"What the hell...?"

Alex muttered in a daze and looked at his new surroundings. But he didn''t have time to glance around much when...

BOOOOM!

A powerful lightning attack zoomed past his face and hit the wall far behind him. That attack would have taken his face off if it weren''t for his enhanced reflexes.

Still high in the sky and gradually descending, he looked in the direction of where the attack came from and when he felt the sheer intensity of the creatures''s aura, he swallowed a bit.

Even though he felt threatened by its aura, at the same time, he also felt that it shouldn''t be a problem for him, but he didn''t know where the feeling came from.

He eventually touched the ground and observed his surroundings.

"Damn... This is a massacre ." He muttered and the golden aura around him intensified.

Then...

"Alex!"

He heard the familiar voice he had missed for the past few hours. He quickly looked in the distance and saw Julia and Ross among the clustered students huffing and panting.

But Julia now had a smile on her face. A smile he mirrored when he noticed the void creature turn in his direction and let out a low growl.

"..."

.........

Several minutes ago, the remaining students in the Convergence Maze, numbering in the hundreds, finally made their way to the top floor of the labyrinth.

Each one of them was injured, tired, broken mentally from losing their comrades and low on mana. Despite this, the fierceness in their eyes only revealed their resolve to survive.No?v(el)B\\jnn

They may have lost their friends, but there was a time to cry and a time to fight. Right now, they still have fights to finish.

Unlike the other floors where they encountered void creatures, shifting maze walls just as deadly as the void creatures and mana-draining zones, the top floor of the labyrinth had neither of those.

Julia began looking around with hope in her eyes and noticing her actions, Ross said, "I don''t think he''s here yet. Give it time, he''ll be here soon.

"We just have to hold on till then."

"Mm." Julia nodded in acknowledgement but the growing light in her eyes dimmed again.

"Where''s Abigail?" Explore more adventures at empire

Ross inquired while searching for the girl.

"Well..." Julia began as her gaze shifted downwards in defeat, "S-She died." She resolved herself and stated plainly. There was no point beating around the bush.

"I see..." Ross could only sigh. "No point feeling guilty about it. Even I found myself in a bind when I got to the third floor."

He said to cheer Julia up. He could understand the reason why the girl looked so down. As Alex was the one to bring Abigail with them, Julia feared Alex might be disappointed in her failure to protect the girl, even though it was not her duty to do so.

"Yeah...."

As they continued their small talks, the hall trembled briefly.

"I think it''s about to start!"

Someone exclaimed and they didn''t have to elaborate as everyone knew what that meant. Whatever trial they had to pass before exiting was about to begin.

Julia and Ross quickly turned around and prepared themselves.

"We stay close and watch each other''s backs," Ross said, and Julia nodded, her face adopting a serious expression.

"How many void creatures are we going to battle this time? Given our numbers." A girl asked a colleague by her side.

"Not sure. But if the third floor is anything to go by... We might be facing a lot of those creatures, maybe even stronger ones."

Her words made sense, and the others agreed. With their numbers, they doubted it would only be one void creature.

However, ...