Chapter 291: End this now
As he stood there looking at the body of the awakened, he looked up at the rest, "Do any of you genuinely believe that you stand a chance against me, Shadow?" he asked the question, not expecting some sort of answer, but because he wanted them to understand that what they were doing was utterly pointless and would simply lead to their deaths.
Sadly, that point seemed to not get across to some, as two guys charged again, but before they could get close, tendrils shot out, latched onto them, and swung their bodies down so hard that they turned into a paste of blood, and Aren’s face showed no emotion whatsoever.
After this, the rest were shaky and not wanting to attack, but that was when Aren felt a presence approaching, and unlike the other awakened, these ones felt pretty strong.
He turned and looked and saw a group riding on the backs of some lion-looking summons, which was something weird to see as it was difficult to get summon-like things into the trials unless they had some sort of subspace where they had been able to hide the summons inside all this while.
They were all decked out in black fitting armor, and the lady riding at the front was wearing a purple cape that flowed down the side of the lion very beautifully.
She had purple hair that matched her cape and purple eyes as well. A sword hung from her back.
"Seems a big shot awakened has arrived," Aren muttered. He had noticed that ever since this entire trial started, the big and strong awakened didn’t go to the mountaintop like the rest did, but because he was far too busy at the moment, he didn’t really think about it much.
The lady came down from her mount and looked at Aren.
"I am Tian, disciple of the Sacred Palace."
The moment that she said that, everyone was in shock, they were standing in the presence of someone from the Sacred Palace.
"I, along with my team and so many awakened spread across, want this entire trial to be over with, and so we are asking that you hand over the angel for her to die," she stated what she wanted immediately.
Aren looked at her and then scoffed, "Where have all of you been when the main thing was happening, and now you want to come and take the angel?" Aren said.
"We don’t put ourselves in the small squabble of weaklings," she said, glancing at the awakened that had attacked Aren. She focused back on him again and then spoke.
"No one would have been able to kill the angel amongst the weak awakened, it was all for nothing that they ran up there, and then when they were done with whatever they wanted to do, we would come and end this.
That’s the mindset we followed and many other powerful groups, but then you came along, Shadow, upsetting the delicate balance that we have struggled to keep," she stated, then her eyes turned to slits.
"But even for you, there is no way that you can take all of us down, especially after having to fight for so long today, yes, we saw your battles from a distance."
Aren listened to every word that she said and then cracked a smile.
"I see, so that was the game, pretty nice if you ask me, waiting it out and all, but sadly you are mistaken about something."
She looked at him, confused as to what he was talking about, "What’s that?" she asked.
"Assuming that you can defeat me because I’ve been fighting for a while now."
He started walking in her direction, her followers all leaped off their mounts eagerly to protect her. One instantly transformed into a massive snake and hurled itself at Aren.
Aren watched the snake head his way, this person was pretty strong, but that was by normal standards and not Aren’s standard.
Aren summoned his ancient devourer and placed one foot back. He dashed forward with so much speed that he vanished before the eyes of everyone, and the next moment, all they saw was a rain of blood falling from the sky as the snake was cut into bits.
Tian was stunned when she witnessed that, she looked at Aren the same way a person looked at a monster. She gritted her teeth in anger and fear.
"Do not underestimate him, all of you attack at the same time and kill him," she yelled while pulling her sword from her back as well, ready to take down Aren.
Her men all charged forward, each one using their ability to attack all at the same time, but Aren didn’t move, he waited for when they got close enough.
"I should have enough soul energy for this," he muttered and summoned his domain, which swallowed all of them. Two seconds passed, and the domain vanished, and what everyone saw were body parts laid on the ground, covered in blood completely, all of them died that easily, and standing there looking at it all was Aren.
Tian stared in shock, fear crept up within her as she backed away. And that was the part Aren wanted, because he knew that if she attacked, he would win, but the battle against her would surely take more from him, and she was pretty powerful herself, and he was in a weak state.
Aren looked up at the sky, "Is this where you want your trial to end? With the death of all the awakened that you have chosen?" Aren asked the gods.
"If you don’t want to see me slaughter thousands, then end this trial now, or keep sending them at me because you refuse to budge, let’s see who takes the win at the end of the day."
His words were filled with audacity and pride, but it came from a place of power, right now inside this trial, he was the scariest thing to exist.