"Come on then!" the Eastern Leader screamed as he charged forward. "Let's see what you can do now!"
Ashar closed his eyes in concentration.
"Well?" Issen shouted.
"Yes. I have the answer now. Let's go back."
"I don't know if we can. Can't you sense it? I don't think he's as crazy as he's making himself out to be."
"Yes," Ashar said quietly. "I can sense it."
They had realised some time ago that the Eastern Leader was no longer pursuing them randomly. He had already deciphered the pattern of the labyrinth and had positioned himself in a place where he could reach both the entrance to the altar and the entrance to the Third Trial.
That meant that the moment Ashar and Issen tried to run in either direction, he would intercept them.
So had all those screams been a bluff, a performance meant to convince them that he had lost his mind?
Ashar watched him closely and did not believe it.
It was not that the Eastern Leader was pretending to lose control. Rather, as he descended into beast-like behaviour, he was guided by an animal instinct. Strategy was no longer formed by the Eastern Leader's mind, but by something more primal, an aspect of nature itself.
And that gave Ashar a clue as to how this creature could be fought.
"We're going to turn back now," Ashar said.
"But how are we supposed to get past that thing?"
"Getting past it is the easy part."
The plan depended on movement.
Although the Eastern Leader in his beast-like state was faster than before, his mobility was far lower. Because of this, there were two areas of vulnerability Ashar could exploit, both located at the Leader's sides.
If one imagined two circles on either side of the Leader's movement, then as long as Ashar and Issen remained within those circles, the Leader would be unable to catch them due to his limited ability to turn.
In combat, this principle was known as taking the dominant angle over your opponent.
Ashar's strategy was to claim that angle, and remain within it long enough to reach the Third Trial.
He could already see the path, But when he looked at Issen, he saw doubt, the doubt of a man raised among birds and beasts and wandering outcasts.
"Are you ready?" Ashar asked.
"I don't know if I can do this. That thing… it's beyond anything I can handle."
"No," Ashar said calmly. "That thing is far weaker than you."
Issen laughed bitterly.
"There is no spirit in that creature anymore," Ashar continued. "The force that animates him is no different from the one that drives animals to tear apart and devour their own kind. Compared to you, he is graceless and vile."
"What the hell are you talking about right now, you bastard?"
"You possess something that creature does not. You simply don't understand it yet. Think about it, where did your ability first come from? And who would you be without it?"
At that moment, Issen saw himself again as a starving teenager, wandering through the darkness of the underground dwellings. Night after night he had practised firing his Axiom arrows, not for glory, not for purpose, but simply to keep himself sane. But perhaps there had been another reason, something deeper, that he had never understood.
"Well, Issen?"
"…Yeah," Issen said quietly. "I understand."
They turned and ran back toward the Eastern Leader.
When the Leader saw them in the corridor again, he snarled and lunged forward in a single violent motion. But Ashar had already made his preparations and stood his ground.
Issen steadied himself.
A wave of nerves twisted in his stomach. Fear flooded through him, sickening and overwhelming, and yet, strangely, it sharpened him.
Something was coming.
"Now!" Ashar shouted.
The Eastern Leader suddenly stumbled.
In his charge he had run straight into the invisible barrier Maereth had planted.
What happened next, Issen could barely remember.
All he knew was that he followed his breath, and the Axiom arrow released itself.
In the next moment, the Eastern Leader screamed in agony as the strike landed. He smashed his head into the wall and began charging wildly from corridor to corridor in fury.
In that instant, Ashar and Issen rushed forward, each passing along one side of the Leader, and the creature could not turn in time to stop them, so they slipped past him.
As they ran toward the Third Trial chamber, Maereth emerged from her invisibility.
"I've known you for nearly fifteen years," she said to Issen. "I've never seen you do that before."
"What just happened?" Issen asked breathlessly. "What did I do?"
When Issen had fired his arrow, he had not aimed for a physical point on the Eastern Leader's body.
Instead, he had aimed for the place where the Leader's energy flowed.
There were seven such points in a warrior's body through which energy passed: the root, the sacral point, the solar plexus, the heart, the throat, the brow, and the crown.
It was theoretically possible to strike these points and shut down the flow of energy through them, but the precision required, even at close range, was almost impossible. And yet, in that moment, Issen had struck the crown point.
For that brief exchange, he had become the most skilled warrior among them. But he had no memory of how he had done it.
"Come on, Issen!"
Behind them the Eastern Leader charged again. Now his voice had lost all coherence. One moment he screamed, the next he laughed, then cried. Bursts of Axiom energy exploded from him in chaotic waves, as if detonations were going off within his body.
Then suddenly—
There was silence.
"What happened?" Issen asked.
"You shut down his crown point," Ashar said. "He can no longer regulate the flow of his Axiom energy with judgement. He's already exhausted a great deal of stamina. If we have a chance to defeat him, it will be now."
"We still can't hurt him physically, though, can we?"
"Not yet."
"What does that mean?"
Ashar had been thinking about something since the moment they entered the temple. All the clues pointed to the same conclusion: this place, and its trials, were guiding them toward the secret of becoming a Second Tier being.
If that were true, then by completing the Four Trials Ashar might reach a state in which he could damage the Eastern Leader's body. He needed to find out if this was correct, because if it was not, then only one final course of action remained.
They reached the chamber of the Third Trial once more.
Ashar stepped forward and approached the puzzle with the answer Bethryl had given him.
The door opened. The entire temple trembled.
A massive stone gate split apart, revealing a colossal underground city carved deep into the earth. Ancient towers and temples stretched into darkness, illuminated by faint crystals glowing along the cavern walls.
The carved inscriptions seemed to echo through the chamber:
"The art.The way.The logos.The faith.
These are the pillars of the Kingdom."
Ashar stepped forward and surveyed the vast city.
Then his expression tightened.
He looked around again.
"Where is it?" he said impatiently.
He felt he had been so close.
And yet something was missing.
He turned back toward the chamber.
"Where is the final trial?"
From behind them came a growing presence.
The Eastern Leader charged forward again, laughing, weeping, and screaming all at once.