Chapter 31.3: Personal System Trials - The Trials of Strength (Part 3)
Year 0008, Month XI-XIII: The Imperium
---
DAY 36-40: The War of Attrition
Time lost meaning on the northern border. Days bled into nights which bled into days again, the cycle marked only by the shifting positions of the three moons and the pale winter sun that offered light but no warmth. The battle had evolved from discrete skirmishes into something approaching continuous warfare, an endless grinding of meat grinder that consumed lives with methodical efficiency.
The Shadowfen forces attacked in waves, each one carefully timed to maximize exhaustion among the defenders. A massive assault would crash against the Lonelywoods lines, beasts tearing into each other with primal fury, magic scorching the snow-covered ground. The defenders would rally, pushing back with desperate strength, inflicting casualties that should have been devastating.
Then, just as victory seemed within reach, the enemy would retreat. Not in a panicked rout, but in calculated withdrawal. The moment Shadowfen's casualties exceeded ten percent of the attacking force, they would disengage and pull back across the border. Fresh troops would immediately replace them, launching renewed attacks before the defenders could properly rest or tend their wounds.
It was a war of attrition, and the mathematics were brutally simple: Shadowfen had numbers, the Lonelywoods had quality. But quality meant nothing if exhaustion ground it down to nothing.
The defenders rotated as best they could, pulling wounded back to the healing line where beast healers worked themselves to exhaustion, treating injuries that would have been fatal without magical intervention. But the rotation was never complete. There were never enough fresh troops to provide adequate rest. Everyone fought until they could barely stand, then fought some more.
Everyone except August.
The young human had become something of a legend among the assembled beasts. While even the most powerful Beast Lords showed signs of exhaustion movements slowing, magic becoming less precise, wounds accumulating August seemed inexhaustible. He was always on the front line, always in the thickest fighting, his weapons flashing with deadly precision as he cut through enemy after enemy.
The beasts began to wonder if he was truly human at all. Perhaps he was something else wearing human skin, a beast in disguise, or some kind of divine manifestation. No mere mortal should be able to fight for days without rest, killing hundreds of enemies without apparent fatigue.
Beside him, Benethar Solvorn proved equally inexhaustible. The Prime Forged Soul had no biological need for rest, his Beast Lord mana cores providing essentially unlimited stamina. His four arms moved in coordinated patterns that grew more refined with each battle, learning and adapting with frightening speed. Enemies learned to fear his approach; the sight of that crimson-skinned figure wading through combat, ripping bodies apart with casual brutality, became synonymous with death.
And Aetherwing, soaring overhead like an avenging storm, rained lightning and razor winds upon any enemy foolish enough to cluster together. The Guardian Beast had grown visibly stronger over the past days of constant combat, his level increasing from 204 to 210 through accumulated experience. Each new level refined his already formidable powers, making him an even more devastating force.
The three of them August, Benethar, and Aetherwing had become the linchpin of the defensive effort. Rex, the Forest Guardian Beast who commanded the northern territories, had privately admitted that without them, the line would have already broken. Reinforcements were coming from other regions, but winter snow slowed their march. It would be days yet before significant help arrived.
They just had to hold the lines until then.
August's personal tally of defeated Boss-rank beasts had climbed steadily. Six so far, including the formidable K'tharr he had fought days ago. The subsequent Boss-rank enemies had been marginally easier, not weak by any means, but lacking the centuries of refined experience that had made the K'tharr so dangerous. He needed four more to complete the Trial of Strength.
His accumulated experience points, stored since he had reached the Level 25 cap four years ago, had grown to staggering proportions. Over 2.5 million experience points sat in reserve, waiting to be applied the moment he advanced to Personal System Level 2. With the current rate of combat, he estimated reaching 3-4 million before the trials concluded.
But as Day 40 dawned cold and grey, August sensed a shift in the enemy's tactics. The probing attacks that had characterized the previous days' fighting suddenly stopped. An eerie silence settled over the battlefield, broken only by the wind and the groans of wounded beasts being carried to safety.
Then, from the northern tree line, *she* emerged.
---
The Queen of Nightmares
The Glistening Dread Queen was a creature from prehistoric nightmares given flesh and terrible purpose. Where her offspring, those horrifying centipede-like horrors that had terrorized Erik, Betty, and Bren years ago measured thirty feet in length, the Queen dwarfed them. She was over three hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and towered one hundred feet tall when she raised her front segments.
