'This skill is beyond absurd,' Leo thought, his knuckles whitening as he gripped the hilt of his dagger. The bridge beneath him groaned, stone shrapnel whistling past his head as it was sucked into the titan's gaping maw. The fractures in the marble snaked outward, treacherous and deep.
Creak.
The section of the bridge disintegrated. 'Shit!' Leo's heart leaped into his throat as he was yanked into the air, caught in the relentless vacuum. The giant's crimson eyes flared with a sickening hunger. "To hell with you, you dumb buffoon!" Leo roared. Crimson strands erupted from his artifact, coiling around his midsection and anchoring him to a stable pillar of the bridge like a jagged umbilical cord.
The giant intensified the suction, the air screaming as it rushed past, but the blood-rope held firm. Seeing its meal was anchored, the giant finally closed its mouth, and the crushing pressure vanished.
Leo collapsed onto a jagged remnant of a wall, his lungs burning. 'A few more seconds and I would be swimming in its stomach by now,' he thought, his eyes flickering to his interface.
[Blood Bank: 0%]
The titan let out a frustrated bellow. Leo stood up slowly, his body aching. A nagging thought finally broke through the adrenaline. No one—not even high-tier devil—had pierced his disguise. How did this overgrown sentinel pin him so easily?
As the giant prepared another strike, Leo raised a hand. "Wait! Hold on a second!" He took a ragged breath. "Before we finish this, give me an answer. Why? Why are you so obsessed with me?"
The giant paused, its massive head tilting with the slow curiosity of a predator. It tapped a finger the size of a redwood against its snout. "I smell you. The scent... it is delicious. Pure. Ancient."
The pieces fell into place. 'It's the scent. So if all I have to do is become odorless....' A dark smirk touched Leo's lips as he dusted the stone dust from his coat. "Is that all? If I had known I was just a walking steak, anyway. It was a pleasure, monster. The next time our paths cross, I'll be the one who hunts you."
The giant's rage boiled over, red veins pulsing across its scorched skin. It didn't need to understand the words to feel the sting of the insult. "I will crush you into paste!" it roared, raising its massive, steam-shrouded fists high above its head for a final, bridge-shattering blow.
Leo watched the shadow descend, his thumb brushing the mythic metal of his ring. 'This isn't a trial. It's a slaughterhouse.'
"Vanishing Edict," he whispered.
The world didn't just go dark; it ceased to exist. At the moment of activation, the [Vanishing Edict] didn't just hide Leo's body—it struck his existence from the records of the local space. The scent of ancient, 'delicious' blood vanished as if it had never been there.
The giant's fists, twin boulders of scorched flesh and steam, slammed into the bridge with the force of a falling star.
BOOM!
The white stone exploded. Shards of marble the size of houses were sent flying into the void. The section of the bridge where Leo had been standing a second ago was completely gone, leaving only a jagged gap of empty air.
The giant pulled its hands back, its crimson eyes wide and searching. It sniffed the air aggressively, its massive nostrils flared as it tried to catch even a single molecule of that 'ancient' scent. But there was nothing. Not a drop of blood, not a whiff of sweat, not even a footprint.
"LITTLE KING!'' the giant bellowed, a sound of pure, thwarted greed. It began to smash the remaining sections of the bridge in a mindless tantrum, but the predator had lost the trail.
A few hundred meters back, a flicker of silver light announced Leo's return to existence. He stumbled, his heart hammering against his ribs like a panicked bird in a cage. The Vanishing Edict had saved his life, but the mental toll was a heavy tax. He did not dare look back; he knew the titan's confusion was a temporary mercy.
The countdown on his interface was a death knell.
'I need to reach the threshold before the duration ends. If that beast catches my scent again, there will be no second escape,' Leo thought, pushing his legs into a desperate sprint.
At the edge of the Bridge, the party had gathered before a gargantuan, swirling portal. The gateway to the Palace of Evergreen hummed with aetheric power, a beacon of hope at the end of a nightmare. Noel collapsed onto the marble, his breath coming in ragged hitches. ''Uff. Never again. I am never signing up for a trail like this again,'' he wheezed.
Hye-na stood as a silent sentinel, her gaze fixed on the darkness they had left behind. Her body was slick with sweat, her muscles aching, but her mind was elsewhere. She knew she had made the tactical choice to prioritize Luna's safety, but the weight of leaving Leo behind sat heavily in her gut. 'Focus, Hye-na. Survival was the only goal. If the Crimson Lord has fallen, I will simply have to make that giant pay the debt,' she thought.
''Rest while you can. We wait for him here,'' Hye-na commanded. She produced a stamina vial and pressed it into Luna's hand.
Luna offered a tired smile, drinking half before passing it back. The liquid was like liquid fire, slowly stitching her stamina back together. ''Thanks,'' she whispered.
''Do you truly believe he will return?'' Hye-na asked, settling onto the stone beside her friend.
'I hope so, for all our sakes.' Luna thought, looking up into the starless void. "He will. He is not the type to let others decide his fate,'' she said aloud.
Hours bled into the silence of the clouds. Just as the tension began to ebb, the sound of approaching footsteps shattered the quiet. But the rhythm was wrong. It was not one man; it was a small army. From a parallel bridge, another group emerged from the fog.
''Be alert!'' Hye-na barked, her spear spinning in a lethal arc as she took her position.
The newcomers were led by a woman who looked untouched by the trial. Rose moved with a graceful, carefree stride, her brunette hair caught in the wind and her cheeks glowing with a natural radiance. She stopped short of Hye-na's reach, offering a polite, chillingly calm smile. ''Hello. It seems we have all arrived at the same finish line,'' she said.
Behind her stood a dozen lords, including a battered but arrogant Steven Lockwood. His eyes lit up with predatory glee when they landed on Hye-na and Luna.
Luna let out a long, weary sigh. 'Of all the idiots in the Origin, why does it have to be him?' she thought, giving Noel a subtle nod.
Hye-na did not lower her weapon. She met Rose's gaze with eyes of flint, but her focus drifted to Steven. Rose tilted her head, her concern seeming genuine. ''It appears the Crimson Lord is running behind schedule,'' she noted.
At the mention of Leo, Steven let out a jagged, manic laugh. ''I knew it! That arrogant bastard was nothing but a fraud. Without his summons to hide behind, he is probably just a corpse somewhere.''
''Oii, dickhead. You are hurting my ears with all that barking,'' Noel interjected, casually rubbing his ear canal.
Hye-na's lip twitched in a rare, ghost of a smile. Rose merely chuckled, masking her mouth with a delicate hand. Steven's face turned a violent shade of crimson. ''What did you call me, you gutter-trash?'' he roared, his hand flying to his sword.
Noel stepped forward, his long hair swaying in the gale. He looked entirely unimpressed. ''I am sorry, did I stutter? I called you a dickhead,'' he smirked.
The rest of the party erupted in laughter. Luna leaned in, whispering to Noel, ''Careful. He is an idiot, but his family is a real deal.''
Noel didn't break his smirk. He shot a wink at Luna. ''Who says you are talking to the real me? Never underestimate a Trickster, Luna.''
Luna's eyes widened slightly. She shook her head, a dark amusement taking hold. 'Leo certainly knows how to pick them. This one is just as unhinged as the rest of us,' she thought, watching the fury boil over in Steven's expression.
Suddenly, the air changed. Rose, who had been enjoying the theater, stiffened. Her eyes went wide as a premonition—the weight of Providence's warning—slammed into her. She turned toward the bridge, her carefree aura vanishing in an instant. ''Into the portal. Now!'' she commanded, her voice sharp as a whip.