Grey grunted, his palm and knee pressed so firmly against the ground he couldn’t get even a little breathing room between his skin and the ice cold marble.
’You’ve got to be kidding me. This still wasn’t enough for you all?’
He struggled to pull his head up, only to see that the stairs practically went off into infinity. He couldn’t even take the first step, how was he supposed to walk the rest of the way?
"Not today you bastards."
Grey didn’t walk up the stairs. He crawled.
He’d be fucking damned if he lost here like this.
’Just wait until I get up there. If there’s another ass to kick, it will be kicked.’
It was practically impossible to lift his hands or knees, so he didn’t. He slid them forward, and then when he got to the next stair, he lined his body up parallel to it and then rolled himself up back first.
At some point, Grey realized there was no point in facing the stairs at all anymore, so he crawled with his side first one step after another.
When one side got tired of pushing the other forward, he struggled and turned the other way, facing the other direction and continuing to crawl.
Surprisingly, the more he crawled, the easier it got—and then all the pressure vanished completely.
BANG.
The side of Grey’s back slammed into the siding of a stair. He had been pushing so hard off his hand and palm that he was taken off guard by the sudden drop in pressure.
It felt like all the air in his lungs had been ripped out.
’Son of a bitch.’
Grey’s body rolled over the stair and he was expecting to hit another, but he sprawled out onto flat ground instead.
’Huh?’
Grey squinted, finding the sun beaming down at him from a glass dome above. It was the largest glass dome he had ever seen in his life, and somehow it looked like it was carved out of a single piece of glass. He had no idea how that could be possible.
Groaning, his head turned to one side to find stairs down to infinity. He frowned, then turned his head the other way, only to find a line of feet.
’Holy shit—.’ Grey jumped to his feet. His head spun, the sudden change and his fatigue not playing well together. He pressed a palm against his head.
He dodged out of the way of his own hand, forgetting he had the katana. Only to find that the katana was nowhere to be seen.
’What the fuck? When did I lose the katana?’
He had been so focused on climbing those damn stairs he didn’t even notice when he lost it. But his long sword was gone too, this time.
Grey exhaled a breath and looked ahead, ready for another hand to hand combat.
’Hm?’
That was when Grey was distracted by something else. His Stamina was rocketing back up, but more importantly, his gear was back. His cargo pants, his bomber jacket, his skin-tight armor, his—.
"FUCK." Grey cursed, rubbing his head to find it was still bald. "What did I do to deserve this, huh?"
Grey looked at the owners of the "feet", but they weren’t actually people. They were just a row of statues looking at him with amiable smiles.
Half of them were bombshells, women so beautiful that if they told him they were Gods, he’d believe them, and then try to get their numbers.
There was a touch of something about them. He had seen women this beautiful before back on Earth, but somehow he still felt like these women in particular were a step beyond.
He didn’t understand it.
In terms of physical features, he had seen others. But in terms of presence, aura, those smiles... it was just... different.
The statues stood in a semi circle around an altar.
Grey’s pupils constricted into pinholes when he focused on the altar a bit more. It looked so... familiar.
It was a one to one replica of Giyoto’s altar.
’Well I’ll be damned. How the hell did the old bastard get his hands on something like that?’ Grey mused. ’I guess I’m supposed to walk toward that?’
Grey forced himself to be patient, waiting for his items to tick his Stamina back up to manageable levels first. That and allow his healing factor to work its magic too. His body had been beaten half to death at this point, he needed some time.
When he felt like he was ready, he walked toward the altar and paused. Nothing happened when he got close, so he slowly pressed a hand to it.
A shudder ran through his body.
—
[Trial of the Last Paladin]
—
[Trial of Sacred Bulwark > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Hallowed Endurance > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Divinesever > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Wrath Coronation > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Knight’s Vigil > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Swordsworn Ascension > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Last Swordsman > PASS GRADE: PERFECT]
—
[Trial of Perseverance > PASS GRADE: FLAWLESS]
—
"Hey, hey. Only one flawless grade? Who’s grading this shit, I demand a recount."
He had gone through a lot of bullshit to get here, he thought he deserved it. But what was the perseverance trial? The stairs? But he had barely gone up three or four of them before it let him pass.
How the hell did that test perseverance? Sounded like a sham.
—
[Trial of the Last Paladin]
—
[OVERALL GRADE: FLAWLESS]
—
Grey nodded to himself as though that was only natural. But when he thought about it, he had no idea how this grading system worked. Maybe flawless was weaker than perfect, or maybe there was a higher level than it.
’Whatever. What I don’t know won’t hurt me.’
The altar shook.
Lines of complex runes and sigils Grey recognized all too well started to snake out from its base, filling the circular room swiftly.
The brightness grew and grew until...
BOOM.
A beam of light descended from the glass dome above, enveloping Grey whole.
For once, it didn’t hurt at all.
In fact, he had never felt better.