With the fourth floor in front of them, Ben couldn’t help but feel great. He felt like he was winning, finally pulling one over on the gods after how the last tower had gone for them. He’d been able to see everything that was going to happen on the first three floors ahead of time, making them easy to deal with thanks to Funa’s strength on their side.

Now just to see if the luck holds up.

Given that he’d only been able to witness three options for the fourth and fifth floors, that was where things had the greatest chance to fly off the rails. He couldn’t deny the likelihood that there were more waiting to be seen, he could only hope that his preparations and the presence of the great spirit would be enough if that really was the case.

And if I’m wrong then we’ll just push through anyway. We’re way too close to give up.

The atmosphere amongst them was confident and Ben was feeling it too, mixed with his determination. Anything less than getting to the end was the same as failure in his eyes, he wouldn’t tolerate it when all of this was to help Thera and he was carrying a few tools still that hadn’t gotten a chance to shine with how easy their progress had been.

Potent potions to handle debuffs and mind effects of all sorts, the clothing under his jacket having only dark enchantments on it to keep it being affected by the cancelling effect of the last two floors, as well as a couple enchanted knives too. Compared to what he’d gone into the earth tower with, it could be seen as minimal, but for him, it was enough considering the advantages they had and anything they might face.

If he were to look at everything they’d gone against so far, it had essentially just been three mind effects in the form of visual, audio, and tactile hallucinations, along with what he assumed was a dark spell that prevented light from existing on the first floor, leaving debuffs practically untouched.

Since it seemed the floor they drew was likely random from a greater pool of options, there was always the chance they just wouldn’t get any, but still it put him on his toes. It just felt like debuffs should be there for them to suffer through eventually. As masochistic as it would sound, it felt like the dark tower would be incomplete if they didn’t deal with it at least once.

Of course, if the next option has no debuffs again that means it’s going to be a floor I know nothing about so going to cross my fingers and hope for a bit of weakening when we step through.

“You guys all ready?” He asked, looking at his companions and getting affirmatives from all of them. “Cool, in that case, let’s get started.”

As prepared as they could be, he kicked open the door and walked beyond to face whatever was about to be thrown at them.

His mind speed skills were moving in a blaze before he’d taken his first step was likely what let him see something going wrong. It looked like the world was flickering, cutting in and out while trapping his body where it stood.

For just a second he wondered if that was somehow a part of the trial, something he was supposed to overcome, until within the flicks he saw something else. Three women he knew, laying on the ground in a blank space, giving him one of three options. Either it wasn’t real, it was something he was supposed to overcome, or something in the trial had broken when he’d touched it.

The few minds he had observing the world at a normal speed could do nothing. If it wasn’t for how he could think then he doubted he’d even be able to perceive anything was happening at all, which to him pointed to the idea the trial itself was malfunctioning. Whatever had knocked out Thera and the other two had likely failed when it came to him for one reason or another, and now it didn’t know what to do. It was like he was trapped between entering the stage and being kept out with no end in sight.

Oh, I might be fucked. Okay, think here, think. From what I can see, this is the sleep/debuff stage so the girls just need to break free of the nightmare they’re trapped in before they’re too weak to move and then the exit should appear. Now what about… Ah, yep, looks like she’s fine at least.

Amongst the flashes, he could see a dark blob moving between the three, more of a blur than anything else with what had to be Funa doing an examination and being clearly better off than he was.

So what’s the difference between us here? Is it because mind effects don’t work on me that the trial doesn’t know what to do since you should be asleep to enter it? Funa should be in the same boat, but maybe she was able to manipulate things for herself to make it work. Which doesn’t help me in the slightest.

If he was right then he couldn’t imagine what he was supposed to be doing there to free himself. He couldn’t just turn unnatural mind off, that was the way he thought. There was no escaping the processes of his own mind, but short of that he was lost. It was like he was going against an entirely different stage from the rest of them.

Hey Myriad, if you’re listening then I’d like to submit a bug report, this floor wasn’t made to accommodate people like me. Which is the second time this has happened I might add! This is unfair! It’s discrimination! Why do I have to keep suffering when you guys are the ones building things wrong!

His complaints were met with no answer, not that he was expecting one and with nothing else he could do he put the full weight of his mind into trying to find a solution himself rather than trust the gods would fix the error his presence had created, with his entire status going through his head while he looked at angles that might work.

