Life isn’t about beginnings and endings but how we spend the time in between.

~Arianrhod, Goddess of Rebirth and Fate

Crow and Hooligan spent some time in the training chambers after their dungeon experience. What they went through shocked them, and the implications that the man was potentially as old or older than Mugna left Crow speechless. He said many things implying that he’d been in this realm a long time, and there was a chance that they weren’t the only victims of the old man. Not including others in their batch, this man had been running this event for thousands of years. There was no telling how many people he’d corrupted. Crow wondered if the man had been turned by the Shadow Druid but dismissed that thought.

A month and a half later, they completed their ninety-eighth Shrine. The building opened up like a flower, and the vines that intertwined to create the roof unraveled and dove into the ground. Other than the gate and a small platform, the Shrine was gone.

“Wh-what is happening?” Hooligan asked, looking around nervously. They both could sense the protections the Shrine offered from things like the Scath were gone. It was no different from standing in the forest now.

“Check the compass,” Crow ordered. He did not know where the last Shrine was because, as far as he could tell, they’d explored the entire realm or nearly all. He suspected it might be related to Raven’s Beak.

However, he was surprised when the compass appeared. It didn’t point at the mountain but toward Sanctuary. It wasn’t an unsteady indication either. The needle was pegged in a specific direction, which meant all the Shrines were gone now.

“Fuck,” Crow muttered. “We need to run.”

Hooligan nodded and followed him. They packed most of their gear into their Shields to move faster. Hooligan was only wearing the stretchy bra top and skin-tight leggings that Crow made for her. Well, that and her moccasin-type shoes. Normally, she’d wear boots, but those were tough if she wanted to run speedily across a long distance. Even running, it’d take them almost two days to reach Sanctuary.

She also knew his reasoning for running. They couldn’t use the portal if the last Shrine was at Sanctuary because they’d lose this Shrine. Running back was the only option. Crow might be unpredictable, but his logic and reasoning weren’t. His fears were easily predictable to those who knew him, and Hooligan knew that Crow feared that the last Shrine could only be conquered by one team.

Seeing her stripped down and displaying her tight body with defined muscle and womanly figure, his heart accelerated, and he had to force himself to look away.

“Don’t forget to cover your face. We will come across others soon,” Crow informed her.

“You don’t want people to see me?” She asked while panting lightly.

Crow eyed her, and his gait slowed so he could watch the curve of her butt as her legs pumped forward.

“Pervert!”

“Heh, if I’m eying you this heavily, what do you think other men will do?”

“If they dare, I’ll gouge out their eyes.”

“What would you do that?” Crow asked.

“So they can’t look at my body.”

“Corpses are allowed to look at my woman, so they know regret in their next life.”

Hooligan giggled and looked back at her man. Unable to restrain herself, she jumped on him, her legs wrapped around his waist. Crow grabbed her ass to hold her in place while she continued to violate his mouth with her tongue.

Although they clung to each other intimately, Crow hadn’t stopped running. His talent with Iolo had reached high levels, so he could sense the forest around him and create a path without obstacles.

It consumed a lot of energy, but he didn’t worry about running into anything. Instead, he enjoyed the sensation of being stuck to his woman’s sweaty body. Her nether region and waist continued to move like waves of water against his body. Unable to take it anymore, he pinned her against a tree and ripped off her leggings. Thrusting himself into her highly aroused vagina and lost himself to the insanity of pleasure.

The screams and moans echoed through the forest, and the other contestants gave the area a wide berth to avoid whatever was making the sound. They thought ghosts haunted the forest as the wails continued to get louder.

After her third orgasm, Crow finally released his seed and filled her womb with his thick yang energy. It was one of the most powerful orgasms he had to date, and he knew that Hooligan would benefit significantly from it.

“Bastard,” Hooligan said weakly and breathlessly. “You ripped my favorite leggings. You better make me a new pa…” Hooligan’s words trailed off as Crow held up a small pile of them. There were at least a dozen pairs of varying colors. “How?”

“I used various flowers and turned them into threads. It allowed me to retain the color somewhat. However, I mostly stuck with darker colors because I feared they’d make you stand out too much.”

Still clinging to him, with Crow’s manhood slowly shrinking inside her, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. Surprised, he didn’t even notice when she grabbed the leggings and made them disappear into her Shield.

After the kiss, she hopped down and replaced her torn pants with a new pair.

“Let’s go, you little pervert,” Hooligan said. Her depleted energy was almost instantly replaced by Crow’s yang energy, and she felt more energetic. Since they’d made love so many times, her body didn’t even get sore from their exercises. “We need to get to the Shrine.”

“It’s fine,” Crow smiled at her, but his eyes reflected sadness.

“What’s wrong?”

“I realized our time together is drawing to an end,” Crow’s voice was so soft that she almost didn’t hear him. Hooligan walked up to him and hugged him tightly.

