What had happened in that moment?
Something had happened, Ashar thought, from the instant the Eastern Leader had been stabbed. Yet he could not remember it clearly. He searched through his memory and tried to replay the scene.
He had used his hidden move and activated the Eye of Sophia in the Soldier behind the Leader, the one he had planted the Eye on earlier when he struck him with his palm during their first skirmish.
The hijacked Soldier had then slashed at the third Soldier in the room. While it was distracted, Issen and Maereth fired an invisible Axiom arrow into it.
After that, Ashar forced the controlled Soldier to stab through its own body, allowing him to reclaim the Eye of Sophia for himself.
Then he had turned toward the puzzle of the Third Trial.
And then…
Yes, Ashar remembered.
That was when it happened.
That was when the Eastern Leader activated his ability.
When Ashar opened his eyes again, it was Issen who was carrying him through the labyrinth corridors of the altar. Something followed them from behind. Whatever it was, it had convinced Issen that the best strategy was to run.
"Damn it, why?" Issen muttered. "Why didn't I just stay with Vaelor back then?"
They turned through several corridors, and Ashar realised that Issen had also begun to understand the pattern of the labyrinth.
Ashar steadied himself and tried to assess their situation.
"What happened back there?" he asked.
"You really don't know?" Issen replied. "That thing launched itself into the air and bounced you off the ceiling. Maybe you deserved it."
"That thing?"
It turned the corner behind them for a single moment.
And Ashar realised.
This was the Eastern Leader's ability.
The Leader no longer resembled anything human. His body had increased in mass and bone density until he stood three or four times larger than Ashar and Issen. His Axiom energy had grown along with him, erupting outward in a constant, hysterical shriek that Ashar could feel pressing against his senses. The silver, glassy eyes typical of a Faceless Being were now red, bulging, and furious. Something had torn through the top of his skull, leaving a dark cavity from which two horns emerged.
Ashar did not need to exchange even a single strike with the creature to know the outcome; it would crush him instantly. There were no strategies that could overcome it, no tricks that could turn the battle in his favour. It was the pure embodiment of nature's predatory instinct.
"Well?" the Eastern Leader screamed. "Aren't you going to come back and fight? I'm not dead yet! COME ON!"
Before they turned down the next corridor, Issen fired an Axiom Arrow behind them, creating an explosion of light. The flash blinded the Leader for an instant, preventing him from seeing which direction they had taken.
Still, both Ashar and Issen could feel their hunter drawing closer and closer.
They could not escape.
"He's… he's too damn fast," Issen said. "What's he going to do? Is he going to eat us?"
"That can't be possible."
Behind them echoed screams, cackles, and strange groaning sounds, emotions that neither of them fully understood.
"I thought you were stronger!" the Eastern Leader roared. "I thought you were a lot stronger! But now you're just a weakling! Come on then! Are you scared? I'll cut your head off, you piece of garbage!"
"Why is he acting like this?" Issen asked. "Aren't they supposed to be emotionless?"
This was why the Eastern Leader had concealed both his identity and his ability from the beginning. His true power was a specialised Higher Self, one that granted him speed and strength far beyond even the strongest Second Tier warriors. While this form remained active, he was essentially invincible.
Ashar remembered now that when he had seen the Leader begin to transform, he had attempted to strike with the Pendulum Blade. But the result had been the same as striking stone.
There was a cost to this transformation.
It did not only alter the Eastern Leader's body; it altered his mind. He was no longer restrained, and he would crush and devour anything in his path. His mission had been to retrieve the Eye of Sophia, but in this state, there was no guarantee he could control himself long enough to do it.
"Have you noticed something?" Ashar said as he finally regained his footing and began running on his own.
"What?"
"Despite his speed… he still hasn't caught us."
"Ha, yeah," Issen said. "I noticed."
"Although he is faster than we are, his mobility is extremely limited. In a structure like this labyrinth, that becomes a disadvantage."
"That doesn't help much," Issen replied. "We still can't hurt him."
"Of course not," Ashar said calmly. "The form he has taken is the amalgamation of hatred, desire, and hunger into a single being. You cannot defeat such a creature through ordinary means. It will always surpass your will. It will always outlast your hatred."
"Then how do we beat it?"
Ashar looked inward, beyond the physical body he inhabited.
"Eye of Sophia."
His perception changed, and the world around him shifted.
The corridors he ran through dissolved into another reality entirely, one shaped by his will. His hands, his face, his eyes, if he wished, could become nothing more than radiant starlight. In this place he could see others, those who had come before that stood around him, watching. He saw faces, smiles, memories from the past, and from moments that had not yet happened. What was there to fear in death, if one knew that in the end they would simply return to a moment like this?
It was the first moment in his life that time stopped for Ashar of the Noctis Mountains, and he was struck by an overwhelming sense of beauty.
Even if he died in the next moment, it would not matter. He could remain here forever.
And yet—
He still had things to do.
"Bethryl," he said quietly. "Are you there? I need your help."