As those two made contact the other two were forced to standby and wait for the shockwave to dissipate. The initial contact wasn’t terribly difficult to deal with but soon after two waves combined together to send a wave of air that was sharp in nature flying at both of them. The air itself was finite but the mana mixed into both blows was at a level that the two found difficult to handle. In terms of mana the two had no idea what the limit of either was. Amit had been in a place that could rival peak worlds in a tutorial trial that time and time again produced a monster that was described by the ages with undecipherable strength. This was not some country bumpkin but the strongest powers and beings recounting their experience with others like him.
As for Valerie they also never saw her go all out. Just from the fact she could use enough mana to make her a bit wobbly multiple times showed she had a capacity that was uncommon. For Jackie it wasn’t that surprising as she was showing a good amount of talent for someone that came from a peak level world. He wondered what she was like going all out and now he felt like he could feel a glimpse of what that was like. Mana in general when controlled by a person was an uncomfortable feeling when it was felt on the skin. Making matters worse was the two were using it maliciously. This wasn’t to say there was malice but using mana offensively turned an uncomfortable weight to a prickly weighted blanket that was currently slapping both of them in the face. This was what forced them to a stand still.
No sooner did the wave start to die before a new sensation was felt. Uniquely enough it wasn’t just them, even Aegle felt it as she was sitting in the lounge trying not to be affected by the waves of mana coming from the waiting room. The only person seemingly unaffected by this was Steven as he was using this time wisely. It was likely Monte was the same but he still had yet to regain consciousness. Even the undescriptive room was affected. While there was no connection between the trial and this room that was not directly connected the owner of the room was a demigod.
Unlike the hell trial, even then the demigod there was selfish and only needed to handle large problems. These problems were never miniscule and it was still unknown what criteria the system used to select overseers. This trial was tiny in size. In fact the location they were in was the same as it was for the first room. The rooms had restrictions that would release when a certain condition was reached. Because of this from the strength test, the waiting room, lounge and even the bedrooms were all the same since day one. This was easiest found by the fact their rooms were the same but continued to unlock new features and grow larger without changing.
Looking at the crack there was a slight bit of fear in his eyes. He was also on the extreme spectrum so he had a better understanding of what was going on. Just being a demigod allowed him to sense the changes more minutely. He would be lying if he said this wasn’t beneficial for him. It was likely the reason he was complying with the crazy woman to begin with. When he made backroom deals with the usual party it was for resources but when an individual on the far side came he was able to study their class and take inspiration that he could use for his own class. Unlike them he was still working on a foundation thus any changes now were relatively easy.
As for the people involved, only one showed any real reaction. It went without saying that Amit was currently without expression and he didn’t show an ounce of emotion as the moment the switch occurred he would be the most unfeeling to the point physical sensations would need a while to return. As for Valerie she was pale and was pouring all her mana into the sword with all she could. At this moment there was a fear being transmitted into her from the shadows. They were always transmitting information to her as she used them rather often to the point it became a habit to watch her surroundings to make sure she was being protected. As many had thought the shadows were alive.
This wasn’t an ability they had at birth. In fact in the beginning her family only had the ability to manipulate shadows, not control them. The difference here was that manipulating shadows was using natural shadows to change shapes and physically attack another person. This required a steep price in mana. It was only once their ancestor that made the original deal died and began to serve out his sentence they were given added benefits. Over time their ancestor wasn’t the only one, yet part of the original deal was that if a second were to come after the first. The benefits they could receive would be lower than what he received.
This was because a portion of that strength would be given to the family, there was no way around this. In turn for another decrease in power was a clause that made it impossible to give a similar power to anyone else in their universe outside of their family. Because of this it could be imagined that until the very existence of the world that person would continue to serve endlessly without any ire related thoughts. The shadows they controlled were creatures from the Demon Universe that were born and bred in their universe making them weaker than the original but easier to control and still unique enough to be useful.
