* * *

“Balance of pain……?”

“That’s right. The stronger your companion suffers, the closer the scales will be to horizontal.”

Hesonia stood on the ground below. With a flick of his fingertips, he levitated the limp Lydon into the air and placed Lydon in front of him.

Half-conscious, his eyes dazed, Lydon suddenly laughed. A thin trickle of blood ran down his chin with a hissing sound.

“Isn’t that stupid? If you’re weighing the pain, I can fly to Cadel.”

“If possible.”

Hesonia’s fingertips pointed to the ceiling. With a small gesture, Lydon’s body soared into the sky. But the rapid ascent was soon interrupted by an invisible wall.

Lydon’s eyes widened at the impact on his back, and a handful of blood poured out. As if on cue, the pan creaked and slid downward. New pain built up.

Hesonia tugged at Lydon’s body again, pulling him in front of Hesonia. Lydon coughed, barely stopping, and lowered the hand covering his mouth. He spat a bloody stream of spittle into Hesonia’s face in front of him.

“Don’t be rough. I want to kill you.”

Hesonia turned to face the panting Lydon, absentmindedly wiping away the saliva that was trickling down his eyelids. His face was expressionless and his voice was creepily dry, as if Lydon’s taunts hadn’t offended him in the slightest.

“You have a choice, Fairy of Pinhai. Give up the trial and no one will die. Persist, and you will gain unlimited power.”

The power that had supported Lydon’s body was gone. He crashed to the ground beside the unconscious Lumen, a dull ache in his bones.

Lydon frowned, catching Hesonia’s eerie gaze as it turned to him. It was a gaze of rigid judgment and twisted expectation. An aura that was more primal than human, a mixture of emotions that revealed nothing.

“So choose. Weigh your powers against your comrades. For this is the test you are given.”

The moment he sensed his aura, vaguely, Lydon could guess Hesonia’s identity.

* * *

The raining Jelly Bombs quickly filled the floor. Their weight did not affect the balance of the scales in the slightest.

Only pain. That was the only measure of weight that could tip the scales.

‘So she’s telling me to just sit here and take the blast, try to control it so I don’t die, and enjoy the pain like a pervert?’

What a bizarre trial. Cadel patted the crouched Van on the back, shielding himself from the blast with the cloak he wore.

“Van! Get a grip. If you’re going to collapse, at least go collapse in a corner!”

Withstanding the explosion of the Jelly Bombs and protecting Van from the burst was a struggle. The two trials had drained his stamina, and even the damage he’d taken from his subordinates had accumulated. It was not like he could just blindly slay a monster.

He would rather push Van into a corner and deal with all of them himself to keep them from swarming near them.

“Kkeugh…… Kkeok…….”

However, Cadel couldn’t even attempt to pull Van’s body up. It was only by sheer willpower that he was still standing.

Eventually, Cadel decided to break through the relentless craze and pull Van out. He put his hand under Van’s armpits and dragged his limp body toward the outside.

When the swarming Jelly Bombs exploded without missing a chance, a strong impact knocked the barrier and prevented their retreat. In a place that was no different from a battlefield, Cadel pulled Van back with a vengeance.

He felt like he was carrying a well-heated lump of iron, not a human being. Cadel wondered why Van felt so heavy, even though he was giving Cadel food every time.

“F*ck…… That, really, sucks!”

Under his breath, curses spilled out like a broken dike.

When Cadel finally succeeded in dragging Van outside, the barrier that enveloped them was torn to nothing more than rags.

Cadel breathed heavily, wiping roughly at the beads of sweat running down his eyelids. He looked directly at the tirelessly multiplying nodes of the Jelly Bombs.

‘The theme of the trial is sacrifice.’

If Lydon had come to the temple alone, with no comrades, the trial would not have begun. The very premise of the trial was the existence of a ‘comrade’.

So in this final trial, they might be looking for a ‘comrade’s sacrifice’, but what kind of sacrifice were they looking for? There were only so many ways one could make a sacrifice in this situation.

‘Is it…… about if we are prepared to lay down our lives for Lydon?’

Perhaps by now, Hesonia had given Lydon the ‘right to give up the trial’ at the ground. Sacrifice of a comrade and sacrifice for a comrade. Either way, someone was gonna lose something.

The protagonist of the trial was Lydon. Rather than the fact that Lydon’s success or failure was determined only by the choices of his comrades, it was more convincing that Lydon’s choices would determine their life and death.

“……Let’s see how far we can go with this.”

Cadel, who raised his mana, reinforced the barrier surrounding Van. He left the half-destroyed barrier as it was. He intended to leave it alone until it broke.

‘You may be the protagonist of this trial, Lydon, but I am the protagonist of this world. Do you think I’m going to die a mere slave to your choices?’

Even if the only choice they had was doom on either side. Even if Lydon ultimately chose the unsealing of powers over his comrades. Cadel had no intention of resigning himself to that fate.

A nearby explosion ripped a handful of the barrier away. Behind Cadel, six fireballs loaded in a semicircle.

“It’s not about balance, it’s about matching.”

Cadel couldn’t die in a place like this, and he didn’t want to spoil the end of a trial he’d worked so hard to accomplish, so he’d clear it like a champ.

The fireballs shot out with murderous intent, targeting the Jelly Bombs.

* * *

The bombing continued unabated. Acrid smoke filled the ceiling, vibrating the air. And the pan where Cadel stood was sinking, inch by inch.

“He’s holding up pretty well, but not for long. Human life is tougher than you think but weaker than you expect, and he’ll soon be on the edge of death.”

Lydon sat next to the still-unconscious Lumen, and Hesonia stood in front of him, continuing to apply psychological pressure.

“Don’t keep talking in front of me. If you’re bored, go over there and die.”

“The longer you put off making a choice, the closer you come to an irreversible future.”

As Cadel struggled, Lydon stared impassively at the pan of the scale where Cadel stood. Hesonia, for his part, stared at Lydon intently. No matter what condescending remarks Lydon made, he would not be deterred.

Lydon was not intimidated in the slightest, though the emotionless face pressing for answers was eerie. To be fair, Hesonia was not on his mind.

‘Will Cadel die?’

From the moment Hesonia told him the nature of the trial, only one question had been swirling in Lydon’s mind.

Cadel might die.

Did he hate it? Of course he did. Lydon liked Cadel. He was funny, interesting, and sometimes even cute. So Lydon hated to see Cadel die.

But if one asked him if Cadel’s existence was worth more than regaining his powers and roaming the world at will, Lydon was not sure. He would say ‘not quite’.

That was the extent of their relationship. A one-sided feeling.

If there was anything to add.

‘I can do it. I can break the seal that restricts you, and make you free to live outside. That’s a crazy thing that only I can do.’