A ball of light flew by, barely missing Desir. His body was already rented by wounds and his clothes drenched with blood and sweat, not all of it his own. His teammates were all long dead, Desir himself dancing on death's door for a while at that point.

Yet another ball of light flew by and Desir barely dodged while creeping closer to the beast. As Desir entered the 80's, every enemy has turned strangely draconic, including the radiant wyvern in front of him. It shone with strange golden hue from every scale and even appeared to be gilded.

Dozens of wyvern corpses littered the ground and the one in front had its wings torn to pieces. Despite that, Desir struggled to land the finishing blow. His body was on the brink of collapse, his limbs stiff and magic utterly dried out. Yet he was closing in upon the last monster.

One more ball of light was hurled from the foe's throat and that time Desir did not dodge. He did not even flinch as his left arm was torn off, the frenzy from the prolonged battle suppressing his pain. Instead of screaming, Desir gathered everything he had left, devouring his own life to power one last surge of void magic to cover his extended talons.

"Die!" Desir yelled furiously as the scales gave way. His claw tore through flesh and blood as he allowed the magic to surge forth. He burned what was left of his own vitality in a desperate attempt to keep the magic going. The beast screeched and tried to shake Desir off but he held on tight, bit by bit crushing the being from within. He felt more and more strength leave his body as his frenzied mind grew ever hazier and his limbs became increasingly numb but that did not dissuade him. Even if it might not be enough, he had to push with all his might for there was no other alternative way to victory.

But soon enough Desir realised he would lose that match of endurance. Moisture seemingly withdrew from his skin as far too much magical power draining from every cell evaporated it. His wound gradually slowed their bleeding as there was less and less blood within his body. Even Desir’s brain began to slip, starved for oxygen and lacking the nourishment from his failing organs.

And at that time, his control wavered. The void magic bursting from his hand and the vitality magic ravaging his body to support it moved closer. Before, they were separate but without proper control, they touched and began to merge. Something Desir had failed to achieve many times, prismatic magic of Void and Vitality was born, a Void Syphon, the determination and desperation the catalyst for its birth. No longer was the destruction powered by Desir’s body, instead it ate away at the wyvern itself, using the beasts own vitality to fuel its destruction. Within the blink of an eye, the tables turned as the magic exponentially increased in power. The beast wailed for one last time before every fibre of its being was overcome by the Void Syphon.

[Wave 5/5 completed; calculating]

Despite the victory, Desir didn’t celebrate, his body so close to death it would take mere moments before its due was collected. Yet perhaps thanks to luck, as his consciousness was about to definitely fade, he was surrounded by blackness different than that of oblivion.

[Phase score: Completion 1098/1098; Contribution 1098/1098; Surviving members 0/1098; Bonus objectives 0/1098. Final score 2196/4392; Next phase will initiate soon.]

[19th phase commences, round 90-95; The gates of Abyssal Ridge; Pass the 5 gates and earn the right of entry; Bonus objective: Reach the gatekeeper guarding the 5th gate.]

When Desir next opened his eyes, his calm had returned just like his missing limb and unharmed body in general. His memory of the last moments was hazy but there was one thing he still remembered clearly. Before proceeding further, a strand of Void magic and Vitality left Desir’s body and danced on his palm. He stared carefully as he made them touch, expecting their merger. But to his immense disappointment, just like whenever he attempted that before, they fizzled out of existence with a small shockwave, refusing to merge. Clearly he was missing something. A condition which allowed the two to become one. Something that was different during the last fight and hopefully it was not the battle frenzy.

Of course, Desir realised, No wonder I had never tried anything so reckless, he thought as he allowed magic to manifest again, however, this time it did not rise from his palm but rather remained inside his body. And he attempted the merger again, while the magic still resided in his veins. And that time, it worked. Void and Vitality merged, obediently rising to his palm as stable Void Syphon.

Irwyn had always insisted that Desir must figure out the first step of the merger by himself for any kind of prismatic magic and the demonic youth finally understood why. That feeling of overcoming a hurdle and breaking through a barrier on his own was truly enlightening. He felt that just this little granted him insight he could never achieve by doing exactly as he was told.

