Baaaam—!

The bone walls of the maze continued to crumble after the edge of the maze kept collapsing towards it. Yet that was the least of their problems, as the destruction only made everything unstable.

Eventually, they fell.

Huge chunks of debris kept falling, leaving the powerless people with no choice but to pray that their luck would do the heavy lifting. It was terrifying to look up and see a massive piece of the wall about to fall, knowing there was nothing they could do but defend themselves and hope nothing else came next after.

But those chunks did come, and those who had no strength to defend themselves were left with nothing but to watch as those things fell toward them, flattening them into the ground.

Baaaam—!

That problem didn’t apply to Aster’s group. At the very least, they are holding on to the hope that Aster could do it.

Baaaam—!

With each swing of his sword, a path was created. Whenever a massive chunk of the bone pillar fell, he made most of it disappear by using force.

It had been happening for the past dozens of minutes.

"H-how long a-are we going to do this!"

Vin, with Clove behind his back, grumbled and gritted his teeth as they ran endlessly to the path that Aster cleared for them.

He was exhausted. Too exhausted to the point that he was thinking it would be better to just stay on the ground

Yet such thinking would only bring them closer to death. The group also realized that the only way was forward, away from the falling debris, even after suffering minor injuries from it.

During those few minutes, they had been hit in the head.

Not everything was going to disappear just because Aster could deal with most of them.

He couldn’t.

How could he when every second, at least the size of a normal car was about to hit them, and there are plenty of them? Some are even as tall as a house?

In fact, they were glad that not all the walls were collapsing all at once. Holding onto this sliver of hope that didn’t speak to any guarantee was enough to keep them focused and running.

’Ahhhhh! I’m so glad I stuck to this dude! He’s doing all the heavy work like I want him to! Yeah, go! Instead of being crushed by those chunks of walls, work hard!’

Cillian mused inwardly, cheering for Aster while touching the blood that fell from his face, as he couldn’t help but remember the time a few minutes ago.

When he was thinking about those dangerous thoughts on killing Aster to wield the Five Swords of Chaos, a watermelon-sized, broken stone hit his head. Directly. Not even a graze, but just a ten out of ten hit.

It was enough for him to wake up and run just to survive.

The group was shocked when Cillian got hit in the head, causing him to bleed. Phillip even offered him a piggyback ride, but he refused since it would lower their chances of running at the same pace.

Any thoughts of killing Aster were already gone. Cillian, who understood the mistake he had just made, couldn’t help but feel like he was going crazy.

’Yeah, I’m legit a psycho. The fuck am I killing him for? I’ll take another power instead. It looks like Aster is in pain every time he uses it.’

Cillian watched Aster gritting his teeth every time he swung his sword. The veins pulsating on his neck and arms were already enough proof that he was trying his best in the current situation.

"Mimicry."

But Aster’s struggle doesn’t mean Cillian has to watch idly. Every time he had the chance, Cillian used his Mimicry to activate.

[Mimicry Failed]

Cillian had already lost count of how many times he had activated his mimicry to copy the Sword alone.

Still, it failed.

Rumble—!

The intensity of the rumbling didn’t help at all, as it continued to increase to the point that Cillian could tell what was about to happen.

"Ah fuck... Everything’s falling."

The bone pillars that were still hanging, once thought to be sturdy and unbreakable, were about to fall all at once. Unlike earlier, when only some were hit by the walls at the edge of the maze, it seemed that everything had decided to collapse together.

’We’re fucking done for...! Fuck, no! What in the world is even happening! Is it a Runic Gate appearance or just some sort of mechanism from these walls?! Or it’s really just falling?!’

Cillian agonized inwardly as he looked up.

One of the pillars snapped, and countless more followed suit. Loud noises erupted from all around them, causing some of the members’ ears to bleed.

Rumble—!

Soon, they fell.

"B-brace for impact!"

Cillian couldn’t help but stutter as he watched the walls fall like dominoes in slow motion.

"Sword of...Wrath!"

Aster called out from within him as his sword transformed into a sinister, dark red great sword with horn-like protrusions on the guard.

As if forged in the heat of uncontrollable rage, the serrated great sword was held tightly in Aster’s hand as he assumed a slashing stance.

"AHHHHHH!"

[Mimicry Activated]

Aster brought his sword downward with enough force to split the falling walls that were heading toward them.

The moment his blade came down, the towering pillars nearby that were collapsing toward the group were cut apart before they could even touch them.

The massive bone pillars that came to them shattered and exploded. Rather than being buried or crushed by these pillars, the destruction opened a path forward, revealing the vast sky above.

The sword’s blade delivered pure devastation.

And...

[Mimicry Successful]

Someone was smiling from ear to ear.

[Name: Mimicry

Reserved mimicked Storage: Jack Trade’s voice, [Buddy [Two]: Buddy Hop], [Sword of Chaos: Sword of Wrath [Three]]

Temporary mimicked activated: none]

’Motherfucker... I didn’t get the Sword of Doom, but this is the higher rank of the sword...! The Sword of Wrath, which Aster showed a glimpse of in fighting Fergus! And I get to witness how it is used now...’

Cillian excitedly clenched his fist so tightly that he didn’t notice that he was bleeding from the nose due to the excessive use of Faceless. He was just beyond excited that he would be able to use this sword once, if a situation demanded it.

Excluding the piercing pain from his head and the nosebleed, Cillian was pretty much fine.

But the fight wasn’t the end yet.

Rumble—!

As if the collapse of the walls weren’t just something that happens, the bone-shattered walls trembled before clamping themselves together high above in the air.

This made Aster move again and slash at any broken walls that came to the group. However, these particular fallen walls didn’t specifically attack them.

It was all moving towards the far middle as far as their eyes could see, as if mixing with that particular being.

There stood the lone Black Shepherd, Captain, sucking in the bone pillars, not minding everyone he had just killed.

As if this was really the thing he really desired.

’It’s really the Legendary Artifact’s doing. It can do all these? Seriously, a mere Artifact?’

Cillian was beyond flabbergasted at this point by seeing too many power systems that this world contained.

Sorceries, Swords, Ruiners, and Artifacts.

’The author can’t make a proper one? He just added everything he thought was cool?’

Soon enough, the entire ground complex was leveled. Traces of blood appeared here and there. There were still people alive, but they were scattered throughout the area, surviving either through luck or their own strength.

And in the middle of the helpless people of the Academy, the Black Shepherd stood in the middle.

"Finally..."

Captain muttered under his breath.

"Assimilation complete."