Chapter 184: The Trial (41)
The sound of grinding stone grew louder as the trio advanced, the labyrinth reshaping itself with eerie, almost deliberate awareness. Constellations along the walls shimmered and bent, their starlight distorting like ripples across water. Verena clenched her fists, the threads of her Zodiacal Mimicry humming faintly beneath her skin, ready for whatever Trial Three had in store.
They rounded the corner—and the floor vanished.
"OH, YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME—!"
All three plummeted, the world blurring in a rush of wind and falling starlight. Vivienne shrieked. Isolde, graceful even in freefall, twisted her body to stay upright. Verena’s stomach flipped as the magic in the air warped, catching them like an invisible net before they slammed onto solid ground.
The arena they landed in was massive, a circular expanse carved from what looked like pure night sky. Above them, constellations glittered unnaturally close, as if they had fallen straight into the heavens. Floating platforms drifted through the air, some stable, others cracking ominously at the edges.
A massive, looming gate stood at the opposite end of the arena, sealed tight with glowing Zodiac sigils. At its base, a pedestal shimmered with three indentations.
"Great," Verena muttered. "Puzzle time."
Isolde’s eyes narrowed. "It’s a relic trial."
From the shadows, movement.
Three beasts slithered, crawled, and skulked into view—each more unsettling than the last. A spectral serpent composed entirely of refracted starlight. A hulking beast resembling a lion with an obsidian mane and molten eyes. And the last... a distorted, shifting figure that flickered between animal forms, its outline warping like a broken reflection.
"They each have a relic," Isolde assessed coolly, pointing toward the faintly glowing artifacts gripped in the creatures’ claws, fangs, or coiled tails. "Retrieve them. Slot them in the pedestal. Gate opens. Classic format."