“We will only be apart for a short time. You will find me in the future. I know it. I feel it here,” Hooligan said, touching her chest above her heart. “I trust you, so don’t let me down, lover.”

“Let’s do this,” Crow smiled at her, feeling both melancholy and warmth. He put his thing away and pulled up his pants. They continued to run, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking and watching the woman running alongside him.

As they approached Sanctuary, Hooligan had already wrapped her face and put some other clothes on to hide her body shape. There was a small crowd outside of Colossus, and all of them were gossiping.

“…did you hear the ghost…”

“…the forest is haunted…”

“…wailing so pitifully…”

Crow tried to keep a straight face, and even with Hooligan pinching his side, he burst out laughing.

“You aren’t allowed to laugh,” she hissed and punched him. It wasn’t hard, and he knew she was flirting with him in mock anger to hide her embarrassment. Everyone was talking about their lovemaking session, but none seemed to realize that it wasn’t a ghost but Hooligan’s moans of pleasure. “You’ve turned me into an immoral woman.”

“Sure, blame me, you hooligan.”

They continued to flirt while they waited. Even spent some time talking to a few of the other groups they were on good terms with. Quite a number of people were complaining about getting kicked out of their Shrines without being able to complete it. Crow didn’t realize how far-reaching the effect of their achievement was.

Everyone was outside because Sanctuary kicked them out too. That made him a little anxious because, other than Iolo, he’d saved his points for the end. Hooligan bought another technique, so she had very few points left. The little she had was maybe enough to buy some resources or random trinkets. Based on Crow’s recommendation, Hooligan wanted to find a Scholarly Talent to learn. Most of the introduction manuals were cheap, so she just had to decide.

Hooligan was interested in Sigils, like the one that the old bastard cursed her with. However, Crow warned her it had a broad introductory period as she needed to learn quite a bit of foundational knowledge. He had advanced significantly with formations, so he’d already embarked on that path and offered to help.

In the end, she decided to wait until they finished completing all the Shrines and then go through all the books and have Crow help her narrow down choices.

While they were lost in their thoughts, the Colossus dropped to his knees. A move that shook the ground and startled everyone. Then he placed his hands on the ground and slowly lowered his upper body until his chin touched the soil. Its mouth opened, further pushing the stone chin into the ground until the lower mandible was submerged and a cave-like opening appeared.

The glowing sphere that knew everything about this place had already exited the mouth and rose above the remaining people. Looking around, Crow quickly counted and realized only fifty people were present. Possibly the last of the contestants because he assumed the events occurring now were paused until everyone arrived.

Moreover, Crow and Hooligan recognized the sphere’s voice. It was definitely that old grandpa that toyed with them several weeks back.

“The Shrines of Awen are closed. Colossus is the last Shrine because some of you solved the other ninety-eight. That means if you have completed sixty-nine Shrines, you have one last chance to complete seventy so you can enter the Temple of Awen. If you didn’t complete ninety-eight, completing this Shrine will earn you fifty points. However, suppose you did complete the other Shrines. In that case, you’ll gain a bonus for completing all the zones moving your grand total potential to 333 points. You can do the math yourself to figure out how much you’d gain just by completing this one Shrine.”

Crow was a little stunned at that announcement. Completing all the shrines and zones provided a little over two hundred points, so this one Shrine was worth over a hundred points.

“What’s the catch…?” Hooligan asked, feeling something was amiss.

“This is the only Shrine you’ll have to complete on your own. No teams. And… you will have a series of challenges—one for each Shrine type.”

The sound of the crowd grew as they were grumbling.

“Can we go back to Sanctuary?”

“You may. You have thirty days before you’ll be removed from this realm unless you complete this last Shrine. So enjoy our amenities, and use up your points before you go. Do note that the artifact remains behind when you leave, so I recommend memorizing and studying the ability to its fullest extent before leaving. This only applies to the artifact. Any item you acquired or bought from the store is yours to take with you.”

“What about the Temple of Awen?” another person asked.

“If you completed over seventy Shrines, you already have access. Check your gate. I recommend visiting before the thirty days are up. Don’t wait until the last minute, or you’ll regret it. By my estimation, only sixteen of you qualify to enter, which is higher than average. Another four of you are one Shrine away…”

Crow and Hooligan looked at each other and made their decision. They’d wait a few days before attempting it. However, knowing how many points they could gain, they held off on making any purchases for the moment.

And just like that, three days of doing nothing except resting, eating, and making love occurred. They weren’t sure what would happen after entering the Shrine, so they both knew they were saying goodbye. Crow even allowed Hooligan and Lily to talk a lot over those few days while he focused on ignoring them and cultivating.

At first light on the fourth morning, the two lovers hugged and entered the last Shrine.