Eris shot through the sky with a single goal, a head-on collision into the reforcer. A beam of light erupted from the hands of the reforcer, smashing against her personal forcefield. The blast refracted into a light show display, unable to penetrate and cause any damage.

It almost looked like she was using the beam to reach him instead of blocking an attack since her speed continued to accelerate within the path.

The battle between the light reforcer lasted up to the very end of the thirty minutes. The only explanation for her mana lasting the entire duration had to be related to the ki training we worked on together, from the training manual. In the end, she managed to defeat the reforcer though exhausted all of her mana in the process, making her helpless against the onslaught from the remaining enemies.

Her regenerative powers held out until the timer sounded and the stage clear text appeared for a second time.

“That’s so horrible! What kind of ridiculous trial is this?” Alexa voiced her opinion after watching what we both agreed as extremely unnecessary.

“I tried persuading master to reduce the difficulty, but he wanted none of it. Saying that this level of power was necessary for our sake.” Iris sided with Alexa as the holographic footage ended and she spoke again. “For privacy, the third trial will not be shown.”

“So you’re telling me she's been stuck on the third trial this entire time?” Another ten minutes had passed from watching the highlight reel. Enough time for Rhea to notify me via ring that Tessa had awoken and seemed rather disturbed from the earlier event. An expected side effect with the way she entered flight or die.

“Yes, that is correct. Time elapsed, one hundred eighty days and counting.” Iris declared that Eris had already spent over half a year within the virtual world like it was nothing special.

I worried that standing so long would cause issues for her and moved in closer to inspect. Beads of sweat stuck to her soft forehead and the occasional crunch of her eyebrows made it seem like she was experiencing an awful nightmare. Iris shouted at me before I was able to set my hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t touch her! If you disturb her during the trials, there is a high chance her mind will be stuck in limbo. Trapped in a coma.” That sounded extremely dangerous, why was there such a dangerous risk involved with linking into the virtual world.

“Is there anything we can do for her?” I felt useless being able to only standby and watch.

“Not unless you can tap into her mind telepathically.” The mention of telepathy reminded me of the snake beast, Elania. There had to be people with similar talents in mental magic even if it was rather unique. We needed to get our hands on that power, the sooner the better.

“We’ll just have to wait then…” I dismissed her words as sarcasm and moved to lean up against the wall.

Alexa joined me for some idle talk about the progress regarding the new warehouse and our home within the city. The conversation eventually shifted to learning about her past. My curiosity about her background led to many questions on how she ended up as a slave under Marcus.

She explained that it occurred when she was far too young to remember and only recently learned about her prior family from Marcus.

I figured that was the best outcome for her situation since she didn’t have the opportunity to miss anyone in the first place. It beat separating from loved ones after forming childhood bonds, similar to my experience. Still, she must have the same desire to find out about her family.

“Our family head, held the status of an Official for generations. Then one day vanished, leading to the imprisonment of our family members. Marcus said the whole thing was a farce with a hunch that it involved a noble.” To have your entire family wiped out from going up against a noble, just how much influence did they have?

“That’s insane! I promise you, we’ll look into your family and get to the bottom of it.” We were going to be up against them, it was only a matter of time until things became clear.

“Thank you for the thought, but I would prefer everyone staying safe over jumping into more danger.” Alexa took our safety as a priority and voiced that she would rather protect the family she had now.

Marcus told her the location of her home. It was one of the neighboring cities to the northeast called Biamark, located in the desert region of Illnor. Known for its supply of petroleum with trade strictly regulated by the government.

Our conversations varied from random topics like what to expect from Seric’s wild money-making ideas to wondering when Clare would make her mouth-watering lasagna dish again. Time went by pretty fast and before we knew it our laugher was interrupted by Iris’s sudden voice.

“Third trial passed!” Iris cheered for the successful completion. Eris finally returned to her body, welcomed by the reception of shaky legs from the static hold she stood in for the past two hours.

“Eris! Are you okay?” I bolted, pushing off the wall to prevent her from tipping over. My arms supported her back as I looked down at her.

Our eyes met and instead of replying she did her best to hold back a wave of emotions. Tears rolled down the sides of her cheek, accompanied by several sniffles.

“It’s going to be okay ...Everything is fine now.” I propped her back up with an arm still wrapped around her back, using my other hand to wipe clean a few of her tears. The third stage and nightmare lasted for over two years for her. Her mental capacity to withstand all that torture was beyond disbelief. There was no way I would be able to handle that kind of experience and come out with a functioning, sound mind.