I, The Villainess, Will Seduce All The Heroines Instead
Chapter 171: The Trial (28)

Chapter 171: The Trial (28)

[Editing]

The door to the final trial yawned open with a slow groan, revealing a vast, cathedral-like expanse filled with floating celestial platforms and astral storms rolling above a void of endless stars. The constellations here weren’t gentle. They burned. Aries clashed with Scorpio, Leo danced madly with Sagittarius, and in the center hovered a throne of tangled energy—shifting, roaring, alive.

"That... doesn’t look like a normal test," Penelope muttered, tightening her grip on Clarina’s sleeve like a kid at a haunted house.

"That’s because it isn’t," Verena said grimly, her eyes tracing the formation of glowing symbols at the far end of the room. "This is the Zodiabeast chamber."

"Final assessment protocol confirmed," a mechanical voice echoed above them. It was the system’s voice now, stripped of narrative charm and entirely clinical.

[ZODIABEAST ENGAGED: OPHIOTAUROS — THE ENDLING OF STAGNATION]

Classification: Mythic Construct of Dormant Will

Nature: Paradoxical (Ascendant Pisces / Descendant Taurus)

Core Ability: Stasis Looping — A beast born from halted progress, devours forward motion and locks victims into emotional paralysis.

Combat Directive: Adaptive. Team-based synchronization required. Individual effort insufficient.

"Wait... that’s not a normal constellation," Clarina frowned.

"No," Verena muttered, heart pounding. "It’s a hybrid. Pisces and Taurus shouldn’t even resonate this way."

But the Zodiabeast before them pulsed with impossible pressure—its body a mass of starlit vines, sluggish limbs of shimmering stone and smoke. Two eyes blinked slowly, as if centuries passed between each thought. A crown of broken clocks floated behind its head, ticking out of sync with the world.

As soon as they stepped forward—

—Time slowed.

No. Froze.

Verena blinked and realized she couldn’t move.

Or rather—she was moving, but so slowly she could watch her own heartbeat like it was a film frame.

Her thoughts, however, ran just fine. Which was the worst part.

Saphira’s voice rang in her head like a glitched radio. "Thissss... is a loop... It’s feeding... on your hesitation."

Vivienne was stuck mid-step, her expression frozen in a soft smile. Isolde had drawn her threads, halfway through forming a spell. Penelope looked like she was about to sneeze. Clarina? She was glaring directly at the Zodiabeast—somehow resisting it.

’How?’

And then Verena heard her own voice echo in her mind, low and bitter:

"You’ll never be ready."

"No," Verena whispered internally. "No, we’re past that."

"You’re still stalling. Always stalling. A planner who never executes."

’Shut up.’

"You’re scared they’ll grow without you. Scared they won’t need you anymore."

’That’s not—’

"You say you want to protect them, but you’re the one keeping them still."

Her breath hitched. Was that true?

Had she been so desperate to guide everyone that she’d unintentionally stopped them from walking on their own?

The Zodiabeast pulsed again. The ticking clocks behind it ticked louder—until Clarina’s voice, sharp as a blade, cut through the fog:

"Get moving."

Time surged forward a little.

Only a second’s worth.

But it was enough.

"Snap out of it, Verena," Clarina shouted, forcing her own legs to move, stomping toward the beast with raw, hateful will. "You said we’d survive together, didn’t you?"

Verena’s eyes widened. Something cracked.

Was it her fear?

Her paralysis?

Maybe both.

She gritted her teeth. "Right."

She snapped her fingers. Mimicry activated.

The borrowed constellation of Leo flared in her chest—igniting briefly before fading. Her system was still unstable from the overload, but she didn’t care.

Vivienne stirred next. Her Dreamtide magic shimmered around her, forming a veil of empathy and illusion. "I can create a path... distract it."

Penelope wiped her eyes. "I’ll... I’ll be loud. I’m good at that."

Isolde finally moved, her fingers twitching before her threads snapped to life with scalpel precision.

Clarina raised her sword. "Follow my lead."

Together, they advanced as one.

The Zodiabeast howled. The arena bent.

And the real fight began.

---

The Zodiabeast bellowed—a deep, yawning groan that seemed to come not from a mouth, but from the heart of a dying star. Its limbs moved with haunting lethargy, like it had no desire to fight, but every motion it made twisted the space around it. Astral vines surged forth, lashing not with violence but with weariness—threads of stillness, thick with magical gravity.

Verena barely dodged one, feeling the weight of it pass over her like a shroud of depression. A part of her wanted to stop. Sit. Sleep.

No.

She slapped her own cheek and launched forward again.

"Vivienne!" she shouted.

