Chapter 2003 [Trial Two: Complete] "Huh?" Nux frowned in confusion as the reflection he had been tailing for years suddenly disappeared. He didn't reach any opposite end, neither did he reach any sort of gate. He was walking randomly like before, and just disappeared. "What in the hell..." Nux didn't know how to react. He once again decided to tail another version of himself. This time, he directly jumped to the version who was cursing out loud. Once again, for years, Nux continued to follow him. Just like the previous one, he walked randomly before sitting cross-legged, trying to comprehend something, and then continued walking when he was done. He repeated the cycle a few times before he suddenly disappeared as well. Nux followed a few more versions of himself. Some disappeared, some continued to sit cross-legged for much longer than others, and finally, Nux began to see a pattern. Every time any version of him disappeared, they had a confident look on their faces when they stared at the labyrinth ahead—as if they finally knew how to clear it. 'Find the only Path that leads ahead.' The Trial's challenge was never to reach the end like the trial before him—it was to find the correct path ahead. Once he did that, the Trial would be cleared. The versions of him that disappeared had found the correct path, so they disappeared because they cleared the trial. But the question was... How? What were they comprehending? A Law? But what Law was he supposed to comprehend here? He knew it was a Law related to Time, but he didn't know which one. In his mind, Nux started comparing the two Trials. Trial One wanted him to control the flow of time, and it gave him the power to control time inside his body. Trial Two, however, didn't give him any powers, so there was nothing he could deduce from that. So Nux continued further. In Trial One, the River of Eternity was the 'physical manifestation of the Flow of Time'—so technically, the Temple showed him what he was supposed to comprehend. But the only thing he saw here was the future and past versions of himself trying to clear the trial. What was he supposed to comp— Nux's expression changed. 'My Past and Future Selves...' Thousands of his past and future selves were trying to clear this trial with him. Every path he took here was previously chosen by one of his future or past selves, and every path he would possibly choose here was already once chosen by his future selves. Nux, just like his future selves, sat down and closed his eyes as he began thinking. He had to make choices here. However, the only hints he had to make these choices were the own versions of himself from the past and future trying to clear the trial together with him. Perception. Nux finally understood what he needed. He needed to perceive time. He needed to understand time in order to 'foresee' the correct path. It was somewhat similar to Rune's Law. Her Law allowed her to perceive her enemy's future moves, while he had to perceive his own future moves. With that thought in his mind, Nux closed his eyes. This time, since he had a clearer reference, it didn't take him long to comprehend a new Law. He used Rune's Law as a base and, adding his comprehension of the Flow of Time from the first Trial, within a decade, he formed another Law. Then, with a confident smile, he stood up and stared at the labyrinth ahead. In front of him, there were three paths. Nux stood still for a moment, then suddenly, three translucent versions of himself formed in front of him, each taking a different path. Nux's mind was connected to them all. He let his versions continue on their respective paths. As they continued, more paths appeared in front of them, and once again, more of his future selves appeared to walk on all those paths. The number of 'him' completing the trial continued to increase—until finally, a few of his versions encountered a dead end. Nux marked those versions and listed a few of the 'paths' out of his consideration. He wanted this to continue until only one path remained. Soon, however, he encountered a problem. The labyrinth was too big—ridiculously big. The number of 'him' clearing the labyrinth continued to increase to a ridiculous degree. Some had even 'met' each other. And while he continued to divide his own selves—since his mind was able to access all the information without any problem—suddenly, All his selves disappeared. 'What...?' Nux blinked in confusion. He tried to understand what happened, but suddenly— "Fuck this place!!" "Fuck you too!" "Fuck every single one of you!" "Oh yeah? Here's even better! Fuck me! It's for every single one of you because you are all me!" "Fuck me!" He heard some voices, and his mouth twitched in annoyance. "Will you all shut the fuck up!? I'm trying to focus here!" He shouted. "And what do you think we're trying to do here!?" "Fuck you!! If you're trying to focus, then shut up and focus instead!" "I'll do what I fucking want! Who do you think you are!?" "I am YOU, damn it!" "Fuck YOU!" "Fuck ME!" Nux shouted. He was prepared to throw hands and beat himself. Soon, however, he realized how familiar this all looked, and he quickly turned silent. He looked around—almost as if he was trying to look at his past self, who was probably judging him right now—but then, he just shook his head and sighed. He continued walking and reached the dead end just as he expected. He concluded that his experiment with his selves was fast enough for the labyrinth to not change itself. 