Not too long ago, before the commotion that took place in front of the cleared Gate...
"Oh, this one is quite simple as well!"
Having been t with another dead end only after crossing two more corridors, Kara used the sa thod to crumble one more wall, allowing the team to advance once more.
Of course, it only appeared to be the sa on the surface.
’It’s quite fun.’
Unlike what Kara claid, the key to opening the path this ti was actually more complicated than the first ti.
Instead of just having to press one stone, the wall on the right had half a dozen pressable stones.
The most obvious answer of pressing all the stones yielded nothing, and alternating between pressing and not pressing based on the stones’ arrangent didn’t work either. However...
’Hmm.’
The number of possible combinations between 6 pressable buttons was as large as 64.
Just moving around to press and unpress 6 buttons 64 tis was considered a chore, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.
If they didn’t have a pen and paper to record the combinations that they had already attempted, the average person might forget what they needed to try next by the ti they reached the 10th or the 20th combination.
However...
’Let’s just try them all.’
As soone who possessed Shadow Control, a single combination only took her a couple of seconds to remotely press it in before moving to the next combination.
Additionally, by the ti she finished imagining it, the faint shadow on the ground had already drawn all the possible combinations, making it impossible to accidentally switch things up.
"It’s quite the friendly Gate."
In a gaming analogy, Kara’s overwhelmingly versatile abilities allowed her to undergo the experience of a smurf.
In simple words, she was too high level for the ’dungeon’ they chose to conquer.
"Oh, be careful."
Now that she was the one taking the lead, Kara had no intention of letting any additional ’accidents’ take place.
"Let’s not take any wrong steps, okay?"
As soon as they entered a corridor with a triggerable trap, Kara imdiately covered it with a small sheet of starry shadows, draining any hope that the Thorny Trio might still have.
"Let’s see..."
In this fashion, the supposedly perilous Colored Gate beca no different from a walk in the park.
One corridor after the other was passed through in no ti.
Aurora offered to lend a hand from ti to ti, but Kara waved her off. Aurora would definitely be helpful later on, but this Gate was just an appetizer; she was more than enough to handle it.
’Everything needs to follow Master’s plan.’
In reality, even without Aurora’s help, Kara was confident that she would have been able to deal with the sea of Minotaurs that the Thorn Queen wanted to unleash on them.
In fact, they could have cleared the Gate even faster that way.
Cassian had personally explained that such a brute-force thod would still yield an exit after a certain number of walls had been destroyed.
However, per Cassian’s instructions, Kara had to destroy the Thorn Trio’s every attempt at sabotaging the Gate Clear before it even started.
That way, the sense of despair that they felt would be as deep as possible.
’It’s definitely working.’
Now following behind in the rear, all three sisters have turned silent, unable to perform any stunts.
Both the Thorn Princess and the Thorn Sword still looked relatively fine with only so discomfort visible on their faces, but the Thorn Queen’s expression was definitely sothing to rember.
Previously boasting as the calst, Yvonne’s eyes were bloodshot with veins sticking out of her forehead.
Even when she was directly suppressed by the higher-ups’ dogs, Yvonne had never felt this helpless!
"There we go."
Unfortunately for the Thorn Trio, their first chance had already evaporated as one more wall crumbled, revealing a glowing blue portal. Just like that, the Labyrinthine Gate had been cleared.
"Great Job, Star. You practically cleared the entire thing on your own."
By now, even Aurora had grown numb enough not to feel the sha of making no contributions.
This Gate was simply too bizarre. If she had to clear it alone, her only choice would have been to keep smashing walls until sothing changed.
’All is good as long as it’s cleared.’
The clearing process didn’t really matter to Aurora as long as the goal of the project was achieved.
Unlike this carefree picnic of theirs, if this Gate were to actually break, all the Minotaurs that the Gate could spawn would have rushed out all at once, causing endless destruction.
However...
"Wait."
Before Aurora could step out of the Gate with peace of mind, Kara called out to her one last ti.
"Hm? What is it?"
"It’s not ti to leave just yet."
"Huh?"
"Think about it. Are you sure you want to go out like this?"
Faced with Kara’s enigmatic words, the new part of her imdiately reacted.
Things had gone way too smoothly! As things were, going out completely unscathed would alert those behind the Thorn Trio, possibly causing the entire project to co to a premature close.
"Don’t worry. We can just smash the walls to the side to draw so fresh Minotaur blood. Since it has the sa color as human blood, with so effort, we could make sothing believable."
’Huh?’
Struggling to understand Kara’s blunt speech, Yvonne received the greatest startle of her life.
’Are they trying to stage the result?’
She and her sisters had bad intentions from the very start, but the most important part about acting on these intentions was to keep them as vague as possible.
After all, any direct exhibition of hostility would ruin the entire purpose of the plan. The gradual weakening of Aurora required insidious ans; a direct confrontation would most likely result in their death.
’Even in the best case scenario, our one chance would go away just like that.’
Although her experience in this Gate greatly damaged her confidence, Yvonne still hadn’t completely given up.
If not in this Gate, perhaps the next one would serve the purpose more directly. However...
’If they are being direct like this...’
"No need, I can handle it."
All of a sudden, Aurora’s body shone with bright light, temporarily blinding Yvonne and her sisters. By the ti they could finally open their eyes again...
"What do you think?"
The previously untouched Aurora was now covered in blood and injuries from head to toe, giving Yvonne another ntal shock.
"You could even do sothing like that? That makes things much easier."
’We are done for.’
Since the two were discussing their plans out in the open, it was obvious to Yvonne that they had no intention of sparing her or her sisters.
Perhaps they had banded together from the very start to finish them off and bla it on the ’highly’ difficult Gate.
’We...’
Faced with the crushing reality of her realization, Yvonne couldn’t even muster the ability to resist. For so reason, she just felt the futility of her existence rushing before her eyes.
"All set... What are you spacing out for? Co on, we are going out."
However, contrary to the Thorn Queen’s expectations, the only thing that Kara did was hoist Aurora’s arm up her neck, bringing Yvonne out of her near-death experience.
"How-"
"We are already aware of your pathetic attempts, okay? None of that matters. I could just make you stay here forever if you want, but you can still be useful, so we will be keeping you around for now... Unless you would prefer to-"
"No! We are leaving together, of course!"
"Good girl. Now, you know better than to ruin our little play, don’t you? Play along, for your own sake."
"I understand..."
Just like that, the once nacing Thorn Queen of the Thorn Trio had bowed her head for the very first ti.
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