บท 45: The Trial Stage 10

"Congratulations on passing Stage 9 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 10."

Mira was then dragged to a very chaotic world, but besides that Mira finally regained her senses! She opened her eyes to look around as the mechanical voice talked to her again.

"Welcome to Stage 10. Stage 10 is the World of The 8 Elements. Survive here 60 days advance to the next stage. Begin!" This notice was much shorter than the last.

Mira looked around as she was now able to sense and see everything more clearly. Normally she would be in awe of the beauty around her as she was able to see every element from the last 8 stages all swirling around together in the clouds above her, but nothing about this place was beautiful or nice. Even with her senses being heightened in the last stage, this world seemed to dull them again but didn't take them away completely. The world seemed to block 70% of her senses.

Besides the chaotic elements running rampant through the lands, Mira also saw an insane amount of magical beasts. She saw many known types and many unknown types of magical beasts. There were also beasts of every element. These creatures weren't just sitting on their asses doing nothing, Mira could see a bunch of them fighting each other and the rest looking for a fight. These were all Late-Stage Rank 2 or Peak-Stage Rank 2.

*BAM*

Mira barely dodged a fire strike that came from the sky! She immediately looked up and saw that the fucking world was attacking her! Then she noticed that 2 Late-Stage beasts noticed her and started charging towards her. Mira took out her scythe and sighed.

"This is going to be a long 60 days."

Mira dashed towards the two magical beasts that were coming at her. They looked like they lost their mind and the only thing they can think about is fighting. These types of enemies can be the easiest to fight, but also sometimes the worst. If they charge recklessly like these 2 beasts then it is not so bad, but when a beast charges like this with zero regards for their life but still retain their sanity. That's when things get a bit more difficult.

It only took Mira 2 attacks to finish off the beasts as they didn't even try protecting or dodging, but as soon as she finished them off a giant 20-meter long ice spike came down from the sky and tried to kill her and it also started to rain. The rain was of course, not normal. It was incredibly dense and sharp. On top of all of this, the 2 beasts that she had killed turned into an almost metallic-looking energy. It then rushed towards Mira but didn't enter her body. It just wrapped around her whole body, adding what seemed like the weight of the 2 beasts onto her.

"Are you done, world? Or do you want to make things worse for me again? Oh, wait! Let me guess! This energy that wrapped around me isn't going to go away and is only going to gain more weight when I kill more beasts? That would be wonderful!" Mira exclaimed and to answer her, the world sent a lightning strike covered in darkness towards her! Mira barely dodged at and was only able to dodge thanks to her increased senses.

"Fuck it. Let's get started!" Mira exclaimed as she saw more beasts running in her direction

The only thing Mira could hope for is to not die. She was going to put stress test her body with this insanely chaotic world.

***

Maria finally woke up from her exhaustion. She had a massive headache and also noticed she was low on Qi. She held her head as she groaned.

"What happened?" Maria wondered before she realized that she could actually sense her body. Her senses weren't back yet and what she could sense was nowhere near the level of Mira, but she could actually feel herself and what's around her, to a certain degree.

"The last thing I remember is going crazy then going on a rampage. Did I kill that guardian? I think I did because it looks like I'm on the stairs right now. I seem to feel more sensitive to things as well? I guess I will just return to my peak then go up these stairs and go towards the next stage." Maria muttered as she could faintly recall what happened.

Maria then sat down and started to recover both her Qi and mind. It didn't take long to recover her Qi, but her mind took a bit to calm down.

When she reached her peak condition, Maria actually decided to go to sleep on the stairs before entering the next stage. She needs a small break from the constant fighting and torture. She also has this faint feeling that the next stage is going to suck. She didn't know why she felt like that, but her instincts were telling her that the world beyond those stairs will not be fun.

After a good rest, Maria took a deep breath and walked to the top of the stairs.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 9 of the Trial. Please proceed to start Stage 10."

She was forcefully dragged away and thrown into a beautifully chaotic world. It was filled with every single color that one could think of and Maria was able to enjoy the beauty of the scenery for a few seconds before she heard the call of the mechanical devil.

"Welcome to Stage 10. Stage 10 is the World of The 8 Elements. Survive here 60 days advance to the next stage. Begin!" It said quickly.

Even though Maria heard less from the voice, this only made her feel worse about the situation.

*CRACKLE**SWOOSH*

Lightning and meteors started coming towards her from the sky. Maria was forced to dodge these as they could have easily injured her.

As she dodged, she realized that her senses have been dulled by a significant amount. Right after she survived the attack from the sky, a Peak-Stage Rank 2 magical beast started to charge towards her crazily. Maria dodged its attack and used slashed Triple Draws upward, cutting it in half. The beast instantly disappeared and turned into a metallic-like energy and started wrapping around Maria. She then felt the weight of the beast pushing against her body.

