Chapter 17: Sky Platform

....

After an unknown amount of time, Raven pushed himself up. The blood on his hands had already dried, and most of his wounds had healed. Yet, he seemed changed in some way.

As he left the second trial, his demeanor appeared somewhat different. However, any confusion that he may have felt initially had dissipated, and he now had a clear understanding of what he had to do. 

There was no fear or uncertainty in his eyes anymore. 

As soon as he passed through the second trial, he saw the Guardian waiting for him on the other side. 

"Don't you have any questions for me? Like how you passed despite intervening in the Trial?"

Raven raised his head, glancing at the Guardian. However, he didn't respond. 

He pulled out a frozen key from his pocket that he had received as a reward. The key allowed him to open the Hidden Trial of the second stage. 

As soon as he pulled out the key, the key melted in his hand, disappearing. However, at the same time, stairs appeared before him. 

The top of the stairs was out of sight, giving an impression of an endless flight of steps.

"Stairway of Blood..." The Guardian commented, gazing at the stairway. 

He further explained, "It contains the essence of every person who passes through the stairs before you. You need to kill their mirage, to climb higher. Your score depends on how high you can reach within four hours."

"The timer will start when you take your first step. So if you want, now would be the right time to rest." He reminded Raven. "So far, no one has been able to truly clear this trial."

Raven didn't rest. He pulled out the Nameless Sword, stepping on the stairs right away. If anything, he was eager to meet some people on the stairs... 

As soon as he stepped on the Stairway of Blood, his figure disappeared. 

****

In his first challenge, Raven was pitted against a Player from the second generation. Fortunately, the battle proved to be relatively easy as the opponent was considered the weakest among those who had made it to the hidden trial.

Raven's ascent didn't end there; he continued climbing higher. At every step, he encountered a mirage of high-rankers from past generations.

Even though those people weren't real, they felt as real as they could. They could also use that player's special skills, which made them quite strong, especially for Raven who didn't have much experience. However, the more Raven fought, the more he improved. 

He wasted no time facing the players and aimed to end the battles as swiftly as possible, all with the intention of meeting a particular person on the steps.

As soon as each battle was over, he dashed above to the best of his abilities. Within the first two hours, he had already covered two thousand steps, and fought over twenty battles. 

As exhaustion began to set in, he persisted with unwavering determination and continued his ascent.

After three hours had elapsed, he began to sense something was amiss. After ascending past the 2000th step, he hadn't seen any other players.

There was no way the mirage of Arze and the others wasn't supposed to be on these stairs. Raven was sure that they had finished the second Hidden Trial. However, he didn't find them. 

Eventually, four long hours were almost over. He came to a halt on the 5000th step, his expression furrowed in thought. He climbed close to three thousand steps without any battles, which didn't make sense at all. 

As he slowed down, watching the timer come to an end, a new notification appeared. 

[You've reached the 5000th step. Extra Achievement Unlocked]

[Special Realm of Second Hidden Trial has been opened]

Seeing the new notification, Raven grew slightly curious. Special Realm of Hidden Trial? Did that mean the reason he didn't see anyone after the 2000th step was because they had all achieved the 5000th step and their mirages were in the special Realm?

While he wondered if his guess was correct or not, the surroundings changed. He appeared on the top of the stairs, facing a floating platform in the distance. 

On the floating platform, he saw quite a few people. 

There appeared to be over twenty people on the platform, all standing still as if they were statues. They were all mirages of the previous players who managed to reach this stage. 

Amongst those twenty people, Raven recognized four! His brother's mirage was also there, along with the mirages of the three people who were present when his brother was killed. 

He stepped on the platform. However, his eyes didn't leave the mirage of his brother, who appeared to be five years younger. 

Weiss appeared just like Raven remembered him to be. He didn't have any equipment, other than two gauntlets and a basic sword. However, despite all that, he had managed to reach this stage, which was surprising in itself, especially since he was the only human here. 

Amongst the twenty people here, over seven of them were Draconians alone. 

Raven couldn't help but walk closer to the mirage of his brother. However, as soon as he reached the platform halfway, it was as if all Mirages came to life! All twenty of them attacked Raven together, as if their only goal was to kill him. Even Weiss was amongst them. 

Taken aback, Raven pulled out the Nameless Sword, blocking the first attack, before kicking the player who was closest to him. 

He also jumped back, to create some distance from the others, as if worried about being surrounded from all sides. 

This was the true hidden trial.. Facing twenty of the strongest players who managed to reach this stage, and winning! For any ordinary player, it was impossible to win a battle like this. 

In fact, in the entire history of Bloodline Trials, no one had managed to win the challenge of the Sky Platform, even when the number of players used to be low, let alone now that there were twenty! 

It was an achievement that no one had, and it was said that no one could!