Her body glistened with mucus-like secretions that dripped continuously onto the ground, the substance so corrosively acidic that it sizzled and burned through snow, frozen earth, and anything else it touched. The stench of dissolution filled the air with a nauseating combination of rot, acid, and ancient death.
Thousands upon thousands of slimy, clawed appendages lined her grotesque form, each one capable of crushing bones or tearing through the toughest armor. Her movement defied normal physics, an undulating, hypnotic motion that seemed wrong on a fundamental level, as if she existed partially outside conventional space.
Her mandibles, each the size of a siege engine, opened and closed with sounds like grinding millstones. Between those terrible jaws, row upon row of needle-like teeth gleamed in the pale morning light. Her eyes dull red orbs the size of wagon wheels tracked movement across the battlefield with predatory intelligence.
This was a creature that had survived for over a millennium. A Boss-rank beast at the absolute peak of its classification Level 225, Mythical rarity. She was, quite possibly, the single most dangerous entity currently on the battlefield. Even Rex, the Forest Guardian Beast who commanded the Lonelywoods forces, was only marginally more powerful.
August felt his mouth go dry as he assessed the threat. This wasn't like the previous Boss-rank enemies he had fought. This creature operated on an entirely different scale of power.
*Foolish mortal,* the Queen's telepathic voice slithered through his mind like oil sliding across glass. *You will taste true darkness and despair!*
The Queen surged forward, her massive body undulating with terrifying speed. She didn't discriminate between friend and foe; everything in her path was crushed, pierced, or dissolved by her corrosive secretions. Beasts from both sides scattered in panic as the apex predator rampaged through the battlefield.
August threw a dagger, the blade enhanced with lightning magic, aiming for one of the Queen's eyes. The weapon struck true and immediately began melting, the acidic mucus coating dissolving enchanted steel as if it were wax in a furnace.
*Shit,* August thought with unusual vulgarity. Physical weapons were useless. He would have to rely entirely on magic.
But could he generate enough magical power to harm a creature of this magnitude? His fire magic was strong but not overwhelming. His lightning element offered options, but the Queen's massive bulk would be difficult to damage with anything short of sustained bombardment.
August retreated toward a defensible position, his enhanced perception analyzing the battlefield situation. The Personal System's voice suddenly cut through his thoughts Manager Dorothy, speaking with unusual urgency:
[P.S. MANAGER DOROTHY: MASTER, THIS CURRENT BATTLE APPEARS TO BE ORCHESTRATED WITH UNUSUAL SOPHISTICATION. OBSERVE THE POSITIONING OF ALLIED FORCES.]
August's enhanced perception shifted, taking in the broader tactical picture. He felt his blood run cold.
Every single powerful combatant on the Lonelywoods side was currently engaged with specific enemies. Rex fought a massive Behemoth-class beast that required his full attention. Aetherwing battled a flock of corrupted wyvern-like beasts that prevented him from providing aerial support. The other Beast Lords were similarly occupied, their combat positions seemingly random but actually forming a deliberate pattern.
A pattern that isolated August.
Only he and Benethar were positioned to intercept the Glistening Dread Queen. The gap between them and the nearest powerful ally was over half a kilometer too far for immediate reinforcement.
"I see it," August muttered. "This wasn't an organic deployment. Someone is directing the enemy forces with tactical precision. They've specifically isolated me."
[P.S. MANAGER DOROTHY: CONFIRMED. ENEMY COMMAND STRUCTURE DEMONSTRATES SOPHISTICATED STRATEGIC THINKING. YOU ARE THE PRIMARY TARGET.]
August felt a grim smile cross his face. If the enemy wanted him specifically, they had succeeded. But they might not appreciate what they'd unleashed.
"Benethar!" August shouted over the din of battle. "We're on our own for this one! I need you to strip that creature's acid coating!"
The Prime Forged Soul, currently in the process of crushing a K'tharr's skull between two of his four hands, turned immediately. He dropped the corpse and charged toward the rampaging Queen without hesitation or fear.
