The three archons followed Serkyrio to the underground training hall after contacting all of their free combatants to the same place.
With them being the first few members to go for the training hall. Serkyrio called out to Harold who was doing fine tuning on a panel. "Harold, can you start it up?" Harold stopped fiddling with the panel and waved back. "Yeah, it's up and ready to go. Which one is the first sacrifice?" With Harold's tone, the three archons became somewhat terrified, as they do not know what Harold and Serkyrio have been preparing. Eventually, Draxus offered himself for the first act. "I'll do it..." He sounded hesitant, seemingly not wanting to be placed in some horrendous training. He anticipated that it would be simply Serkyrio with a three-sectioned staff. "Alright, Draxus head to the center of the room marked with a circle there, this is for calibration on the scale." "Calibration?" Now Draxus was confused, but he still complied to Harold's suggestions. When he stepped into the middle, Harold pressed a button in the panel and activated his staff. "[Garner]..." He activated his staff and absorbed mana from the many containers behind him. "[Universal Simulacrum], [Blank Universe]." In that moment, Draxus disappeared. After a few moments of waiting as they didn't really know what happened inside. Serkyrio and Harold were both grinning as Harold was making adjustments and his staff activating from time to time.
Before long Draxus finally returned, and he has moved a bit away from the center of the room. He looked absolutely bloody, major injuries and a missing arm and is lying on the ground. Arlesk and Remuel were now shaking as they were confused on what in the universe Draxus was facing in the training area. The Sentinel Order vice chiefs excluding Olivia arrived in that moment, Harold began to heal Draxus who remained silent and seemingly looked traumatized. Harold and Serkyrio nodded as they gathered satisfactory results, they looked behind them and noticed that a few more of the fifty thousand containers have been emptied. "W-What the hell did Draxus just go through?!" Audrey, raised her voice in shock and fear as she never expected that the first thing they have to see was Draxus who is pretty much close to death. He never said anything, and after healing completely with the help of [Eternal Regeneration] by Serkyrio's gem, he left the room in silence.
"Alright Remuel, you're next." "Geh..." Remuel looked absolutely reluctant, but he still complied and followed Harold's instructions. And in the same fashion, when Harold began the test, Remuel disappeared. After some moments pass, he returned in a similar state to Draxus's return. He was similarly healed, and left in silence. However, he whispered to Arlesk a warning. "You need to fight at full power... What Harold was doing is not something that we can fight by simply using our abilities as [Gods of Infinite Space]... He may have found true power that cannot be challenged directly..." "True power that cannot be challenged...?" "I felt the power of his ability... It's an inescapable trap with infinite range until it hits a target, and sends them to a simulated universe connected to this world, and as long as you can break out, you can escape... Only if you can manage to find an opening to escape..." "Wait, you mean?" Arlesk tried to get more information, but Remuel shook his head. "Arlesk, you're up." "Good luck man." Remuel left the room, and Arlesk followed Harold's instructions. He stood at the center of the hall and noticed that the Guardian Order commanders, the former heroes were now watching. When he watched Harold hold up his staff and uttered the chant, he was enveloped with light and found himself upon a grassland.
"Alright Arlesk, this is your first experience on a [Simulated Universe]. So for the time being, we can do a simple opponent. Since you've read the SCP files, let's do a simple SCP-682 at 100% duplicate accuracy as your opponent." "YOU'RE SENDING AN SCP-682?!" Arlesk instantly activated his [Cyberdivinity] and flew upwards. He felt absolute dread from what Harold had said on what he'll be fighting. He understood why Draxus and Remuel were barely able to survive. "I will stop the simulation in five minutes. The Simulated universe has a different scale here, space and time specifically. So it may take a bit more time on your end. Anyways, good luck."
After Harold's instructions for training had ended. A blackhole was created on the ground which started sucking him in. He flew upwards while charging up divine power in reaction. A large, vaguely reptile-like creature appeared as a start. He immediately fired a nuclear blast towards the creature, not even hesitating on what kind of destruction he could cause. He summoned drones in succession, firing down towards the creature. He was expending as much mana and regenerating from absorbing the black hole.
He continued firing down for a few minutes until he was interrupted, his right arm was sliced off by some form of blade that had been extended from the creature's tail. Looking at the creature, it was enraged and trying to reach Arlesk with reckless abandon and looked like it had regenerated already. He changed his focus to regenerate his arm instead in that instant, which allowed himself to heal up completely.
He tried to reposition himself, but the creature jumped up and chomped on his legs, biting off the crus. Since he was still focusing on regeneration, he quickly recovered his legs and charged just enough just to launch an explosive blast towards the monster, giving him some distance.
Arlesk continued his volley of attacks while constantly trying to reposition himself midair. After what seemingly had to be an hour of constantly in a position of being killed, the creature disappeared. Confused, Arlesk looked around with his guard up, ready to make instantaneous movements in the case of a surprise attack. After a few moments, he felt an extreme headache, but he barely kept his focus just enough that his Cyberdivinity isn't cancelled. Everything in his vision started to duplicate, with his eyes seeing different colors as if hallucinating. In those moments, he was impaled from behind, sliced in half between the upper and lower half of his bodies, eye was gauged out. He tried to regenerate himself quicker, and barely made it before the next brutal attack lands on him. He started to doubt his chances of survival against such an abstract opponent. With an act of desperation, he channeled enough energy to cause another full nuclear explosion. After the explosion, everything turned dark for him, and he eventually found himself back on the training hall of Preeliance. He was breathing heavily as his body was regenerating still, he then realized that the simulation was stopped just before he was killed. He felt complicated as he was placed in a position where he could actually die, but considering that the simulation was ended, he felt like Serkyrio had been the one ensuring his survival during the session.
In his mind, he felt somewhat humiliated, but he now understood that he needed to reach even greater heights, with Harold's brutal training sessions in the simulation room. He was healed and he left the simulation room, tapping the shoulders of Ulysses, Claude, and Pantheon... "You will live after this training session, but you may end up having your soul scarred... Good luck out there men..." The three Guardian Commanders were at a shock, seeing as Arlesk was still okay despite seeing him in a near-death state after the session before getting completely healed. He left the room in search of Draxus and Remuel.