It shone so brightly that the abyss around vanished, replaced by walls of dark stone, mud, and water that flowed far and deep into the depths.
Across the waters, the many chunks of the shattered plain rested, slowly turning into sloshy mud as they drifted and sank.
All the aether around Ayah shook, bent, and fell to her will.
And then... she contracted it.
She forcefully contracted all the aether around her.
From thin air, a sea of chains manifested, filling the space in an instant and tearing the network of vines around her to shreds.
She pointed her blade towards the tiger, and her chains followed with haste, ripping across the air at sonic speeds as they aid for it.
But just as the tides of battle shifted in her favour, she felt her power wane.
Uriel’s formation shattered.
Her crown vanished instantly, and her forced contract onto the aether collapsed, the backlash slamming into her core at the sa mont her sea of chains faded into nothing.
Her lips sputtering blood, she fell from the skies, more than half of the summons she’d fused into her body fading away as her power drained out of her, replaced by a deep, crushing weakness.
BANG!
She landed hard on the corpse’s floating structure of vines, piercing past the thick walls of fibrous flesh and crashing into the enclosed spherical space within.
She slamd into the ground, her heavy armour protecting her from the thorns lining it, though the impact rattled her entire body.
’Focus!’
Her mind scread at the imminent danger. She tried to push herself up, but she wouldn’t stop vomiting blood, her core nearly shattered and her body wracked with pain.
Her thoughts swam, alternating between darkness and light, the poison filling the air inside the corpse’s hollow space only worsening the confusion and weakness clawing at her mind.
Her massive body began to shrink. One by one, her bestial and inhuman features vanished as her summons faded away, until only her armour remained.
’Fuck! No! No! No!’
A scowl twisted her bloodied face as she clenched her jaw, ignoring the pain and forcing herself upright.
’The formation... the formation!’
She staggered to her feet, shaking, but what she saw froze her heart.
Dead.
The corpse’s core was cracked all over, its mage rings on the verge of shattering. Its body was half burnt and half frozen, its arms missing entirely.
Toxic blood stread down its panting body as it knelt, staring blankly at Uriel.
Uriel, on the other hand, was entirely unrecognisable.
He was limbless, arms and legs sliced away, leaving only a ruined stump, pierced clean through by the corpse’s spear. The weapon was planted into the ground, skewering him as if he were nothing more than dead at.
Cuts and gashes covered his blood-soaked body. A long slash ran across his neck, blood streaming from it without end.
Staring into Uriel’s lifeless eyes, her gaze tracing over his brutalised fra, Ayah felt all her remaining power and determination drain away.
He was dead.
She fell to her knees, despair colouring her features as her final summons vanished. She was left half naked, bloodied, and trembling before the grueso scene laid out before her.
SHURR!
A nearby wall of vines ripped apart, shredded as if by an invisible blade, and from the darkness the shadow tiger leapt forward, its weight shaking the enclosed space.
Its gaze flicked rapidly across the scene—over the dead and strung-up Uriel, the dying corpse, and finally the broken, despairing Ayah.
All the tiger saw was opportunity.
It vanished.
Then, it surged from Ayah’s shadow, its maw wide open, spittle spraying as it lunged to tear her neck from her head.
Ayah didn’t see it coming.
And even if she had, it was hard to say whether she would’ve had the Will left to react.
BANG!
Just as it seed she would die the sa way as Uriel, the skies peeled open and the fury of the heavens descended. A concentrated lance of lightning tore straight into the tiger’s head.
It died instantly.
Ayah weakly lifted her gaze, staring through the burnt ceiling of vines and up at the bright blue skies above—so stark, so impossibly clean against the darkness of the depths.
A shadow lood.
BANG!
The griffin’s corpse landed heavily beside her, the impact splattering her with blood. Its body was scorched in dozens of places, arcs of lightning still swimming through flesh and bone alike.
Enoch descended from the skies.
His feet touched the ground, his lion armour of athyst flas burning fiercely around him, his palms clenched tightly around his dual blades.
His body was drenched in blood as well. A gash ran across his chest, so deep that his innards and beating heart were visible beneath the torn flesh.
His left leg was gone, replaced entirely by a construct of erald lightning—a ridiculous display of control over his class and path.
His gaze swept across the battlefield.
He shook his head slowly.
They were all in terrible shape.
He turned to the corpse creature, still kneeling, still panting.
"Dead."
Its heart still beat, but it was as good as dead. The mont it moved, it would be dood. Enoch could see the spell circles Uriel had sohow burned directly into the creature’s heart and brain.
They were lethal.
He smiled.
They were broken, bloodied, and barely standing, but they had won.
Three unevolved rookie G Rankers.
Against three peak F Rank Beasts, each crafted to probe and exploit their deepest flaws.
Their expedition was a success.
...
Their pods drained, emptying themselves of green sludge as their minds were pulled from the simulation and back into their bodies.
Uriel blinked several tis.
The mories of his battle with the corpse replayed in his mind, followed swiftly by his death. For a brief mont, the pain from the fight flared across his body like phantom agony, sharp and vivid, before fading into nothing.
He drew in deep breaths as his pod opened and the mask covering his face was pulled away. Tubes and latch-on receptors were removed one after another.
Strangely, the green sludge had left him completely dry.
With one final breath, he sat up and stepped out, his feet touching the cold steel floor. He dressed himself in silence.
Monts later, Ayah and Enoch awoke as well.
Ayah tore herself out of her pod and rushed toward him imdiately.
"Are you okay?!"
He smiled.
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