Benethar's mana cores flared, power building within his artificial form. His master, Ben Flameswrath, had designed him with sophisticated magical capabilities and chief among them was an affinity for fire and magma magic that rivaled even Grandmaster-level practitioners.
The Prime Forged Soul opened his mouth, and power manifested. Not ordinary fire, but something that transcended normal elemental magic. Magma molten earth given form and purpose erupted from Benethar's throat in a continuous stream. The temperature in the immediate area spiked dramatically, snow flash-evaporating into steam.
The Glistening Dread Queen felt the threat and responded immediately. She spewed her own acidic secretions, attempting to neutralize the magma through chemical reaction. The two substances met in midair, producing explosions of steam and noxious gas.
But Benethar's magma was too hot, too intense, too pure. It boiled through the acid spray, maintaining cohesion despite the chemical assault. The molten earth struck the Queen's outer coating, and she *screamed* a sound like metal being tortured, amplified to ear-shattering volume.
The acidic mucus that coated her body boiled away, exposing the armored exoskeleton beneath. The Queen thrashed in agony, her thousands of appendages flailing wildly as pain overrode her tactical awareness.
August didn't waste the opening. This was his moment possibly his only moment to strike with everything he had.
---
Divine Manifestation: Birth of a God-Killer Technique
August closed his eyes and reached deep within himself, accessing power he had carefully conserved throughout days of continuous combat. His Guardian Beast Exclusive Skills abilities that drew upon his fate-bound connection with Aetherwing had remained unused. He had been saving them, instinctively knowing that he would face a moment where nothing less than absolute power would suffice.
This was that moment.
He activated every skill in his arsenal simultaneously. Not sequentially, building power step by step, but all at once a technique that should have been impossible, that would tear apart anyone who attempted it without perfect control and monstrous mana reserves.
[ACTIVE COMBAT SKILLS - SIMULTANEOUS ACTIVATION]
Wind Blade - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Low-Tier ★)
Shield Bash - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Low-Tier ★)
Piercing Bolt - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Low-Tier ★)
Lightning Volt - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Low-Tier ★)
Flame Burst - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Zephyr's Arcing Bolt: Gale-Tempest - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Tempest Sovereign Aegis Dominion - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (High-Tier ★★★)
[ACTIVE BUFF SKILLS - SIMULTANEOUS ACTIVATION]
Mana Coating - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Low-Tier ★)
Lightning's Edge - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Inspire - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Bestial Rage - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Flame Armor - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Flight of the Wind - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (Mid-Tier ★★)
Personal Magic Buff - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (High-Tier ★★★)
Power erupted from August's body like a physical force. The very air around him began to distort, reality bending under the pressure of concentrated magical energy. Within a twenty-kilometer radius, every living creature felt the change, a primal recognition that something unprecedented was occurring.
The winds howled, not with natural force but with conscious fury. Lightning sparked across August's skin, arcing between his fingers and weapons in dancing chains of electrical death. Flames manifested spontaneously in the air around him, not consuming oxygen but drawing power directly from the ambient mana itself.
Mini-tornadoes formed in a circle around August, each one wreathed in fire that turned them into pillars of destruction. The snow beneath his feet didn't melt it *sublimated*, transitioning directly from solid to vapor without passing through liquid state. The ground itself cracked, unable to contain the pressure of power being channeled through this single point.
August began to glow. Not metaphorically, but literally his body became a source of light bright enough to cast shadows in multiple directions. His armor, weapons, everything he carried resonated with the power flowing through him. His emerald-green eyes blazed like stars, visible even through the brilliant aura that surrounded him.
Within his immediate vicinity perhaps ten meters in radius there was perfect calm. The eye of a hurricane, where the air hung absolutely still. But beyond that circle of peace, chaos reigned. The very fabric of space seemed to ripple, as if reality itself was struggling to accommodate the concentration of power.
The beasts on the battlefield, both ally and enemy, recognized what they were witnessing. There was a term for this phenomenon, used rarely and always with reverence: God Manifestation. It described the moment when a mortal being, through perfect technique and absolute commitment, briefly touched the divine. When their power transcended normal limits and approached something that could threaten even the gods themselves.
The Glistening Dread Queen, still reeling from Benethar's assault, suddenly understood the true danger she faced. She shrieked commands to her offspring, demanding they protect her, interpose their bodies between her and the glowing figure.
