God of Destruction: Living Among Mortals

When he reached the same area, the black core had seemingly disappeared. Zane froze mid-step, his eyes narrowing in confusion. He extended his mana sense outward, sweeping the area dry, but found nothing. No traces of anything lingering in the area, even in the tunnel he was in.

"It's gone," he said. The realization wasn't a disappointment; it was more intriguing now. "Which means it changes each time. So, I guess, I'll have to find where it's hiding this time as well."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. The tunnels weren't random. They reacted to the energy and intent of the Adventurers instead. Every sound mattered. Every echo carried a clue. He placed a hand on the tunnel wall and focused, listening, not to the noise, but to the deafening silence between them.

Somewhere far ahead, he heard it. He heard a faint noise, a faint pulse, and he moved, blurring past tunnels as he shot forward, his footseps slintering into phantom echoes for distraction.

He used them as scouts as well, luring hidden beasts out from corners, forcing traps to trigger early. Each illusory step became a decoy, each misdirection another heartbeat of advantage.

He slipped past a pair of Adventurers clashing in a side tunnel. One of them, a member of the Russian guild, caught a glimpse of him and shouted: "He's going for the rare cores!" But by the time the words left his mouth, Zane was already gone.

He darted through a narrow corridor lit by the glow of hellow and red cores embedded in the walls. The noise he heard before grew louder, resonating deep within his chest. He turned a corner and stopped.

Ahead, a massive chamber opened up, larger than anything in the first trial. Floating in its center was a cluster of cores, hundreds of them, swirling in slow motion around a single point of darkness. The black core.

But he wasn't alone. Three Adventurers were already there, circling the core cautiously. Their guild insignias gleamed, one from the Kuwait Guild, another from the Indian Guild, and the last one from the Australian Guild. They were all S-ranks as well.

The Adventurer from Kuwait was the first to speak up, glancing at Zane. "You again," he said sharply. "You ended the first trial in under six minutes. But not this time."

Zane tilted his head slightly. "If you want to stop me, then try."

The air tensed instantly. The Indian mage was the first to move, summoning a storm of ice shards that tore through the chamber. Zane blurred to the side, leaving behind multiple echoes that darted in different directions. The ice tore through illusions, the real Zane slipping between them unharmed. He closed the distance in a heartbeat, landing a knee strike to the mage's ribs before vanishing again.

The Adventurer from Kuwait swung a blade embedded in lightning, tracing arcs of energy through the air. Zane ducked, weaving through the strikes like smoke. Sparks carved into the walls, illuminating the chaos.

He kicked off the ground, spinning in the air, and hurled a purple core straight at the fighter's chest. It exploded on impact, sending him flying into the wall with a grunt.

The Australian Adventurer, a gunslinger, fired mana bullets in rapid bursts. The shots chased Zane through the air, detonating against his afterimages. Zane ran along the wall, dodging in a blur of movement, before dropping down behind the man and striking his wrist, disarming him. He twisted the gun's barrel, crushed it with one hand, and shoved the man back with a kick.

The fight lasted less than twenty seconds. All three lay scattered across the chamber floor, groaning and struggling to move. Zane stood in the middle, breath steady. The black core pulsed faintly above him, as if waiting.

He took a step closer, and the ground shifted. The black core moved. Slowly at first, then faster, darting across the chamber like a living thing. The floating cluster of colored cores followed it, spinning in violent disarray. Zane's eyes widened.

"It's not stationary this time," Zane whispered to himself. "I guess the trial changed."

He chased it, dodging as cores exploded around him from the magnetic pressure the black core emitted. Each blast tore chunks of rock from the ceiling, dust clouding the air. The surviving Adventurers tried to attack again, but their movements were sluggish, injuries slowing them down.

Zane used his ability again, his phantom footsteps ringing around the chamber like war drums. He ran along the wall, leaping from point to point, closing in on the core's erratically abnormal path. Every time he neared it, it darted away, almost teasing him.

"Come on," he muttered, pushing his mana harder, body aching from overuse.

Then, a flicker, an opening. The black core slowed for a split second, perhaps recalibrating its energy. That was enough.

Zane lunged at the core, grabbing it. The chamber erupted in light as his hand closed around the core. Darkness and brilliance collided at once, energies flooding through him. His vision flashed white, his body shaking violently under the surge of power. The sound of the trial's heartbeat filled his head.

And then, silence.

The chamber went still.

Zane opened his eyes, still gripping the core, his hands faintly glowing. He staggered toward the deposit altar at the far end of the room. The air warped around him, gravity itself bending from the core's energy. He could barely hear the other Adventurers shouting in confusion behind him.

He slammed the black core into the depot, and a flash of white light engulfed everything. The ground shook. A deep chime reverberated through the tunnels, louder and clearer than before. The same light that had outlined him before had outlined him once more.

As the light faded, Zane stood alone in the tunnel, surrounded by silence once again. The other Adventurers had been transported out, leaving only him.

He looked ahead into the forming light of the next portal and smiled faintly. "It's finally over."