"Great!! I can't wait to go through 60 days of this crap!! Who even came up with these ideas?! Geez! I'm ready to leave the trial! I want to see Vulcan and Mira again! I'm tired of this nonstop fighting and torture! But what sucks is that Mira will definitely try to make it past all 20 stages in the trial and will definitely beat my ass if I quit halfway like this! AAHH! Screw it!" Maria screamed as she just wanted to get out and relax a bit.

Maria then ran off from her position as she dodged the various projectiles falling from the sky trying to kill her. She wanted to kill as many beasts as fast as she could to see if she could have a bit of rest and relaxation.

***

The last almost 60 days have been quite rough on Mira. She hasn't gotten 1 second of rest this entire time. If she wasn't killing beasts, then beasts were trying to kill her. If beasts weren't trying to kill her, the world was trying to kill her. If the world wasn't trying to kill her, then she was recovering the Qi in her body to repeat the cycle. Even recovering her energy was a chore too. It seemed like the stars in the sky had to align before she would get an opportunity to recover her Qi and try to recover some of her mental exhaustion.

She always had her double-bladed scythe active and was constantly using her Ice Dao. Her double-bladed scythe consumed her Qi and Ice Dao. it didn't use that much, but repairing it and keeping it at peak condition cost quite a bit of her Qi. She can keep it up a bit more after her transformation in the lightning stage, but she is constantly fighting beasts.

Mira didn't look so good by the 60th day in. She was covered in her blue-red blood, some of her bones were protruding and she had cuts, gashes, and burns all over her body. The weight of the energy around her had reached a massive degree to the point that standing was hard. Mira was currently walking in the chaotic world using her scythe as a cane. The only thing she could do is hope that 60 days is almost up or else she might have to give up. She can't fight another beast right now and anything that comes from the sky will be able to hit her. Her internal clock was telling her that the 60-day mark was approaching soon.

Mira saw a beast start to charge at her and she just closed her eyes. There is nothing she can do right now, hopefully, her death will be peaceful. She'll just try to find the resolve to keep going after this death… hopefully.

Mira then heard the mechanical voice.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 10 of the Trial. You will soon be sent to a place to rest for 7 days before continuing to Stage 11 of the Trial." The mechanical voice said as Mira was dragged out of the world and put into a basic room with a small bed, a table, and a ring on the table. The energy that was wrapped around Mira's body now entered it!

"Fuck!" Mira gritted her teeth in pain. The energy was healing her body back to its previous condition, but this was an extremely painful process. Much more painful than when she got the actual injury. Burns began to peel off and her skin returned back to its original color. Gashes and stab wounds scabbed over and healed. Protruding bones were forced back into her body as they started to heal.

Mira now looked like she did before the stage. A beautiful and cold-looking Ice Goddess. It took many hours for all of her injuries to heal completely and after she was back to peak condition, the energy dispersed.

Mira looked around this small room. She saw the ring but decided to check that later.

"A week, huh." Mira muttered as she collapsed on the bed and immediately fell asleep.

***

Maria wasn't in a much better situation. She was currently crawling on the ground as she tried to use her sword to pull her along. Almost every bone in her body was broken, she had burns everywhere on her body, she had multiple stab wounds, large gashes, and many protruding bones. Rank 2 Rejuvenation Pills couldn't fix this. Maria was about to give up but realized she didn't even have the strength to activate the talisman that she was given.

Maria had to fight wave after wave of Peak-Stage magical beasts. She didn't even move from her original spot and just waited for beasts to come to her. She this stage would be hard, but the attacks from the sky and the extra weight after each kill were what made this stage horrifying. Maria felt that the 60-day mark was coming, but she just hoped that it would come before she died.

Like a call from heaven, the mechanical voice answered her prayers.

"Congratulations on passing Stage 10 of the Trial. You will soon be sent to a place to rest for 7 days before continuing to Stage 11 of the Trial." The voice rang out in her ears as she was transported to a similar room that Mira was in.

The same thing happened when she entered this room too.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"

Unimaginable pain! This is all Maria felt, as her bones, cuts, gashes, burns, and stab wounds were all being healed by the metallic energy. Maria fainted from the pain, but as her bones were being put back together she woke up from the pain and then fainted again. This happened over and over again until she returned back to her original state.

Maria barely woke up and walked over to the table and put on the ring for some reason. She didn't even bother to check it before going to the bed and falling asleep, but before doing so she muttered something.

"See you in 6.9 days then." and fell asleep.

***