But they were already dead.
August drew his spear from his back with one hand. The weapon, reforged by Master Ben and enhanced through countless battles, had never touched power like this. The metal sang a high, pure note that cut through the battlefield noise. August coated the spear with the accumulated power swelling within him, channeling everything into a single point.
The weapon began to vibrate, faster and faster, until it became a blur. The air around the spearpoint ignited spontaneously. Lightning wrapped around the shaft in a double helix pattern. Wind compressed into an invisible sheath that would cut through anything it touched.
August's perception of time slowed. He could see individual snowflakes suspended in the air. Could track the panicked movements of beasts trying to flee the area. Could feel the Glistening Dread Queen's desperate attempt to generate a defensive barrier.
None of it mattered.
August threw the spear.
---
The Spear That Erased Mountains
The weapon left his hand and immediately transcended conventional physics. It broke the sound barrier within the first meter of flight, the sonic boom creating a shockwave that knocked nearby beasts off their feet. But it didn't stop there.
The spear accelerated.
Wind magic compressed ahead of the projectile, creating a vacuum that eliminated air resistance. Lightning magic provided continuous propulsion, each electrical discharge adding velocity. Fire magic superheated the air in the weapon's wake, creating a trail of plasma that glowed like a comet's tail.
The spear reached and surpassed the speed of light.
Time itself seemed to pause. Reality struggled to process something moving faster than the fundamental speed limit of the universe. For a frozen instant, the spear existed simultaneously at its origin point and its destination a quantum impossibility made manifest through sheer magical force.
Then time resumed, and reality screamed.
Everything in the spear's path ceased to exist. Not destroyed, not disintegrated, erased. The Glistening Dread Queen's offspring, those hundreds of lesser horrors that had rushed to protect her, simply vanished. The molecular bonds that held them together unraveled at the fundamental level. They didn't have time to register pain or fear. One moment they existed; the next, they didn't.
The Queen herself, stripped of her acid coating and desperately attempting to flee, took the spear through her center mass. The weapon punched through her armored exoskeleton as if it were rice paper. Her thousand-foot length convulsed once, a final spasm of autonomous nervous system response.
Then she exploded.
Not from external force, but from the inside out. The power August had channeled into the spear didn't dissipate on impact it transferred. Every joule of kinetic energy, every erg of magical force, every fragment of accumulated power flowed into the Queen's body. Her internal structure couldn't contain it. No biological system could.
The Queen detonated with the force of a small nuclear weapon. A sphere of absolute destruction expanded from her position, vaporizing everything within a hundred-meter radius. The shockwave that followed knocked beasts off their feet for kilometers in every direction.
But the spear continued its flight. It had lost perhaps five percent of its accumulated velocity passing through the Queen. The remaining ninety-five percent carried it onward, an unstoppable projectile of divine wrath.
The spear struck the mountain behind the battlefield.
And the mountain ceased to exist.
The impact point became the epicenter of devastation that redefined the landscape. Rock that had stood for millions of years, compressed by geological forces into near-indestructible stone, simply vaporized. A crater formed not gradually, but instantaneously expanding outward in a perfect hemisphere.
The mountain didn't collapse. It didn't crumble. It was erased from existence so completely that the space it had occupied became a vacuum that air rushed to fill with a roar like the end of the world.
Debris launched into the sky, fragments of stone the size of houses thrown kilometers high. The shockwave from the impact propagated outward in visible ripples, distorting the air itself. Trees were uprooted and thrown like kindling. Snow flash-evaporated into superheated steam.
The explosion illuminated the entire battlefield brighter than the midday sun. Beasts threw themselves flat, instinctively seeking any shelter from the apocalyptic destruction. Those caught standing were blinded by the intensity of the light, their eyes burning from photonic overload.
For five eternal seconds, the world was nothing but light and sound and the fundamental restructuring of reality.
Then, gradually, the light faded. The sound diminished to echoes that would ring across the mountains for minutes yet. The debris began falling back to earth in a deadly rain of superheated stone.
Where a mountain had stood, there was now only absence. A crater three kilometers in diameter and over five hundred meters deep marked the impact site. The edges of the crater glowed cherry-red with residual heat, the stone itself having been partially liquefied by the energy release.
