CH282

Ben sat in front of the next section of the trial, staring at the door of it and heaving a long sigh.

“Man, I really don’t want to do this.”

They’d finally gotten to the death section and he couldn’t imagine it going particularly well. He’d been expecting to deal with the life section first so when he first saw the enchantments indicating that he’d been wrong it had thrown him off completely. He at least had a decent understanding of death magic, but considering it was the one most suited to finishing them both off for good he really didn’t want to actually go through with it.

His only other option though was trying to forcibly raise the trial to another layer of reality and hope the gods would drag them out, which was really more of a desperate gamble than anything. It wasn’t like he’d been able to discover what every bit of magic on the trial did, even if he could activate the bits he didn’t understand, there was always the chance he would activate something that would kill them both, it just wasn’t worth the risk.

Ugh, no getting out of it, we need to go in.

“Feeling ready Greed? I’d bet decent money you’re really gonna need to work your healing for this bit.”

“As I’ll ever be. Just gonna keep telling myself we’re almost there.”

“That’s the spirit.”

He cast one last look around, trying to see if there was any excuse he could use to put off entering the next section for as long as they could and finding nothing, so without waiting more he took his first step through the doorway, into whatever they were about to face.

When they entered the empty expanse, the exit wasn’t immediately visible like it had been the last few times. What he could see though were specks off in the distance, whatever they were too far off to say for sure but the only indication that there was anything in the trial at all, with his thoughts only being broken by the cursing of Greed.

“Damn it all! Not exactly surprising, but this section is really gonna suck for me. Hurry up and get moving so we both don’t die legs.”

“Oh god what’s happening already?”

“Can’t you feel it? The moment we stepped inside my vitality started being drained.”

“Shit, okay focus on yourself for now, I have a few skills that should protect me for at least a little while, plus my resistances. For now, I guess I’ll start moving to that stuff in the distance.”

The fact that Greed was already feeling an effect through the armour was all sorts of worrying for them. Ben had enough benefits in his status that he could put off being concerned for now, and the crab had buffed both of their vitalities and regeneration rates, but this meant that Greed would be getting no breaks, instead needing to constantly regenerate his own lifeforce, and eventually Ben’s as well. It wouldn’t be a problem immediately, but if it ever reached the point where he’d have to use more mana than he could regenerate then they’d be all but doomed.

It was as Ben was wandering that he tried to figure out just what else the trial would throw at them. He couldn’t help but wonder if the things he was seeing in the distance were weapons of some sort, maybe items made of deathstone or something else entirely, but that wouldn’t match what he’d seen from the other sections. Whatever was thrown at them would be purely in the death affinity, nothing else.

Still, there’s only so much you can do with death mana. Gotta be on my guard for beams of the stuff coming out of nowhere and killing me instantly I guess, and if there’s anything that can injure me I need to watch out for it making the wounds worse, but what else could we run into?

It was at the same time that he was finally able to see the exit off in the distance that he got an answer to that question, his relief in seeing that he’d been going mostly the right way, only needing a bit of correction, was also taking them to something that he should have predicted but didn’t.

“Damn it!” He yelled. “Of fucking course it would do something like this! Of course it would!”

“What? What’s happening legs?”

“Those things off in the distance? They’re getting closer. I’m pretty sure we’re about to go against some corpses.”

It was an aspect of death magic he’d never gotten to personally see put to use but had known it was more than possible, he just hadn’t expected the trial to come pre-stocked with any to take advantage of.

Being controlled like puppets, the bodies wouldn’t be limited by what they could do in life, instead being able to go beyond their maximum potential, being pushed until they fell apart from the strain, and as they got close enough that Ben could see their features it only left him cursing all the more.

While he was able to finally make out what the race of the god who’d made the trial looked like, hominid types with squids for heads, that fact barely registered as he took the rest of them in and realised one very important fact.

It looks like this trial likes to recycle.

Not just the bodies of that unknown race, but over a hundred others, all examples of the groups that lived on the world, and all likely former trial-takers who hadn’t survived.

Their bodies were beaten and broken, bare of any clothing or equipment since it had always ended up in the areas between sections, but the speed they were coming down on them from was already more than enough to put them in danger, the entire herd focusing in on them and not leaving any hope that they could be avoided.

“Legs, you think you could do something here? I’d rather not become a body to use for the next time some sucker makes it this far!”

“I think this is more you than me man! Light magic has a purifying aspect, right? Can’t you do something about this?”

“If it was one or two then maybe, a crowd that big though? Come on legs, be realistic here!”

Great. They had some time, but not much as Ben pushed all of his minds to think, trying to come up with a solution to the problem rapidly approaching them as he considered everything he knew about death magic and what they had available to them. Even with his armour, his joints could be bent and broken, and while there was a chance his magics might be applicable to help, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to a crowd like that all at once. As for Greed’s blessing magic…

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Wait.

“Okay, I have an idea. A really really bad idea. Lot of room for it to go wrong but I can’t think of anything else.”

“Hell legs, I don’t think anything we’ve had to do in here has been anything more than desperate. Out with it already.”

“Alright,” Ben said as he laid down on the ground, using his material magic to slowly lock every joint of the armour together. “I guess the question is, what are the odds you can buff a corpse?”