"So… what do we do to stop them?" Without noticing, Nox realized that he had started to frown.
The Constellation chuckled and gave a bitter smile. "Nothing."
"What do you mean? How do I get out of here?"
"Didn't you hear her? There's nothing we can do. You'll be here for the rest of your life." Sarah stated, leaning against the wooden wall.
"I've been here for over almost my entire life. I would've been dead if grandma hadn't saved me."
The Mythmaker confronted the Constellation. "Where exactly are we?"
"The Land of the Dead. The grave for all those exiled by the Constellations." She replied, casting him a curious look.
"And how do we get out?" He didn't like where this was going.
"By defeating the Guardian. By crushing his energy core, the planet will crumble apart."
'Guardian? Didn't I destroy him yesterday?'
"I've already destroyed the 'Guardian' you are speaking of, but nothing has happened."
Nox heard a loud sigh from beside him.
"Do you really think you could defeat something even Constellations can't beat? The Guardian you speak of is just a clone of the main body." Sarah commented, clenching her fists.
"As I've already said, there's no point in trying to escape. The only thing we can do here is to live out our liv-"
"How do we beat him?" The boy interrupted.
"There's no way to beat him. From the stories I've heard, he possesses the power to steal abilities. At this point, he would have gained enough experience and access to hundreds of Divinities." She said matter of factly.
"There is… one way." A small voice creaked.
"When you first arrived, I took a look at your body. Your soul resides in a different time than the rest of us. At first, I was a bit confused. How could a mere awakened even defeat a clone that Exalted humans may even struggle with?."
The Constellation pointed at his heart. "You've been stuck in a time loop. Which is why you were able to defeat the Guardian before it even awoken."
Impressed at her deduction, he gave a sad smile. "You're right. I've died 12 times already."
Sarah gasped, holding her hands against her face. "H-how many times can you keep dying?"
"I'm not too sure myself. Forever, probably." He admitted.
After a moment of silence, the Constellation opened her mouth. "There is… one way you can defeat it.
"But, I'm not sure if you'll like it."
—————————————————————————————————————————
A wave of pale gray energy sent the boy tumbling back onto the ground.
"Too slow. Again." The old lady repeated, conjuring another wave of power.
Nox quickly got back up. His divinity activated as he dove into the world of strings. He would definitely stop the attack this time.
Whoosh!
The strike seemed almost invisible, blending into the moonlight. However, the boy was able to see it.
Thin strands of greyish energy rippled through the air. The Mythmaker reached out, aiming to disperse the attack.
'I got it!'
Even though Nox managed to successfully catch the strings, they suddenly began to rotate and promptly exploded inside his palm.
Blood slowly dripped from his wounded hands as he gritted his teeth. It had already been a few days, and there has yet to be any progress.
"Careful, kid." Sarah sighed, hurriedly rushing over to him
Green aura enveloped her hands as she hovered them over the wounds, gently stopping the bleeding and healing the cuts.
The Grandma also limped over, almost as if her impressive attacks had been a mirage.
"You're improving, don't get too hasty." She nodded.
"Are you sure? I still haven't been able to stop a single attack."
"Even though I've been exiled, I am still a Constellation. My divinity allows me to easily manipulate my energy."
Nox simply sighed, gazing into the distance. It would seem that he would truly be in this Challenge for a long time.
'It isn't so bad…' he told himself.
Most people would kill to be in a time loop where they received training; a Constellation, at that.
But for some reason, the Mythmaker couldn't help but sense that something was wrong. Something big was coming.
As night fell on the Land of the Dead, the three Otherworlders huddled around a fireplace.
Lying on a wooden chair, he was reminded of his time in the First Challenge. In moments of constant wariness and threat of death, it was moments like this that he remembered the most.
'Better than the outskirts.' he inwardly grumbled.
Snap!
"Nox, wake up! Are you even paying attention to my story?"
The young girl grabbed his arms and shook him. Nox pulled back, almost crashing onto the floor.
"I've been listening… what are you talking about?" He lied.
Sarah raised an eyebrow and continued with her story. "Where I come from, Otherworlders were frowned upon."
"In the past, my village had been part of a group. To fend off the beasts that came from the Phenomenon, we had to work together with other people."
"What happened next?" He asked, suddenly interested.
"I was just getting to it!" She smacked the back of his head, leaving him reeling in pain.
"Child, please don't hurt the adventurer." The Grandma softly pleaded.
"My apologies. As I was saying…"
Sarah pointed to her eyes.
"I had awakened at a young age. While playing in the river with some of the children, a beast lept out of the water and grabbed one of them. Out of nowhere, my body suddenly started feeling hot."
"I don't know if it was the rush or adrenaline.. but I grabbed the monster with my bare hands."
"How did you scare it away? I thought you were an enhancer." Nox asked, silently noting down her story.
She smiled. "My divinity allows me to infuse living things with life energy. If you have too much energy flowing inside you… it starts getting pretty hard to contain."
The Mythmaker widened his eyes, "So, you-"
"I infused the beast with so much energy that it burst open. We ended up saving the child, but at a cost."
"What happened?"
"Word of my awakening got around, and the other villages wanted to have me. My village elder didn't want to lose an awakened; one with healing abilities at that." The girl looked at the ceiling, remembering what had happened.
"We fought over where I would be stationed. Unfortunately, a powerful monster happened to be in the area. With everyone being uncoordinated... we were unable to fend it off."
"I was the only survivor, left alive out of sheer luck."
The room went silent. Nox silently offered his hand as a gesture of support.
Surprisingly, Sarah grabbed it. "You better make it out of here alive, you brat."
As he was about to argue, he received a message from the otherwise unresponsive system.
「You ■ave enc■untered the G■ardian of this Challe■ge.」
The Constellation quickly stood up. It was the first time that Nox had seen the Grandma looking frightened.
"Prepare your weapons… it's here." She solemnly said.
Without warning, a ghostly force ripped off the side of the house. Splinters flew as the Mythmaker sensed a powerful presence.
A large mechanical arm reached in, smashing into the floor.
"We meet again, regressor."