CHAPTER 260: CHAPTER 259 - PASSED THE SECOND TRIAL?

As the world folded back together around him, Raven sighed.

Arietta’s domain was a safe house without a doubt, and they could always escape there, but he couldn’t always use it.

This time, he was lucky to have free time while watching the others fight. Using that time, he could talk to Arietta and discuss the plan.

If he were fighting, then he would never be able to do something like this.

Above all, he needed everyone gathered around him if he wanted to use the link to teleport everyone, which wouldn’t be possible in normal cases.

Yes, he could ask Arietta to keep her divine domain active whenever he went to a fight.

He could ask her to keep it activated until the battle was over so that he could teleport everyone to safety if needed.

But that would put a toll on Arietta—something he didn’t want.

So, he thanked his luck that everything went well this time as he saw the light around him vanish.

He had returned to the dark cave.

Then, silence... reigned.

Raven stood in the center of the cavern once more—the exact spot he’d departed from moments before. The marble grace of Arietta’s domain was now replaced by grim stone and the ever-present chill that seemed to seep through skin and soul.

No one else was there.

He inhaled slowly.

The scent of dust, old magic, and something darker still clung to the air. This wasn’t just a trial ground—it was a place built from twisted will. A waiting mouth that had yet to decide whether it would swallow or spit him out.

He waited.

One second.

Two.

Five.

Ten.

Then—

"...Where did you take them?"

The voice slithered out from the shadows above, the sound impossibly close and far all at once. Feminine, yes—but colder now. Less curious. More calculating.

"Somewhere away from you—where they won’t have to face you," Raven replied without flinching.

He wasn’t being reckless by not showing respect to the entity—he was testing the limits of the voice.

Until now, he had never talked to the voice with respect, and although it could kill him if it wanted to, it hadn’t done it.

That meant only one thing: Whatever was waiting at the end of the trial wasn’t going to benefit just him.

There must be something this entity would gain from it.

Raven, however, couldn’t know what it was because again, silence fell.

Instead of calling out to the voice again, he scanned the space with a calm eye.

The cave’s circular expanse loomed wide and untouched, exactly as he’d left it. The fractured pillar still stood by the far side. Crystals pulsed weakly in the distant corners.

But something was off.

The air wasn’t just heavy.

It was... waiting.

He tilted his head slightly upward, golden eyes narrowing.

"Not going to welcome me back?"

The voice didn’t respond.

He waited again, then let out a breath and turned, his coat trailing behind him as he began to walk toward the massive arch at the far side of the cave.

It was the only visible passage—the only exit or entrance. Wide. Towering. Seamless stone etched with symbols that seemed to shimmer and twist when not directly stared at.

It looked ancient.

Purposeful.

It looked like a way forward.

But the moment he took a step closer—

HSSSSHHHHHH.

Tendrils.

Dozens of them.

Like ink spilled into water, they coalesced out of nowhere—thin whips of shadow and black flame writhing in the air, weaving into one another to block his path.

Raven’s boots skidded as he jumped back, coat flaring as he instinctively called out to Omni, who flickered to life in his grip.

The tendrils, however, didn’t attack.

They just hovered—pulsing gently.

A warning.

Then the voice returned.

"Do not approach the door."

Raven didn’t lower his blade.

His eyes narrowed, scanning the writhing mass. "Why?"

A pause.

Then, almost with a sigh, "Because those gates are for cowards."

He blinked.

"...Cowards?"

The voice clarified, firmer now. Colder.

"Those doors lead to escape. Not victory. Those who open them do so because they lack the resolve to face what lies ahead. They believe that perhaps—" The tendrils whipped at the ground. "—they can leave the trial behind. That they can run. But for them... only death awaits."

Raven stared at the door. Then at the tendrils.

His grip on the blade didn’t tighten—didn’t falter either.

"You’re saying if I opened that door, I’d die?"

"Yes."

There was no hesitation in the voice.

No malice.

Just a fact.

Raven slowly let the blade dissolve, the weapon melting back into the tattoo.

He stepped back once more, returning to the center of the cavern.

The tendrils did not follow. They merely hovered before the door like a silent gatekeeper.

But Raven could remember seeing them before.

It was when he had entered the ruin, and Alex had almost red-flagged the moment.

After a moment of silence, he exhaled deeply.

"I wasn’t trying to escape."

"Then why approach it?"

"To test if it was an option."

Silence again.

