Emela's gaze snapped to the side as an ice dog barreled towards her, and she pushed her back against Nyx's, then launched forward. The dog barreled between them, its tail whipping out.

With a clang, her sword met it and knocked it aside before she swivelled in, slashing what had to be twenty times, but was probably far less than that. She slashed once at its left side, then drove the blade home on its right flank.

The dog growled, leaping back, and she chased after it, but before she could deliver the final strike, Nyx struck from the side, plunging her dagger deep into the thing's throat, and then vaulting over it, dragging the blade along with her arc. The creature's head slumped to the ground, its body falling limp a moment later, blood spilling onto the ice.

"Thank you, Mistress," she said.

"Don't think of it, Nyx. Just keep focused, and stay safe."

Eventually, the conflict died down, the growling becoming low whimpers that were finally swallowed by the howling wind whipping across the frozen lake's surface. Everyone cheered and hollered, celebrating their bloodily earned victory.

To the side, a few paces across the ice, even Rana and Lilia gave each other begrudgingly appreciative looks. Was that a small friendship brewing between a noble and a commoner? Part of Emela hoped so.

She had grown tired of the constant segregation between the two. It corrupted Middlec, making the nobles view the slums as beneath them; they even saw the common people as slightly better than the slum dwellers. She'd even thought that way once, before meeting her friends, before meeting Hector.

"Mistress, I think it's over," Nyx said, stepping over to Emela, her boots padding across the thin layer of snow.

"It is," she nodded, her gaze drifting to the corpse of an ice dog before her, its eyes vacant and white.

She let out a sigh. These creatures had slaughtered so many, yet died just as easily as so many they had killed. But from the looks of it, they'd been protecting something for a reason. Were these even real animals? Did they have families?

She shook her head. Such thoughts were pointless. Because she was a mana cultivator. To kill and be killed was ultimately the destiny that life had given her. And that wouldn't change for years to come.

"Mistress, I think—"

Before Nyx could finish her sentence, the ice dog's body shook.

Emela's gaze snapped to it, and she took a step back, levelling her sword at the beast. If it moved, her blade would sink right through it again, though something that could rise from the dead probably wouldn't go down easily.

As she waited for it to lunge at her, something else happened instead. Beneath its ribs, a light began gathering. Swirls of green shifting into a growing crystal; they looked like mana motes, the ones she'd gather every time she meditated. But what were they doing?

The motes continued to gather, taking on a diamond shape as the crystal moved higher into the air. Could it be a core? But she'd never seen one like that. Beast cores were round, and they were firmly inside the creature's body.

You had to go looking for them, with a knife or other equally sharp implement. Obviously, she'd never had to do such a thing, but Jodie had rambled on about her efficiency with her claws over actually using a knife, which Emela didn't doubt.

"What is that, Mistress?" Nyx asked.

Behind them, the same thing was occurring with the ice dog Nyx had killed earlier. Emela's gaze shifted and surveyed the area. Others were seeing the same phenomenon occurring, though some ice dogs lay still, nothing forming above them.

"Do you think it has to do with that?" Nyx said, gesturing with her head towards the temple, which was more likely to be a formation engineer tower, cresting the small mountain on the other side of the lake.

"Maybe," Emela said, her gaze shifting across the ice to her brother and Noelle. She couldn't quite see his eyes from here, but he was no doubt narrowing his eyes at her, tempting her, daring her to do something she shouldn't.

By his own order, all the spoils were his after all. If she were to reach for it, there'd be a price to pay, not just for her, but for Nyx as well.

"What do we do, Mistress?"

Emela's gut knotted. Her instincts screamed, telling her to grab the diamond. Take it. It was an opportunity that she couldn't miss. She glanced at Nyx, and the girl, plain-faced as ever, levelled a stare back.

"Mistress, if you wish to do something that would upset your brother, I will support you, as long as you know the risks you are taking."

Emela smiled, though it wasn't real. There was no confidence behind it, none of the assertion she usually had. This was all a gut feeling, and her gut was often wrong.

"Grab it," she said to Nyx, with an exhausted sigh. "Grab the crystal, and follow whatever you feel. Besides, if nothing happens, I'll just tell Drion I was helping with the gathering process."

If he lost his patience at something so simple, he'd lose some of the dignity he was so badly trying to earn.

"On your order, Mistress."

With that, Nyx turned, reaching for the crystal that floated just above the body of the ice dog. Emela reached for her own and wrapped her fingers around the smooth surface, brushing a thumb across it. There was a pull there inside of it, something tugging on her mana. If she fed it, something would happen.

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Her gaze drifted slowly to Drion. The man didn't move. Though Noelle, standing beside him, looked from him to Emela, and then began making her way across the ice. Drion still didn't move.

"Ready, Nyx?" Emela said, the words tasting like salt in her mouth. Was she really? Would anyone be ready to put their life at risk?

"I am, Mistress."

With that, Emela fed mana to the crystal, seeping through her veins and flooding into her palm. The crystal reacted immediately, its green surface taking on a translucent light, shining brighter and brighter. Then the same light swallowed Emela's vision, visible even with her eyes shut tight.

The next thing she knew, she slammed onto some grass, a dull pain aching through her body in waves. Rolling over, she glanced around. Where was she? A forest? Had the crystal teleported her somehow?

