I, The Villainess, Will Seduce All The Heroines Instead
Chapter 146: The Trial (5)

Chapter 146: The Trial (5)

[Being Edited Alongside Others.]

Verena was utterly mortified by what had just happened.

How on earth did she manage to fall asleep so quickly right there on Vivienne’s shoulder?

It felt absurd, and yet... maybe Vivienne wasn’t as pointless as she’d assumed.

For the first time, she caught herself reconsidering the girl’s value.

What was she expecting, really?

She is a heroine, after all... even if a bit of a mess.

Shaking off her embarrassment, they pressed forward through the labyrinth’s twisting corridors, until finally, they reached the imposing door marking the entrance to Trial Two.

There was an aura that made them hesitate, faint constellations lighting up on its surface like stars waiting to be ignited.

Verena’s heart thumped in her chest, whatever awaited beyond that door, it promised no respite, only more challenges to test their resolve.

"It’s okay! Once you’re tired, I can even let you sleep on my lap!" Vivienne chirped far too cheerfully, as if she hadn’t just melted Verena’s dignity five minutes ago.

"A-Ahaha... Sure," Verena muttered, averting her gaze with a stiff smile.

She was still dying inside from the shoulder nap incident, and now the girl was offering her lap like they were already in a lovers’ slice-of-life spin-off.

Finally, they stepped into Trial Two.

Immediately, the temperature dropped.

The stone floor beneath their feet had frost-laced patterns, celestial sigils etched in silver that pulsed like a heartbeat.

The ceiling had vanished entirely, revealing an astral void above them, black skies dotted with slow-drifting constellations, like the heavens had cracked open and poured into the chamber.

Before them lay a sprawling arena carved from starlight and obsidian, each platform floating mid-air, connected by gravity-defying bridges that retracted and twisted at random intervals.

Hovering crystals emitted strange hums, casting shifting illusions that made it hard to tell which paths were real and which were traps.

Far off in the mist, shadowy beasts prowled in silence, their forms flickering between solid and spectral.

A voice, mechanical yet ancient, boomed from the void:[Trial Two: The Path of Parallax]

If she remembered correctly, the trials were designed so that she’d reunite with her teammates one by one or in pairs along the way.

"Verena?"

Isolde came running toward her, looking ridiculously flawless as always, like she hadn’t broken a sweat in this entire trial. Typical.

She probably one-shotted every beast in her path. But the moment their eyes met, Isolde’s expression soured.

"Seriously, Verena? We’re in the middle of a trial and you’ve already added another girl to your collection?"

"DON’T MAKE IT SOUND LIKE THAT!" Verena barked, her face heating up faster.

Verena flailed her arms wildly, positioning herself between Vivienne and Isolde like she was shielding a precious artifact. "She’s not part of a collection! I’m not some perverted Pokémon trainer catching waifus in the wild!"

Vivienne tilted her head, blinking innocently. "What’s a Pokémon?"

"Don’t—don’t worry about it!" Verena groaned, slapping a hand to her face. "That reference was not meant for this world."

Isolde crossed her arms, her violet eyes narrowing with judgment that could turn steel into ash. "You’re telling me that—" she gestured vaguely at Vivienne like she was a suspicious street vendor—"was the best strategic choice?"

"She fell into my path!" Verena hissed. "It was fate! Or shitty luck! I don’t know anymore!"

Vivienne, bless her oblivious soul, smiled like someone who just got adopted into a loving family she didn’t quite understand. "I think she likes me."

Isolde looked like she was considering committing violence right there in Trial Two. "That’s it. I’m initiating an emergency evaluation of team standards."

"Please don’t," Verena muttered. "Let’s just focus on the trial, okay?"

The three of them turned toward the second challenge ahead. Trial Two was nothing like the last. If Trial One was all about isolation and beasts in a cosmic maze, this one was built like a cursed playroom designed by a bored god with a grudge.

The terrain shimmered with pastel lights, floating platforms bobbed in and out of visibility, and puzzles twisted in midair. Ethereal clockwork machinery turned without sound, and gravity occasionally decided to take a break, yanking the floor sideways without warning.

A translucent system panel popped up with obnoxiously cheerful lettering:

TRIAL TWO: THE ASTRAL HARMONICS

OBJECTIVE: Tune the celestial mechanisms by solving a sequence of timed perception puzzles.

WARNING: Inconsistent teamwork will lead to mild death.

"MILD?" Isolde arched a brow. "What’s mild about death?"

"It’s probably just a suggestion," Verena said, voice quivering as one of the floating platforms exploded in the distance.

Vivienne clapped her hands together. "Ooooh! I love rhythm puzzles!"

Isolde’s eye twitched. "Do you even know what rhythm is?"