"I’m already on it!" Vivienne replied, eyes shimmering with silver-blue Dreamtide light. Her magic surged—not as a wall or a weapon, but a breath of gentle unreality. The dream she wove was a mirage of motion: dozens of fake Verenas running in different directions, each one glittering with false determination.

The beast turned, confused.

Good.

Isolde’s threads flashed like lightning, snapping toward the Zodiabeast’s core. She didn’t aim to kill. She aimed to anchor. Her Bind Magic latched onto one of the floating clocks behind its head, locking the ticking device in place with a bright, ringing hum.

"One of the time nodes is restrained," she announced. "That should weaken its grasp on local chronology!"

"In plain words?" Penelope shouted.

"It can’t time-loop as hard now!"

"Oh! Okay!" Penelope grinned, flames bursting to life in her palms.

She charged forward and unleashed a stream of raw Ignition magic—a reckless, explosive blast that sent a ripple of heat through the entire arena. The floor cracked. The stars above them flickered, disturbed by the force.

It didn’t do much damage to the beast.

But it made it angry.

Which was perfect.

Because Clarina was already mid-air, her blade wrapped in a flaming thread—borrowed from Penelope’s fire, Isolde’s precision, and Verena’s mimicry rune embedded in her shoulder.

The moment her sword struck the beast’s shoulder, there was a crack.

Not a crack in flesh.

A crack in time.

The Zodiabeast screeched—high-pitched and hollow. The kind of sound that made your bones want to crawl out of your body. Its form trembled. The clocks behind its head shattered one by one, and with each loss, time surged forward for them.

Their movements accelerated.

They could feel again.

React again.

"Keep going!" Verena yelled, sweat clinging to her temple as she summoned a mimicry of Clarina’s blade, her weave sputtering but holding long enough to deflect an astral lash.

Vivienne dove to her side, catching Verena just before she could fall over the edge of a floating platform. "I’ve got you!"

"Thanks, lap pillow," Verena mumbled.

Vivienne giggled. "Anytime!"

But there was no rest. Not yet.

The beast’s core pulsed—its final defense activating. Its chest opened, revealing not a heart, but a swirling void. A gravitational singularity that began pulling everything inward.

"Oh for fu—!" Penelope screamed as she clung to a stone.

"Verena, that’s the end-point!" Saphira hissed from within her sleeve. "We have to strike there. Now!"

Verena’s eyes locked on it. "Right."

She reached out to the others. "Clarina! Launch me!"

"You sure?"

"No."

Clarina didn’t hesitate. With a powerful leap, she flung Verena toward the beast’s core, threads of Isolde’s binding magic wrapping around her to stabilize the arc. Penelope tossed a final explosion behind her as thrust, and Vivienne focused every drop of Dreamtide magic to numb the beast’s awareness—slowing its reaction.

Verena soared like a star.

And then—

She struck.

Her mimicry activated, fueled by every weave she had studied, borrowed, lived through: Evelyn’s light, Beatrice’s charm, Clarina’s control, Isolde’s cold precision, Penelope’s heat, Vivienne’s heart.

The core shattered.

There was no scream.

Only silence.

And then—

[TRIAL COMPLETE.]

[ALL TEAM MEMBERS ACCOUNTED FOR.]

[GRADE: A-RANK – COLLECTIVE GROWTH SUCCESSFUL.]

[BONUS REWARD: TEAM UNITY UNLOCKED.]

[AFFECTION UPDATES AVAILABLE.]

They collapsed onto the stardust-lit floor, gasping, laughing, groaning.

Verena looked up at the astral sky, breath shallow, heart wild.

"That," she whispered, "was the most absurd group project I’ve ever done."

Clarina chuckled beside her. "You say that like it’s over."

Verena grinned. "It’s not?"

Penelope waved. "Nope. Remember? We still have to walk out."

Vivienne added with a dreamy hum, "I vote we do that... after a nap..."

Isolde stood, brushing herself off. "You have ten minutes. Then we move."

Verena closed her eyes.

Ten minutes sounded just fine.

Because they had done it.

Together.

And they weren’t done yet.

The moment they stepped outside the collapsing trial gate, golden light spilled across their tired faces. The celestial dome above them dimmed, replaced by the warm glow of the academy’s sky. They were back.

Verena exhaled, shaky but relieved. The Trial of Ascendance was over.

Students began trickling in from other paths, some bloodied, some crying, some smiling in disbelief. She looked at her team—her unlikely, chaotic team—and couldn’t help but smile.

Vivienne clung to her sleeve like a kid. Isolde already had a hand on her hip, critiquing everyone’s posture. Penelope lay sprawled on the ground, giggling.

Then she felt it.

A faint system chime.

[You’ve unlocked something irreversibly important.]

Her gaze turned skyward.

She didn’t know what came next.

But she’d endure it.

Just like always.

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