"Didn’t your plan... endanger her?"
Lucian stared at her for a moment.
That was possible too.
Varek gained power from suffering. Considering his connection with Naomi, it was very much possible that he could have thought to torture Naomi right in front of him and hope to harvest his suffering.
Though...
"Then I would have asked for speed."
Lucian had thought of that as well.
"Speed?"
Aevrienne tilted her head.
"I would grab Naomi and run. If I managed to shake him off, we would have hidden. If he still pursued, we would have surrendered."
He spoke so casually that for a moment, even Aevrienne blinked in surprise.
Even she was not expecting Lucian’s final plan to be to give up, especially not after witnessing his fight with Rhydan.
She thought... pride would get the better of him.
Lucian only shrugged.
"Winning the Trial was never more important than her."
He spoke as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"If the situation reached a point where I couldn’t guarantee her safety, then we leave."
He spoke as he glanced at the unconscious Naomi.
Aevrienne kept staring at him, noticing how there was not a single trace of hesitation in his eyes.
The next few seconds were silent as well.
Then, Aevrienne sighed.
"You... really are a good friend."
And Lucian—
The moment he heard those words, a shameless grin appeared on his face.
"Oh, I am much more than a friend."
Aevrienne kept staring at this man.
To think even in the state he was in, he would still joke around. It... really was difficult to guess this was the same boy Naomi used to talk about back then. From what Aevrienne knew, that boy sounded more... gloomy.
’I guess the demonic blood did change him, huh?’
She thought inwardly, staring at the man sitting next to her.
There were still a lot of things she wanted to talk about, questions she wanted to ask, especially regarding his blood, or how odd his very existence was, but for now, she decided to remain silent.
About ten minutes later, Naomi woke up.
"...what are you two talking about?"
She asked with a confused frown on her face.
"And why does my head hurt?"
"That’s normal, don’t worry about it."
Aevrienne smiled.
Naomi stared at her for a moment, Aevrienne then stood up and turned towards both of them.
"So, shall we leave?"
She asked with a smile.
"It’s getting harder and harder to keep them from reaching me."
"Hmm? What?"
Lucian frowned.
"A few of the candidates are quite close. If I wasn’t hindering their progress by constantly moving the maze, they would have made it here a long time ago."
"You are... purposefully hindering them?"
"Of course?"
Aevrienne tilted her head, surprised that Lucian was even asking that.
Wasn’t that obvious?
It was her Trial.
She could do whatever she wanted here.
That included guiding someone towards her and... stopping others from getting to her without actually eliminating them.
"...oh."
Lucian nodded, not knowing how else he was supposed to react.
In the end, he just shrugged and—
"So we leave?"
Aevrienne smiled.
She waved her hand and everything around them turned bright, forcing both Lucian and Naomi to close their eyes and when they opened them again—
They were outside—
In front of hundreds of people.
And...
There was silence.
Lucian and Naomi stared at everyone around them, hunters, vampires, werewolves, witches, everyone was here.
The candidates who were already eliminated and did not leave were here, the candidates who weren’t eliminated but were still roaming around the maze, trying to find its end, were here as well.
And of course, there were people who were already waiting outside ever since the Trial started.
And right now, every single one of them was looking in the same direction, at the same person.
And the person wasn’t Lucian, neither was it Naomi—
It was the silver-haired woman standing beside Naomi.
Aevrienne.
The Ancient Spirit of the Unseen Road.
She...
She was here.
They could finally see her.
And if they could see her, then that would mean the one standing next to her was...
Her contractor.
And the instant that thought connected, eyes moved to the person the Spirit was standing next to.
Naomi.
And instantly—
Whispers began.
"That Human...?"
"She was chosen?"
"No, more importantly, she completed the maze... how...?"
"I have never seen her."
"How did an ordinary human become Aevrienne’s Anchor...?"
Naomi stared back at them.
She did not need supernatural senses to know they were looking down on her, none of them could believe she had contracted Aevrienne and honestly...
She didn’t blame them.
She too wouldn’t have believed it, not when she thought about the other candidates she was up against.
This was only possible because of...
Naomi turned towards Lucian—
Just then—
"So you got what you wanted."
Naomi heard a distinctive voice, a voice she recognised almost immediately, though... the words weren’t directed towards her, they were directed towards Lucian.
Lucian turned towards the voice with an excited look on his face, then, he grinned.
"I did."
He nodded, looking at the ’friend’ he made.
Rhydan.
The Werewolf looked the same as always. There was not a single injury or bruise on him.
"Well, you are in a bad state."
The Werewolf laughed when he stared at Lucian.
"I met some... difficulties."
"You did?"
Rhydan seemed surprised.
Their spar made it very clear that not many people inside the Trial could do this to Lucian, heck, Rhydan could confidently say that no one could do that unless...
They weren’t alone, or Lucian ran out of the endless energy that he suddenly had or...
Rhydan’s eyes moved to Naomi.
Someone used his allies against him.
Rhydan had noticed this weakness very quickly, actually, he did not see it as a weakness at all.
He respected that.
"Well, I guess I am still not strong enough."
And while Rhydan was thinking all that, Lucian shrugged.
"It doesn’t matter.
I promise I’ll get even stronger and once I do—"
Lucian took a small pause, then, he looked into the Wolf’s eyes and—
"I will visit you."
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