I, The Villainess, Will Seduce All The Heroines Instead
Chapter 160: The Trial (18: Part Two)

Chapter 160: The Trial (18: Part Two)

Time had stopped meaning anything. Minutes bled into hours, hours into eternities. There was no enemy to fight, no beast to slay, no dramatic twist to unravel. Only the endless quiet of the garden, and the creeping pressure of inertia.

Vivienne was curled slightly, head resting against Verena’s shoulder again, her breathing slow but panicked—like her body wanted to rest, but her heart knew she shouldn’t.

"I hate this," she whispered, voice hoarse. "It feels like I’m disappearing. Like... like if I close my eyes too long, I’ll just stop existing."

Verena didn’t respond immediately. She was struggling too. Her legs felt like stone pillars, her back stiff with cold tension. Her heart beat sluggishly in her chest, her thoughts crawling slower than molasses uphill.

Stillness. That was it.

The trial wasn’t just about standing still. It was about being still. About feeling time press down on you until you cracked. Not from outside, but from within.

And it was working.

She could feel herself unraveling, piece by piece. The parts of her that usually screamed back at the world—Fix this! Fight harder! Figure it out!—were... quiet. Too quiet.

She hated it.

"I should be doing something," Verena muttered. "Anything. Even panicking would be better than this."

Isolde, still perfectly still a few feet away, replied without moving. "That’s the point. You’re meant to feel like that. Like you’re useless unless you’re in motion."

"That’s because I am useless unless I’m in motion!" Verena snapped. "My entire job in this stupid narrative is to throw hands or throw shade. I’m not built for introspection!"

"Yet here we are," Isolde replied, serene and sharp.

Vivienne gave a weak giggle, but it came out cracked.

"I think I’d rather fight ten nightmare serpents than go through this again," she muttered. "At least then, I could punch something."

Verena looked down at her. "You? Punching something?"

"I can punch," Vivienne mumbled. "Just... badly. And then I fall."

"You punch like a wet pillow," Verena replied. "It’s more of a suggestion than a threat."

Despite everything, they both chuckled.

It helped.

Just a little.

The wind blew again, faint but cold. The longer they stayed, the more the garden began to twist. It was subtle—shadows lengthened where there were no light sources, grass curled inward like it was retreating, and the birds... stopped chirping. A suffocating weight settled on everything.

Verena noticed first.

"This place is reacting to us," she said. "Not to our strength, but to our will."

"So it’s like... the Trial senses when we’re about to give up?" Vivienne asked, her voice trembling again.

"Exactly. It’s pushing. Seeing who gives in first."

"And what happens if we do?" Isolde murmured. "What if someone falls asleep? Or stops resisting?"

Verena didn’t answer. She didn’t want to voice the worst-case scenario. But deep down, she suspected they’d simply vanish. Forgotten in the garden, consumed by stillness. Like a paused thought in a god’s mind that never gets resumed.

"We endure," Verena said instead. "That’s what it wants, right? So we endure."

Vivienne groaned. "I’m gonna lose my legs."

"I already did. Mentally. But my pride refuses to fall with them."

Time passed. More wind. More silence. Then, out of nowhere—

Ding!

A soft chime rang through the air. The ground beneath them vibrated lightly, like someone had plucked a harp string beneath the earth.

The plaque in the center of the garden flared with golden light.

You Have Withstood the Trial of Taurus.

Verdict: Tempered. Affinity Growth: +1. Emotional Fortitude: +2. Group Affection: Synchronized.

And just like that—the weight lifted.

Verena gasped as she collapsed to one knee, muscles finally moving again. Vivienne groaned and clung to her like a wet blanket, her arms clumsily wrapping around Verena’s waist.

Isolde stumbled a little, catching herself on a bench as she exhaled a curse under her breath. "That was awful."

"No more quiet gardens," Vivienne whimpered.

"No more tests about self-worth," Verena added.

No more reminders that they were only as strong as their ability to stay standing when no one was watching.

But as the garden dissolved into mist, replaced by a stone path leading into the fifth gate, something else stirred inside Verena.

Something heavier.

She’d felt that hopelessness before.

When she failed people.

When she lost things she couldn’t get back.

When she couldn’t move forward no matter how much she wanted to.

And maybe that was the real reason the trial had hit her so hard. Because it wasn’t fake. It was just... a mirror.

And now, she’d have to look into it every time she hesitated.

But for now, she moved.

One foot in front of the other.

Because she was not staying behind.

