[You have slain "Clever", gaining 120,000,000 experience points!]
Ding! Ding! Ding!
[Your level has increased to level 124, granting you five skill points and a boost in stats.]
[Your level has increased to level 125, granting you five skill points and a boost in stats.]
.
.
[Your level has increased to level 129, granting you five skill points and a boost in stats.]
A six level increase was pretty good, but the amount of experience added between each level was now 1 million.
[Experience: 545,000/24,000,000] (level 129)
Only one more level, and he would be able to get a new skill!
But for now, he had to face what was coming.
"..."
Lilith, Sora and Follower were out cold from the attack.
Though he didn't know how Follower could ever survive this, he would just kill him now.
Spear of Judgment!
Stark wasn't dumb, and so he just summoned his long range weapon, throwing it at Follower to kill him while he could.
Fwish... BAM!
But right as it was about to hit, a dark figure emerged from Follower's body and tanked the attack, placing its hand forward to destroy the spear.
"..." it looked directly into Stark's eyes.
"..." and Stark looked back at it, "Alright."
That thing must have protected Follower from dying.
Was it his talent? Or something else?
But in the end, he was stuck in that giant crater.
Every other participant was dead, Lilith and Sora unconscious, and Follower was being protected by whatever that thing is.
Which means that he was stuck in here alone.
"What's my next move..." he muttered.
Then, suddenly, the air shifted and the sky above began to darken.
"...?"
Stark looked up, his eyes narrowing.
The moon seemed to glow brighter, casting an eerie light over the destroyed trial.
Clouds swirled violently, creating a vortex above the crater.
And from the center of it, something emerged.
A figure descended slowly, shrouded in silver light.
"..."
As the figure came closer, the light dissipated, revealing its form.
The Lord of the Moon had arrived.
"You..." Stark's eyes widened.
[9...]
Glaring at him, Stark couldn't help but smirk, after all, his flow was about to end, and thanks to it, he would gain a massive advantage.
"I think..." Stark started, "I think you're an absolute fucking idiot."
"So be it," Aphex pointed one of his crescent blades at Stark, "You're about to die."
[10...]
[Flow has been activated!]
Stark's vision became clearer when he saw Aphex, and whatever the apostle did, he could see an afterimage of what he did before it even happened.
"But unfortunately for you," Aphex laughed, floating above ground, "I'm not going to be your opponent."
"Huh?" Stark was confused.
There was nothing else in this crater.
Maybe [Follower] was going to wake up?!
But as he turned around, Stark didn't see any signs of him moving, the black creature still defending him.
It seemed to glare at Aphex too.
"You need to be more open-minded, Chosen," Aphex laughed again, his laughter echoing throughout the entire trial.
"Then come down if you're not scared!"
"I don't need to, as I said, your opponent isn't me right now, oh, it seems like they are here."
"What the fuck are you talking about-"
But as Stark shouted these words... a hand emerged from the ground and grabbed him from below.
"Huh?"
As Stark felt the hand gripping his ankle, a chill ran down his spine.
He looked down and saw the source of this unexpected assault—a grotesque, disfigured hand, darkened and warped, clawing its way out of the broken ground.
"This is...!?" Stark tried to punch the hand, but it didn't let go of him no matter what.
Crimson Ball Transmission!
But as he was beginning to be pulled down by the hand, which was impossible to liberate himself from, he simply threw a crimson ball.
Snap!
Then snapped his fingers to teleport away.
He had thought that everything had died, since a spear of this power should be enough to instantly make anybody evaporate.
But he hadn't taken into account one thing...
Because as the figure emerged, revealing its disgusting red body, he finally saw who it was, confirming his suspicions.
It was the [Tormented One].
"He cannot be harmed by physical attacks," Aphex kept laughing, "So that spear of yours was useless!"
As the burly creature got up, Stark needed to make sure, and just as expected, that thing in front of him was wearing a cloak made out of its skin, and it had no mouth.
It was truly the [Tormented One].
Which is why he also didn't get a notification about his death.
"So what are you gonna do now, Chosen?" The moon apostle grinned, "You're their last hope, but you cannot deal damage to that creature, what is your play?!"
"..."
Stark's face darkened.
Was this the end?