477: War L 477: War L Aiden didn’t let his guard down.
The statues surrounding them weren’t just decorations—they had shifted slightly, their hollow eyes now glowing with a faint, eerie light.
“The First Witness?” Aiden repeated, stepping forward cautiously.
“An age forgotten?
What do you an?” The obsidian sphere pulsed again, resonating with an unseen force.
“Before the heavens waged war… before the abyss clawed its way into existence… there was another cycle.” Aiden’s team exchanged glances.
Even Myne, who rarely showed hesitation, seed wary.
“Cycle?” Dren asked, his hand resting on his dagger’s hilt.
“What cycle?” The voice resonated through the chamber, deeper this ti.
“Creation.
Ascension.
Destruction.
Rebirth.
The balance has been shattered, and you stand at the center of its reckoning.” Aiden felt sothing stir within him.
A feeling he had experienced before—when he first glimpsed the truth behind the Akashic Records.
Nexus whispered in his mind.
“Aiden… this entity is beyond my analysis.
I recomnd extre caution.” Aiden clenched his fists.
“What do you want from ?” The statues creaked, their forms shifting as if they were listening.
The First Witness responded, its voice tinged with sothing that almost resembled curiosity.
“A question, traveler.
If the cycle is broken… will you seek to restore it?
Or reshape it in your image?” A heavy silence fell over the chamber.
This wasn’t just an ancient being.
This was sothing that had seen the rise and fall of entire eras.
And now, it was looking at Aiden—not as a re mortal, but as soone capable of deciding the fate of existence itself.
Myne’s voice was quiet but firm.
“Aiden.
Be careful how you answer.” Aiden exhaled slowly.
“I don’t believe in following a script written by forces long gone.” His voice was steady.
“I make my own path.” For a mont, nothing happened.
Then, the First Witness spoke once more.
“Then let the test begin.” The chamber trembled.
The statues ca to life.
And Aiden realized—this was not just a conversation.
The statues groaned as ancient chanisms activated, their stone forms cracking apart to reveal shimring cores of condensed energy.
Their hollow eyes flared, and in an instant, the chamber was no longer still—it was a battlefield.
“Damn it!” Dren cursed, drawing his dagger.
Aiden barely had ti to react before the first statue lunged at him, its massive stone fist descending like a falling star.
He twisted his body, narrowly avoiding the blow as the ground beneath him cracked from the impact.
Myne raised her hand, chanting a spell that wrapped the air around her in shimring chains of force.
“These things aren’t normal constructs!
They’re absorbing the ambient energy!” Aiden’s mind raced.
The First Witness wasn’t testing his strength alone—it was testing his ability to adapt.
Fine.
Then I’ll show it what I can do.
With a flick of his wrist, his Golden Sword Martial Spirit materialized, its radiant edge humming with lethal intent.
At the sa ti, his Reaper Scythe Martial Spirit manifested in his other hand, wreathed in dark, soul-severing mist.
Dual-wielding Martial Spirits was sothing few could do without tearing themselves apart.
But Aiden had long surpassed those limitations.
A statue lunged again.
This ti, Aiden t it head-on.
With a single slash from the Golden Sword, a golden arc carved through the air, severing the construct’s arm.
At the sa ti, he swung the Reaper Scythe in an upward arc, cutting through the energy core hidden within its chest.
The statue convulsed before shattering into dust.
The First Witness’s voice resonated through the chamber.
“Interesting.
You wield both creation and destruction.” Aiden barely had ti to process the words before two more statues attacked in unison.
Dren and Myne engaged their own opponents.
Dren’s dagger flashed, striking at weak points, but the statues were more durable than expected.
Myne’s spell-weaving kept her at a distance, but even her most powerful attacks were only slowing them down.
Aiden’s mind worked rapidly.
This isn’t sustainable.
If the statues kept regenerating energy, they would be stuck in an endless fight.
He activated Space Rend.
A deep scar tore through reality itself as Aiden sliced through the battlefield.
The energy core of another statue collapsed as space warped around it, erasing it from existence.
But that was when he noticed sothing strange.
The energy from the destroyed statues wasn’t dissipating.
It was… converging.
A deep rumble shook the chamber.
A new figure began to form—one far larger than the others.
Its core wasn’t just condensed energy.
It was sothing else entirely.
Aiden’s eyes narrowed.
“This… isn’t just a test anymore.” The First Witness’s voice echoed, this ti tinged with sothing far more ominous.
“Then let us see… if you are worthy.” The final guardian fully ford before Aiden’s eyes.
Unlike the previous statues, which were rely infused with condensed energy, this one radiated sothing far more terrifying—an overwhelming force that warped the air around it.
Its body was no longer just stone but a fusion of crystalline energy and divine tal, glowing veins of power coursing through its massive fra.
Its eyes burned with a cold, calculating intelligence.
This was no mindless construct.
This was a true guardian, crafted to obliterate anything unworthy.
BOOM!
The guardian moved.
Aiden barely had ti to raise his weapons before an invisible shockwave blasted outward, sending him skidding back.
The sheer pressure of the guardian’s aura made his bones creak.
“Tch—this thing is leagues above the others.” He gritted his teeth.
Dren and Myne weren’t spared either.
Dren was forced to retreat as cracks ford in the very ground beneath him, while Myne’s spell was dispersed before she could finish casting it.
“Aiden!
This thing isn’t just absorbing energy—it’s devouring the entire battlefield’s laws!” Myne shouted, eyes wide.
Aiden understood imdiately.
The guardian wasn’t just an opponent—it was an embodint of the Trial’s will itself.
It could negate any external forces that didn’t et its standards.
But Aiden wasn’t about to accept that.
“Fine.
If laws won’t work, then I’ll break them.” He activated Lone Traveler, Pathfinder.
The mont the authority activated, Aiden’s presence shifted.
He was no longer bound by the battlefield’s restrictions.
He beca sothing outside the guardian’s understanding—an anomaly in the Trial’s rules.
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