Shiiiiiinnggggggg!

The chains untangled themselves completely and fell to the ground, showcasing a bright sphere that illuminated the entirety of the dark hall.

KUUUUU! KUUUUU!

A blue-colored phoenix flapped its wings and soared high into the sky.

ROAAAARRRRR!

A black tiger jumped into the sky from the bright sphere, roaring loudly.

HISSSSSSS!

A giant twelve-headed serpent hissed its way up in the air.

Three more beasts joined this party, with the rest three being a bear, a boar, and a sugar glider.

The six beasts roamed the skies of the dark hall while shrieking as loudly as they could.

These were the spirits the rabbit-man was talking about which held immense providence within them.

The six were expecting to see one spirit as Mr. Carrot had mentioned, however, it was a surprise to see six for one person each.

While the spirits circled the air, within the bright sphere emerged six similar wooden sticks.

They flew to one person each and lay beside their crystal ball.

Then emerged artifacts, each of different shape and size, completely different from one another.

They also flew to their respective owners and lay near the crystal ball.

What Lith got was a bracelet while others got a sword, a lance, and so on.

The bracelet lay near the crystal ball, beside the wooden stick.

Finally, six manuals emerged from the sphere and went to their owners.

The sphere then vanished.

Clap! Clap! Clap!

"Bravo. What unity, I am truly impressed." Mr. Carrot appeared again and said sarcastically.

He stood in the middle of the hall and continued, "I wished you guys died here so I can go into my burrow and sleep, but sigh you just had to clear this, didn't you?"

"I have no idea how you six united, but nothing to worry, there's still more trials where one by one, all of you will be eliminated. Kek."

"Anyway, those things above" Mr. Carrot pointed above. "Those are the spirits carrying immense providence within them. Only one was supposed to come out, but congrats, all six have decided to appear."

"Let's see who chooses who."

Saying so, Mr. Carrot whistled and the six spirits shrieked again.

The six then flew to their respective masters and assimilated in them, raising their providence.

Mr. Carrot clapped again. "Surprising, it was really surprising to see those spirits choose people completely different from my expectations."

He then looked at the six.

"You must be wondering what I am talking about, right? Not to worry, I'll brief you on this. So"

The twelve-headed serpent, which represented adaptability, overcoming challenging hurdles, personal growth, guardianship, and transformation, went to Sebastian instead of Iki which Mr. Carrot was expecting.

As for Iki, he got the boar spirit which represented tenacity, ferocity, strength, protection, abundance, resourcefulness, and prosperity. Pretty surprising.

Then, Ariel, the white-haired woman with golden eyes and a warrior-like appearance, was another surprise for Mr. Carrot.

The bear spirit represented wisdom, endurance, fighting spirit, healing, nurturing, vitality, harmony, balance, and the most important of all, provided a deep insight into the natural world and the spiritual realm.

As for the sugar glider, which was an odd one out among the rest of the beasts, it represented cheerfulness, healing, playfulness, intelligence, joy, communication, and one who possessed providence of this spirit would usually end up becoming a great peacemaker.

It wasn't surprising that Tsuki got this.

The tiger spirit, representing agility, strength, speed, ferociousness, fearlessness, keen senses, courage, assertiveness, vigilance, and watchfulness, went to Anne.

These providences were surprisingly very good and everyone was already amused by it.

However, Mr. Carrot continued, "not only is it that, there's also something special about the tiger spirit."

"It paves a path to navigate the unseen or the subconscious realms. Not just that, but"

It offers insights into spiritual awareness and the fucking mysteries of life and death!

That was a really cool providence if Lith were to personally say.

Finally, when it was Lith's turn, Mr. Carrot seemed oddly shocked.

The shock from Lith was much greater than he had from others.

The phoenix spirit chose him and that was no joke whatsoever.

The phoenix spirit held great significance and was often associated with rebirth, transformation, and resilience.

The providence encompassed several aspects, like its ability to rise from its own ashes, representing renewal and immortality.

