Chapter 188: Star River, Ascending the Divine Steps

I couldn’t understand, but since I hadn’t seen that guy’s shadow in the first and second trials, it definitely meant that Sylvester had already arrived in the further area.

If that’s the case, then let’s keep moving forward; we’ll eventually run into him. As long as I can confirm that the other party is still here, things will be easier.

Continuing forward along the crystal-clear ground, what appeared before Vilyric was a long staircase.

No further spatial changes occurred; the stone pillars, which were like guards, had vanished without a trace. Looking around, it was a vast star river, and at the end of the crystal floor, a black staircase floated in the air, endlessly extending upward into the sky, seemingly without end.

Though no one was around to explain, Vilyric could feel that this must be the final trial.

“Ascending the Divine Steps, after strength and intelligence, the test is… willpower and mentality?”

Deep in thought, the girl took a step forward.

*Tap.*

As her foot landed on the black steps, the crystal-clear ground behind her, the path she had walked, scattered like soap bubbles, vanishing completely, leaving only the vast, boundless void of stars beneath her feet, with endless steps before and behind her.

“The power left behind by the God of Magic… is it starting to show? This is the oppressive feeling that only a true divine realm can bring.”

Vilyric raised her hand to summon a sphere of light, feeling an increase in mp consumption and various changes, lost in contemplation.

The original intention behind this trial seemed to be to suppress future contenders with the divine power of the god’s realm to a level only equivalent to ordinary humans, and through the prolonged ascent, sap their stamina and willpower, making it unbearable and leading them to collapse. Only those with sufficiently strong will could persevere to the end.

However, for Vilyric, a problem arose.

Just like her previous battle against the Withering Goddess in the Sky City, even a divine realm of a main god couldn’t seem to suppress the Priestess to the point of being unable to act, merely adding a degree of burden. This meant that the supposed test of will had become completely insignificant; it only made the lengthy staircase a bit overwhelming to look at.

After all, divine sparks and divine positions cannot coexist; other gods, especially the main gods, usually wouldn’t squabble here in the God of Magic’s old haunts, let alone the fact that there were almost no true gods left wandering freely in the outside world.

If we were to be honest, Min Chen, at level 80, would be the most suitable candidate to take on this sort of trial. It’s likely that those who crossed over initially had similar intentions, but they ultimately failed.

While lost in thought, Vilyric’s feet didn’t stop; in just a few minutes, she’d already walked over hundreds of steps.

Before her and behind her, the endless black staircase still stretched into infinity. Such a scene can easily evoke intense negative emotions, as if trapped in an eternal, terrifying prison that never ends. This sight bore a striking resemblance to the high tower once known as the Temple of Sky from the Sky City.

Yet, this staircase clearly had layers far exceeding a thousand.

During that time, Vilyric tried flying or throwing harmless attacks into the seemingly boundless night sky. Although in this suppressed space, test subjects should typically be unable to act like that, this Priestess was just that unreasonable.

The results came quickly.

She could fly, but no matter how high she soared, she could only see the endless staircase; it seemed that this space contained some sort of loop. Upon descending, she would always return to where she initially took off.

As for how she knew that was the original spot, it was simply because the Priestess had left a mark beforehand. Vilyric had a faint sense that this trial of walking along the staircase contained some sort of special meaning behind it and wasn’t merely a deliberate difficulty imposed by the God of Magic.

The attacks unleashed towards the distance didn’t yield any response. Vilyric even tried summoning a level 7 Light Element Spirit, commanding it to fly into the starry sky continuously. Yet, the little fellow only flew out for a brief moment before reappearing beside Vilyric, looking just as lost.

Clearly, this place wasn’t truly amidst some vast star river but rather a self-circulating, bounded small space. Even if a trial candidate were to fall from the staircase, they would likely end up back where they started, just like that little light spirit.

There was no danger at all; it was purely an extreme test of will.

Vilyric couldn’t be sure about other more extreme situations, like if she activated high-tier magic bombardments above level 10 or used something like the Void Trace to slice open spatial rifts. But her intuition told her that this could lead to a troublesome situation, harmful and unnecessary for her, so there was no need to go that far for now.

She continued ascending the long steps, silently counting how many she had traversed.

Five hundred steps…

One thousand steps…

Three thousand steps…

Ten thousand steps…

The girl began to quicken her pace, her feet almost turning into afterimages as she ran.

Perhaps ordinary test candidates were already exhausted from the pressure of their surroundings, but it was hard for the divine race to feel fatigue. The power of the divine realm had a relatively limited impact on Vilyric. Although her speed was astonishing, she progressed firmly and steadily.

One hour passed, and she had traversed thirty thousand steps, but in front of her still lay the seemingly endless long staircase.

This truly was a sight capable of evoking despair. However, Vilyric wasn’t discouraged; instead, she began to reveal a look of realization, like a white afterimage racing across the endless black staircase.

And at that moment.

*Crack.*

A clear sound of shattering came from afar, and the girl immediately halted her steps, raising her head calmly to look at the sky. There, in a corner of the infinite sea of stars, a crack suddenly opened, and the genuinely terrifying void darkness began to spread gradually from the fissure.

“This is…”

The previously quiet artifact, the Magic God’s Gem, which had only been passively following the Priestess since helping her open the temple’s door, suddenly began to whirl around Vilyric, bouncing up and down as if trying to convey something.

Artifacts are sentient, their intelligence not inferior to many normal intelligent beings, but due to their physical form, they rarely show it. The Magic God’s Gem, in this display, was clearly urging Vilyric to quicken her pace.

It seemed… the final moment has arrived.

“Alright, I understand now.”

Softly soothing the newly awakened artifact, the Priestess cast her gaze towards the top of the staircase, where a glimmer of light was gradually beginning to shine in the far distance.

“Don’t worry, now that I’ve come this far, I will never let the worst happen.”