“Well… Hate to be the party pooper here… But we ain’t moving down…” Grea chuckled wryly. “I dare to say we ain’t moving anywhere...”

  “I can see this much.” Asterios sighed lightly. “Bryn?”

  “I’m really sorry, Master…” Bryn shook her head, casting her gaze down with a dejected expression. “I can’t do anything about it…”

  He stepped closer to the winged lady and tenderly brushed through her golden hair. “There’s no reason to blame yourself for this. What happened?”

  “I hoped that wasn't the case, but it looks to me like the entire facility is under a lockdown, not just the armory…” she explained, raising her face to match his caring gaze.

  “Just our luck.” Miria huffed in annoyance, crossing her arms under her chest.

  “I assume we can’t use this elevator until this lockdown is raised. What now?” Tina glanced at Asterios and Bryn.

  “There was another way on the schematics, wasn’t there?” Silvia asked.

  “Yes. A staircase.” Bryn nodded. “It connects every single floor but… It’s behind the training grounds on each level…”

  Noticing her anxious expression, Asterios raised a brow at her. “Which means…?”

  “That we will most likely have to go through each of them… And seeing how the armory and the elevator behaved…”

  “The training grounds are most likely going to be active too,” he finished for her and smiled wryly.

  “That’s correct, Master. And since most of them are in the form of automated challenges, it’s safe to assume that the trials will be ready to initialize the practice program the moment someone steps into the arena,” she added. “At least that’s what I would have done as another way of slowing the intruders down by forcing them to partake in the challenges.”

  “Can’t we just beat the first floor and use the staircase to skip the other ones?” Miria tilted her head curiously.

  “No,” Grea quickly shot her idea down. “If you remember, each staircase is on the other end of the training grounds, depending on the side you enter from.”

  “Well thought,” Silvia complimented the architects.

  “But not so good for us,” Asterios said. “Umbra, are you able to travel through the floors?”

  ~I can’t transfer myself to a place I haven’t been to, and even though the distance of my longest jump from one shadow to another is bigger than the distance separating the floors, I can’t utilize that ability well due to an existing interference, cutting off the direct connection between each level,~ the Lord of Shadows answered.

  “So, we are fucked?” Grea wrinkled her nose.

  ~I can roam the floor in search of a weaker area since it’s not possible for the entire thing to be protected perfectly well and find a good spot to force myself through. Perhaps also try to search for some other crack or crevice that would allow me to squeeze by,~ Umbra suggested.

  “Do that, then,” Asterios requested.

  “In the meanwhile, we could try to tackle the challenges,” Selene offered another solution. “The initial floors shouldn’t be that hard, right?”

  After discussing it amongst themselves, they all agreed to go with those ideas. Umbra slithered away to look for a way to sneak into the lower floor while Bryn led the others to the training grounds of the first level. A gateless entrance greeted them, with a huge rectangular arena on the other side. A small section for an audience was prepared in each direction, in the form of multiple rows of benches starting about four meters above the ground.

  Silvia found a control panel in the middle of the right wall and they took positions. Miria remained in the corridor leading to the training grounds so that they could test if she could pass through her portal and get inside if some kind of a sealing barrier was activated alongside the challenge, securing them a safe way out. In case she was in danger, she could jump back to her home realm from there without a problem.

  Asterios pressed his palm into the imprint of a hand and the circuits underneath it were illuminated with golden light. Nothing shone red this time and they heard some mechanical clicking and whirring again. No gate, barrier, or other seal blocked the exits when thin slits opened in the walls and ceiling. A bunch of flat, circular shooting targets flew out of them and began rushing around the chamber at different speeds.

  “Fuck yes!” Grea cheered and immediately unstrapped her new toy, taking aim while going down to one knee. “Bring it on, bitch!”

  Chapter 36

  False Secrets

  The first few shots Grea took went exactly as everyone had expected. Their crimson-skinned friend might have exuded a quite bold and confident aura, but the fact that Grea had no real training in ranged weapons from such a category clearly showed. Additionally, it wasn’t like the crossbow she wielded could be described as something common.

  She kneeled on the ground while trying to follow the mischievous targets darting through the air. They seemed to mock her each time Grea missed the mark. Everyone else observed her struggles from the sides, without taking action yet. Even though her proficiency was definitely low, Grea didn’t give up and her attempts showed a little bit of progress with time.

  After about five minutes, Silvia decided to step closer to her. “Your aim is in too much chaos. You need to stop chasing after multiple targets and focus on one until you land a hit. Untrained shooters often struggle with their decision making, hesitating too much when in front of multiple enemies.”

  The scarlet-haired princess crouched by her side and supported Grea’s hold on the crossbow. Fixing her hands a bit, Grea took a deep breath to focus and let Silvia guide her aim for a while. She didn’t shoot, only trailed after one of the flying circles until she was more or less able to follow it around.

  “Don’t think, just act. Instead of worrying about which target you should pick, just go with the easiest. That usually means either the closest or the slowest one. Forget about the other ones unless you notice them getting even closer to you than the previous closest target. Don’t think that you are skilled enough to keep an eye on the entire battle. At your level, you should care about landing your shots, not valiantly assisting others in their fights,” Silvia instructed her.

