Codex Null: Simulation Through Madness

Time passed like that. Noel bore most of the weight of the trials, while Selena followed alongside him. She still contributed in her own way — the Control Law was versatile, after all — but it turned out even the feared Destruction Law could reveal a startling versatility in the hands of someone like Noel.

Eventually, the trials pressed harder. Noel began to sustain injuries, and the scale of the challenges grew more vicious. At last, his composure cracked.

"Why the fuck is there no reward until now?" Noel's voice cut through the chamber, sharp with irritation, though his eyes never left the path ahead.

The words fell, and he refocused — his gaze locking onto the moving orbs before them. Dense masses of gravity, coiled upon themselves like miniature black holes, swallowing everything nearby. This time, he had to deal with them.

Noel ran wide, skirting the edge of the suction force, while Selena redirected their pull. Only then did he conjure arrows of pure Destruction Law and hurled them at the devouring spheres.

The impact shook them, but not enough. The balls wavered, distorted, yet refused to collapse. Around them, chunks of ground tore free and vanished into the black voids, while the walls caved in wherever the orbs brushed against stone. Noel clenched his teeth, struggling to decide his next move.

He studied them closer. The spheres seemed like a condensed matter itself, twisted and crushed until it devoured everything near it. That was when an idea struck him.

He gathered Destruction Law in his hand, swelling it like a balloon, then forcing it down into a hard point. Again and again, he inflated and compressed until his control nearly slipped from exhaustion.

"Hold one down!" he called to Selena. "My aim's worse than before."

He swung his arm back like a pitcher in a baseball game, then hurled the orb of pure Destruction. Selena's restraint caught one of the spheres just long enough for his strike to land. The collision rippled through it — then it shattered.

With one gone and the method proven, the rest followed. Together, he and Selena tore them down one after another until the last orb dissolved into nothingness.

When it was over, Noel collapsed, chest heaving. Even with his monstrous stamina, it was still an exhausting battle. Selena, flushed and straining harder than ever, dropped beside him, utterly spent.

From the corner of his eye, Noel saw the gate to the next trial open. He almost cursed — only for another sight to steal his breath. Floating before the gate was a bronze sphere, small in size yet immense in presence, black lines etched deep across its surface.

His breath hitched. The pressure it gave off was unmistakable.

"An Apex-rank relic!" he shouted, shock clear in his voice.

He hadn't received a single reward up to this point, so suddenly being handed something this valuable left him reeling. Slowly, his expression shifted into satisfaction.

"My first relic is really going to be an Apex-rank one!" he said, stepping toward it with excitement.

Noel himself had never been one to rely on relics. If he was going to use one, it had to be worthy — at least a rank five Apex or higher.

In his house, there were only two of that level. One was with his father. The other, even more precious, was the Cross family's core relic — unclaimed, yet incompatible with him, and far beyond his current strength to subdue.

That was why obtaining an Apex relic here, even if not a one related to the Law of Destruction, was still a prize worth seizing.

But as he placed his hand on the relic, Noel's expression darkened. He could feel it at once — the lack of compatibility. Not as overwhelming as the Destruction Sword of his house, but still enough to make taming it painfully difficult.

He hesitated, his gaze drifting to the gate ahead. More trials waited there, ones that promised greater rewards — perhaps something more fitting for him. His body was near its limits, but the thought pressed against his mind all the same.

Finally, he turned to the girl who had fought by his side until now.

"Selena, come and see if you can take this relic."

Still sitting on the ground and watching quietly, Selena couldn't hide the longing in her eyes. But, without Noel, reaching this far would have been impossible, and she knew the relic rightfully belonged to him. So when he suddenly called her, surprise flickered across her face. But in the end, she rose and came to his side, her gaze falling on the relic.

She could already feel some closeness to it, without even trying. Noel, noticing that, chuckled and said, "Okay, you can have this relic. I'm going to get something better."

"Are you sure?" Selena asked.

Even if he didn't want this relic and sought something stronger, he could still take it back to the Cross house. An Apex relic was far too precious to be given away so easily.

But Noel only chuckled and dismissed her worry in the end. He was not someone so stingy that he couldn't give something like this to his woman.

His sight had always, and would always, be set higher. And he had confidence… that a relic of this rank would, in time, become something dismissible to him.

"Okay, I'm going," Noel smiled and said.

And Selena, who had wished to accompany him but was refused in the end, could only wish him luck.

Stepping into the door of the next trial, Noel immediately felt how this time the teleportation lasted far longer than before. For a moment, he wondered why.

But he couldn't dwell on it much, for he soon arrived in a vast hall where the air itself seemed still. It was dark, yet strange colors shimmered faintly, giving the place an eerie, distorted vibe.

At the center of the hall, a scarf floated above a raised platform, suspended in the air like an offering on an altar.