Chapter 327 Stepping Stone

[Yes... He couldn't touch you because even though your chaos was just an aura, it had jumped a dimension or two to switch between tangible and intangible at your will

'Isn't that a little OP?' I asked with a raised brow.

[It breaks the laws of this universe. Of course, it will be overpowered.]

Listening to Hela's remark, I could not help but roll my eyes before finally turning my attention towards the duo that was currently standing in front of me, the girl that I had almost forgotten the name of, on the floor alongside the boy with orange hair standing in front of her as a means to protect her from me, as if I was some kind of savage beast that would attack anything and everything that moved.

"You know, if I wanted to kill all three of you, I wouldn't have much a of a problem. I did pummel that beast girl over there after all while you guys couldn't even land a hit on her." I pointed towards the catgirl on the other side of the arena bleeding onto the floor after being pummeled and beaten by me.

When the boy had finally looked over, his eyes could not help but widen at the scene while at the same time, his eyes darted from the catgirl to all over the arena, finally being able to witness what kind of havoc I had caused in the fight against her.

Lea on the other hand simply sat there on the floor with a relieved expression, as if she now knew that the person who was trying to protect her wouldn't do anything stupid.

"Ugh"

A small grunt could be heard from behind them as another boy but this time with bright emerald-green hair sat up and rubbed his eyes while holding his head in the other hand. I watched him as he slowly stood up and looked at Lea who was now looking at him with vibrant happiness and joy that I did not see when she looked at the other boy with bright orange hair.

'Maybe I was wrong?' I asked myself while looking at all three of them, but I quickly realized that I might have been more right than I had thought.

[A love triangle aye?] Hela remarked with her best semi-robotic impression of a British accent, making me chuckle in the process, yet just loud enough for no one but me to hear.

'He looks kinda heartbroken, don'cha think?' I asked Hela, making her also stifle a chuckle in return.

[Remind me of your relationship with rose.] She commented, causing me to narrow my eyes and look facepalm after hearing the same topic being brought up again for the umpteenth time

'What is with you and my relationship with Rose? I was angry at the start but she is just trying to save face! Just watch when we go back to being in private.' I quickly retorted

[Oh yeah? While you might not be angry about the whole thing with her acting as she hates you, I know you are angry about what she did on that night]

'I don't know what you are talking about.' I replied coldly

[Do you think I can't feel your emotions or something? Of course, I can feel what you are feeling, and probably sometimes even have that feeling amplified. I saw how you reacted when she put that thing in you and the only reason you allowed it to happen is because of your silly and naive nature of allowing her to do whatever she wanted.]

'I mean... I felt nice...' I tried to reason

[No it didn't. You were uncomfortable with it throughout the entire time it happened and you just rather not admit it because you are ashamed of allowing it to happen to you]

'Ugh. This isn't time for us to be fighting. Who knows ow many more trials there are and if I am correct, all of them are most likely going to be harder than this.'

However, instead of willingly being taken out of the conversation, I heard a voice come in front of me, snapping me back to reality and making me look back at the trio with questioning eyes.

"How did you get here so quickly? Did you somehow skip a trial?" Lea asked, causing me to tilt my head a few degrees to the right and answering "Not that I am aware of."

"Oh... Uhm, then did you go through the trap area and the really long tunnel place?"

"You mean the place which made mana become less over time? Yeah I went through both that and the trap area that you mentioned... Talking about the trap area, which one of you knows how to make runes?" I asked, making Lea's eyes perk up and look at me with joy

"You saw those? You have mana eyes too, right? What did you think? I've been learning how to do them for a while, but do you think that they are better than the ones you can create? What did you think of the size? Facsinated? I've been learning about runes-"

I quickly cut her off by waving both my hands and saying "It was a yes or no question." This immediately made anger flare in both of the boy's hearts but it made the girl quickly calm down and apologize without skipping a beat.

"Yes. I know how to make runes." She replied calmly this time,

"Hmm." I went into contemplation while touching my chin lightly. After thinking for a while, Lea finally spoke out and said something that would shock me.

"If you let us go with you guys, I'll teach you all about runes"

"Why would that matter I were to be already proficient in runes" I replied, seemingly unphased by her proposition.

"Well, you don't seem like the kind of person to waste time and you wouldn't have asked a question if you didn't want to know something important from it." She replied with a small smile.

[She's pretty observant]

'I know...'

"There is no point in taking you. In the end, I can get through all of it on my own and I am more than certain that the thing at the end of the trial is worth much more than the information you would give me." I retorted.

"Yes, but multiple people can take the prize at the end. The end prize is more of a blessing that is given to someone rather than an item to be taken away. All of us can receive it and we wouldn't have a problem." She explained.

Hearing what she had to say, I was left temporarily shocked but after thinking about what she had said, it seemed to have made sense. This temple was possibly here for countless decades and maybe even centuries. Within that time frame, it is bound for someone to eventually stumble upon it, therefore making it so that the only real answer to how the last reward worked would be how Lea had described it.

However, thinking about it further, I realized that something must be different. Whoever created the temple must have known about divine beings and the gods seeing what happened in the last trial, but at the same time, they must have had something, especially for people like me who could easily blitz through something as simple as these current trials

"I still can't believe that you guys got here so quickly too. We had gone in first and when we looked around, there wasn't anyone in miles. The trial of the mind itself should have slowed you down a little too, right?" The boy with emerald hair asked in disbelief, yet after hearing what he had said, I could not help but raise a brow at his words.

"Trial of mind?" I asked

"The trail of mind did take quite a bit, but we still got here almost at the same time as you two so you must of had a few hicups in it too." Lea commented after appearing behind me, not that I didn't already notice her but I still had chosen to ignore her presence.

"Scar. Did you go through the trial of mind?" I shouted at him from across the arena, causing him to shake his head with confusion written all over his face.

"I mean, he is a beast so it is expected that he wouldn't go through that trial. It is meant for the more emotionally aware afterall." The orange-haired boy explained, yet I was still kept confused.

"Did you not go through the trial of mind?" Croloe asked

"No? I don't even know what that is."

[Oh yeah, about that...]

'Hela, What did you do?'

[Well technically, I did nothing. It was all you]

'What does that mean?'

[Well, something inside of you naturally repelled the thing that wanted to infiltrate your brain. I wanted to tell you about it but I was too busy intercepting the Temple's system messages, interpreting them, and sending them to your brain. Afterward, I didn't feel it happening anymore so I just thought it was a one-off or that I might have been wrong.]

Hearing this, I could not help but sigh, but I still felt a little pissed off at how Hela kept it from me even though she wasn't really known to tell me things, something I had found out after knowing how many things she was not willing to tell me no matter what due to some kind of 'Protocol'.

Trying to ward off the negative emotions that were overcoming me alongside the chaotic energy decreasing the intervals between each whisper alongside increasing their volume, I shook my head and began walking towards the corpse-like body on the ground, laying there and barely repairing herself.

"This is the last time I say this. Become my servant, or die here as nothing but a stepping stone. It is your choice."

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Immortality System: The Rise Of The Last Human

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