God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.

In all these stories, including that of the {Stone Bloodknight, Collosus}, there had been one constantly reoccurring character.

'A mysterious man in lavender robes...'

Cain's curiosity surged like a cauldron of witch's brew.

Who exactly was this mysterious lavender robes man?

What did he represent, and why was he turning all these beings into stone?

In the end, it would be impossible to know this unless it came from the mouth of the mysterious man himself.

He had asked the system for the identity of the lavender-cloaked man, but it didn't seem to have any clue as well.

Cain was suddenly filled with a frightening thought.

'If he gets interested in me, would he turn into stone as well?!'

He shivered. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

It took some time, but eventually, they arrived on the circular platform floating in the pristine clouds.

Calling it just a platform was doing it a huge disservice too, considering it might as well have been a city.

Its surface area was incredibly large, and Cain could only imagine the amount of mana it took to keep the thing afloat.

The Stone statues looked even bigger up close. They levitated just above the streams of glistening water, bathing everything beneath them in their horrid splendor.

"Cain, look..." Jenny said, pointing into the crowd

Cain frowned and turned his gaze towards where her finger was pointed.

He raised a brow in surprise.

That surprise quickly morphed into worry when he felt the explosion of bloodlust come from behind him.

A deep growl followed after,

"You dirty elves! I should have smashed your ugly heads in the moment I saw you!"

Thern had the blood of Titans running in her veins. Because of that, she was innately hot-blooded.

However, she had the absolute strength to back up her violent tendencies.

Regardless, the High Elves standing in front of them didn't even seem the slightest bit fazed.

One of the elves chuckled then raised a brow,

"You survived, didn't you? You should be grateful to us for sparing your lives then."

Eziel smiled and scolded the elf,

"Don't antagonize the Giant."

Then he turned to Thern and offered an apologetic smile that looked more sarcastic than anything else,

"We are sorry for abandoning the previous battle. You have to understand that we elves do not have bodies as strong as yours. I hope you can understand."

Asteron took a step forward, waves of I'll intent rolling off him.

The Wind Drake was obviously pissed off.

"Elf, we know you are the ones who created that madness. You shall answer with your lives."

Eziel chuckled. Then his attention turned to Cain and the others. His eyes opened in surprise,

"Oh? To think we would see each other again in such a short time."

Cain grinned,

"It's a bit anticlimactic, don't you think?"

Asteron's eyes narrowed. Just as he was about to say something, the circular platform rumbled.

Cain looked around and quickly realized what was going on.

The four platforms that led to the four gates, including the one they had used to enter this place, were crumbling at an alarming rate and disappearing into the rolling white abyss below.

"Looks like the trial is about to begin in earnest," Eziel said, the smile on his face melting away like snow.

He stared at Cain with narrowed eyes and then asked,

"Why don't you and your human friends come join us, Cain? You'll have a much better chance of surviving with us."

Asteron shook his head,

"Again with the lies? Do your people know no shame?"

Eziel paid the Wind Drake no mind whatsoever, his gaze still on Cain.

Cain didn't even have to think about it. Still wearing a polite smile on his face, he said,

"No."

Eziel's face turned dark, but he did not say anything more. Instead, he nodded then turned around and walked away.

The other elves wore sinister grins on their faces as they backed up and walked away as well.

"What?! You're just going to let them go?!" Thern roared at the top of her lungs, drawing in nearby attention.

Asteron scolded her in a low rumble,

"Quiet. Being hasty could get us killed."

He turned to Cello who looked at him with a question in her gaze,

"Ifrit... Are you certain they were the ones?"

Cello nodded coldly,

"They were. I'm even more certain of it now."

Asteron fell silent, then mumbled to himself.

Then he turned to Thern,

"Be patient. It will soon begin."

His voice was calm and quiet, but it was not difficult to sense the malice in every syllable.

Cain finally couldn't contain it anymore,

"Just exactly what happened back then?"

There was no way he couldn't be curious.

The hostility between the two groups was surprising, to say the least.

'All I know is that the elves used some sort of illusion to spark a conflict that caused everyone to attack everyone. However, maybe this is perhaps, something much more convoluted than they are letting on.'

