50 Soul Recovery School Trials (5)

The blinding white light gradually began to dim until it completely lost all its brilliance. Once that happened, it became possible for Ovandarrak to his see his surroundings again, and just as he had thought, he was no longer in the Grand Hall. Instead, he was in a vast desert. Except that this desert was extremely cold. Instead of sand, it was filled with an endless mass of ice sheets and instead of dreary rocks, it was filled with icebergs.

A few seconds after Ovandarrak appeared in the ice desert, the burst of white light appeared again and out came Pan.

Thereafter, Ovandarrak noticed the time monitor on his wrist. This time, the countdown was written in indigo.

"That's the mountain." Pan said pointing to the highest mountain in the desert. The white mountain was so high that its summit was nowhere to be found. "How hard would it be for them to have transported us right in front of it? You bastards!" Pan screamed hysterically while he lifted his arms to the gray skies, as though beseeching a deity. His breathing became shallow and he gasped for air.

Ovandarrak turned to look at the bald boy. Was he crazy or something? Did he not realize they were in an extremely cold place and that wasting all his energy in unnecessary hysteria was a terrible idea? How the hell did Pan even last long in this trials? He was lucky the countdown had not yet began, which meant that the indigo essence had not yet been released. That would have made his breathing even worse.

"You should save your energy. You will need it."

It was the first time the boy with the long dreadlocks had ever acknowledged Pan's presence. Pan rubbed his bald head and then grinned. Even though he was taking the cold very well, he knew it was only a matter of time until it started becoming unbearable. Thus, he had to calm down and think clearly if he was to pass the final phase of the trials.

Pan glanced at Ovandarrak, and the unwavering concentration he saw in the boy's brown eyes was almost chilling. No wonder Ovandarrak had always been the first to finish the trials. This was no competition, but Pan felt that Ovandarrak was a worthy competitor.

The loud beep from their time monitors signaled the beginning of the trials. The four hour countdown began.

The pupils of the boys turned deep green while endless coiled beams of white light burst out of their body.

"Race you to the mountain." Pan said. And then in mere seconds, he lunged from his position like a canon, towards the highest mountain in the desert. Ovandarrak followed shortly after and soon caught up with Pan.

Pan's green eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw that Ovandarrak had caught up with him and was even bypassing him. Weren't they both of the green essence?

Anyone watching the two run would see two streams of green light racing side by side each other at incredible speed. They were so fast that the boys only appeared as a blur to anyone below the green essence. In less than a minute, the two boys reached the gigantic mountain. But to Ovandarrak and Pan, it felt like they had been running nonstop for hours.

Once they came to a stop before the towering mountain, whose summit went beyond the vast gray skies, they both began panting heavily. They were now beginning to feel the immense pressure of the indigo essence and it was gradually draining their soul energy since they needed to use more essence to shield them from the pressure.

Ovandarrak clenched his jaws tightly as he looked at his time monitor. At this point, the extreme cold felt like the least of his problems. Five minutes had not even yet passed and his entire body was almost at the verge of shutting down. His mind was becoming heavier and heavier.

Twenty-five minutes. Ovandarrak thought. He had another twenty-five minutes until his body gave up on him. He had to do something fast.

Reaching the mountain was simply the first step in the indigo level. For them to actually pass the level, they needed to reach the top of the mountain in four hours. Under normal circumstance, getting to the top of a mountain about five thousand meters high was not much of a problem for a green user. However, when there were obstacles like the oppressive indigo essence and extreme cold, then it became much of a problem.

After Pan had finished with his slow inhalation and exhalation exercises, he got back up to his feet. He had wide grin on his face, like he had just won a fortune.

"See you at the top. Or never." Pan said. His essence flared up and became even more brilliant than before.

He's revealing his soul armos. Ovandarrak thought.

In an instant, a pair of shiny emerald gloves appeared on Pan's hands. Then two pairs of shoes of the same verdant gleam appeared on his feet. As stoic as Ovandarrak was, his eyes shifted slightly in amazement when he saw Pan's soul armos for the first time. Even though Ovandarrak had no idea what Pan's soul armos was supposed to do, he admitted to himself that it was incredibly beautiful.

With a single leap, Pan shot into the air as though he had been fired from a canon. Then he landed expertly at the side of the mountain, his gloved hands fixated on the ice like some kind of an adhesive.

Pan looked down at Ovandarrak and then waved back at him, a wide grin on his face.

In spite of his expressionless face, Ovandarrak was quite shocked by the turn of events. Those were some powerful shoes, given that Pan had covered close to about two hundred meters of altitude in a single leap. He watched on as Pan leaped for the second time and a third, getting higher and higher above the ground.

A terrible pain ripped through Ovandarrak's head and for a second, it felt like the whole world was spinning. Twenty minutes. He had twenty minutes, then he would not be able to take this anymore. Yet, he had not even moved an inch from the ground.

The only way was to use his soul armos too. But Gray Gray?

Suddenly, Gray Gray appeared in a burst of green light. The small gray dog adorably looked up at its master as soon as it was summoned.

"Woof… woof… woof…" [This is a first. I have never sensed you become this distressed before].

"Can you get me to the top of the mountain? We don't have much time." Ovandarrak said glancing at his time monitor once again. He closed his eyes in order to calm himself. Now he was fully convinced that the true purpose of the time monitor was to stress them out. He had to get his mind under control if he were to pass the level.

[Is that why you are distressed? Master, do you have no idea what I'm capable of?]

"No. But we will talk about that later. Now do something before I drop dead."

[Hmm… I wouldn't want that. Okay then, here I go].

Ovandarrak watched on as the small gray dog started stretching and expanding in size. He heard its small tiny bones shifting and cracking in its body, then they began elongating and reassembling. In a few seconds, the once small adorable dog had transformed into a monstrous birdlike creature with the largest wings Ovandarrak had ever seen. Ovandarrak could not recognize what kind of beast Gray Gray had shifted into. Its wings were that of a bird, a rather gigantic bird, but its scaled body looked like they belonged on a reptile. And its head… there were two horns and a pair of large green eye protruding out of its massive head.

In simple terms, Gray Gray looked terrifying. For a moment, even Ovandarrak could not believe that his once adorable soul armos had transformed into this monster. Though it was not the first time he had seen Gray Gray transform, he had still not gotten used to it.