Taken by his discovery, Desir did not immediately proceed, instead he took advantage of his momentary comprehension and practised his new prismatic magic. It was only a long while later that Desir felt confident enough to look up and proceed.

Immediately he was surprised at how he did not yet notice the gargantuan structure in front of him. There was a wall so tall the top disappeared in the clouds, made of bricks each as large as a building. But the gate itself was no less overwhelming, wide enough to fit 50 people, maybe more, and so tall that if two towers were built on top of each other in the middle, they wouldn’t be able to reach the top of the ark. It truly gave Desir the feeling of construction not meant for mortals to witness. And that granted him certain degree of excitement. The gatekeeper had to be a 4th tier monster and Desir felt himself anticipating the fight. Even though the chasm between the third and the 4th tier was massive, he had just obtained just as massive boost to his power in the form of prismatic magic and he was filled with confidence and optimism.

So he set forth, expecting to be swarmed by enemies the moment he stepped through that gate. But no such thing happened. Instead, he was hit by a massive increase in the ambient mana. Far worse than when he had entered the examination site from outside before they enter the trial realm. The mana was so dense Desir felt like he entered jelly, feeling crushed by the pressure while he found it difficult to move.

[Gate 1/5 passed]

But he refused to relent, his own mana enveloped him through his new Voidsyphon. While the nothingness of the void separated him from the danger, the Vitality took over some of the ambient mana to sustain the magic indefinitely and strengthen it. With the pressure elevated, Desir moved on. The next gate appeared identical to the first as he moved towards it. There was no grass or road beneath his feet, just endless pristine white which filled the area between the walls.

[Gate 2/5 passed]

Through the next gate, he felt the strain on his magic multiply. As though the increase was just as exponential as the first time, Desir realised that the foe of the phase was not any monster but that unbearable mana. So he picked up the pace.

[Gate 3/5 passed]

The moment his feet stepped through the third gate, Desir broke into a sprint or at least tried to. The pressure he had felt after the first gate returned despite his protection and he felt as though he was trying to dash while water was reaching all the way to his neck. But that did not make him relent. He continued forward with all he had. After the 4th gate, there would be an arena and the pressure would cease. So he pushed forward, drawing closer with each step. Finally, albeit slightly tired, Desir reached the 4th gate. With confidence, he stepped through, sure of his assumption.

[Gate 4/5 passed]

And he was immediately smitten. It felt as though someone dropped an entire city on his back. His tenons ruptured and ankles shattered from the sheer pressure. He fell to his knees as one of his arms began to rapidly bloat while the other became unresponsive and his spine screamed in agony plus his neck was frozen stiff. Pressure rose inside his eyes and Desir felt as though his head was about to explode.

But despite that, he was still alive long enough to see the gatekeeper. From beyond the clouds above, it descended. A giant of pure white ribs and bones, so large it would barely fit through those gates. Its skull had no eyes within the sockets but just its shape clearly relayed the feeling of matchless majesty and superiority. There were only remnants of cartilage where the wings should’ve been yet the beast could still fly, its four limbs ended with sharp claws high above the ground.

With certain degree of terror, Desir realised he was facing a skeletal dragon. But that felt impossible. Not only would a being of necromancy never be allowed to appear in a place controlled by Logos but all dragons without exception were awakened beings, far more powerful than the 4th tier he was expecting. Though Desir did not have time to reach any further conclusions as the dragon roared.

And before that roar, everything ceased. The incredibly dense magic parted as though it was afraid of the power and the entire realm seemingly trembled. Nothing could stop it from hitting Desir.

There was no pain or suffering after he was struck. In fact, it was kind of relieving as in a single instant all that pain caused by the incredibly dense mana and his failing body simply ceased as everything turned black.

[You have died during stage 95; calculating]

It was only after the announcement that Desir came to realise he had died. It was far too quick. He simply ceased to exist in an instant.

[Overall scores: Completion: 9,682/9,682; Surviving members: 4,992/9,682; Bonus objectives 6,351/9,682; Contribution 8,240/9,682; Final score: 29,265/38,728]

[Proceeding to the solo stage of the trial]