Everyone made it but Orland.
Syllian had one final jump before the ledges and protrusions created enough space for him to cling to the wall and creep around to the robe of the left leg.
As for the rest, they still had many more jumps left to catch up.
Up next after Orland was Theon.
The young man was shivering, quaking in his drenched shoes.
In front of him were 2 empty platforms.
The symbols of death, the grimy platforms, loomed above him, gazing at him silently; awaiting his action.
"Just go already." The blonde-haired Riley hid his fear deeply, but his cracked voice completely betrayed him.
To Riley, the longer he waited, the worse it was. So the stalling Theon was irritating him more and more by the moment.
"I-I know!"
Curling his fists, Theon could feel the sweat building up and mixing with the rainwater in his palms.
"JUMP!"
Out of nowhere, Danny's voice threw out all of Theon's apprehensions, and his body instinctively followed the command.
Pah!
Planting his body around the platform, Theon let out a sigh mixed with relief and deep-seated fear.
Right after Theon jumped, Riley, Crude and finally Danny, followed suit one by one.
"Get up already."
Riley berated the scaredy-cat who was still hugging the platform.
Theon couldn't respond, he was too terrified to do so. He felt like his throat was clamping down every time he tried to open his mouth.
"Just fucking JUMP!" Danny's voice was audibly hurried and apprehensive.
Syllian had never seen the man act like that, so, he checked for the reason why.
With the help of crackling lightning bolts, Syllian was able to take a look at the water, 'It's coming close.'
And in those waters, Syllian was able to see thousands upon thousands of miniature tentacles swarming about, tenderly sliding about the Mistress' feet.
Rumble!
The entire statue shook once more, fortunately, no one was in the middle of a jump.
Everyone leaned their heads over their platform to take a look at the waters.
The tips of massive tentacles were slamming into the base of the structure; ineffectively but enough to impact the measly humans.
"We have to get moving, quick."
Crude looked at the stalling Theon, "Go!"
Theon stood up after smacking himself in the face a couple of times, he needed the wake-up call.
The water levels were approaching the ankles of the statue, and the whole body of water surrounding the nearby hundreds to thousands of kilometres was rising.
All just to get them.
Jumping once more, the queue was now connected to Allen, Syllian, and Helen.
Moving Helen away from himself, Syllian tensed his burning legs, gritted through his searing left thigh; and pushed off the platform with all of his strength.
Soaring through the air, Syllian embraced the freezing rainfall, allowing it to cover him from head to toe as he sliced through the sky.
Reaching out with both arms, he barely clipped the edge of the slim platform with his palms.
Feeling it slip between his fingers, Syllian let all his frustrations break out, channelling that energy he slowly pulled himself.
But as he pulled himself he felt it slip faster and faster.
Until-
"Finch!"
-his right hand slipped off.
Unwilling to let go that easily, Syllian swung his right arm back up.
As he did so...
Slip...
His left hand slipped off.
Pah!
And his right hand latched on just in time.
Expelling every last lingering droplet of slumbering fear that had built up over the past few days in one throat-tearing roar the boy-
"Come on-!!!"
-successfully pulled himself up and over.
He made it.
Taking in multiple deep breaths, Syllian couldn't comprehend how close to death he had been just now.
And all because he was short.
'Curse being short.'
Alas, this wasn't the time to rest, standing back up he got ready to catch Helen.
Her small body soon landed in his arms, then Allen followed suit and so did the rest.
Syllian and Helen had to start moving across the protrusions and ledges before the others could cross.
Planting his hand on the first extended rock, Syllian stuck to the statue and slowly followed it around. The stele would be directly below him by now if not for the water covering the world.
'Don't give out on me now!'
He was talking to his left leg and arms.
Everything was burning and he wasn't even 40% done with the climb.
His chest was consistently leaking blood; his left thigh was oozing pus alongside the blood in a pinkish amalgamation of natural human filth.
'Just go...!'
Pushing everything to its innate limits, Syllian dragged himself while teetering on the abyss for over 5 minutes.
With every step his feet could give out and slip, smashing his head in like Orland.
With every pull of his hands, his fingers could slip and roll his body backwards-
'I don't want to end up like Orland.'
Not when he was so close to the end of the Trials.
---
Lying on their backs, everyone was exhausted out of their minds.
Unwilling to utter even a single word, each one of the remaining members of the dead Adler caught their breath.
They had to recuperate before the waters reached them.
"Food anyone?" Riley spoke up from the side, his grumbling stomach reminded everyone of their basic human needs.
Well, in this situation they only wanted sustenance.
Everyone turned their faces to Theon, even Syllian. If there was one person here who had to have brought food, it was this guy.
Pointing a finger at himself, Theon looked around bewilderedly, "Me?"
Allen chuckled beside him, "Who else?"
