ezra’s chest tightened.
"That’s why your na was different... I understood that imdiately...even though... you didn’t... want to talk about... it"
Aliya whispered.
"But even though you accepted that kind of fate... you didn’t stop."
"You kept fighting."
"Not for your family."
"But for yourself."
Her fingers trembled against his cheek.
"Your ember burns black... but it shines brighter than any ember I’ve ever seen."
She coughed again.
Harder this ti.
Blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.
"That’s why I fell for you..."
Her voice weakened further.
"That’s why I wanted to support you... I wanted to know you better..."
She forced a small smile.
"I know you wouldn’t love back."
Her breathing grew uneven.
"But... we could have been friends..."
Her body shook as another violent cough escaped her.
Ezra looked down.
He could see it clearly.
Her Cognis star was breaking apart.
Cracks, spreading across it like shattered glass.
Almost gone.
"Ah... Ezra..."
Aliya’s voice trembled.
"I don’t want to die..."
Tears stread down her face.
"I still have so many things... I wanted to do..."
"My... tom...orr...ow ends... here"
Blood mixed with the tears.
Her voice beca faint.
"Ahh... I... wan... to... kn... yo... mo..."
Her words faded before finishing.
At that mont...
Her Cognis star shattered completely.
It broke apart into small glowing fragnts that floated gently into the air before fading away like dust in sunlight.
Ezra was still holding her hand.
For a mont it remained in his grip.
Then...
It slowly slipped free and fell.
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