Cain knew he couldn't trust anyone besides those he had come into the Trial of Heaven with. They were all competitors, and when the time came for them to battle to the death, no mercy would be shown.

The fact they were hiding something from them cemented that idea even further.

Avalon shrugged with a dark expression,

"It is exactly as we told you. They are vile creatures with the power to create illusions that twist the hearts of other beings."

Cain raised a brow but didn't say anything. For some reason, he didn't believe that was the full version of the story.

Then he shook his head,

'Either way, bit doesn't matter. I still won't work with them.'

While he was suspicious of these three beasts, he knew the elves had absolutely no good intentions towards him and his posse of humans.

With the chaos he suspected was about to come, he doubted they would be able to do anything against them.

Finally, the rumbling stopped.

Now, the gates were gone, leaving just a city-sized disk floating in the sky.

The space right above the still lake tore open.

Out of the torn space, four beings with snow-white wings flew out.

No, to call them beings would be wrong. After all, they didn't seem to possess even a sliver of life in them.

Cain stared at them curiously,

"Those things... are giving off crazy mana readings. Far more than any I have seen in my life." Jenny said with a frown.

Susan nodded in agreement then added,

"Some type of automaton, maybe? I couldn't tell..."

Cain frowned. They didn't look like automatons one bit. Besides the lack of expressiveness, they looked very alive. However, his sensitivity to both Mana and Ki was top-notch.

Most living beings had Ki flowing within their bodies and Mana in their spirits. Obviously, there were exceptions to the rule, but in this case, Cain didn't think it to be so.

In the first place, their flesh looked to be made of some metallic substance that looked and acted rather similarly to living tissue. But he couldn't be so sure.

The beings Cain levitated above the crowd of the many species of beings standing below.

After a moment's hesitation, they spoke, all in unison, their voices beautiful and crisp, yet monotone and unfeeling,

"The Trials of Heaven shall now begin..."

A deep groan came from the four statues above the four streams of water.

It was deep and ancient, like the statues themselves.

Silence...

The entire world became silent.

It refused to move.

The mana became stagnant.

The air became still.

The world came to a stop.

The four angels continued,

"To reach the heavens, the four trials of Slaughter, Avarice, Lies, Deception, and Arrogance."

"The master sees all and hears all. His verdict is complete and holy, even above the gods within the Tower." The angels continued in their eerie tone.

Then they stretched their hand out.

Beams of light fell from their hands onto the statue of Ephistus, the Vagabond Knight.

The groaning intensified on the Vagabond Knight's statue as they all began to descend.

After some time, they landed right on the streams of water. Magic circles appeared right at the base of the Knight statue. The stone crumbled to form an archway at its base, allowing the stream of water to flow in.

The angels spoke once more,

"All participants of the trial must complete the four trials to gain their path to heaven. Those who refuse will die, those who fail, will die. The master has willed it, and so it shall be."

Then, they fell silent, their eyes open, observing the crowd below.

Cain sucked in a deep breath.

Then his eyes scanned all around him.

Compared to when they had began on the Island above the Sea of clouds, their numbers had been practically cut down in half.

Every thing that had happened up to this point had been to filter out those destined for death, and those who stood even the slightest of chances to complete the trials.

Cain suddenly realized something.

At the start, the Arbitrator, or Viden as he liked to call himself, had said that the only condition necessary to pass the trial, was the first one.

"Survive for the entire duration of the trial."

'It was bullshit. Completely bullshit.'

One couldn't survive the entire trial's duration without trying to complete the other two conditions. That was the nature of the Trial of Heaven.

Cain felt his blood run cold.

'How terrifying...'

Those who had falsely believed that they could just rely on surviving for the time they were in here were probably already dead.

He sighed.

'The Trials of Slaughter, Avarice, Deception, and Arrogance.'

Each one seemed to align with the story of each stone judge.

He was very curious. What would lay beyond those archways?

There was only one way to find out.

The other statues were still closed, meaning the first trial they would have to take was;

The Trial of Slaughter.