Amon didn’t expect the armored giant to possess a long-range attack. Thus, his blunder. The blast that hit him was a sound-based one. Like the mental attack from the snail beast, the sound attack also bypassed his shadow suit. He didn’t lose consciousness as he had from the mental attack, but he lost control of his body. He felt paralyzed and lost his balance. He saw the armored giant jump toward him.

Surressh’s gravity bomb hit the armored giant right before it reached Amon. Though it was slowed, Amon couldn’t dodge. He watched the giant’s fist coming at him.

All he could do was shift his shadow suit and condense it at the point where the fist would connect. The fist smashed into the shadow shield he had formed. The slowing from Surressh’s gravity bomb had weakened the impact, but it was still strong enough to penetrate the shadow shield and break several of Amon’s bones. He flew away from the impact.

Amon was in a world of pain due to the broken bones, but he suppressed it. He hadn’t yet regained control of his body, but he could manipulate his shadow suit. He used his shadow suit’s dark tentacles to grab the armored giant.

On the air, the giant didn’t have a footing. It also couldn’t fly. Amon expertly utilized the momentum from the impact that sent him flying to pull the giant, and sent it plunging toward the black pond.

"Surressh!" Amon yelled.

The Hyanid caught the hint. He moved forward and threw another gravity bomb, the biggest one he had ever conjured since the trial began. The gravity bomb exploded on the armored giant. Its falling speed doubled once that happened.

The armored giant was helpless with its fall. Its heavy legs dove into the black pond. It spread its arms. The span of its arms was enough to let it grab the ground beside the pond and stop it from sinking further. However, the darkness energy filling the pond immediately swirled and began to pull.

It was now a contest of strength between the armored giant and the pond. Surressh threw more gravity bombs at the armored giant to help the pond win this tug-of-war competition. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

While Surressh was busy doing that, Amon silently approached from behind. The effect of the sound attack didn’t last as long as the mental one. Amon had recovered control over his body. He held the Moonfire Dagger in his arm. This place dulled the cultivation sense, but he still used the Concealed Ghost Body to suppress his aura.

He thrust this dagger at the unsuspecting Surressh.

When the tip of his dagger almost touched Surressh, the Hyanid suddenly turned into smoke. This took Amon aback. The momentum of his thrust made him continue forward. The smoke Surressh had turned into floated past him.

The smoke transformed back to Surressh, who immediately threw a gravity bomb at Amon. The gravity bomb exploded, intensifying the gravity that pulled at Amon’s body. Amon fought the gravity by trying to fly out of the affected area.

Surressh stopped that from happening by throwing more gravity bombs at Amon.

"You... You hid that transforming art throughout the fight?" Amon asked.

"It’s not an art. It is my special constitution," Surressh answered.

"How do you sense my attack?"

"I didn’t. I saw it," Surressh pointed at his compound eyes. "Hyanids have a field of view of almost three hundred and sixty degrees, which means we can see almost everything around us. You can’t ambush us if you rely on coming up to us from behind."

Amon thought back to the time when the dog beast tried to ambush Surressh. The Hyanid saw the ambush then, but pretended to be surprised.

"Hehe. Not bad, Surressh. It is my folly for considering you gullible," Amon praised.

"Nothing personal, Amon. Only one of us is allowed to survive this trial," Surressh returned.

"Don’t think this is over already," Amon uttered. The pressure from the gravity bombs might have weighed him down and prevented him from leaving, but he still moved away little by little. His power, enhanced by the Elder God Veil, was stronger than what Surressh could produce.

Surressh noticed it. He doubled his effort, but Amon continued to move slightly under the pressure. When Amon had moved slightly a meter in Surressh’s direction, the dark tentacles on his back lashed out.

The dark tentacles covered a long distance, so they could reach Surressh. Surressh moved away to avoid the tentacles. As a result, his assault stopped. The pressure from the gravity bombs lessened. Amon could now flee the area.

However, when he was about to do that, he felt something grab his leg. He looked down and saw it was the armored giant.

The armored giant was hanging on for its life, directly below Amon, by holding onto the ground beside the black pond. It seemed to have concluded that its effort was futile. It couldn’t escape the black pond. Thus, it decided to take the one responsible for its demise with it.

With only one hand holding the ground, it didn’t have enough power to oppose the black pond’s absorbing power. Its body sank further into the swirling darkness energies, pulling Amon in the process.

"No," Amon spoke softly. He was not one to give up, but in this situation, he couldn’t think of a solution fast enough. At the moment he uttered that one word, the armored giant was already completely submerged inside the black pond. His leg also touched the swirling energy of darkness.

The moment he felt the energy from the pond, he knew everything was pointless. The pulling power was too great. If there was indeed a black hole in this cultivation world, this pond was it. Nothing could escape once they entered its scope.

In less than a second since Amon’s feet touched the pond, he vanished inside the swirling blackness.

*

Murmurs rose from the spectators above the pit. Almost everyone believed that the survivor would be one of the spirit beasts. The snail beast was an altered beast. Not many knew its capabilities. Those who did believed that it and the armored giant would be the last two standing.

As for the armored giant, every Hyanid knew this spirit beast. It was called the Steel-clad Titan. It used to be one of the dominant spirit beasts in this area, together with other titan-type beasts, until the Hyanids colonized the place and drove them out. Some were captured by the Hyanids and kept as training tools for their young soldiers.

Because of this familiarity, the Hyanids understood that it was not a spirit beast that a Peak Fiendish Stage cultivator could defeat. Everyone believed that the Steel-clad Titan would be the trial’s last survivor.

"Surressh, the condemned one, has passed the Worthiness Trial!" Ublaith exclaimed. After the announcement, he spoke to Surressh directly, "You have been granted a second chance. Do not make the same mistake again."

"I won’t, Master Ublaith Kahn. Thank you for the opportunity to join this trial."

"You have someone else to thank," Ublaith replied. He turned to Xlasstazh and said, "My condolences, Elder Xlasstazh. It appears that the creator you worship is either a hallucination or a powerless entity. Otherwise, he should have done something to save the human he prophesied would help us out of this cursed land. Since the human has died, that proves the prophecy is not to be taken seriously."

Xlasstazh frowned deeply, but he didn’t retort. He firmly believed Amon would somehow pass this trial. He didn’t know how he knew, but he knew for sure the creator was not a figment of his imagination. He also knew the creator was not a powerless being as Ublaith said. If anything, he knew with certainty that the creator could end this entire world if He chose to.

Yet, he also didn’t understand why Amon died just like that. There were plenty of times when he didn’t understand the creator’s messages, but it was different with Amon. The message was crystal clear. Then why? Did the creator change his mind and cast Amon away?

He didn’t understand. He could only wait. Wait for the creator to send him another message. Maybe that would shed some light.

*

Somewhere down below the pit, but also another realm away, was a cavern, which was also a small pocket dimension. This pocket dimension had a lid at its top, which also served as its only doorway to the outer world. This doorway was a swirling black mist.

The remains of the armored giant popped out of this mist. All that was left of it were its sturdy armored plates and its skeletons. They dropped to the ground below. Nearby was the skeleton of the snail beast.

Strewn around the place were the skeletons of multiple spirit beasts, Hyanids, Cryanids, and also humans. Many weapons were also scattered about. Unlike the ones inside the pit, the ones here looked more ancient. They also exuded powerful auras, even when most were in a damaged state.

Another thing popped out of the swirling black mist above. Unlike the others that passed through, this latest visitor retained an intact, yet injured body.

This visitor was Amon.