Three Trials had already passed, and in each one, the punishment for failure was one thing: death. This simple rule in such a complex system, everyone had already realized, so... The fifty people with the worst result had no emotions.
On the massive table, their names were at the very bottom, shining brightly with bloody fire. Everything had already been determined for them.
Click.
Angel snapped his finger, then fifty heads exploded, simultaneously and irrevocably.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!" Several girls exclaimed, staring in horror at their bloody hands and chunks of flesh on their white shirts.
"Silence!" Angel said majestically. His voice spread through the academy in waves, actually quieting everyone who made any noise at all.
'Interesting...' Ethan muttered, slowly getting up from the ground but not letting go of Alisa, his hand remaining on her shoulder.
"Stop yelling. If it were my will, every one of you would be feeding worms underground by now!" The angel arrogantly tilted his head, looking up at everyone from below.
Then, the stone pillars at the corners of the main square shattered into rubble as well as the barrier into particles of light.
[Third Trial is over!]
[Fourth Trial starts at 5:00!]
Clap.
The angel clapped his hands, and random wind currents carried all the corpses far beyond the main square. Oddly enough, none of the students were hurt, the wind just bypassed them since they weren't its target.
"You will know your bonuses for the past trial when the next one begins. As much as I don't like it, the rules say you have a short break now." Angel muttered irritably, holding his hands behind his back.
Rest was an important part of any area, but right now it seemed like nothing more than a delay before the inevitable execution.
Of the several thousand people that were in Azure Academy today, only 950 were alive. This happened in a matter of hours. People realized that at this rate, none of them would see the next dawn.
Ethan decided not to waste any time even during the break, and looked towards the axe that he had left against the wall.
He stepped forward, but, no sooner had he taken the next step than Alisa wrapped her arms around him from behind, not wanting to let go.
"Stop... Don't go... Stay with me... Please..." Alisa whispered, sincere and pitiful.
Ethan turned around abruptly, with a cold stare, clutching Alisa's wrist tightly. It caused Alisa a slight pain.
'Third Trial is over, so there's no point in me babysitting her anymore...' Ethan thought about removing Alisa's hands from his belt, but then his face changed, and he dropped to one knee with a kind smile.
"Sure, if you need me to, for those five minutes I won't make a move away from you." Ethan smiled with narrowed eyes as his grip became gentle and soft.
Alisa's eyes glazed over, she was genuinely happy to hear that.
'Damn... What was that just now?' Magnus internally muttered with a confused expression. He kept watching Ethan, 'He was definitely going to throw her hands aside, but as soon as that smirk appeared on his face, just for a moment... He did it for some reason!'
Ethan sighed and pressed Alisa against him again, though he had no particular desire to do it again. Then, he looked at the table floating in front of Angel.
'Every Trial has consequences, obviously Third One is no exception... Moreover, I doubt that Alisa's special role in this Trial won't make itself felt further down the line.' Ethan pondered while his gaze traveled down the table.
The lower the row, the fewer points a person had, but what about Alisa? Well, her name was at the very bottom, and she was the only one with no points, her line was blank.
The break lasted only five minutes, but every second flowed slowly as hardly anyone could relax. Some were just waiting for the next Trial to start, some were nervously biting their nails, and those who had food with them were trying to stuff themselves with everything they had.
[Time remaining - 00:00!]
At the same moment, there was silence. Everyone waited to see what would happen next, what the next Trial would be like.
[Beginning of the Fourth Trial, the last in the Zero Epos - Triumph of Pain.]
"Listen carefully." Angel said arrogantly, not wanting to explain anything to them, but he had no choice. Just like the people below him.
'Hah, this time he decided to explain the rules himself?' Ethan smirked.
Angel continued, "For the next three minutes you must choose an opponent to face in a possibly non-lethal duel."
The people's eyes went wide, they were terrified that they had to fight against each other.
"Calm down!" Magnus exclaimed in a stern voice, "Didn't you hear him? It's not a fact that we have to kill each other! Am I right?" Magnus looked at Angel.
"Yeah..." Angel nodded slightly with a cold face, "However if you interrupt me one more time, I will kill you despite the rules."
"Your job is to inflict as much pain as possible on your opponent in the allotted time, in every way possible." Angel explained, "You can kill your opponent, but then you lose the opportunity to earn points. The dead feel no pain."
Angel sighed, "At the end of the challenge all of your wounds will be healed... Though if it were up to me I would take that out of the rules. It's too good for you, you're not worthy of it."
Immediately after Angel's words, the table shone brightly. Then, a golden flash appeared in front of each person.
Some were frightened and moved farther away from the flash, but those were the minority.
Into Ethan's hands fell a leather glove woven with black threads at the joints. Everyone got gloves like that, but they were different in some ways.
"Ah...? Our gloves are not the same?" The young man standing next to Nitra raised an eyebrow while comparing his glove with hers.
"Hah, isn't it obvious?" Nitra smirked arrogantly while putting on a glove with golden threads, "I'm ranked second and you're 350th!"
The first hundred top scorers had gloves with golden threads, everyone else had plain white threads.
'Hmm... Looks like the first place is special.' Magnus pondered glancing at Ethan's glove and putting on his own one, with golden threads just like Nitra's.
"Ah...? Ours is different too?" Alisa muttered in confusion, her glove had red threads.
Ethan silently pulled his glove on and ruffled Alisa's hair, then he said, "Don't worry. Your glove is unique just like mine, it can't be anything bad."
"Uhum!"
Then, the table shone again, and everyone heard a mechanical voice in their heads.
[If you want to challenge someone to a duel then point your glove at one of the participants of the Trial. You can refuse an infinite number of times. If you don't find an opponent by the end of the timer, the choice will be random.]
[The first 100 participants in the table can force any participant below 100th place to become their opponent. In this case, it is impossible to refuse.]
[Alisa Lowgriever, The Victim of the last Trial, cannot challenge anyone to a duel, nor can she be challenged to a duel even by contestants ranked 2 through 100. Alisa Lowgriever will receive 0.2% of the total number of points that will be earned during Triumph of Pain!]
Then, it was the turn of the only person with a black threaded glove.
[Ethan Mercer, winner of the last Trial, may challenge ANYONE to a duel. Refusal is impossible.]