Theon looked around at them innocently while muttering:
"What-? How did they know?"
Opening his clothing, they all saw dozens of stored foods stuffed in every nook and cranny that this man had sewn into his custom clothes.
"Since when did this guy-"
"Crazy bastard."
"See, who else?"
Dejectedly, the young man handed rations out to everyone.
Begrudgingly so at Riley, the one who incited this rebellion.
Syllian accepted his ration quietly, and bit away at the dried meat. It was wet, so he didn't know whether to even call it 'dried' anymore, but food was food.
With his back on the robes of the left leg, Syllian had the path to the cape in sight right in front of him.
All it took was one little manoeuvre and they could climb the cape up to the highest point of the statue.
But.
Once they made it onto the cape, the hardest trial would begin.
The winds up there would become a dozen times more powerful, and the rain had full authority over the empty night sky.
It would be slippery and dangerous; the weakest gusts would be more powerful than the ones below the cape, on these robes they were on.
Chewing the meat, Syllian pulled out his flask and washed the food down with clean water.
"Hey, Finch, can I-?"
Allen leaned back on the wall with Syllian, eying the flask of water enviously.
Passing it over to him, Syllian closed his eyes and rested for a second, "How is it?"
Swallowing the water, Allen looked at the others for a moment then spoke.
"Not sure, doesn't look like we can make it."
Without the surging adrenaline, Allen was serene, he resigned to his fate.
But that would be incorrect.
Allen hadn't resigned just now.
He had done so long ago...
---
30 minutes passed.
Giving the dark waters a quick check they saw that it had reached the ankles.
It wouldn't be as scary if not for the fact...
Looking up at the water that stretched beyond the horizon...
"It's all coming."
The entire world was rising, the whole ocean was chasing after them.
If so, then-
They all had the same suspicion now, one they wouldn't have dared to have prior.
[Is the ocean a Mutant?]
Or an even more harrowing theory, one that Syllian felt might be closer to an even more terrifying truth.
"...Or is the ocean just the blood of a Mutant."
Perhaps...
Perhaps they were in the belly of a Mutant.
'At least something similar to that.'
It was far-fetched and unlikely, but the fact that something of that ridiculous of a scale could be a possible truth was terrifying on its own.
Standing up from his rest, Syllian comfortably stretched his limb.
The dull, aching pain from his wounds was at the back of his mind. He didn't know any other ways of preventing the bleeding, only tightening the bandages.
Running his hand across the marbling of the statue, he had the opportunity to appreciate the grandeur of the structure up close and person for the first time.
Running his hand along, he followed it around.
Stretching from one end of the platform to the other end where the cape could be reached.
Suddenly, his fingers got caught on something.
It felt sharp, uneven, and out of place.
Waiting for lightning to fall, Syllian tried moving his hand around the spot.
"A hole?"
Crackle-!
A close bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, lighting up the interior of the hole.
It was a crack in the robes that revealed the insides.
Beneath the robes was smooth grey skin untouched by the sands of time, unlike the skin on the sandals.
"They put so much detail into this thing."
'That's if it was built by people.'
He didn't let it slip by his mind that this was an abnormal place, expecting any sense of normality was idiotic.
Crackle!
Light returned again, letting him get another glimpse.
'Hm?'
A part of the skin is darker than the rest?
Curious, Syllian decided to wait for another flash of lightning.
Soon, he caught another glance.
'It's darker.'
It was just a small patch, but it was most certainly a notch darker than the rest of the skin.
"But why?"
It looked like a mole?
Syllian didn't feel like it was out of place, actually, he felt it to be natural.
It was meant to be there.
Like it had always been.
Like it had been-
Like it had-
Like?
A hair-raising sensation shot through his body, bringing along with it a deep, abyssal cold.
'It beckons all; it swallows all.'
He paused and realised it all.
The chilling blade caressed his forearm, tingling upwards, higher and higher...
'For She is The Harbinger; For She is The Caller.'
It rested its slithering edge on his skin, teasingly caressing his neck.
"For She is The Night; the endless, foretelling Night..."
Then, it slid down his neck, blowing its macabre breath down his left arm, mockingly tingling his left hand...
"She..."
...and grasped it.
Drip-
Syllian's neck dripped.
She had been with them all along.
Watching.
Observing.
The boy slowly turned his head to the left, taking in a deep breath in the process.
He held it all in.
And glanced.
At Her small hand.
Then, he followed Her hand, slowly shifting his gaze upwards.
Until finally.
He looked at Her.
Opening his mouth, he asked:
"Are you the Call of The Night, the Caller of The Night..."
He paused, attempting to maintain any semblance of sanity in this insane world.
"...Or both..."
His eyes flinched as he looked at Her face.
"...Helen."
At the face dripping with the throes of death.