He was alone in the domed shrine of the constellations.
It was silent, but sometimes he could hear the ocean waves crashing into the outer walls of the shrine; it was peaceful.
The trial still wasn't over.
After some time passed, he was lying on the ground inside the shrine.
"Thud! Thud! Thud!"
He heard the loud thuds coming from the entrance of the shrine.
"Hahaha, hahaha!" Raven laughed like a madman.
"Why should I cry or feel afraid in the face of death?" he said, his words barely escaping his mouth.
He continued. "I want to go home." his words echoing in the hall.
Then the loud thuds stopped.
Raven turned his head and looked towards the entrance. There, the Desert Reaper was standing. It was a scene from a nightmare: saliva dripping from its long, forked tongue, its maw stretched to a permanent grin with razor-sharp teeth sticking out. Its head was facing Raven's body. But Raven was too exhausted to be frightened.
The Desert Reaper lowered its maw and lunged at Raven.
The Reaper was just about to reach Raven. It was already stretching its claw to kill him.
"I guess this is the end," he thought, resigned to his fate.
But at the last second, a familiar voice suddenly resounded in the dark shrine.
[You have cursed at the strongest beings in the universe.]
[The Constellations.]
[They have ignored you.]
[Your soul bears the mark of Infinity.]
[You are a shrine thief.]
[The constellation who hates the other constellations peaks at you.]
[Constellation of Infinity sends a blessing.]
[Raven Scott, receive your blessing!]
Under Raven's astonished eyes, the Reaper's claw was frozen in front of his face. It seemed time had stopped. Then he noticed that the claw's purple-grey skin was turning white by the second, and its forked tongue was drying up rapidly. By the time Raven blinked, there were only huge bones left in mid-air. Its claw's bones were still in front of his face.
Time continued again. He jerked his head to the left, dodging the massive claw's bones falling onto his face. The claw bones hit the ground beside him and turned into white dust, followed by the huge bones hitting the ground and turning into white dust as well.
Raven blinked again.
Once again, he was alone in the dark shrine with some white dust piled up beside him. The great hall was dark and silent.
He heard the familiar voice again.
[You have slain a spectral, Desert Reaper.]
[Wake up, Raven Scott, your trial is over.]
[Prepare for your appraisal...]
Raven found himself in a space between dream and reality. He was in an endless black void; countless bright stars illuminated it. Between those stars, countless bright lights were stretching out, connecting the stars to one another. They were woven into beautiful and inconceivably complex nets, forming various constellations. It was truly breathtaking.
Somehow, Raven thought that he was seeing the constellations he had cursed, shaking his head, dismissing it as an intrusive thought. He looked at the constellations, searching for any he found familiar, but there were none. He only remembered Sagittarius, so he wasn't disappointed—he wasn't an astrologer, after all.
He worked as cybersecurity in a software company, and in his free time he played online games. He wasn't really a fan of star signs, but who would have known he would be transmigrated into another world, so it wasn't his fault for not studying the star signs.
Raven thought about the plan and sighed. "If the Reaper didn't arrive by my side, I would have escaped."
His plan to escape still worked, just that he had made a miscalculation by not keeping an eye on the monster's leap to the dune, and he didn't expect the monster to follow him after he threw the shard. He was purposely keeping the shard on him to make the monster follow the trio. His plan was to get rid of the guard and the witch and escape. He hadn't trusted them from the beginning of the trial, and they were just illusory people anyway.
The voice spoke again.
[You have received an artifact: Reaping blade]
Raven's eyes lit up and he said, "Yes."
This artifact came from the Desert Reaper, which was ranked higher than an Orbiter. Though he didn't know how high the rank "spectral" was, it was still higher than Orbiter, which was Rank 2 in the Path of Singularity. The artifact was the same rank as the Reaper as it came from killing him.
There were nine ranks to everything in the singularity realm, with Rank 1 Stargazer being the lowest and Rank 9 being the highest. He didn't know the names of other ranks except Stargazer and Orbiter, which were Rank 1 and Rank 2.
But Raven was confused because he wasn't the one who killed the Desert Reaper, but the Constellation of Infinity, and it somehow counted as Raven killing it.
He didn't know what kind of being the Constellation of Infinity was, if it was a true god or a being with godlike powers. The only thing he knew about it was that it hated the other constellations and had blessed him because of it, and the [Mark of Infinity] attribute played a huge part in catching the constellation's attention, somehow, as the familiar voice said.
"It wasn't a useless attribute after all," he thought.
Then Raven took a deep sigh and clenched his fist.
"I survived."
He wanted to take a look at the Reaping blade, but there was no more time; the Orbit was done with its appraisal.
[Contender! Your trial is over.]
[A nameless thief traveled the dream desert. Both heroes and monsters fell by his hand. Injured, he entered the long-forgotten shrine of the constellations and cursed at constellations. The constellation ignored him for his blasphemy, but one of them listened.]
[You have defeated a stargazer beast: Desert Reaper's Puppet.]
[You have defeated a human: Name unknown.]
[You have defeated an orbiter: Leo's knight.]
[You have defeated a spectral: Desert Reaper.]
[You have received the Constellation of Infinity's blessing.]
[You have achieved the impossible!]
[Final appraisal: marvelous. Your arrogance truly knows no bounds.]
That last part was not really necessary, as far as Raven was concerned, but he was still pretty satisfied with the praise from the Orbit, and confused at the same time.
[Stargazer, Raven Scott, receive your boon!]
He was a Contender no more.
[You have been bestowed a Title: Wandering Blasphemer.]
A title. Raven didn't know what it meant to receive a title. To him, it felt like the Orbit was cursing at him, but it wasn't over yet.
[Your Prism is ready to evolve. Evolve Prism?]
"My Prism can evolve!"
Raven's eyes lit up, and he immediately said, "Yes."
[Stargazer Prism Shrine Thief is evolving...]
[New Prism acquired.]
[Prism Rank: Singularity.]
Raven was even more confused now.
[Prism Name: Infinity Orchestra.]