  Grea made a firm nod and grew more serious. After a few more seconds, Silvia withdrew her hands, remaining crouched by the demon woman’s side. Grea closed her eyes for just a moment, opened them quickly, and started following the closest target she could see, without thinking about it too much.

  She chased after it until she became more confident in herself. Achieving enough lead, per her own judgment, she pulled the trigger. The bolt whizzed through the air and hit the target straight in the middle. A small smirk curled Grea’s lips up as the reloading mechanism resupplied the crossbow with ammunition and drew the string back. Nailing a target without relying on luck felt exhilarating.

  One by one, Grea shot down more targets from the air. She was gradually getting faster at switching between them and over half of her shots landed a direct hit exactly where she wanted them. Soon, the number of mischievous targets decreased to just a few and everyone started applauding her.

  “Now, for the last one…” Grea smirked to herself, putting the lone circular sheet of speeding metal into her sight.

  It was clear that she wanted to end the session with a bang, but unfortunately, she missed four times before she shot the final target down. Groaning in dissatisfaction, she lowered her weapon and replaced the box with ammunition, given to her by Silvia.

  “It’s extremely fun to use but even an incredible weapon like this doesn’t change how trash I am.” Grea snickered, evoking a few chuckles from the other girls. “So, that’s it? I wouldn’t really call this a challen—”

  A wave of mechanical whirring interrupted her and everyone glanced around. Even more slits appeared in the walls than the last time. The edges of the metal targets poked out of the hidden launchers. It was easy to spot that their number was incomparably bigger and their sizes had much more diversity. Some openings and the metal discs poking out of them were no bigger than an adult human’s hand.

  A circuit surfaced on the ceiling and Miria gasped in surprise. They all turned to her and saw that some kind of a barrier had locked their feline companion out. She informed them through their bond that she was alright and the rest of the team focused on the big, thick, golden ring on the ceiling.

  Short silver lines appeared over the entire length of the circular path. Both parts of the unusual formation flashed three times before they began constantly glowing. At that moment, all the awaiting targets shot into the chamber and cut through the air at impressive speeds.

  Asterios noticed a change in the golden path and saw it gradually fading away at a regular pace as if someone took a rag and began wiping the circle off the ceiling. As the golden energy escaped, the silver lines drawn over the now non-existent edge of the ring remained in place.

  Something clicked in his head and Asterios hastily raised his left bracer, moving his fingers into the proper position to make use of the releasing mechanism. Enhancing his eyes and mind, he struck one of the chaotic targets with three needles and watched how one of the silver marks disappeared.

  “The real challenge starts now,” he exclaimed. “We need to take down as many targets as there are silver lines over the disappearing golden circle.”

  “Ah. That’s a timer.” Tina nodded to herself.

  “Well, what are we waiting for, then?” Grea rested the long crossbow on her shoulder and grinned at them. “While the previous game was clearly a warm-up, I have a feeling that failing here won’t let us go unpunished.”

  Everyone agreed and prepared themselves in their own way.

  Grea started making use of her new toy, obviously. Selene brought a few tails out and began launching spiritual projectiles at the escaping targets. Tina shaped Hydran into her favorite bow and rained arrows of sharp water all around the chamber. Silvia gathered her mana and formed multiple small, homing balls of fire, sending them after the targets.

  As for Asterios, he slotted a whitish token into his Spellslinger and infused it with spiritual energy. The Runic Chip glowed brightly and a beautiful javelin of pure light materialized in his hand. He chucked it at one of the dashing discs and it exploded after piercing the metal. With a snap of his fingers, a new javelin appeared in his grasp. He kept launching them into the air and snapping his fingers to call for more.

  Miria could only watch from the other side of the intricate, golden barrier blocking her from entering, cheering them on. She had tried opening a gate and it worked but she remained outside since that was her role. Besides, she didn’t really have anything as efficient for long-range attacks as everyone else. Jumping around the arena would only inconvenience the others as they would have to be careful not to hit her.

  The golden path shrunk mercilessly but the silver marks chased after the disappearing line. Asterios and the others kept glancing at the timer and the remaining number of short lines as they destroyed tens of targets. Even with all of them working together, they were barely able to keep the two fading away at a similar pace. Each time the yellow glow created some distance from the light gray shine, they tensed and focused their efforts to have the marks catch up even more.

  The timer mercilessly ticked down. Considering the warm-up they had witnessed, no one had expected the challenge on the first floor to be this difficult. They couldn’t imagine doing it alone. But, Bryn had mentioned in the past that this was a place for the best of the best to train themselves and gain fame.

  Or, the arena raised the difficulty depending on the number of people that stepped inside. Though, it was still too damn tough. Almost everyone on Ast’s team had great means of dealing with the given task, yet that didn’t make it any easier for them. The ancient valkyrjas must have been total badasses, skilled in literally everything.

  “This is getting fucking close,” Grea shouted, pulling the trigger as fast as the mechanism allowed. “We might start preparing ourselves for the punishment.”