Above her, a blue sky filled with clouds took up her view, and through the clouds, the faint outline of massive cogs lingered. Gigantic cogs, gears that should be at least half the size of Middlec.

"What is that?" she muttered, sitting up, her fingers pressing into the grass beneath her.

"Mistress, are you okay?" Nyx said, scrambling to her feet and racing over to Emela, who raised her hand and waved Nyx away, exhaustion slogging through her arm.

The maid was often too caring of her. She wasn't a baby and didn't need to be treated like one all the time, though she appreciated Nyx's care. Truly, her first friend had taken to the role like no other she'd ever seen. Emela wasn't sure how Matilda and Noelle's arrangement worked, but she was sure the girl wasn't nearly as diligent as Nyx.

Grunting and getting to her feet, Emela sighed. Around them were large oak trees, their tops shaking and bristling in the wind.

"I think we're inside the temple," Emela said, though how could she be sure? The only giveaway was that giant cog in the sky, but then that could mean anything; it could be anywhere.

"Perhaps, Mistress," Nyx said, scanning the area and frowning. "Though I don't understand. Those crystals brought us here, but what for? Is there another test that we must complete?"

Emela nodded. "It wouldn't surprise me if the ice dogs were merely there to see if we could survive this place."

"You think there's something else, Mistress?" Nyx asked.

Emela wasn't entirely confident in her assumption. But it was as if the ice dogs blocking the entrance were merely to see who could make the cut, who could go further within the test laid out before them. But what was the test this time? An even harder monster to fight, or something else?

"Should we go somewhere, Mistress?" Nyx asked.

She was right, too. They couldn't exactly stand here hoping for the challenge to make itself clear. She and Nyx had to seek it out. They had to put in some effort.

Emela, raising her wrist, sighed as her gaze flicked to the map that opened. Unsurprisingly, it was blank. She hadn't expected more. This was an unknown space within the trial realm, and while whoever had created this place graciously provided a map to the whole trial realm, information on places like this had to be earned. She dropped her arm and sighed.

"We'll go right," she said.

Nyx raised a brow at her, but then nodded, as if accepting her proposal. Not that she had a better one—the girl was no doubt as lost as she was. Taking one last look around her, Emela set off, Nyx a pace behind, as the two of them walked through the forest.

Though as the minutes passed, something further in the forest caught her eye. There was a flash of white, and a body slumped to the ground a moment later. One that she recognised.

Stepping closer, Emela's eyes landed on Rana. The girl's face was one of confusion as their gazes met, and she shifted into a better position, hand pressed against the dirt.

"Where are we?" she asked.

Emela cocked her head to the side. Had she not entered soon after Emela left? Though if she didn't, that wouldn't be too surprising. After watching Emela and Nyx disappear, everyone else was probably a little hesitant to do anything else. They most likely waited for Drion's command.

"Hello?" she said, waving her hand up at Emela.

Emela reached forward and pulled the girl to her feet.

"I am not sure yet. Where's Lilia?"

"Oh, she should be—"

White flashed a little further into the forest, a body falling an instant later, a form unmistakably Lilia's. "I see, and I take it everyone is using those crystals?"

Rana turned to her and blinked, combing a strand of brown hair behind her ear. She nodded.

"Yes, Drion instructed us to go in waves. He should follow shortly after. Though sadly, he didn't comment on my performance." Her head sagged, as if Emela's brother not paying attention to her had somehow made all her efforts pointless.

The girl fumbled a moment later, taking several steps back and bowing slightly.

"I meant no insult, Miss."

Emela gave her a sidelong glance. She didn't care what Rana said about her brother, or any slight implication made by her comment about him not commenting on her performance. None of that mattered.

Though the deference she showed Emela was a refreshing touch—someone not from her family was actually valuing her station. Raising a hand, Emela fanned the girl's apology away. It was nothing to her.

"Calm yourself," she said. "You said my brother sent you forward in his first wave?"

The girl nodded, a smile settling on her previously tense face, and she straightened out a bit.

"Yes," she said, glancing around the area, her eyes narrowing on a few bushes. "But I'm not sure how he'll find me. From where I landed, it's clear that those crystals just spit you out anywhere." She raised her hand, clenching and unclenching it as if feeling for something. She then dropped it and shook her head. "Strange indeed."

Her eyes then shifted to the form that slowly stood a few bushes away. Lilia patted herself down and nodded towards them before waving.

"Mistress Emela," she said with a respectful bow at the waist.

Emela nodded back. "I'm glad you're all right."

"So what are we doing here?" she asked, resting her hand on her hip, her head craning back as she looked to the sky.

Emela didn't follow her gaze but turned to Nyx. "With these two with us, should we continue walking aimlessly?"

"That is the only option," Nyx sighed, though her face was as passive as ever.

"We could wait for more people to turn up," Rana said, her voice almost a tad too eager for the others' arrival. Not that her behaviour offended Emela, though the girl could learn some tact.

Emela shook her head. That wouldn't do at all. More people around would be a problem. It meant that her brother would turn up and find them all that much sooner. Then he'd probably be throwing her into another challenge he didn't want to do himself.

Or—she turned to Nyx, her maid's black hair blowing in the subtle breeze—he'd dish out a punishment for her going forward without his say-so, a punishment that would ultimately fall on Nyx.

"We'll keep walking. If the two of you wish to follow, then so be it. Nyx, come along."

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