Chapter 1567: Broken Down

Erend did not realize what he was doing. His body moved on instinct, driven by a mind that was drowning in anger and fury that was impossible to contain.

Every thought that could have stopped him disappeared beneath the rage consuming him. He launched himself at his mother and Arty with terrifying speed, his vision turning into a blur of black and red as he attacked whatever stood in front of him.

He no longer knew what he was striking. He no longer knew where he was. His mind was completely blank, leaving only the instinct to attack again and again.

Then, without warning, his consciousness returned.

Erend stopped and looked around in confusion. His breathing was heavy and ragged as he stood in the middle of the devastation.

For several seconds he could not understand what he was seeing. Two mangled bodies lay on the ground in front of him. Their clothes were torn apart and their bodies were covered in blood and terrible wounds.

Their faces were almost impossible to recognize because the violence of the attack had destroyed their features.

Erend stared at them without understanding who they were. His memories of the moments before were strangely fragmented, as though someone had ripped a piece of time out of his mind.

He could remember the anger. He could remember attacking. But everything between those moments and now was gone.

"Who...?"

His eyes moved over the first body and then the second. Something about them felt familiar, yet his exhausted mind struggled to understand why.

He looked at their clothes. Then he noticed small details that he recognized despite the horrific condition of the bodies.

The first belonged to someone who had raised him. The second belonged to the girl who had grown up beside him and called him brother.

Erend was stunned in great shock. His eyes widened as the truth finally reached him.

"No..."

He stumbled backward and shook his head violently. His gaze moved between the two bodies again as if looking at them long enough could somehow change what he saw.

But the truth remained in front of him.

They were his mother and Arty.

Erend stopped breathing for a moment.

His entire body went cold as the realization struck him with overwhelming force.

The strange energy that had filled his body only moments earlier suddenly felt meaningless. His rage disappeared as if someone had ripped it out of him and left nothing behind but horror.

"I... killed them..." His voice came out as a broken whisper.

He stared at his blood-covered hands. His fingers trembled as he slowly raised them toward his face.

Their blood stained his skin. Their blood covered his clothes. The same hands that he had used to protect them were the hands that had taken their lives.

Erend’s knees gave out and collapsed onto the ground beside them and stared at their bodies in disbelief.

His mind desperately searched for another explanation. He wanted to believe this was another illusion, that the Trial had deceived him again.

He wanted to wake up and find his mother and Arty standing safely somewhere behind him.

But they did not move. They did not breathe. They were dead.

"NOOOOOOO!"

A broken sound escaped Erend’s throat before his voice suddenly erupted into a scream.

His scream carried across the empty land with such force that it seemed to tear his throat apart.

He grabbed his head with both hands and screamed again. Tears poured down his face as he looked at the bodies of the two people he had loved more than almost anyone in the world.

"What did I do?!" His voice cracked as he slammed his fists against his own head. He did not care about the pain. He wanted to punish himself, tear the memories from his mind, to destroy the part of himself that had done this.

"I killed them... I killed them..."

He looked at his mother and Arty.

His chest tightened until breathing became painful. His memories of them suddenly returned at once.

He had fought because he wanted to protect them. He had endured pain because he wanted them to live. He had refused to surrender because he believed he could keep them safe.

And in the end, his own hands killed them.

Erend let out another scream and struck the ground with both fists. The black sand scattered beneath the impact, but he barely noticed.

"I’m sorry... I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"

He crawled toward their bodies and reached out with trembling hands, but he stopped before touching them.

He was afraid. Afraid that touching them would make the truth even more real. His tears fell onto the blood-stained ground.

"This wasn’t supposed to happen... I was supposed to protect you... But I killed you."

His voice broke completely. He looked down at his hands again and began trembling harder.

Erend curled over himself beside their bodies, trembling uncontrollably as regret consumed him.

The anger that had driven him only moments ago was gone. In its place was an unbearable agony that came entirely from within.

The monster had always been him.

—

While Erend was breaking apart somewhere else within the Trial, Eccar faced a crisis of his own.

The underground monsters continued attacking from every direction, but Eccar killed them with ease. His fists shattered their bodies, his kicks sent them crashing into the cavern walls.

Yet he kept glancing toward the massive earth dome behind him. The pilgrims were inside, protected by the thick barrier he created with his Magic.

Eccar knew the dome was strong enough to withstand the monsters, but he still could not stop worrying. After everything that happened, he refused to trust his own strength completely.

He killed another monster and immediately looked back at the dome.

It was still intact. The pilgrims were still safe.

Then the cavern suddenly trembled.

A deep rumbling echoed through the tunnels as something enormous approached from the darkness. Dust fell from the ceiling, the remaining monsters backed away.

Moments later, a massive creature emerged. It resembled a gigantic mole rat covered in thick layers of natural armor. Its broad body was enormous, its small eyes glowed beneath a heavy brow, and several long claws extended from each powerful forelimb.

The claws scraped against the stone and produced a harsh sound that made Eccar tense.

The creature charged and Eccar met it.

He dodged the first swipe and slammed his fist into its armored chest. The impact shook the cavern, but the creature barely moved. It roared and swung both claws at him. Eccar avoided the attacks and countered with a powerful kick that forced the beast backward.

Then he heard a scream.

Eccar stopped his movement. The sound came from inside the dome.

Another scream followed. Then several more voices cried out in panic.

Eccar immediately turned toward the dome. Nothing had broken through. The dome remained completely intact.

But the pilgrims were screaming.

His heart dropped. "What happened?!"

The armored beast roared behind him and charged again.

Eccar looked between the monster and the dome, suddenly unsure which threat he needed to face first.

—