The spirit of a phoenix granted individuals the power to overcome adversity, recover from setbacks, and embrace a new beginning.

Furthermore, the phoenix was linked to fire and the element of fire representing passion, power, and purification.

The presence of a phoenix spirit brought warmth, inspiration, and a fiery determination to those connected with it. The bearer would ignite creative energy in others, illuminates paths, and offer guidance during challenging times.

The most important aspect of it all was the ability to peer into the cycle of reincarnation and even have the ability to alter it!

Life, death, reincarnation, it flowed into one another like water and the cycle has been continuing since eons.

Lith just gained the providence to jump into the reincarnation aspect of it.

Mr. Carrot only said this much, but Lith knew there was more to it than what he just mentioned.

What it was, the question was something yet to be known.

Mr. Carrot, for the first time, didn't have a good feeling about something and looked up into the starry skies.

What was going on in his mind was:

'Heavens, if he and that red-haired got together, the cycle of Life, death, and reincarnation would be completely altered. There was no need for such providences to come out. Why what's going on'

Mr. Carrot had many questions and didn't speak for quite a long time. He just stared up in the sky.

After ten minutes, he looked down and shaking his head, continued, "Whatever. Enjoy your providences."

He pointed his finger at the wooden sticks. "Hold them."

Nobody questioned him and just did as asked.

As soon as Lith held it within his palm, he felt the stick to suck some spiritual energy out of him and transform.

The stick turned into a beautiful black earring that was the shape of a cross.

As for the others, someone's stick turned into a bracelet, someone's into a ring, someone's staff, and so on.

"Those are communication artifacts. You six can communicate with each other. I have no idea why you got it since in the next few trials, you're gonna die anyway. But whatever."

Annoyance could be seen starting to appear on Mr. Carrot's face.

Lith ignored him and removed the white cross earring from his ear. It had been so many years since it became useless. He only kept it as is because it looked cool.

There was no need for it now since he got something better.

Lith swapped the earrings and wore the bracelet as well.

Once everyone was done, Mr. Carrot clapped his hands again and the six were teleported away.

.

.

.

.

.

Opening his eyes, Lith saw himself standing atop an enormous active volcano, lava splashing and turning inside it.

There was so much warmth coming from down there that Lith believed he would be turned into ashes if he tried to move closer to it.

He had no idea why he was here or what the trial was, but suddenly, he started hearing a puppy's whispers.

"Wooo"

Looking down, what Lith saw turned his eyes wide open.

"REN!" Lith yelled in reflex as he saw his puppy holding onto his dear life at the edge of the volcano.

He wanted to run and take him away, however

"Your Highness?"

"Lith?"

From the other side, Lith heard two familiar voices.

Turning, he saw Ralph and Dennis held hostage by a massive red centipede that was crawling on the edge and making its way down at the lava.

Lith was shocked to his core once again and wanted to yell, but didn't, in fear of startling the centipede and making his two friends fall into the lava.

The situation here was very dangerous.

From the heat Lith felt from the lava, he was a hundred percent sure that dropping down into it would kill him, even though he was a Saint Rank immortal.

Ren and his two friends were not even a question.

Lith used thought acceleration and sped up his thoughts to analyze the situation as fast as he could.

From the looks of it, he was in such a difficult situation that he could only choose one to save.

Ren was still a small puppy, not strong enough to hold on for long.

Ralph and Dennis would die any moment they touched the lava.

Both the parties were close to him and he didn't want to lose any of them at any cost.

Taking a deep breath, Lith thought to himself, 'Ren, although small, is strong enough to hold on for a while. I can save Ralph and Dennis in that meantim'

Lith's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a rumbling occurred near Ren and a gigantic red spider crawled out of nowhere, making its way towards Ren.

Ren whimpered even harder as he noticed this new change.

Lith soon heard a cackle in his ears.

"Kekeke, whom will you save, phoenix providence bearer?"