Trial breaker, trial defier, king of sacrilege, my resistances and my resistance enhancement, all of them are maybe options but for now let’s try material manipulation.

What he was hoping was that his theory was right, that maybe he was between floors in a sense, giving him the chance to still use his magic and push himself through, but that failed before it started. He couldn’t even activate his magic, let alone use it to push him further into the trial, leaving his first attempt as a failure.

He didn’t let it discourage him though and instead moved to the next option he thought might have some potential, deep connection.

He was operating under the hope that if he could connect to any of them then it would anchor him in a way, forcing the trial to recognize that he was there to allow him to cross over and since the skill wasn’t powered by mana he believed there was a chance. He could feel himself stretching out with it, nearly within range, so close to the women flickering in his vision but still falling short. The skill couldn’t stretch out far enough to get to where the others laid, with his only hope being that Funa would cross into his field of effect, regardless of the risks that added.

Long ago when he’d first gained connect, he’d been told by Myriad not to use it on Abrus, a great spirit, for the dangers that might have to his mind, but he didn’t know if that was still true. He’d connected to hundreds of spirits at once now and had a mental structure unlike any other mortal so he thought it wouldn’t be too bad for him, but with no way to confirm beyond actually testing it, it would still be a gamble.

Still, I gotta at least try.

He kept it extended while he was focusing on what else he could do, with the great spirit never crossing his boundary. She stuck close to the others the entire time as she worked, not showing a hint that she might end up close enough to him to make any sort of difference.

Oh, come on Funa, just three steps back! That’s all I’m asking for! Damn it, okay, where does this leave me? This is a trial, I have titles that give me benefits against them and it’s something made by the gods. I have everything I need to push through this, just gotta figure out how.

The obvious answer was his king of sacrilege, but there was a reason he hadn’t tried to use it first, he didn’t know how to use it in a situation like that. It was basically a passive skill that would occasionally make the system talk to him and gave some insight on the gods he’d see but that was really it. How was he supposed to put it to work to free him of the current predicament?

Myriad had brought up before that the gods would occasionally feel something from him when he was in a bad mood because of it, could that have been an angle to work? If he was giving off some sort of force then maybe it would let him break through and he used all of his minds to try.

Letting himself fall into the feeling of his sacrilege he tried to reach out, to push away whatever was binding him, only to feel it fail like all of the rest of his attempts, but at least like with his connect, he knew it was doing something and growing more and more aware that he was running out of options he kept those two up as the time passed by.

He didn’t bother keeping track of it as he devoted himself to the task but eventually he was distracted by what was happening beyond. A movement as Thera, shortly followed by Pelenia and Karly, all got up, having beaten the stage they were trapped in, with a glowing door appearing behind them. The exit.

Oh shit shit shit.

He had no clue what was going to happen to himself if they went through. He supposed it all depended on what happened to inactive floors as a whole but didn’t want to guess at an answer. Maybe the best-case scenario was that it would kick him out, but his doubts were too strong to accept something like that. It felt far more likely that it would only make his present situation worse, either killing him outright or leaving him even more trapped than he already was.

His saving grace was seeing glimpses of Thera arguing, keeping the rest in place while he kept on trying, pushing against each failure, only to end up with another.

Damn it, still not working. Okay, think. I’m trying to push out with my sacrilege to attack whatever’s acting on me, maybe I’ve got it backwards. I’ve got a force acting on me so I might be where I need to be directing my sacrilege.

At the very least it was worth a shot. Feeling more and more trapped with each passing second and not much he could do about it, he stopped trying to reach out with his sacrilege, instead turning within, trying to fill himself with it. Every mind in his head moved in that one direction at top speeds, all to give him a chance to break through, and unlike before he got just a bit of progress.

It wasn’t much at first, a mere twitch really, but it got him just a little bit forward and he kept going, getting another and another soon after, slowly, incrementally making his way forward as the flickering he was seeing dulled, the gaps getting bigger as he pushed his way through until it prompted another change. His companions noticed him.

He still couldn’t hear what they were saying but he reached his hand out as he kept on pushing, feeling the trial effect slowly break while at the same time, Thera ran over, grabbing his hand in her own and pulled him forward with all she had.

That did it. The world snapped into place while his notifications rang out and he was once again free, being held tight by Thera while the rest waited for any explanation about what happened.

“Ahem, sorry about the hold-up,” He said with a crooked smile. “Everyone ready to take on the last floor?”