August stood at the center of his circle of calm, the glow fading from his body. His eyes returned to their normal emerald-green. The weapons and armor that had resonated with divine power returned to their conventional appearance.
And then August collapsed.
---
Aftermath: The Price of Power
August's mana reserves had been completely depleted, not just drained, but exhausted at the fundamental level. His body, pushed beyond any reasonable limit, simply shut down. He was unconscious before he hit the ground, his system automatically entering a protective state to prevent permanent damage.
As darkness claimed him, he heard a final system notification:
[P.S. MANAGER DOROTHY: CONGRATULATIONS, MASTER. YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED THE TRIAL OF STRENGTH.]
[ADDITIONAL ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: NEW ACTIVE COMBAT SKILL CREATED]
[SKILL NAME: ELEMENTAL APOCALYPSE - (CLASS V - GRANDMASTER) | (DIVINE-TIER ★★★★)]
[SKILL DESCRIPTION: A technique that combines all available elemental magics into a single projectile of absolute destruction. Cannot be defended against through conventional means. Requires complete mana depletion to activate. Cooldown: Cannot be used more than once per week without risking permanent spiritual damage.]
[WARNING: THIS SKILL REPRESENTS THE ABSOLUTE PINNACLE OF MORTAL MAGICAL CAPABILITY. FURTHER ADVANCEMENT REQUIRES TRANSCENDENCE TO DEITY STATUS.]
Benethar caught August before he struck the ground, cradling the unconscious human with surprising gentleness despite his massive strength. The Prime Forged Soul looked toward the crater where a mountain had once stood, then back to August, then to the scattered remains of the Glistening Dread Queen, or what remained of it.
"Fascinating," Benethar said aloud, his rumbling voice carrying notes of genuine awe. "Master Ben will wish to study this phenomenon in detail."
Aetherwing, having finally dispatched his own opponents, descended in a controlled dive. The Guardian Beast landed beside his ward, his massive form creating a protective barrier against any potential threats.
*What has he done?* Aetherwing projected, though the question was rhetorical. The evidence was literally written across the landscape.
Rex approached more slowly, his massive Bone-Tyrant form picking carefully through the devastated battlefield. The Forest Guardian Beast studied the crater, then August's unconscious form, then the crater again.
*That human child,* Rex said finally, *just killed a Boss-rank Mythical creature, eliminated over ninety percent of the enemy forces on this section of battlefield, and grievously wounded a Forest Guardian Beast that was orchestrating the enemy tactics from concealment.*
*Yes,* Aetherwing confirmed. *He tends toward the dramatic.*
*'Dramatic' is insufficient terminology,* Rex rumbled. *That was divine intervention made manifest. I have not witnessed such power since...*
He trailed off, unwilling to complete the thought. But every beast present knew what he meant: since the last time the gods themselves had walked the world of Centuury.
The Personal System provided final confirmation of what had been achieved:
[SYSTEM: TRIAL OF STRENGTH - COMPLETION CONFIRMED]
[FINAL TALLY:]
- Beast Lords Defeated: 20/10 (200% requirement fulfilled)
- Forest Guardian Beast Defeated: 1/1 (100% requirement fulfilled - enemy commander grievously wounded, functionally defeated)
- Human/Humanoid Targets: 0/10 (Not required - alternative condition met)
[TRIAL OF STRENGTH STATUS: COMPLETE]
[REWARDS PENDING FULL TRIAL COMPLETION]
The battle was over. Shadowfen's forces, witnessing the complete annihilation of their apex predator and the godlike power their enemy could manifest, broke and fled. Not in organized withdrawal but in panicked rout, every beast running for their lives back across the border.
The Lonelywoods defenders didn't pursue. They were too exhausted, too wounded, too shocked by what they had witnessed. They simply watched as the enemy vanished into the northern forests, leaving behind a battlefield littered with corpses and fundamentally altered terrain.
Victory had been achieved. But the cost at least to August had been absolute.
As Benethar carefully carried August's unconscious form toward the field hospital, every beast they passed lowered their heads in respect. Some might have been bowing to August specifically. Others might have been acknowledging the divine power that had briefly touched their world.
Either way, the message was clear: August Finn had transcended the category of "mere human." He had touched something greater, something that approached the fundamental forces that shaped reality itself.
And in doing so, he had saved them all.