Global Awakening: Only I Can Respawn

YuWon heard her, but his head began pounding like someone was hammering it. He groaned, releasing Anna\'s hand and clutching his head instead.

"What... is going on?" he mumbled.

He returned to the cave, but his perception of reality got distorted after the flashback.

"You were hallucinating," Anna explained. "The gas leaking from the eggs caused that. I think it was a defse mechanism against intruders."

"...I see."

YuWon was fine physically, but the mtal toll on him would take some time to heal. For a momt, he looked a the cave, unsure if he was back in reality.

Anna noticed his reaction and hugged him. She didn\'t know what he had gone through in his dream. But for him to be so shak up, something terrible must have happed.

If it hadn\'t be for Anna\'s past life experice dealing with hallucinations, she would be in the same boat as him.

"It\'s alright," she whispered in his ear. "We can talk about it later. Right now, the others need our help, too."

YuWon took her hand and pulled himself to his feet. They were in the middle of a trial and there was no time to waste like that. While Anna left to wake Gina, YuWon spotted Yeji next to him.

Much like him, she was sweating buckets with her eyes shut tightly. Her face was pale, likely because of the nightmare she was expericing. YuWon crouched down beside her and gtly shook her shoulder.

"Yeji, wake up!"

Wh she didn\'t respond, YuWon had no other choice. With a snap of his finger, the slave brand activated, shocking her.

Yeji immediately sat up, looking a in a daze. But wh her eyes fell on him, she immediately hugged him.

"Don\'t leave me, please!" she yelled. "I\'ll be more useful to you! I swear!"

...it\'s clear what she was dreaming about.

YuWon shook his head, patting her back. Across the cave, Anna was helping Gina up, while Lysandra was still lying on the g. He walked up to her.

Meanwhile, Lucifer stood on the side. He couldn\'t help them anymore. He had already pushed his luck by leading them to the Hydra\'s nest and destroying an egg, accidtally, of course.

If he tried as much as lifting a finger to help them, he was afraid the geas in him would choke him to death.

That wasn\'t ev the worst of it.

If his geas were to activate, it would give the gods the opportunity they wanted. They could get their minions to change the rules of the trial. If that happed, their negligible chance of survival would turn to non-existt.

Everyone slowly got to their feet. No one spoke a word, but they were shak and not in a position to fight. Unfortunately, they won\'t get the time to recuperate.

A roar echoed from outside the cave. It was like the Hydra-ling\'s roar. Only this time, it was much louder and fiercer.

"The Hydra…" YuWon muttered.

***

After blocking another whip-like tail, Anna looked at YuWon fighting in the distance. Only t minutes had passed, but fighting the Hydra was already tiring them out.

To make things worse, their faces revealed the mtal toll of hallucinations. Moreover, they couldn\'t drop their guard ev for a second. Not with a doz heads staring at them.

Meanwhile, Lucifer was patitly watching them. He told them he couldn\'t help them, but somehow Anna felt that wasn\'t the case. He had helped them fight the Hydra-ling before with no problems, th why was he staying out of it now?

Yet he wasn\'t taking any risks. But Anna didn\'t get more time to think about it longer as one of the Hydra\'s sev tails came crashing towards her.

It was no big deal. She could dodge the tail again...

"…Uh?"

Suddly, it felt like she was wearing weights on her ankles. No matter how much she tried, her legs won\'t move. She looked a at the others, but there was nothing wrong with them.

Th she saw it—the smirk on Lucifer\'s face.

"You bastard—!"

She screamed, but the tail came crashing down on her.

***

Sometime ago...

Fools.

That was the thought Lucifer had about the mortals. He never showed it, but every second he spt among them disgusted him. They were animals raised for slaughter, and suddly he was one of them?

Unlike Asmodeus, who got his powers stripped away from love, Lucifer lost his wings because of pride. The power and authority of an angel got into his head and he accidtally ruined one of God\'s plans.

As a punishmt, they took away Lucifer\'s wings and forced him to live the rest of his days as a mortal. That was until he received a notification.

An unknown tity was willing to restore his status. But he had to do one thing. He had to sure YuWon and his tire group failed the trial. The tity ev promised him divinity if he got them killed and dealt with YuWon.

It happed a year before the trial was scheduled. The tity\'s offer was why Lucifer disobeyed Asmodeus and took part in the trial.

The fool destroyed the eggs, just because I did.

Lucifer knew the gas would knock them out and, without help, they\'d never wake up. His plan was perfect. He would trap YuWon in eternal sleep and leave the rest behind for the Hydra, as destroying the eggs would get her atttion.

However, the plan failed wh Anna woke up from her eternal dream. Back th, Lucifer was about to carry YuWon away. In the d, he had to pretd that he was helping him. But Anna pushed him away.

She had always be conscious of him. Ev though she never showed it outright, Lucifer knew it. Her knowledge of the future evts was a hurdle for him.

Ev while fighting the Hydra, she didn\'t believe his words about Geas, ev though all of it was true. But Lucifer didn\'t care about winning her trust anymore. He was already busy making plans for the future.

With divinity, I can have my revge on those fools who banished me. But first... I should get rid of the most problematic one.

With that, he used his ability to petrify Anna. While he couldn\'t interve in the trial, that was only limited to the disasters, not humans. Hce, he targeted Anna first, who was the most problematic among the bunch.