The Old god said, "I am sad for man, for deep inside of him, I saw an emptiness where his heart should be. To fill that spot, man would take and take..."

-Inscriptions found in the Seventh Highest Heavens.

A carriage moved through the roads of the lower districts like a ghost.

It had no windows or markings; it was not even being pulled by anything, yet it moved through the streets, its wheels silent.

The carriage had passed by tens of thousands of people, but none of them were able to detect its presence, as it had been erased by the same wards that had protected the Stoneward Asylum for millennia.

There were some Siphons that were able to feel a gust of breeze that seemed to blow through their bodies, and when they looked around, they saw nothing, and what was even more odd was that a few seconds later, they all forgot the strange sensation.

The carriage moved in silence, and inside it, Elias sat alone.

He was fully armored, from head to toe, and although he wished that he had gotten the armor that was to be customized by Gideon, that armor was still two weeks away, and he would have to make do with normal heavy armor.

Still, he was pleased with this armor because it weighed nearly 900kg. Although it would not trigger the Crushing Endurance ability of the Art of Stone, since he would need 5,000kg for that, it was still a very solid armor that would become extremely durable the moment he activated Stone Skin.

Beside him was a shield. Elias had decided to pick it up at the last minute when he noted that, as long as he was fully armored, activating Stone Skin also extended to his shield.

What this meant for him was that his defenses became even more ridiculous, and at this time, he estimated that when fully armored, his defense was greater than his offense... which Elias considered a good thing; even the hunter inside of him agreed to this sentiment.

The winner of the hunt was not the one with the biggest blade; it was the one who lived to the end.

It was a shame that he did not yet have his heavy armor, but that did not matter as much when he knew that in the near future he would be wearing it. He also had two other legacies that could be cultivated in the meantime, as well as growing his stage until he was at the peak of Fury Forge.

However, before Elias entered the Fragment for the second time, he planned to be as powerful as possible, which meant he needed to push his body to its peak and explore all the abilities of his legacies till completion.

And this trial would be the key to leveling up his abilities.

He did not know what he would find behind the wall, and frankly, Elias did not care.

When he had been given a small portion of the ash, and he had felt and seen his Void Scripture grow, Elias knew that it would not matter what sort of monsters were within those walls; he was going to hunt them all.

Crimson Vein Art had grown by 35%, and now that he was fully armored, it was only a matter of time before the Art of Stone began to grow as well, but his Void Scripture was a problem.

It only grew by swallowing bodies containing potent sources of Lumina, and at this point, two of the Mist Phantoms he had killed had been sacrificed to this Art, yet it had not even grown to 1%.

And yet, a small bit of ash had touched his skin, and he saw that his void art had grown a few decimal places higher.

Yes, it was a minuscule growth, but that was also a small portion of ash. From what he understood, killing these creatures produced at least 1 kilogram of ash, and since they were mostly Fury Forge, Elias would be able to kill scores of them easily.

These thoughts were still in his head when the carriage stopped, and he slowly lifted his armored head. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

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Elias came down from the carriage, and it vanished from behind him.

He suspected that the carriage had been built with one of the talents of his teachers, maybe Rhys, or it may be a combination of talents that made it work.

He had seen a similar display when he was attacked by both his teachers during his first trial as Lyssa controlled the shadow of Rhys.

Who knows what other combinations of talents could occur and what results they might bring?

Elias placed the shield so that it rested against his legs, and he looked at the crowd in front of him.

It would take him a while to count, but he knew that in this trial there would be three thousand contestants in total.

Elias had been given a list of all the names, and he knew these participants had come from all over the city and even outside it.

The allure of this mysterious ash was just too strong, it seems. Elias did not care for its properties to enhance the aptitude for Lumina; he did not think he needed something like that... what he cared about was the ability to complete his Void Legacy.

Elias recalled at this moment that there was usually ash left behind when he killed, and he wondered if there was any relation to these ashes left behind by these creatures, but he placed these thoughts aside as meaningless until he saw what he was dealing with.

At this point, no one seemed to have noticed him yet, so he took the time to observe who would stand against him and his prize.

The young Siphons stood in loose formations, their squads gathered around them.

You could almost taste the fervor in the air as their weapons gleamed in the morning light; they had been sharpened and polished until they shone.

Elias thought that this was very foolish, as you do not hunt by advertising yourself; instead, you become prey in this way, but who was he to correct fools?

What drew his interest were their mounts. Wargs, horses, and things that did not have names, beasts that had been bred for war.

Would these beasts be a problem? Perhaps, but Elias was more worried about what they would find behind these walls.

The first trial he had undertaken had nearly killed him, and the Commander had said that this next trial would be multiple times more difficult.

He did not know what was coming, but he knew that none of these candidates here had any clue.

At the front, the heads of the city had gathered, and Elias’s eyes widened when he noticed a figure wearing black plate armor with a long sword at his hip.

Power radiated from this man in deep waves, and he was at the center of everything; it was as if the entire city and everyone revolved around him.

Elias had seen his pictures and mural; this was the Lord Protector of Stormfall, Calyx Arathor.

A man who was more a legend than a breathing person, and although Elias was aware that his master must be many times more powerful than the Lord Protector, the presence he was radiating was one of the most powerful he had ever witnessed.

Perhaps it was his bloodline or the weight of his station, but Elias felt a certain urge in his heart to seize this power.