Chapter 262 Volume IV - Chapter 107: Second Test
The sky cracked and cracked, both eyes of the ancient creature disappeared. Finally, when it all came together, I found myself, as usual, in a pitch-black space.
My time there was not long, though. After only a few seconds, the darkness grew brighter and brighter, another world unfolded before my eyes and my vision became clear again.
I was in a literally huge... hall, lined with walls that seemed to be in ruins. It felt like I was in the middle of an ancient temple, with pillars with motifs all around and cracks, big and small, everywhere I could see.
I looked around, but I couldn't see anywhere I could get out of here. Finally, I examined the ceiling and the floor, and the result was again nothing.
I took a deep breath, this time with my memories intact, and checked my dimensional inventory. However, just as I thought, I had nothing with me except my clothes.
'Sith, are you there?'
I waited for a few seconds, getting no response.
I involuntarily squinted. My dimensional inventory was fine, but not having access to Sith was a big problem. I couldn't use my ascension skill without him, after all, and it doesn't look like I have access to the system... that's a big obstacle to using other skills of mine.
So... what choice do I have but to move on? Where am I supposed to go, though...?
I looked around again.
There were really no exits inside the huge hall. So, there was no 'place' to move forward, except to wander around...
I took my first step slowly, then stood still for a few seconds, trying to see if anything had changed.
It wasn't long before I took my second step and then the third. Slowly but surely, I moved toward the center of the hall, but even when I reached that point, nothing happened.
My eyes narrowed even more. The feeling of not knowing what to do made me a little nervous.
"Hey?"
The word echoed and echoed in the hall, repeated several times in my ears as if to emphasize that there was no way out of here.
Again, nothing happened.
I frowned, not knowing what to do was starting to get on my nerves, but I didn't give up.
I focused on one of the things that caught my eye the most during my time in this hall, namely the pillars with cracks and motifs on them.
There were a total of four columns in the room, four gigantic columns, all of them well over my height...
I moved toward the one closest to me, all the while focusing on the motifs on it. They looked like runes, and yet... they were more complex. They were more intertwined, longer than normal runes. They were more like a whole, rather than points of connection. Just like...
I had an idea, I looked at the pillar and then at my right palm.
I let out a deep sigh, and when I finally reached the bottom of the column, I paused.
I put my hand on the pillar, or rather on the motif on it. Then I focused on my mana, imagining a flame forming in my palm.
The orange color of the flame covered my hand. I felt its comforting warmth, and then what I expected happened.
The motifs on the pillar suddenly lit up. The flame in my right palm was suddenly absorbed by the motifs, and finally a smile appeared on my face.
I poured more and more mana into the flame in my palm. I fed and fed it before the pillar completely absorbed it.
The absorbed flame moved further and further along the motifs. Slowly the hall began to tremble, glimmers appearing in the cracks that covered it all. Finally, when the entire pillar was filled with orange flame that followed the motifs on it, the absorbed flame spread to the other pillars, and the same process took place with them.
The whole room shook and the pillars all turned orange. And then... suddenly they changed color. The warm orange of the flame was suddenly replaced by a blue that seemed much more intense and deeper than it was. The shimmering and flickering intensified, seeping through the cracks in the hall.
Finally, everything went white, and all I could hear was the ringing in my ears.
*******
The whiteness slowly faded and the ringing in my ears stopped just as slowly.
When I could see my surroundings again, the place where I found myself was a vast plain, as if I was standing on clouds.
The sky was blue and the clouds below the huge platform I was standing on were motionless. In fact, they looked more like... fog than clouds.
I looked around, and the clouds, or rather the fog, had no end in sight. And the platform I was standing on didn't have any motifs or anything like them that I could use like last time.
It was at this moment that a small glow appeared in the deep blue sky. A glow reminiscent of the sun, but smaller. The glow first widened, then lengthened. It broke into several pieces, forming an inscription.
"How many different things are you ready to sacrifice..."
What am I willing to sacrifice...?
For my cause? For the happy ending I mentioned, or for this test...?
I finally took a deep breath.
If the result would help me grow and help my goals... Then I don't care what I sacrifice.
"All of them."
With that one word, the writing in the sky began to change rapidly.
"How much..."
I paused, I didn't think I would have to answer something like that, but it didn't take me long.
"Enough to push my limits to the end... and beyond."
The writings in the sky stayed the same for a while before changing this time, they didn't show any reaction, as if they were thinking.
Just when I started to wonder if something was wrong, suddenly the whole world went dark. I soon realized that I couldn't hear and I had lost my sense of smell. Not only that, I couldn't feel my body. I couldn't even tell if I had fallen or if I was standing.
So, I did the only thing I could do, I thought.
Enough to push my limits, I said, but... how long will I stay in this state?
No, that's not the question... The question is how long I have to stay like this if I want to pass this test.
A week? A month? Or for a longer period of time?
Maybe there's something else I need to do?
I'm used to staying in dark places where I can't feel anything... At least I think I am, but what if I forget my own existence here?
I can think, yes, but I don't even have the concept of time... if I stop thinking after a while, even for a short while, how likely is it that I won't forget myself then?
I have never gotten out of such a situation on my own so far... I have always survived thanks to an external factor, but now, if such a situation doesn't happen...
Then that means... I'm going to die here.
*******
I have to keep thinking...
How many days has it been, for example? It might not have been at all, maybe...
It is also questionable whether these questions are of any importance...
I will not stop thinking. Is there anything I can do to guarantee that I will not forget my own existence anyway?
For a long time, I thought, I kept my mind busy, I didn't pause for a second, I repeated words and sentences in my mind if I had to, but I didn't stop.
After a while... I realized that it didn't actually make much sense.
*******
Time continued to pass and I started to get tired of thinking.
I didn't have much to think about. Sooner or later, I would end up going back to where I started, or I would find myself repeating the same things, which was a problem, contrary to what I thought.
Instead of keeping my mind open, it makes me get caught up in it.
I can't stay conscious if I get into a loop, I have to be constantly aware of what I'm doing so that I don't lose myself, but if I keep repeating the same thing over and over again... no.
I have to think of other things, different things.
Let me think about the previous test, for example... That 'test' in which I had four different dreams.
Death... not an end, but a beginning... The flame is not just the visible part of the fire, but a presence that will grow with me and be my guide...
I have thought before about what these things mean; I chose these words specifically when I answered, yes, but have I really thought about it intensively...?
No... I haven't done that. This is something I can do here, I can think about it. I can also evaluate my situation.
Until now the thought of death has always frightened me, and I would say it still does. Just like in the first and second dream, as long as I die with no regrets, there is no problem, but... what if it doesn't happen?
I'm not immortal, I won't have an eternal life. I'm human and as fragile as they are, I could die here, even now...
When I die here... there is so much I leave behind. Promises I made, people I love, and people close to me... so much more.
What about the flame?
Actually, now that I think about it, how can the 'flame' guide me if it is completely under my control...? How can I be guided by a flame that I control entirely through the system, that I create with runes, and whose existence is meaningless unless I control it?
There are so many things that I just accept but don't question...
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