Vivienne gave a gentle twirl, accidentally stepping on a pressure plate and causing several gears to scream angrily in the walls. "Nope!"

Verena sighed so hard her soul nearly left her body. "Why are trials like this always testing your patience instead of your power?!"

"You’re asking the wrong goddess," Isolde muttered, already cracking her knuckles and stepping forward.

As they braced themselves, the platform under them began to rotate, the world tilting like a carnival ride from hell. Musical notes appeared midair, demanding someone match their patterns. Symbols danced mockingly, and a giant constellation-faced conductor hovered ominously above, waiting to see who would mess up first.

"Well," Verena said, steadying her breath, "at least if we die, I won’t be alone."

Isolde grinned. "Not dying is the goal, babe."

Vivienne cheerfully raised her hand. "I call dibs on pressing all the shiny buttons!"

"NO, YOU DON’T—" Verena shouted, but it was too late.

Trial Two had officially begun.

Vivienne darted forward like a child let loose in a candy store, hands already reaching for the nearest glowing rune panel. "This one’s blinking pink! That must mean it’s friendly, right?"

"Vivienne, wait—" Verena lunged to stop her, but the girl had already pressed it.

The room responded with a violent jolt. A series of discordant chimes rang out, and half the platform beneath them flipped upside down. Isolde barely jumped in time, flipping midair with a dancer’s grace, landing on the now-rotating segment like it was just another Tuesday.

Verena, however, ended up clinging to a levitating gear by the sheer strength of panic. "I TOLD YOU NOT TO TOUCH ANYTHING!"

Vivienne blinked up from her position, somehow landing in a pile of floating flower petals that had not been there before. "Oh. Oops?"

"OOPS?!" Verena screamed. "This is Trial Two, not preschool recess!"

Isolde rubbed her temple, visibly restraining herself from dropkicking someone into another dimension. "Verena. Sweetie. You picked her up. This is your circus now."

"Oh, like you haven’t made questionable friend decisions?" Verena hissed, finally hauling herself back up with gritted teeth and ruined dignity. "You adopted a talking sword once!"

"It was sentient!" Isolde snapped.

"It was horny, Isolde! It kept flirting with everyone!"

"I considered it character growth!" Isolde barked, before the next wave of the puzzle began.

Suddenly, the air shimmered with constellations—dozens of them, rotating like a giant astral lock. Notes floated toward them in sync with the pattern, demanding that each person step on a glowing tile in perfect time. A wrong step meant a burst of stardust would knock them off the platform.

"Oh great," Verena muttered. "Rhythm and coordination. With this team?"

Vivienne took position, eyes sparkling. "I used to play Dance Revolution back home!"

"THIS ISN’T DANCE REVOLUTION, VIVIENNE!"

"Just follow my lead!" she chirped, then immediately missed the beat and stepped on the wrong tile.

A flash of blinding light blasted her backward. She skidded like a ragdoll across the air, somehow caught mid-bounce by a hovering moon-shaped cushion. Again—where were these things coming from?

Verena facepalmed. "What is she, a chosen one of the aesthetic gods?!"

"She’s an idiot protected by plot armor," Isolde muttered, gracefully matching each tile step like she was born for this. "Just try not to let her die."

Verena grit her teeth. Right. Focus. The platform vibrated beneath her as musical glyphs lit up in sequence. She moved with purpose now, letting instinct take over, stepping to the rhythm she barely understood but trusted enough to mimic. For a moment, it worked. They were syncing.

Vivienne floated back in, cheeks puffed with determination. "I’m gonna redeem myself! Watch this!"

She then tripped while floating, somehow hitting two incorrect tiles at once.

The entire platform shuddered.

An angry celestial conductor above them blew an astral whistle, and the sky turned a violent hue of red.

"Oh god," Verena whispered. "That’s the overtime mode color!"

A timer appeared.

00:59Make it through the final melody or be ejected from the realm.

Isolde cracked her knuckles. "We’ll have to manual override it. No more baby steps."

Verena exhaled hard. "Fine. Vivienne, stay behind me."

"But—!"

"Behind. Me."

She surged forward, matching the rhythm with terrifying focus, her boots tapping each tile with pinpoint precision. Isolde mirrored her from the left, elegant and deadly.

Vivienne, surprisingly, kept up just enough—mostly by flailing in the right direction.

They reached the final tile.

The timer hit zero.

Silence.

Then a soft chime echoed. The constellations aligned into a perfect circle. The platform shimmered and reshaped, forming a path to a glowing door.

TRIAL TWO: COMPLETEParticipants: 3Sync Rating: 79%Performance Grade: B+Bonus Points Awarded: Empathy Synergy x1

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