Kayn flew above the maze, his eyes looking at the edges of the maze to try and find the exit out of the maze to complete the trial.
However, he soon found out that the dark blue ceiling high above the maze was actually an ice dome.
The ice dome wrapped around the maze, and it didn't have a single hole in sight where Kayn could find any signs of exit.
"Maybe they didn't need to deal with the demons capable of flying because finding the exit wasn't the intent of the maze after all…" Kayn muttered as his eyes scanned the maze once more.
Although there was no exit in sight, Kayn wasn't disheartened.
In fact, from seeing the maze from high above, he managed to find some peculiar things about the maze with ease.
There might not be an exit, but Kayn found ice pillars, 7 of them, scattered all over the maze.
He didn't pay it any attention before as he was searching for an exit, but now, he started to get curious about them.
Recasting the self-enhancement spell to extend its duration, Kayn approached one of the ice pillars with caution.
The second he went too close to the ice pillar, the demons made of ice rose from the ground and blocked his way.
Just like before, Kayn tested them by throwing a fireball at them, and it destroyed an ice sculpture with ease, just like before.
Learning that they were the same ice sculptures as the one he had found before, Kayn dived straight to the ice sculptures and dealt with them using his claws.
However, as they were the same creature as the one Kayn fought before, they quickly regenerate themselves after being destroyed, preventing Kayn from getting too close to the ice pillar.
"Although they are very weak, this regenerating thing they have is really annoying…" Kayn grumbled as he continued destroying them and made his way close to the ice pillar.
The scene repeated itself a couple more times until Kayn was finally close enough to the ice pillar that he could finally sense something going on between the ice pillar and the demons made out of ice.
When Kayn destroyed the ice sculptures, Kayn felt a wave of mana coming from the ice pillar and going to the ice sculpture.
As the wave of mana reached the ice sculptures, their destroyed body began regenerating, and the ice sculptures came back to life.
"Then what I need to do next is…"
Kayn then destroyed the ice sculptures one more time. Using the gaps between their bodies being regenerated after being destroyed, Kayn kicked his feet and jumped straight towards the ice pillar.
He used all four of his hands to stab the ice pillar with his claws, which quickly embedded themselves deep into the ice pillar.
Kayn jerked his four hands hard in opposite directions, tearing the ice pillar apart, causing it to crumble into pieces as it had lost a large part of its body.
When the ice pillar crumbled, Kayn turned his head towards the ice sculptures. They had fully regenerated when Kayn destroyed the ice pillar, but Kayn had no problem destroying them again with ease.
This time, there were no waves of mana washing over the crumbled pieces of the ice sculptures, and they stayed dead, destroyed, as pieces of ice on the snowy ground below.
Kayn then understood what he needed to do and went into the sky once more.
He went to the ice pillars one by one, destroying them easily by throwing an enhanced fireball or just diving from the air fast enough before the ice sculpture could spawn and block his way.
When Kayn finally broke the 7th pillar, the whole place, the maze, and the ice dome surrounding it began to tremble as parts of them began crumbling.
Kayn began to panic a little as the thought of being squished by the humongous ice dome, as large as a city, but he yet again remained calm as he finally saw the exit that he was looking for.
As the top of the ice dome crumbled, it revealed the familiar reddish sky of the demon world, and Kayn flew towards it.
"Maybe this trial was actually made for demons who have wings after all…" Kayn thought as he flew past the hole and into the sky above.
When Kayn passed the hole, his vision darkened once more.
He thought that he was currently being transported once more to another place for the next trial or whatever since there was no way the trial to get the ice affinity was that easy, but his vision remained dark for a while.
But then, after some time, Kayn finally saw visions playing in his eyes. It felt similar to the time when he was barely conscious and just watched his body move on its own instincts to kill the newborn demons.
However, the scenes this time were different. What Kayn currently saw was the time when he was in the ashen forest.
The time when he saw the demon chasing after him was tied by the roots of the forest, and he was thinking of the decision he would take.
Instead of bracing himself to try and absorb the fruit that contained the essence of demons, Kayn's fear won over him, and he decided to just run away.
As he thought back then, the roots noticed his sudden movement, and they all started skewering him. Without his transformation core awakening, and he transforming into a demon, Kayn was powerless and unable to do anything as the roots killed him and took his soul.
The scene then changed to the time when Kayn fought the ice demon, but this time, instead of acknowledging that the ice demon was stronger than him, Kayn didn't believe that he, a demon with a human mind, would be defeated by a pure demon.
The result was as expected.
After breaking the ice prison using his enhanced fireball and charring his own body, Kayn charged once more towards the ice demon.
The ice demon just calmly cast more spells, and Kayn saw the vision of his body being frozen still, ice spears skewering from all sides, freezing even his black blood.
The ice demon then destroyed Kayn's brittle body and ate his soul.
Scenes where Kayn had failed were playing over and over, be it the past that had happened, or the future where he might not even find a way back to the human world, or where he did, but his demon transformation made him a criminal, and the world was out against him.
They kept playing nonstop, which started to make Kayn lose control of his mind from all the failures that he might have done or would happen if he were to choose the wrong answer.
His decision so far had turned out to be the correct one, but what if he did make the wrong choice later? Would he just die, not being able to do anything?
Kayn tried closing his eyes so he wouldn't see the visions anymore, but even with his eyes closed, he could still see them.
With his emotional turmoil, ice began spreading all over his body once more, and Kayn didn't even realize it until he was frozen up to his chest.
By that moment, he realized that his whole body had started to go numb, and the ice would almost freeze his whole body.
But the numbness and the pain of the ice freezing his whole body were what saved him.
Feeling the ice consuming him, Kayn remembered the first sentence the trial told him when he had just arrived.
"May the fiery and unforebearing be damned in eternal ice."
Kayn repeated the words as if they were a mantra, calming himself down, his eyes still watching the scenes of failures.
With the calmness holding firm in Kayn's mind, Kayn began watching the scenes in front of him again, but his heart wasn't stirred every time he saw his failures.
Instead, he smiled a little.
"Those events that have happened in the past, aren't they all wrong? The truth was I'm still standing right here, alive, and even more powerful than before.
The scenes where I fail in the future… Those are just speculations, not what would actually happen. Just like what happened in the past, I will choose the right decision, and I will think of the best way to deal with things.
And by the time that future happens, I will be far stronger than I currently am, and I will have much more freedom in my choices.
So stop it, these scenes didn't do anything to me anymore."
When Kayn said those words out loud, the scenes and the darkness around him crumbled, revealing another room of ice and a door in front of him.
Kayn smiled to himself, satisfied with what he had done in the first trial, and walked towards the door with confidence, ready to deal with anything the trial would throw him next