Sylas continued to run, feeling the time ticking down as though there was a clock echoing in his head.
But it felt futile. His Aether control was too poor to run on the lava as though it was flat ground. Every time he tried to run forward hard, he'd end up slipping back. Once, his calf even broke through the surface, sinking into the lava for a moment and he was forced to pull himself out.
There wasn't even ten seconds left and he had only crossed 100 meters. There was still over half of the distance remaining, and he knew he couldn't make it.
This was the first time Sylas truly felt the scent of death.
He had been in dangerous situations before and survived them all, but this was a different sort of helplessness. Even his own mind had betrayed him for reasons he didn't even understand yet.
In that moment of life and death, Sylas realized for the first time just how reckless he had been stepping into this world.
He had felt the decision was correct, but it was ultimately selfish as well.
There was too much he didn't know, too many things that could catch him off guard, too many chances for even his sharp mind to make a lapse in judgment, let alone his current mind.
If he had never entered the Trial, he would still be with his parents, little sister, and grandfather. He wouldn't be in this place, about to die an excruciating death.
He felt the frailty of life so clearly in that moment, and he felt even more that he didn't want to die.
It was the most human he had felt maybe all his life. He could remember just how much he hated the monotony of Earth. Even as a tenured professor, he never truly felt like he had accomplished much of anything.
Now, he ironically wanted to go back to those days… at least he wouldn't die, at least he would live.
It was the most pathetic thought he had ever had.
No… he had had a thought no less pathetic before.
It was a memory he had buried deeply, so much so that he had re-contextualized it in his head. But weren't these the sort of thoughts he had had when he broke up with Cassarae?
Life was easy. He was born into a good family, he was smart, everything came simply to him.
Did he really come to this world because he was bored? Or was it because he thought he would be able to trample all over it just as easily as he did everything else?
Did he ever truly see it as a risk? Or did he think he could out-think and out-compete everyone?
Was he actually a coward?
Was it still bravery if your persistence was built on a foundation of ignorance?
The question reverberated through Sylas' mind, and he didn't seem to realize that his mind had come back into sharp focus.
His Madness entered the Bronze Mastery and his mind seemed to expand for a moment.
At that moment, Sylas' visualization snapped back into focus and he noticed something that he had missed before.
It was easy to miss. It reflected and mirrored the lava around it far too easily.
It wasn't just the disk alone, but it seemed to have formed a barrier around it that formed a smaller crater in the lava, pushing the crimson gold liquid away from it.
The reason why Sylas hadn't noticed it before was because the island was a patch of obvious brown in the sea of red. In contrast, the disk and its forcefield were too inconspicuous.
If you were too far away, the disk was too far beneath the surface to notice. The forcefield around it was completely invisible as well, so it allowed the light from the lava surrounding it to pass through unfiltered.
Despite the thoughts ravaging his mind, Sylas had never stopped running. At the very least, even if he was a coward in some sense, what cowards wanted to do most was protect their lives.
It was just 20 meters away.
Sylas pivoted slightly, changing his angle and rushing toward it at the fastest speed he could muster.
His Aether control increased just the smallest bit, and he felt a more solid foothold on the lava, allowing him to cross the distance with just three seconds to spare.
He landed on the forcefield heavily, but he didn't relax.
The beating of his heart echoed in his ears, thrumming wildly.
The lava was one problem, but the heat it emitted wasn't going to disappear. There was no way he could lower his Aether skin to swallow an elixir, so he was on his own.
Could he even absorb Aether in this state?
Sylas forced himself to throw his existential crisis to the back of his mind. Since his mind was clear again, he had to take advantage.
Beneath him, he could feel that his weight was causing the disk and its forcefield to sink into the lava.
At the same time, while his shield wasn't being rebuffed by the lava anymore, the heat alone was doing a number on it. He probably had a few minutes at best.
Any intention he had of figuring out exactly how this happened was tossed away as well. That information was useless to him if he didn't survive.
Sylas ran through several thoughts until he landed on the uneven Aether skin around him.
There was a particularly large bulge of silvery blue right over his mouth, and it was more obvious to him than his own nose.
He needed Aether, but wasn't this Aether? He didn't need much to trigger . So long as he could get it to start working, he would recover his Aether swiftly and be able to make it to the island.
With a focused intention, Sylas focused on pulling some of the Aether around his lips back. He didn't know how much would be enough, so he pulled until it was even with the rest of the Aether around his head.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.