Then, faintly—was that amusement?

"And if it had opened for you?"

Raven tilted his head. "Then I would’ve closed it."

"Lies."

He smirked. "Maybe. But we’ll never know."

The voice was quiet for a long time. Then it murmured, almost thoughtful:

"You are different from the others. Always calculating. Always calm. But not immune to fear."

"Fear isn’t the enemy," Raven replied. "Stupid decisions are."

He looked back at the writhing shadows near the door, then stepped away from them entirely, hands now tucked into his coat pockets.

"I didn’t come here to run."

His voice dropped slightly, like a whisper meant for himself more than the entity listening.

"I came here to end this."

For the first time, the cavern seemed to respond.

The air shimmered faintly.

The crystals pulsed in sync.

The runes along the far wall flickered, like something just beneath them had stirred.

Raven tensed as he could tell that the moment was here. The trial would start anytime now.

Omni flashed back into his hand, and as he waited—

"The second trial is over. You pass."

Raven didn’t flinch as the voice echoed through the cavern, reaching his ears again.

He was paused in his spot.

His brows rose just a fraction. A beat of silence passed. He blinked. Once.

"...That’s it?"

No answer.

He tilted his head slightly, narrowing his golden eyes at the dark void above.

"Wait—hold on. Was this the trial?" He asked, hand still gripping Omni. "Was it some patience test? A reverse psychology gambit? Is this the part where I start celebrating and then get stabbed in the spine by a guilt-powered hallucination of my first pet?"

A long, lazy giggle echoed through the cavern.

A giggle.

"I don’t need to do anything so melodramatic," the voice replied. "If I wanted to kill you, Raven, you’d already be a smear on the cavern floor."

He didn’t relax.

If anything, he gripped the handle of Omni just a little tighter.

"So... What? This was a prank? An illusion? You’re testing my paranoia now? Next, you’ll tell me I was dreaming all along."

The voice sighed, as if she were the one exhausted.

"No. The second trial was supposed to be a battle royale between all participants. Only the last one standing would pass. But..." She paused, her tone turning vaguely amused. "You took the liberty of removing the competition."

Raven stared at the shadows for a long moment.

"...So, because everyone else is gone—"

"You win by default," she confirmed, sounding way too pleased with herself. "Congratulations."

He blinked again.

Then squinted.

"...This is definitely going to bite me later."

"Oh, without question."

He groaned under his breath and ran a hand down his face.

’Here I was thinking that this trial would at least have some teeth,’ he muttered inwardly.

But he was also relieved.

If he hadn’t sent everyone to Arietta’s domain, then they would all be fighting a battle royale right now.

Worst yet, only one could survive, and that one would be the winner.

The voice, however, wasn’t done yet. It echoed again, lower now.

"Not like I was going to let you die. Not you, who’s a reincarnator."

Raven froze.

The air tightened.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he lifted his head toward the voice.

"...I’m sorry. Could you repeat that last part?"

"You heard me." She didn’t sound threatening. Just factual. Calm. Maybe even smug. "You’re one of the Reincarnated. The world-blessed. The variable that resets the board."

Raven didn’t respond.

His eyes didn’t move.

He didn’t twitch.

Inside, however?

His mind reeled.

’How?’

The only ones who knew that were his group members, and even they only heard it a while ago.

So, how did she know?

’Maybe she read their minds?’ Raven wondered, as this was the best conjecture he could come up with.

However, she had also used another word—world-blessed.

That meant the protagonist.

’Is there a way to tell who a protagonist is?’

But as he thought of her words, he recalled how, in the plot he had read, the protagonist was able to escape from this ruin out of pure luck.

It probably wasn’t luck.

Maybe, at that time, the protagonist was too weak for her liking, so she let him go.

Raven, however, was in no way weak.

For once, he even wondered if he could escape like the protagonist had done, but his teammates’ lives depended on this, so he couldn’t.

The voice didn’t know what he was thinking about, nor did it want to know.

"No secrets are hidden from me in this place, Raven," the voice continued, with a lazy lilt. "I know what you are, and if you want to leave this place, then..."

Her tone turned silkier.

"...You have to help me."

He opened his mouth. Then he closed it.

"...Or what?"

"Or you die. Painfully. But mostly unnecessarily."

She said it like someone commenting on the weather.

Raven sighed.

Deep. Heavy. Exhausted.

"Right. Of course. How could I possibly expect a normal trial? Should’ve packed snacks."