  “No, we don’t,” Bryn spoke for the first time since the challenge had started.

  Everyone turned to her and found their winged friend in the middle of the arena. She had been drawing multiple circular patterns around herself with her staff, leaving golden spiritual lines hanging in the air at different heights. Finished with her preparations, Bryn raised her weapon high above her head, filling it with plenty of her mana.

  The oval, mirror-resembling spiritual constructs flashed and disappeared. A moment later, they showed up in various, seemingly random spots all around the training grounds, accompanied by another flash. Everyone paused to look at what Bryn was doing as it seemed to be something big.

  With all the golden mirrors spread out all around the arena, Bryn invoked the final stage of her spell and a blinding light shone from the tip of her staff. Rays of heavenly, sparkling, iridescent energy shot in all directions, zooming through the air like arrows, leaving golden trails behind themselves. They struck the oval spiritual shapes and bounced off, soon filling the entire arena with a net of gleaming lines.

  Everyone watched as the silver marks representing the remaining targets took over the golden timer and sped toward the end of the circle. The beams Bryn had released kept bouncing around and piercing through the flying discs with pinpoint accuracy. Every single mirror was placed exactly where it needed to be and the noise of metal targets falling to the floor accompanied the hum of the heavenly rays cutting through them.

  The last flying target was struck with a beam when the golden path still had a decent distance to overcome and everyone except for Bryn stared into the ceiling with anticipation. The timer stopped and what remained of the yellow ring turned silver. Mechanical noise reverberated through the chamber and the barrier blocking Miria disappeared. On the other side of the arena, half of the wall began retracting further with a loud scraping of metal. The spiritual mirrors faded away and Bryn released a soft sigh as she brought her staff back down.

  Asterios stepped closer to her as Miria trotted to join the others. “Amazing spell. How are you feeling?”

  She turned to him with a delicate smile decorating her gentle lips. “Thank you, Master. It wasn’t that draining in terms of mana but controlling all those mirrors exhausted my mind a little bit. Worry not, though. I will recover quickly.”

  “If you need a hand with it, I can help,” he offered.

  Bryn’s eyes skipped to his lips and her cheeks gained a slightly rosy tint. She knew that he hadn’t exactly meant that but she couldn’t help recalling their cooperation back in the medicinal cavern of the mountain tribe. That pleasant, warm energy was impossible to forget.

  Asterios sensed that Bryn was in deep contemplation of his offer so he waited, not wanting to be pushy and make her uncomfortable. After a short moment, a shy smile curled the corners of her pretty lips up and she nodded.

  “Since we can save a lot of time if you share your energy with me directly, Master, we should make use of that option,” she said and stepped closer, sliding her hands into his.

  He smiled back at her and shortened the distance between them too. The angle of Bryn’s face was a clear enough sign of what mana transfer method she had in mind so he slowly leaned forward and joined their lips in a tender peck while entwining his fingers with hers.

  Bryn let out a tiny sigh as their mouths brushed together and the pleasant stream of scorching hot energy flowed into her core. Her cheeks grew more flushed as that comfortable warmth spread through her body while heating up her lips.

  Their kiss lasted slightly over a minute and they both drew their faces back in sync. Her head became much lighter after receiving Ast’s rejuvenating energy. She felt strengthened too. Sending Asterios one more timid smile, she nodded at him appreciatively and took her hands back. They turned around and walked back to regroup with everyone else.

  The girls had their backs turned to them, clearly working together to give Bryn more comfort of mind, implying that they hadn’t seen anything. A quiet chuckle escaped her lips as she approached them with Asterios by her side, feeling a bit silly with how considerate everyone was.

  “The path leading down is now open,” Grea began. “I sent Aura to take a look and there are simple stairs behind that unlocked segment, nothing else. They don’t look protected with additional safety measures.”

  “So, will we have to go through this a hundred times? Or at least forty-nine more until we reach the middle, where the medical ward should be located?” Tina asked.

  “That will certainly take quite some time,” Silvia commented. “Were there any records of valkyrjas who completed all challenges in one go, Bryn?”

  Their Valkyrie friend shook her head. “I don’t know anything about such cases. If it ever happened, we have no information about it in our archives. But, from what I can remember reading, a few floors a day should be considered a quite quick pace. At least for valkyrjas.”

  “Let’s maybe first check if the stairs are of any use to us. Then, we will think about what to do,” Asterios suggested and they all agreed.

  Wary of any further traps or defenses, they walked into the uncovered path. Finding the beginning of the stairs, they descended the quite shallow and comfortable steps. They’d expected something with a sharper angle. But, while the slope was gentle, the stairs made them feel like they were walking in a big circle, taking left turns again and again.

  After about five minutes, they reached the end and stood in front of a gate. Pushing the heavy wings inside, they were greeted by a corridor no different from the ones they had traversed on the first floor. Stepping out of the staircase, they noticed that they were right next to the entrance to another training arena to their right. To the left, a hallway ran into the distance.

  Grea groaned. “The stairs must really be on the other side of the trial each time.”