“This should be enough,” Alnea said, asking his teammates to stop, as they completed a full circle, returning back to where they had begun. “We have cleared all the dangers that we could find. For now, this should be enough. Let us go back to the swamp, and get some rest.”

  “Rest?” Cecilia mumbled, tilting her head. “I thought we were going to expand outwards.”

  “We are, but not now,” Alnea said, staring into the depths of the forest that they had yet to explore. “I did not think that securing this area of the forest would take so long, and neither did I think that we would use so much of our Spirit Power on just clearing away some trivial dangers. If only we had not wasted so much time before coming to the Final World…”

  Alnea paused, withdrawing his gaze from the depths of forest, and glanced at his teammates, before continuing.

  “In any case, all of us are exhausted to some degree, and the Final Trial is about to start at any moment. Rather than facing the Trial exhausted, and surrounded by unknown dangers, I think everyone would prefer facing it in a secure environment. And if we can recover some of our Spirit Power before we face our enemies, it would be even better.”

  “…I know,” Cecilia mumbled, reluctantly withdrawing her gaze from the unexplored depths of the forest, and turned towards Alnea. “Should I stop using my Dark Sense then?”

  “You can, but do not let down your guard just yet. And this not just for her. We may have cleared away all the dangers we could find, but we never know what we might have missed in our earlier sweep.”

  The Star Seekers nodded in unison, and began making their way back to the swamp. This time, at a much more leisure pace than what they had been sweeping the area with. Still, they were not exactly walking either. As Alnea had said, the Final Trial could come down at them at any moment. Naturally, it would be best if they could face it in a safe and secure place. And what place could be more secure than the home of the overlord of the territory?

  “Everyone can relax now,” Alnea said, as they reached the swamp. “Just do not let your guard down. And always keep one of the Glyph Tokens I prepared for you active. It would be best if—

  Alnea felt a strange heat surge in his chest. No, not in his chest, but in something that was touching his chest. Though there was not much difference between the two. The heat pressing on to his chest soon made its way to his heart, forcing it to beat with nervousness, along with inducing a strange bubbling sensation from within his chest. Forcing himself to calm down, subduing all his nervous thoughts into the depths of his Heart, he reached into his robe, and took out his Blood Card.

  Your Final Trial begins in – 6

  The string of symbols gathering on the back of the Blood Card formed a sentence, with the last of the symbols changing with each passing moment.

  – 5

  – 4

  – 3

  – 2

  – 1

  – 0

  A brilliant red light surged from within the Blood Card the moment its countdown reached zero, almost blinding Alnea for a moment. Fortunately, he had become all too familiar with lights surging at unexpected moments, and blinding him, so he was able to react in time, and close his eyes just enough to avoid becoming completely oblivious to his surroundings. Still, just to be sure, he entered into his Spirit State anyway, in case he missed—

  There, in the senses of his spirit, a blood red curtain of light, roughly a quarter of a metre long on each side, was hovering above his Blood Card, shimmering as if to draw his attention to itself. Though, even if the curtain had not been shimmering, he still would have focussed all his attention to what it read. After all, the curtain was his Assistant Panel of the Trial.

  “Welcome to the Final World, Blood Soldier N 06 08499.”

  “This will be your Final Trial.”

  “The Trial will test $#%@&...”

  “No restrictions will be placed on the means you can use in the Trial.”

  “Failure in the Trial will result in your expulsion from the -$#%@&...”

  “If you clear the Trial, your status will be upgraded to that of a Blood Commander, granting you corresponding privileges.”

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  “There will be no additional reward according to your performance in the Trial, but your performance in the Final Trial will affect your privileges as a Blood Commander.”

  “The …$#%@&… wishes you… $#%&@ in…”

  “Beginning the Trial Generation Protocol.”

  “It is detected that you are participating in the Final Trial as a team. Your Trial is determined to be a team mission.”

  “Reading your past records in $#%@&...”

  “It is detected that you have been challenged to the Final Trial. Reading the past records of your challenges in $#%@&...”

  “Locating your position in the Final World…”

  “Generating Trial based on your location, the number and records of your challengers, and your past performance in $#%@&…”

  “Trial generation complete.”

  “Do you wish to read the details of your Final Trial?”

