Mavis stared at Michael while waiting for Tristan, feeling an odd mix of emotions at the presence of this sudden new group member.

Abigail brought him, huh. I wonder.

He shook his head and lightly slapped his cheeks.

"Get a hold of yourself, will ya?" Mavis muttered to himself.

"Did you say something?" Misha asked with her meek voice as she adjusted her glasses.

"Ah, no. Just wondering if Tristan is doing alright." He replied with a wry smile.

Mavis glanced up, briefly making eye contact with Abigail who averted her gaze quickly. He was about to open his mouth before he heard a familiar voice call out near the group.

"Hey guys, you all made it!" Tristan called out in his carefree voice as his red ponytail swayed behind him.

"Shh!" Mavis and Ash shushed him in unison.

"Oh, right." Tristan lowered his voice and chuckled.

"Well now that everyone is h-" Mavis began to speak before two figures were now visible next to Tristan.

One was a tall boy, the same height as Tristan with a more muscular build and a scar on his eyebrow. He had cat-like icy blue eyes with messy white hair. The boy seemed to be a year older than even Tristan. The other one was a short girl with a chipper smile and turquoise eyes, and flowing lavender hair.

"Before you say anything, let me explain!" Tristan raised his palms up as Mavis was about to speak.

"I'm all ears." Mavis sighed and crossed his arms.

"Why do I have to sit here and let this runt act like he's the boss of me?" The tall boy with the catlike eyes scoffed.

Tristan put his arm up to keep the boy back. "Calm down, will you? Mavis is who we chose to lead us, he has the most knowledge when it comes to this sort of stuff. Mavis, this is Recon, he's an old friend of mine, and this is Lena, she's uh, a friend."

Recon clicked his tongue and looked away, Lena just waved awkwardly.

"You know what, fine. It really doesn't matter right now, we can discuss this all once we are out of here. We don't have much time before at least one of our parents notices something is up, we gotta go." Mavis rubbed his hands together.

"So who's going first?" Tristan asked with a smile, looking around to see nobody stepping up.

Ash sighed, "I'll do it."

"That's our man, you can do it!" Tristan slapped Ash on the back as he stumbled forward.

Ash stepped in front of the wall, feeling the grip of the carved holdings in the wall. He looked up to see the wall stretching to the sky.

"Don't think too much about it, just keep your eyes on the wall," Mavis assured Ash. "I'll be right below you, so I can help if things get sticky up there."

Ash nodded, gulping as he took a deep breath.

This wall was the trial for those who yearned to explore the outside wall. With no climbing gear, small holdings, and the anomalous height of the wall, it was a daunting challenge.

The group watched in anticipation as Ash gripped onto the carved holdings of the wall, starting to climb as he raised himself a few meters high over a few minutes.

"See? Slow and steady, we got this." Mavis said, assuring the others and himself.

Misha gulped as she watched Ash slowly climb up the wall in the darkness of the night. He took slow, deep breaths as he moved one limb after another, tracing his hand over the cold stone of the wall to find the next hold.

"Having second thoughts?" Tristan turned towards Recon and Lena, who were both watching as Ash climbed higher onto the enormous wall.

"C-course not, dumbass!" Recon snapped back.

Lena only replied by quickly shaking her head.

"Looks like I'm up next." Mavis said with a nervous smile as he got into position, getting him the tip of his shoes into the holdings before he began climbing. "Listen up guys, just leave a few meters between you and the previous person before you start climbing."

The group nodded and watched carefully as Ash and Mavis slowly climbed up the wall, listening only to the wind of the night as darkness overshadowed all. After ten minutes of climbing, Mavis was a dozen or so meters high now.

No turning back now.

He turned his gaze back below him to see Tristan a few meters below him, climbing up carefully. Looking back up, he saw Ash moving at a slower pace than before.

Mavis wanted to shout towards him to check if everything was alright, but he couldn't risk alerting any guards while they were in such a precarious position.

"Right now, I can only focus on myself. Which might be more than I can even handle." Mavis let out a quiet wry chuckle to himself.

This climb required every fibre of strength within his body to handle, and every ounce of focus. With each movement up, he ran one hand over the stone, finding the next holding before gripping onto it and moving up. The weight of his backpack threw him into a constant battle with himself on whether or not to just ditch it, but he ignored that reasoning.

With the next twenty minutes approaching, Mavis looked up to see Ash finally reach the summit of the wall, pulling himself up on top of it. His body was already aching and cramping as his fingers felt as if they were going to give out at any moment. Even stopping to try and rest was useless as it still required complete focus to stay gripped onto the wall as his toes shook.

Just a bit more!

He pushed himself with his last burst of energy, gripping onto the top of the wall as he felt his strength begin to fade. Just as he felt his grip loosen, Ash grabbed his wrist from atop the wall and pulled him up top.

"Phew, thanks." Mavis chuckled as he sat on the wall, the top was thick enough to easily lay across with multiple people.

"Look," Ash said quietly, facing towards the outside of the wall.

Mavis sat up and turned with him, his eyes widening at the sight of the outside world. Enormous trees stretching to the clouds, covering the sky with their outstretched limbs.