5 Trials (2/2)

Christian felt a rage of hostility rise through him as he felt his leadership is being threatened and that Ivan was mocking him so he harshly grabbed the items away from Ivan.

Ivan knew there was something wrong but he shrugged it off as Christian being too tense.

It was not too long that someone would find another clue.

Rose was the one who found the next clue and took advantage of the situation.

Acting in a similar fashion to Anne she cried in surprise as she grabbed Dean and pressed her head against his chest.

Dean knew that he should prioritize Rose as he already took a glimpse of what had happened and predicted that Ivan would take control of the situation.

Dean patted Rose's head to calm her down but everyone else could tell that she obviously did it on purpose while Dean was left to be ignorant.

Ivan acknowledged their intimate moment and transitioned to the surprise ”This.... isn't it the same?”

It was extremely similar to Anne's clue as the wall had a hole on the side and rock collecting into a small mound beneath it.

The problem was that the object inside was practically the same as Anne's due to it being a wooden slab with the same inscriptions.

Christian took a further look at the wooden slab and noticed something ”No, it's not the same. The inscriptions are a little different if you look here”

Pointing towards the bottom half of Anne's wooden slab Ivan could confirm this. He passed this to Anne, Pierre and Ayesha to have a closer look

Ayesha”...”

Pierre”Wah, your right.”

Anne ”Really?”

Anne took a closer looked and confirmed for herself while Dean could just barely see over her shoulder to compare the runes.

Rose was still occupied with her business and clutched strongly onto Dean's arm.

Christian exuding excitement put both the slabs of wood together with the fire orb where the slabs had a caved in center.

Ivan asserted his ideas as he mentioned ”We should start moving o-”

A flash of light surrounded the seven children as they disappeared from the cave.

When the flash of light was gone the sight of the cave was removed from their eyes and instead replaced with a well kept rug and wooden walls.

Dean couldn't help but comment ”Eh, where'd we go?”

Rose clutched even harder onto Dean's arm and the same situation could be said to be happening to Pierre with Anne.

If Dean and Pierre payed attention they would notice they were winking to each other but they had to take care of a bigger matter.

””What happened to the fire orb?””

Taking a closer inspection of Christian's hand there were only two wooden slabs stacked on top of each other with the fire orb gone.

”Did you drop it when the bright light flashed?”

Having this suggestion made Christian thought carefully and for once started to doubt himself 'Did I really lost it?'

Instead of dwelling into more doubt he started to get angry at the thought 'it's all because of him isn't it. It's because of him that i'm being doubted.'

Dean saw that Christian didn't look too well so he was about to pat his back but Ivan started to inform everyone

”Welcome, I see that you have managed to pass the first trial. Congratulations.”

Ivan spoke in an incredibly indifferent voice that made everyone a little bit worried.

”You have used your wits in order to succeed, at your age this already a prosperous moment.”

”However that is not the final trial. This is the final trial. You have done a battle of wits against illusions. And now you will have a battle of strength.”

It was then that everyone looked at Ivan to see him looking at a calligraphy painting on the wall.

Dean noticed that his hand was scrunched up with his fingernails digging into his palm.

Ivan imparted his thoughts to his group in a cold tone ”This is nothing than a game, isn't it?”

”To you maybe, but to me it is my life”