  “…Generating Trials?” Alnea mumbled, while wondering what the garbled symbols on the Assistant Panel meant. He had never seen those symbols before. Not even in the memory that the language spar gave him. Maybe they were part of a different language. Or a part of the language that the Lost City deliberately hid from its Trialists. Though that was not something for him to worry about at the moment.

  Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Alnea glanced at his teammates. Just like him, they too were staring above their Blood Cards in a daze. But that made things easier for him.

  “Everyone must have seen their Assistant Panels by now,” Alnea said, drawing everyone’s attention to himself. “There is no need to get nervous. Although some of the details of the Trial are different from what we know, at the very least, we already knew what the consequences of our failure can lead to.”

  “…Who is nervous?” Zain said, raising his chin in the air. “I am just a little excited. That is it.”

  “…Whatever you say,” Karl said, rolling his eyes, before turning towards his Captain. “Have you read the details of the Trial?”

  “Not yet,” Alnea said, shaking his head. “I was worried that some of you may become a little nervous.”

  “…I am fine,” Aren said. “You do not have to keep worrying about me.”

  “And me too,” Fran said. “Since we have already come to the Final World, I will never let my teammates down.”

  “…I would not mind if you worried a little about me though,” Ralph said, laughing nervously. “I cannot seem to bring myself to read the details of the Trial.”

  “It is all right,” Norren said with a grin. “We will read it for you.”

  “No! I mean… I will do it on my own. Just give me some time to gather my courage.”

  “…Rather than worrying about the Trial, I think we should be worrying about our enemies,” Vestia said, glancing at the Star Seekers. “Since the Final Trials have been released, it means that all our enemies have come to the Final World.”

  “…Right, I almost forgot about them.”

  “There is no need to be nervous,” Alnea said. “There should be no enemies around us. Probably… Anyways, as long as you keep the Glyph Tokens I gave you active, you should not have to worry about any sneak attacks.”

  “It is not just the sneak attacks…”

  “Do not let their numbers overwhelm your mind,” Alnea said. “As long as everyone sticks to the plan, we can deal with any situation we face.”

  “…You sure have grown fond of talking endlessly recently,” Cecilia grumbled. “Sometimes, you even remind me of my mother.”

  “…Now that you say it, he does sound like my mother from time to time,” Norren mumbled, before quickly turning his face away, hiding from his Captain.

  “…I am sorry for worrying about my teammates,” Alnea said, glaring at Cecilia and Norren, before glancing at the rest of his teammates. “What? Do you also have a problem with me? Do you also think that I nag too much?”

  “Not at all,” Vestia said, flashing her charming smile. “Unlike some people, I like the fact that you keep warning me from time to time. It shows how much you worry about me.”

  “…Vixen.”

  “Warrior.”

  “…That is not an insult.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “…I knew I should have kicked her out of the team when I had the chance.”

  While Cecilia and Vestia were arguing, Yuri leaned towards Alnea, and said, “If it is any consolation, I do not think that you sound like my mother.”

  “…Why do I think that there is more to what you want to say.”

  “To me, you sound more like big sis Nyssa.”

  “…I do not know whether I should be happy, or get mad,” Alnea said, trying to ignore the subtle smile on Yuri’s face, before glancing at the rest of his teammates. “Although we have not had as much rest as we would have liked, since the Final Trial is already here, let us first see what our Trial is. We can decide what to do next after we understand our situation, and determine our goal.”

  “I will deal with you later,” Cecilia said to Vestia, and turned her attention to the Blood Card in her hand. Or rather, to the empty air above her Blood Card. Except, it was not empty. Just as the air above his hand was not empty. Concentrating on his Assistant Panel, Alnea moved his thoughts, and chose to read through the details of his Final Trial.

  “Main mission: Taking the point where you entered the Final World as the centre, explore at least a hundred kilometres in each direction within thirty days.”

  “Mission requirement: At least one member of your team must explore a place with their Spirit for it to be considered as explored.”

  “Side mission: Defeat the challengers trying to stop you from exploring the Final World. The more challengers you defeat, the greater the privileges you will earn as a Blood Commander.”

  “Challengers defeated: 0.”

  “Area explored: 0.01%.”

  “Time left: 29 days, 24 hours, 57 minutes, 37 seconds.”