Hero of Darkness

After finally embracing his past and letting go of his lingering regrets completely… Kahn was left with a gloomy and dejected expression.

Swoom!

Soon, the surge of blinding white light flashed before him and the next moment he opened his eyes, he was back inside the final floor where he previously stood.

However, Kahn did not speak anything or revealed an elated expression after passing the first part of the trial, rather he was as solemn as one could be.

At this moment… It felt like a mountainous burden was lifted from Kahn's heart and he had finally found peace within himself. His countenance was that of a man who had just been reborn again and moved on in life.

Finally, after absorbing all the happenings during the trial and letting go of his past life regrets in the next couple of minutes, Kahn spoke again…

"How much time has passed?"

Omega among the group responded in a somber voice.

"Master, it has been more than 2 hours since you went inside that door."

Kahn nodded as this was something he already expected. He then queried again after gazing at Aragorn, the Prince of the Elven Empire who hid himself perfectly till this point as Edmund Thandruil.

"When did he come out?"

But this time… all of Kahn's subordinates had a terrified expressions.

"Only after 10 minutes." responded Blackwall in a heavy and rustic voice.

At this revelation, even Kahn was taken aback and his eyes widened in surprise.

[This bastard… He definitely knows more about the trial even than Vildred.

Well, since he is the prince… then he had access to critical information about the trials and how to pass them.] he lamented while running down a few possible reasons about why Aragorn was so quick in his mind.

[The main question is… why didn't the High Elf imperial family come here before and control Vildred in the past thousand years?

Is there a reason why they sent only previous Heroes of Life including Ervalen?

Dammit, I hate lacking key information.] he thought and fixed his gaze on the Elven Prince.

In the present scenario, Kahn could conclude the cause of their predicament only on one anomaly.

The main reason why Aragorn was able to enter the final floor… It was themselves.

Kahn and his crew had cleared the way for Aragorn till now and killed all the floor bosses for him so the latter never needed to fight them by himself.

[As for the Hero's Party… Why didn't Aragorn come with them instead?

Could it be that he is here for his own reasons, has different motives and he didn't enter on the orders of the imperial clan?

There is definitely something fishy going on.] hypothesized Kahn again.

[Dammit! All these many abilities but I still don't have a single mind-reading skill.

I need to find out something that we can use to our advantage.

Otherwise… I'm as good as dead.]

Now that the mood was set, Vildred spoke in a thunderous voice while exuding a terrifying aura.

"Now that both of you are here… It's time for the 2nd part of the trial.

The Trial of Mind was the first part.

And now…" he spoke in a ghastly tone.

"It's the trial of Endurance." he declared in a majestic voice.

"What do you mean?" asked Kahn.

Vildred then spoke to elaborate the rules of the 2nd part of the trial.

"You have to withstand 5 strikes from me.

First will be done at 10% of my power. And every other will be increased with the increment of 10% again.

Means the last strike will be 50% of my overall strength." he explained.

However, Kahn was left speechless.

[Boy… this is not good. Although Vildred is only at 6th stage saint power level now… he is a Royal Dragon in the end.

His strength is no different than a peak 7th stage saint even if he is using only half his strength.] warned Rathnaar in a somber voice.

Kahn had an ashen expression after hearing this information.

"The purpose of the trial is to test your physical body's endurance.

You can use armor, magical artifacts, magic formations or any other means to survive this trial.

As long as you don't die during the 5 strikes from me… you will pass the test." he iterated.

Soon, the melancholic atmosphere of this floor started bustling with sparks and lightning bolts in the dark sky.

"Since I completed the trial first, it should be given that I get to face it first." suddenly, Aragorn spoke with a haughty expression.

"As you wish. Stand there." said Vildred and soon, a 5 kilometers radius disk-like platform appeared a dozen kilometers away in the sky, made of an unknown metal even to Kahn and Blackwall.

Aragorn flew and landed in the middle. And without waiting for long, the lightning dragon emperor charged his attack.

But the very next moment…

Aragorn used a particular artifact to create an ancient rank formation, just similar to the glowing formations ones surrounding this entire floor of 60 kilometers that has trapped Vildred.

"This conniving bastard!" raged Kahn as soon as he saw the artifact.

Because the elven prince was using the imperial clan's bloodline token.

Bang!

BOOM!!

A blinding and destructive lightning strike hit from the sky. However, only the surrounding area was damaged.

As for Aragorn… he just stood inside the protection barrier as not a single hair on his head was touched.

"He's cheating!" shouted Kahn.

To his claim, Aragorn only smirked and spoke in a shameless tone.

"The trial rules didn't mention that I was prohibited from using it.

Why do you think my great-grandfather created this token in the first place?" he questioned with a smirk.

Because of the Maskaanxavir formation… the user of the imperial clan's token who carried the blood of the creator, cannot be killed by Vildred and his attacks can't harm the user even if it was done in the name of the trial.

This was a big loophole Aragorn was exploiting at this moment.

Even Vildred was thoroughly infuriated but had to follow the rules of the trial and keep attacking Aragorn.

As an aftermath… the nearby 10 kilometers of the area was turned into smithereens. Most of it was either obliterated or turned into small sand grains because of his lightning attacks.

Yet to no avail… the Elven Prince was completely scratch-free.

Now, even Kahn felt a chill in his bones as Aragorn easily passed this part of the trial.

"It was good knowing you, Ragnarsson." mocked Aragorn with a smug smile.

And now… it was Kahn's turn to face those horrifying and lethal attacks.

When Kahn was brought on the same platform, he made up his mind.

"Well, since he is cheating and using loopholes in the rules…" Kahn spoke and revealed a devilish smirk.

"I'll show him who's a better Cheater."