The sword was from a unique shadow that nobody, not even her mother knew about. It was a shadow that experienced atavism and had awoken a mutation that shouldn’t have been plausible in their world. And yet because of what she could only think to contribute to mana that was not in the Demon Universe it made the impossible possible. She had yet to find a single thing that could scratch or even touch the sword since it awoke a strange text that she believed came from the Demon Universe. And at this very moment the sword was being crushed like a brittle piece of glass from the pressure brought about by the mana Amit was currently releasing.
As the initial shockwave stopped the two were given a brief glimpse of the situation before they were forced to move. Amit’s back was to them so they couldn’t see anything but his hand was stretched out towards the ancient and strange looking sword that was slowly crumbling and fading away as the hand slowly moved closer to Valerie. Valerie herself was pale and the only color that could be seen was the blood that was currently leaking from her ears, nose and eyes. She had a terrified look on her face as she was desperately looking at both of them before visibly seeing her eyes quake when she looked at Amit.
The first to move was Rory, as a dragon he didn’t have much hesitation. It wasn’t like he wasn’t scared but that his bones and blood refused to bow down to anyone. This was not always a good thing and contributed to the ancestry of dragons from a time when they were still demonic beasts. At this moment he didn’t feel the excitement from facing an opponent so powerful he felt it difficult to just physically stand in front of. He didn’t have time to focus on the feeling as he used his shield to ram into Amit. Before starting the fight he had told them they needed to survive for thirty seconds to a minute.
That was the time it would take him to regain control of his body after being pushed to death’s door. They had felt it before when they first came but this was different. He had already been in this condition so they didn’t feel the ignition process of entering that state. The moment it was triggered the world seemed to grow dim and they heard an illusionary heart beat. It was only a single beat but it was loud and clear as it ripped into their brains and caused them to freeze momentarily. All of this was not real but their brain processed the things they had experienced in this way.
Jackie could still feel the disgusting feeling of a pair of eyes appearing from above and looking down at all from above. This set of eyes only appeared for a moment as Amit’s mana spread out in all its glory in a split second before it washed over them to identify any and everything in existence. It was like being looked down on by a god or devil as he determined the ones that had put it in danger. There was a sense of relief as the eyes didn’t see him as worthy as they focused on Valerie in that split second before disappearing. He could only imagine the amount of pressure she was currently under and almost stopped as he felt fear and those eyes had crushed his will to resist against such a monster.
If not for Rory moving first he likely wouldn’t have resisted unless Amit attacked him personally. Pulling himself from his hesitation he moved with speed and tried to pincher him as half of the sword was turned into illusionary sand as it dissipated into thin air. As the two made contact Amit didn’t show any reaction as he didn’t move away and continued to reach out at the sword. When Jackie made contact the two had sent a large force at him as Rory used his shield to smash into him to force him away. The shield slammed into him before he realized there was a thin layer of mana holding it at bay as he barely swayed.
Jackie infused mana into his gauntlets as he sharpened the mana into small spikes to increase the penetrative force. He too met with a small layer of mana. Only because of the spikes he was able to penetrate it and drew blood. While this attack was lethal he was only trying to force him away and yet he didn’t even get a glance as he focused on the sword. Gritting his teeth he sent a blow at his head which did finally draw a reaction but it wasn’t one he wanted. Instead of taking the easier route he rotated slightly in place as he switched the hand reaching for the sword while using his right to backhand the arm that was aimed at his head.
As he tried to brace himself his entire body was routed in place by the force used causing him to backpedal as his side had been exposed. While keeping his arm outstretched towards the sword he kicked his side sending him flying back as he barely blocked as Rory lost the counter weight as he stumbled forward slightly. Amit had used the force generated from Rory to angle himself by using Jackie as a stepping stone and sent Jackie slamming into the wall. As Rory quickly regained balance he was a step too late as he had to decide between releasing his shield or having it used against him.
