Lily froze, panting lightly, then lowered her weapon. "Did I do good?"

Bruce walked over and gently tapped her head with his knuckle.

"You did very good."

Her face lit up instantly.

"I'll do even better tomorrow!" she declared proudly.

"I'm sure you will," Bruce said, smiling.

He looked at her, safe, smiling, alive, and felt his resolve harden.

Whatever awaited him in that trial…

He would face it.

For her.

A quiet moment passed before Bruce straightened and exhaled slowly. His gaze moved from Lily to Lucy.

"I'm going out for a bit," he said calmly. "I don't know when I'll be back."

Lucy stiffened slightly. "Another dungeon?"

"Something like that," Bruce replied.

Since it wasn't a dungeon but a trial and Bruce do not yet understand the full scope of it in this world, he couldn't give Lily and Lucy a definite time...

Lily immediately grabbed his sleeve. "Will it be dangerous?"

Bruce knelt in front of her, meeting her eyes. "It might be. But I'll come back."

She hesitated, then nodded, trusting him completely.

"Defeat your classmates with what you learnt. Do it for me okay?" Bruce smiled...

Lily nodded eagerly as her eyes lit up, "Yes Big Brother..."

Bruce turned toward Ash, who had been watching quietly from the side. He crouched and placed a hand against the dragon's neck.

"Ash," he said softly, his voice carrying weight. "While I'm gone, you look after them."

Ash growled low in acknowledgment, eyes sharp and focused.

Bruce continued this time through the telepathic link between him and Ash, 'The shadow wolves will stay here too. You're in charge of them. If anything happens, you command. Don't let anyone get close to Lily or Lucy unless they're supposed to be.'

Ash's tail swayed once, firmly.

Shadow ripples stirred around the house as several Shadow Wolves in the shadows in specifically, Lily, Lucy and Ash's shadows all bowed in the shadow realm.

Their heads lowered in submission, this time, not just to Bruce, but to Ash as well.

Now he had given his orders Bruce relaxed a little. He knew the wolves will obey. As for him keeping them under the control of ash.

Shadow wolves were shadow wolves.

But Ash was Ash.

More intelligent. More perceptive. Someone he trusted to make the right decisions if he wasn't there.

Bruce stood and walked toward the door.

Before leaving, he summoned Red, the weapon flowing smoothly into its dagger form. He twirled it once in his hand, the motion practiced and effortless.

Then, with a thought, he summoned Axiom's core.

The diamond-shaped core materialized before him, faintly glowing.

"Send me to the Labyrinth," Bruce said.

The space around him folded.

In the next second, he vanished.

Bruce found himself standing within the Abyssal Wolves' Labyrinth.

The air was dense with mana. Familiar. Stable. Vast.

He didn't move.

Instead, he let out a quiet sigh and reached inward, calling forth the prompt he had left untouched.

"Sigh… let's get into it," he murmured. "I need to get stronger, and fast."

The translucent panel appeared before him.

[Authority Trial Detected]

[Do you wish to begin your trial now?]

[Y / N]

Bruce didn't hesitate.

"Yes..."

The moment his choice registered,

The world disappeared.

Bruce reappeared in the corner of a noisy market square.

For half a heartbeat, his mind went blank.

Then...

His expression changed.

He could feel it immediately. The air was wrong. Heavy, suffocating in a way that had nothing to do with pressure. Mana didn't flow here. No, it was being suppressed, crushed beneath a strange, foreign energy that permeated the space itself.

It wasn't mana.

And that was the problem.

Bruce's jaw tightened.

'That means I can't use Heal.'

The realization landed cleanly, without panic. He clenched his fists, testing himself. Power surged through his muscles, solid and responsive. His body felt real. Grounded.

He exhaled slowly, then smiled faintly.

'I still have my strength. My immunities. My resistances.'

'This should be manageable.'

Then..

A thought struck him.

His eyes widened slightly.

Bruce raised a hand and willed Red into existence.

A crimson dagger appeared in front of him, hovering quietly as it traced slow circles through the air. Bruce didn't relax until he gestured and Red shot cleanly into his palm, solid and responsive.

He let out a low breath.

'So Red can still be summoned… thank goodness.'

He shifted it again. The blade flattened, reshaping into a smooth, mirror-like surface. The red sheen remained, but now it reflected clearly.

Bruce lifted it and looked.

And froze.

The face staring back at him was his.

Not the faintly displaced sensation he'd felt during the Trial of a Thousand Deaths and a Thousand Lives. Not the subtle wrongness of inhabiting a borrowed vessel as he died a thousand times.

This was his real body.

Fully.

"…Damn," he muttered under his breath.

Shock flickered through him, quickly giving way to something sharper. Focus. Apprehension.

'So this trial isn't like the last one,' he thought. 'No borrowed form. No artificial shell.'

Everything he did here,

Every injury. Every mistake.

Would be real.

Bruce lowered the mirror, eyes scanning the bustling market around him. People shouted prices, carts rolled over stone, children weaved through crowds. Life moved on, completely unaware of the anomaly standing among them.

He tightened his grip on Red.

'I don't know what you're planning, Akashic,' he thought grimly, 'but I'm not walking into this blind.'

This trial was different.

And for the first time since it began,

Bruce didn't know what to expect.

That alone made the stakes far higher than during his first trial. The fact he died and came back made things relatively safe. But now?

He didn't feel safe.

Not without Heal. Not without knowing what the fuck he was supposed to do...

Bruce let out a quiet sigh, his gaze drifting over the bustling market as people passed him by, unaware of the danger he represented, or the danger he was in.

'If mana is only being suppressed and not completely erased by this strange energy,' he reasoned, 'then I might still be able to use my skills if I push hard enough.'

The thought didn't comfort him.

His jaw clenched.

'But if mana is being suppressed… then forcing it out will definitely have repercussions.'

He didn't need the Akashic Codex to tell him that. His instincts screamed the same warning.

Bruce exhaled slowly.

'Let's just hope I'm not forced into a situation where I have to use Heal.'

At that moment...

<Ding!>

A message from the Akashic Codex appeared.

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