'Ah, the poor kid. He has no idea what this place will do to him, huh?' Nux stared at his past self in pity before walking on some paths he had taken out from his list, since he wanted to check something out. He continued walking and reached the dead end just as he expected. He concluded that his experiment with his selves was fast enough for the labyrinth to not change itself. It may have looked like he had been standing and analyzing for hours, but in truth, only a few seconds had passed. With that notion set, he sat down again, ready to deal with the next problem. His Law. It was too weak. Rune's Law, which was the base of his Law, was too weak, making his Law weaker. So he needed to scrap it all and start from the beginning. And that is what he did. For the next few decades, he formed another Law—this time, a much stronger one than the previous. Once again, he stared at the paths ahead of him, and translucent versions of himself started appearing, each walking on different paths. Time passed. The number of him clearing the trial continued to increase, reaching the same number as before—where they had disappeared. This time, however, because of his stronger Law, they didn't. The paths continued to diverge. The number continued to increase. Soon, it was already twice the amount as before. With this, Nux was able to 'see' more and more dead ends—but Nux wasn't very happy. It wasn't just the number of dead ends he was encountering that was increasing—the number of paths was the same too. His mind was currently seeing around ten thousand visions, each showing different paths taken by his selves. Yes, the number was about to reach ten thousand—and the moment it did, All his versions disappeared again. His new Law had reached its limit as well. Once again, he stood up and started walking. He only chose the paths that led to dead ends to see if anything had changed or not. Once he was sure it hadn't, he closed his eyes and started comprehending an even stronger Law. "..." Nux turned silent. Once again, he stood up and started walking. He only chose the paths that led to dead ends to see if anything had changed or not. Once he was sure it hadn't, he closed his eyes and started comprehending an even stronger Law. This cycle continued to repeat. Nux continued to form stronger and stronger Laws. The number of projections he created rose from thousands, to ten thousand, to a hundred thousand, and then to a million. This, however, did not help him. The problem was the same—the labyrinth was too big. Absurdly big. The paths ahead were never-ending. For every dead end he found, he found at least ten new paths. Even when millions of his projections were walking nonstop, trying to clear the labyrinth, the results were no different than when thousands of him were doing the same. Nux shook his head. Once again, he encountered the same problem. He was trying to brute-force his way through. 'I guess it won't work, huh...' Nux shook his head. Then, he closed his eyes again and started comprehending a new, stronger Law—and he did that from scratch again. This time, he took his time—replaying all the events that had happened, understanding what this Trial and the Temple wanted, and even replaying the events of the first Trial. Centuries passed by. Nux formed countless Laws, discarded them, formed a stronger Law, and discarded it again. Only when he was sure about the Law he had formed did he finally open his eyes and stand up again. He stared at the labyrinth ahead of him. Once again, three projections appeared. This time, however, these projections weren't translucent like before. They looked like exact copies of Nux's current self. These projections chose three different paths—but this time, after they encountered new paths, they didn't create new projections. They stood still and closed their eyes, just like Nux. Yes, these projections had now created their own projections that continued forward—projections even Nux couldn't see. The next projection created their own set of projections, and the next one did the same. The cycle continued. It was similar to what Nux was doing before—just that this time, he had no need to see a million visions. He left it all to his projections. His projections continued to create projections, and every time these projections encountered a dead end, the report was given to the projection that had created them. And once a projection realized that all the paths ahead of it were dead ends, it disappeared—and the projection that created it marked that path as a dead end as well. Thousands. Ten thousand. A hundred thousand. A million. Ten million. Billions, even. The cycle continued for as long as required—and the number of dead ends the projections encountered started increasing until, finally, The correct path was reported back to Nux. What's even better? To a third person, this process was almost instantaneous. The report Nux received was almost instantaneous—and all he had to do was walk. And that was what he did. He walked on the path he was reported—and suddenly, Flicker His body disappeared. [Trial Two: Complete]