He hesitated for a split second too long as he was forced to relinquish his shield or have his wrist snapped. It was too fast and he wasn’t able to return it to his inventory as it was sent sliding away from him. Not once did his arm stop reaching for the sword as he used a knee in a flip to get in between Rory and the shield. When he reached an uncomfortable and breaking point he would once again switch hands giving Valerie but moments between the pressure of the sword being crushed to give her no opportunities to attack as she had to focus on the sword or be forced into a situation without any defense.
Since any action would require time she didn’t have as it took everything to slow the rate the sword was dissipating. In the time Amit was dealing with the two it was enough to understand where she messed up. It was too late for regrets but she needed to abandon the sword nearly as soon as his initial force dissipated when he charged at her. She wasn’t trying to win but delay, never did she think his ability to control his body would reach a stage he could do the things he was currently doing. A lot of his actions seemed humanly impossible or at least would create a large amount of discomfort and pain but there was also no hesitation. By this point if she used mana to prepare an attack or a way to get out of her current plight, it would be the moment Amit would use that opportunity to reach her.
Once in between the two the hesitation to let go of his shield caused him to be overextended when the shield was ripped away. This allowed Amit to use his free arm to grab the arm and stop him from retreating. In the end he was forced to the ground as his palm rested on his Adam's apple and his fingers lightly brushed against his neck. He was reaching out under him as he forced him to not move or the fingers would tighten as he was already having trouble breathing as the force being applied only let bits of air through.
By this point there wasn’t much of the sword remaining. The only saving grace was that with him holding down Rory he was currently sitting on him as he had his arm completely stretched out as he reached a few inches from the now illusionary guard. By this point she was nearing complete mana depletion as manifesting the sword cost her a quarter of her mana and using it would take her to nearly half her mana. What she didn’t know was damage to the sword would make that mana disappear. Usually she could regain a large portion of it. Usually this would drain bits of her mana depending on how much damage the sword did. As the sword was never damaged since the lettering she didn’t know the exact effects.
Before the writing the mana used was drastically lower to manifest and it was only a good way to sneak attack. She could instantly manifest the sword and when it broke the mana would disappear. It wasn’t that powerful an attack and only useful for sneak attacks so the mana expenditure wasn’t much. Once the words caused it to be much stronger but also more difficult to manifest and as she had yet to see it damaged she didn’t know the exact effects. It was only now she understood it didn’t just take the mana she used to turn it from an illusionary concept to a real object, just keeping the damaged sword out was draining her of nearly all her mana.
This entire time she refused to release it as even if she ran out of mana completely she wasn’t willing to allow the man with killing intent stabbing at her like a physical sword to get close. Not once did he take his hand away from causing it to slowly break. He didn’t once take his eyes off the sword even when dealing with the two. While there was a primal fear invoked by him there was an unrealistic amount of fear brought about by the focus he was giving her. As he stood up she finally lost the last bits of her mana she fell to her knees and couldn’t bring herself to look up from the ground.
The enviable outcome didn’t come. Instead she heard his steps getting lighter as he left for the lounge as a worried Aegle entered. It was only at this moment she noticed she was currently crying. All they had just done was simply a way to help him and by turn help them pass the trial. As Amit entered his room he wasn’t thinking about anything. Nor did he care about what they had just experienced. That was done the night before. It was also one of the reasons he didn’t force himself to enter his apathy state before he deemed it necessary. The first group of people he had ever grown close with since coming to this new world would likely never interact with him again.
Aegle wasn’t too bad outside the initial shock of the resurgence but once she entered the waiting room that would also change. The reality is he chose this. Between his life and other people he had not wanted to admit it but there wasn’t even a contest. While he didn’t want to, he didn't feel any guilt for crushing their spirit, it was a price he had no qualms with to ensure his own survival. It was this reason he decided before that day he would try to limit how close he grew to other people. It was likely because of his class but he now felt more pain from losing connections to people he had grown close to than the process of how those connections were lost if he deemed it necessary for his survival, or even just useful for him.
