Piper was the first to try. She came up in front of the Prisoner.
Suddenly, it whispered to her.
'Take me-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e..."
"It speaks!" Piper widened her eyes.
She turned to the rest of them but no one understood what she was saying.
"What are you talking about, Piper?" Neros frowned.
"You can't hear it?" Piper said.
Neros shook his head.
"Only those who are currently being entranced by it can hear it." Carter said. "Come. If you can pull it out, you can join me. But careful. That thing can break your mind."
Piper took a deep breath. She came closer to it. The closer she was, the more whispers she heard.
At first, it was a simple two words. But then it turned into her deepest darkest whispers.
"Take me... And you shall have the power for to change it all. Those men that disrespected you...
You can finally show them... Kill them... Bash their heads in the ground..."
Piper gulped. Her entire body shook. She had experienced similar scenarios before. The power of a Terror. But it was never this bad.
The Invokers held their breaths. They had thrown any suspicion out of the window. The only thing left was shock and disbelief.
An Invoker stepped up but was held back by Neros.
"Don't. It's her test."
Kaito watched everything with a sweaty forehead. He took out a white cloth to wipe himself.
'I might have picked the wrong profession...' Kaito thought.
Piper grabbed the handled of the Prisoner. Immediately, images of the her most intimate fears flooded in her mind like a tsunami.
She bit her lips so hard it drew blood. That short pain gave her enough willpower to drew the Prisoner out.
She only unsheathed for a bit, exposing its shiny blade inside the scabbard.
The female Invoker went soft and was about to fall down. But Carter was already there, catching her just in time.
"Well done. You have passed. You, come here and help her."
Carter pointed to a random female Invoker. She helped Piper sat down on the couch. Piper went briefly unconscious for a few seconds. When she regained her consciousness, the next Invoker already stepped up.
"Did I..." Piper mumbled.
"You did it, Piper." Neros said, "If that thing break you like this, I couldn't imagine how devastating it must be for the mind."
"But you don't seem to be scared." Piper said.
Neros grinned widely, "That's right. Because I'm not. I'm excited."
The other Invokers took turn one after another. They all failed.
Carter crossed his arms and watched from the side. He wanted to build the legend of the Eldritch Knight from the ground up. This test was simply to build on the mystery of the character and also to filter the weak Invokers.
Invokers battled Terror as their job. If they didn't have a strong mind, they would be too weak. Carter didn't need weak people.
He only needed the strongest.
All of the Invokers failed. Except for one young man. No one expected him to accomplish it. But he did.
Neros caught him just before he fainted.
"Didn't think you have it in you, Marshall..." Neros helped him to the couch to sit down.
"Little Marshall. He is full of surprise." Piper said.
Then it was Neros's turn. He gazed upon Carter one last time before accepting the challenge.
It was much more difficult for Neros. Because his demons were many more and realer than any of them.
As soon as he touched the blade, blood flooded out of his nose. But he hung onto the blade.
Piper stood up in surprise. Her eyes squinted with worry.
"Stay there. I'm alright." Neros raised a hand.
He continued to draw the blade. Every millimeter felt like a mile. And his entire body burned. He had great potential for evil and because of that, he was much more affected by the blade.
But for some reasons, Neros still stayed in the light. He hadn't strayed from the righteous path because of his pure willpower.
The blade unsheathed and Neros let go.
"Heh." He smiled.
Carter caught him, "Congratulations. And you didn't faint too."
"Of course. I am the best." Neros said proudly.
Carter helped him to the couch. Then he turned to the last two members of the scene. Nina and Quill.
"Uh... Do we need to take the test as well?" Quill said.
Nina stared at Carter, waiting for an answer.
Carter shook his head, "No. You two can follow me."
"Yay!" Quill could barely contain his happiness with his wide grin.
Nina showed a restrained smile. She was also glad but she didn't want to show it.
"Why weren't they needed to do the test?" An Invoker said.
"They're not Invokers." Carter smiled mysteriously. "They're not from our worlds either."
The Invokers erupted in surprise. They didn't know how to interpret that. They didn't ask Carter either because he seemed to want to keep it a secret.
The night had fallen.
'Hmmm. I already reached maximum Synchronization with Eldritch Knight. So killing Terror isn't that important right now. But I can still collect more shards.'
Eldritch Knight was the only Elite Skin he had. That didn't make him feel safe at all. He wanted many more Elite Skins. And even more powerful skins.
The clearest way to reach that was to fuse identical skins together. Terrors could help him with that.
"As Mr. Caine has ordered, anyone that wasn't chosen can stay with us in the building for the night." Kaito said.
"As for the rest of you." Carter picked up his blade. "Come. We will hunt some Terrors."
They walked out of the door.
Zeneros Blackburn (Carter), Nina, Quill, Neros, Piper, and Marshall.
The other Invokers watched as the group disappeared into the knight.
Kaito shut the door tight and pulled down a second metal door from above. Then sliding door from either side. Then another old stone door.
The Invokers sweated.
"Do we really need that many doors?" An Invoker said.
Kaito rolled his eyes, "A tiny crack could allow a Terror to infiltrate the building. It needs to be sealed tight. We aren't Invokers like you so we have to be careful."
"That makes sense..."
On the lonely street.
"Weird. There seems to be less Terror than usual." Neros looked around and said.
'Of course... I killed a lot of them.' Carter wanted to say that but he kept calm. Zeneros wouldn't boast about his killing.