The skies were bright, the breeze blew gently, pushing the grass in the field beautifully.

There was nothing to be seen for a long distance, except the statue of Elton that sat there. And then suddenly, people started appearing outside one after the other, the awakened that had participated in the second trial, all of them.

In less than a few minutes, everyone that had survived was standing outside in the field. Some instantly broke down, some cried, some fell flat on their backs and stared at the sky, a mix of emotions all at once happening like a wave.

Amongst them stood Aren, who somehow had a large beef jerky in his hands and was eating it with swag. It was hard for someone to pull off eating and looking cool at the same time, yet he effortlessly pulled it off.

Standing beside him was Athena, and then Raze. They too were eating some beef jerky as they stood there, watching the others appear.

"I guess this is the end of the second trial," Raze stated.

"Yeah, how long has it been since the first now?" Aren asked.

"I don't know, two, three months maybe," Raze casually said.

"So we still have to do ninety-eight more of this before ten years? Damn," Aren said, taking a bite into his jerky.

"It might not get there," Raze muttered.

"What?" Aren asked.

"Oh nothing, just saying we might not get there," Raze said.

Aren was about to reply, but then he heard a call.

"Aren."

He turned around and saw the squad, all three safe and sound.

Kira rushed forward first and immediately launched a hug right into his arms, her arms wrapped right around him.

Raze looked at Kira, staring at her for a slightly longer than normal time, but then looked away from her.

"I'm glad you are fine," Aren said.

"Me too, I was scared about what would happen to you," she said before letting go of him. Aiden walked forward and went for a dab.

"Seems you made it out," Aiden said.

"I was more scared for you, with how impulsive you are, I figured you would have gotten yourself killed somewhere," Aren said with a smile.

Zero walked forward. He thought she was about to hug him, but then she lifted her hands and patted his head, which shocked them all.

"Good experiment, you didn't die," she said with the most serious expression ever.

Aiden couldn't hold his laugh and immediately burst out laughing. Kira just palmed her face, while Athena and Raze watched in confusion.

"Go away," Aren said as he removed her hands.

After their greetings finished, they finally turned their attention to the two new people. They already knew Athena, but why was she here?

Aren noticed their gaze and decided to properly explain what was happening.

"I met with Athena at the same place Elton took me. She lost her team," Aren said. When the group heard that, their hearts sank. The people that they had eaten with and laughed with, all dead?

"We are sorry for your loss," Aiden spoke first, giving her a small bow.

Athena nodded in return. The hurt was still there, but she had steeled her mind to forge ahead and make progress as Ron would have wanted.

"You are welcome to move with us whenever you want, Athena," Kira said with a welcoming smile. She resonated with someone that had lost things in life and was looking for a place to belong.

Zero walked forward and looked at Athena close up. Athena took a step back, confused and shocked as to why Zero was this close.

"Hmmmmm, I've taken an interest in this one as well," Zero said and immediately snatched Athena by the hand.

Athena was a bit stunned and tried to reach for Aren, but Zero spoke. "Don't worry, I'm not taking you away from him. I'm always going to follow him as well, which means you'll always be with him, just with me very close." Zero said with a bright smile that managed to send chills down Athena's spine. She quietly nodded.

Kira, on the other hand, watched as these two wanted to eagerly cling to Aren, and that made her frown. Aiden noticed it and then leaned in.

"Is someone jealous?" he asked with a smug look. She heard that and was immediately embarrassed. She shook her head violently.

"No, no, not at all. I'm not jealous or insecure, I know that—"

"It's fine to be," Aiden cut her short. "It's really fine to be. It just shows how you feel about him. Now you can't do anything about it now, but how about when you have some private time, you teach him a lesson," Aiden suggested with the same smug look.

"Hmm, that makes sense," Kira stated as she let out an evil laugh. "Hehehe."

"Hehehe," Aiden followed as well.

The two had become pretty close over the time together, and they created some sort of brother and sister vibe along the way. The entity squad was more like a family now than anything else.

Aren looked up and saw the two of them laughing evilly, and he couldn't help but shiver.

"We should all get what we want with our points and leave here," Raze suddenly said, and that was when Aren remembered that he had not introduced Raze.

"Oh guys, this is Raze. Met him some hours ago, and he is incredibly strong," Aren said.

"Not that strong if I didn't even get to fight you at the end," he said with a sad look.

"It was a close battle," Aren said.

"Nah, Athena won pretty damn well. Her ability is so strong I think she might even make you worry," Raze stated.

"Nahhhh," everyone there except Aren said at the same time, including Athena herself, which shocked Raze. Was the strength gap between Aren and them that great? They didn't even hold any hope to defeat him.

"Well, she refused to fight you in the end, tsk, and even the other girl forfeited. I didn't get to see you against someone strong and I didn't get to fight you," Raze complained.

"We'll get to fight soon," Aren replied. "Now let's buy and get out of here."

Everyone opened their system tab and started making purchases with their maze points.

Aren was scrolling and then spotted an item. It caught his attention, and it was sitting there at the exact number of points he had.

[100,000.]

Without hesitation, he poured it all in and acquired it.

After they were done, they decided to leave the crowd and go. They had only traveled a few meters when they saw about fifty figures clad in full silver and black armor from head to toe, riding on silver tiger mounts, each tiger massive and domineering.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.