Chapter 166: Trial Completed Veyra and Medusa had sat down silently, their backs pressed against the rough bark of a frozen tree. The forest around them was quiet, the kind of heavy silence that didn’t feel natural. Neither of them spoke at first. They didn’t need to. Both women knew that anything they said would only circle back to the same question. Still, their eyes wandered toward the massive hive-tree that towered in the distance. Somewhere in that hell, Azel was fighting for his life. They waited for the sound of an explosion. Minutes dragged like hours. Medusa clenched and unclenched her hands in her lap, her jaw tight. The silence was suffocating, and though she forced herself to stay still, she wanted to act. Her mind raced with plans, all of which ended with her sending in a drone to check on him. Yet her lips remained pressed shut. Her last spider-drone had been destroyed before even reaching the hive. "...Do you think he’ll be okay?" Veyra finally asked, her voice small. It was the fifth time she had asked in the past hour. "I don’t know..." Medusa replied quietly, giving the same answer she had given all four times before. Her voice was steady, but her chest burned with unease. She wanted to believe. She had to believe. But she didn’t know. Neither woman noticed the repetition. Their thoughts were locked too tightly on Azel. And then it came. A series of explosions ripped through the air. The ground trembled beneath them, snow falling from the branches overhead. A wave of searing heat rolled outward, carrying with it the stench of charred wood and burning toxins. Medusa and Veyra’s heads snapped toward the hive at the same time. "That’s it," Medusa whispered. They didn’t wait another second. Both women sprang to their feet and sprinted through the snow. Their boots crunched against ice and frost as they ran. The moment they cleared the shrubbery and had a full view, their breath caught in their throats. The hive-tree had tipped sideways. Flames devoured its bark, crawling upward like rivers of molten oil. The once-looming colossus that stretched into the sky now looked fragile, its body swaying, ready to collapse. But it wasn’t the tree itself that stole their words. It was the hive. The structure that had once pulsed with sinister life, teeming with buzzing wings, was now a massive torch of destruction. Explosions rippled through it in waves, crimson flames bursting out of its walls as if something inside had been soaked in oil. Chunks of the hive tore free, falling like burning meteors, and the air rang with the sound of wood cracking and resin screaming as it melted. The hive finally snapped from the side of the tree. It tumbled downward in slow, horrible inevitability, splitting apart midair as the fire chewed through it. Each impact shook the ground, a rolling thunder that made their knees tremble. And then... A blurry figure leapt out, launching from the collapsing wreck just before it hit the earth. A split-second later, another explosion tore through the base. The full weight of the hive slammed into the frozen ground, breaking apart into ash and fire. The rising flames had finished what Azel had started so there were no stragglers remaining. Medusa gasped. "There—!" Azel crashed to the snow a few dozen paces away, rolling with the force of his landing. He came up coughing violently, his chest heaving, smoke clinging to his skin and clothes. His cloak was torn in places, edges scorched, but it still glowed faintly as he took it off. Sitting a little away from the flames, he tilted his head back and looked at the inferno. For a moment, he just stared. He admired his work. ’Maybe being an Arsonist isn’t so bad.’ He thought. And then the system screen materialized... [You have completed your trial outstandingly...] [Rewards are being calculated...] [You and your comrades are now being teleported to the Boss Fight.] Azel blinked, still coughing, and lowered his gaze. He barely had time to register the glowing letters before he was slammed from behind. "Oof—!" Medusa and Veyra crashed into him, their combined weight knocking the air out of his lungs. He fell back into the snow, pinned by their desperate embrace. Both women wrapped their arms around him, clinging as though letting go meant losing him forever. Their bodies trembled, relief pouring out of them in silence. Azel’s first thought was that they were supposed to be grown women. The scene looked more like children clinging to their father after a nightmare. But he didn’t push them away. Instead, his hand rose, hesitated for a heartbeat, and then lowered onto their heads. He gently patted both — Medusa’s purple strands and Veyra’s silver hair. Medusa let out a shaky breath, burying her face against his chest. Veyra, meanwhile, felt her heart pound wildly. The moment his warm fingers brushed her scalp, she shivered. Her lips parted slightly, and her eyes softened. ’I see why she enjoys it,’ she thought, realizing why Medusa always sought out Azel’s touch. The world didn’t wait for their embrace to end. A sudden glow enveloped the three of them. Brilliant, blinding light wrapped around their bodies, lifting them gently off the ground. The trial was over. The flames, the snow, the silence of the dead hive — all of it disappeared in an instant. ... "For Winter!!!" The battlefield shook with the roar of hundreds of voices. Warriors charged across the frozen plain, weapons raised high as they surged toward the mountain-sized beast that loomed in the distance. The Boss. A snow titan whose body was clad in shifting ice and steel-like fur. Every step it took crushed men into the ground. Azariah stood among the chaos, his blade gleaming. His lips were pressed together, his eyes scanning the battlefield again and again. No matter how far he looked, he could not see Azel. His suspicion had only grown sharper over the hours of fighting. Where did the boy go? He couldn’t have run away, so maybe he was in a trial? He too had been subjected to one, anybody that carried divinity would be taken to a trial with any person closely in contact with them. ’I just don’t know how long it will take,’ Azariah thought grimly. His grip on his weapon tightened. He couldn’t waste time worrying. He would simply have to trust and fight. He prepared to kick off the ground, aura flaring around his body. And then the battlefield changed. A pillar of blue light shot down from the sky, washing over the plains in brilliance. Warriors stumbled, shielding their eyes. The snow itself seemed to glitter in response. At the center of that light — three figures appeared. Azel. Medusa. Veyra. They landed still locked together, hugging each other tightly in the middle of a battlefield soaked in blood and frost. Azariah’s eyes widened, then narrowed. Relief surged, but so did exasperation. His son had survived yet his timing, as always, was absurd. Azariah’s face scrunched in irritation. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢 He exhaled sharply through his nose, forcing himself to focus on the towering beast ahead. "Always making me sigh..." he muttered. And then he shot off into the fray.