The path after the Trial of Taurus wasn’t carved stone or gilded hallway like before—it was overgrown. Thick vines curled like sleepy serpents around twisted archways, and the air smelled of rain-soaked moss and ancient wood. Light filtered through tall canopies above, casting shifting shadows across their path like a living tapestry.

Verena stepped forward with a hand on her sword, eyes narrowed. "Alright. This is either an enchanted forest... or a bad attempt at mood lighting."

Vivienne clung to her arm, eyes wide. "Are we sure we’re not back inside a dream again?"

"I sure hope not," Isolde said with a dry tone. "If this were a dream, I’d at least be better dressed."

They advanced slowly, boots crunching against damp leaves. The air was unnervingly quiet. Not in a dangerous way—at least not yet—but in a way that implied something was watching. Observing. Waiting.

Verena broke the silence with a sigh. "So what do you think the next trial is? A boss fight? A mental illusion? A weird family dinner scenario where everyone’s cursed?"

"You joke," Isolde said flatly, "but I have fought a cursed family dinner trial before. You do not want to know what possessed turkeys are capable of."

Vivienne let out a nervous giggle, tension bleeding from her shoulders. It was a small relief, and Verena held onto that sound like a lifeline.

The forest thickened. The path narrowed. And then—

A clearing.

In the center stood a massive stone dial embedded in the earth, like the face of a clock half-buried in time. Symbols were carved along its edges—zodiac signs, but warped. Fused together. As if someone had melted the constellations and let them drip into new meanings.

In the center, a sword was stabbed into the ground, its blade crackling faintly with pale green light.

Verena raised an eyebrow. "Well that’s not ominous at all."

Vivienne took a cautious step forward. "Do we... touch it?"

"No," Isolde said, "we definitely don’t touch glowing swords in cursed circles. That’s like, Trial 101."

But the sword pulsed again.

A voice echoed in the clearing—soft, genderless, almost like wind whispering through memory:

"The still soul stirs. But the world has already shifted. Choose the form of your defiance."

Verena blinked. "Cryptic. Great."

Suddenly, the dial rotated with a loud grinding noise. The symbols lit up one by one until it stopped on Virgo-Taurus, a fusion mark glowing white-hot.

From the edges of the trees, a figure emerged. It was massive—twelve feet tall, shaped like a towering centaur made of marble and root. Its bull horns gleamed with iron, and its eyes glowed with forest-fire gold.

Vivienne’s jaw dropped. "That’s a Zodiac Beast."

"Yeah," Verena muttered, hand moving to her sword. "And I’m pretty sure that one wants to turn us into trail mix."

The beast let out a low roar, and the trial began.

Verena dashed left, sword flashing. Isolde leapt back, conjuring a wall of shields from thin air. Vivienne—eyes wide, panicking—tried to focus her Dreamtide Affinity, illusions starting to ripple in the air like heat haze.

The Zodiac Beast charged.

Verena met it mid-lunge, blade clashing against thick armoured limbs. The impact sent shockwaves across the clearing. She ducked under its next strike, narrowly avoiding a massive hoof stomping the earth beside her.

Isolde hurled lances of light that exploded on impact, but the beast shrugged them off like fireworks. "We need a weak point!" she called out.

Vivienne gasped, clutching her head. "Wait—I think I can see it! Dreamtide’s showing me something—there’s a fracture in its chest!"

"Then aim for it!" Verena growled, already charging back in.

The battle was chaotic. Dust, light, magic, and brute force all clashed at once. Every blow Verena struck rang through her bones, but she didn’t stop. Couldn’t. Not when Vivienne was trembling behind her. Not when Isolde was risking herself to defend them both.

They weren’t losing here.

Not after surviving that goddamn garden.

Not when they’d already dragged each other this far.

Vivienne summoned a burst of illusion so thick it felt like fog. Shapes of other warriors moved through it—reflections, distractions, echoes of bravery she didn’t yet believe in.

The beast roared in confusion.

That was their chance.

Verena lunged. Isolde fired. Vivienne pushed all her fear into her spell.

And the fracture cracked.

With one final cry, Verena drove her blade in.

The Zodiac Beast shattered into a flurry of glowing constellations, dissolving into dust and drifting upward like scattered stars.

The forest went still.

And then—ding!

Trial Complete. Zodiac Alignment: Stabilized. Group Synergy: Harmonized.

Vivienne collapsed to her knees, laughing and crying at the same time. "We did it. Oh my gods—we actually did it."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.