Eternal Trials. Final part
I don't know exactly how to describe the period of time that followed my decision to train using the clone in the trial. It was almost as terrifying as the fifth trial. I died and right after, I had to go and die again.
The period between each try got longer in longer since as soon as I found a way to counter one of it's moves, he'll find a new, more create way to kill me, making me experience so many different ways to die.
But I was lucky, lucky I had Ai and Senna with me. Without the two to chat with, laugh with and distract myself from the pain I was experiencing from time to time I would have probably gone mad a long time ago.
The good thing about all this training was that indeed, I was growing stronger by the day. With Senna and Ai to give me advice constantly and the clone to let me test new things freely, my progress was nothing short of amazing.
Two months ago I managed to even use space magic to a certain extent. I felt that I was not as good as the clone at it, but I could now counter some of it's spatial moves using my own. It let me finally truly start exchanging moves with it.
As I was laying on my back outside the arena and breathing heavily, the guide's voice sounded throughout the room:
"Forty-five thousand, six hundred thirty sixth try, failed."
[*That was not a bad try. If you lasted just a bit longer you would have won.*]
'I know. Can't believe it's been a whole year since I started this trial. Too bad I'm not gaining experience as well.'
[*That's a little too greedy from you. This is a good opportunity to practice combat without any risk of dying.*]
Sighing, I stood up and walked back inside the arena. As soon as I set foot inside, I blocked the clone's attempt to create a fireball inside my body and dashed straight towards it. Seeing the wind blades taking form, I bent space and appeared right behind the clone, punching towards the back of it's head with my fist covered in lightning. The clone teleported forward a couple of meters and turned around.
A spear made completely out of lightning appeared in it's hand and it thrust it towards my chest. I raised an earth wall in front of it and dove right over the wall. In the air, I created a white fireball and threw it right at the clone's face. The clone blinked away again and spears made out of light appeared all over the sky, all pointing towards me.
Our fights were now a battle of attrition, and such a huge spell must also have a high mana cost. Overjoyed, I channeled my mana and buried myself deep inside the floor of the arena. Using earth magic, I reinforced the ground on top of me to block as much damage as possible.
Once the sounds on top ended, only a small spear managed to pass through my shield, hitting my arm and dealing me a meager 23 points of damage. To only receive so little damage after an attack of that scale was a blessing. I lifted myself above ground again and used wind magic to charge at the clone again.
We kept trading blows back and forth until, finally, as the clone tried to teleport away from one of my attacks, his spell failed an I managed to hit it with an ice spear straight through it's chest.
A smile appeared on my face as I saw the clone slowly disappearing into a puff of smoke and the old man from before appearing in front of me again. Taking a look at my status, I noticed that I only had around twenty mana left and a bit over half of my health points.
"Forty-five thousand, six hundred thirty seventh try, successful. Congratulations challenger on passing the last trial."
As his words ended, the world all around started twisting and I woke up in the trial grounds, right in front of where the palmprint tablet was before. Sitting up, I noticed that the tablet was now gone. I took a look at the new ball that appeared in my hand, before putting it with the others in my robe and searching around the room for the rewards of passing the trials. The floor under me changed and there were now nine small round sockets forming a complete circle.
'I think I'm supposed to place the balls I received from the trials in the sockets on the ground to get my reward.'
[Affirmative. That is the most logical conclusion.]
Nodding, I started placing each of the balls in one of the sockets. As the last ball fell into place, they all started shinning and I appeared floating into the night sky, surrounded by a total of nine bright stars.
The old man from before appeared again in front of me, standing politely behind a handsome young man with white eyes and pale golden long hair. The young man smiled towards me and said:
"Congratulations on passing all the trials."
There was a look of pure happiness and longing in his eyes, which scared me a little, but I didn't show any sign of it and simply said:
"Thank you. Is this where I redeem my reward?" A bit of anticipation was visible in my eyes. Since I passed the trial on the highest difficulty, I expected a pretty good reward.
The young man didn't disappoint, as he nodded and said: "Indeed. Once you pass all the trials, you are entitled to a reward. More so for someone who passed the trials on it's highest difficulty."
As his words ended, the nine stars that surrounded us started coming together and mixing into one fist sized star which kept spinning in the air.
"As a conqueror of the elemental trials, you gained the blessing of the elements." Once his words ended, four colors, representative of the four principal elements: fire, water, earth and air started shinning from the middle of the the spinning star.
"As a conqueror of the soul trial, you gained the blessing of the spirit well." A green colored light appeared and joined the other four.
"As a conqueror of the ageless trials, you gained the blessing of time and space." A gray and black color started spreading onto the big ball.
"As a conqueror of the self trial, you gained the blessing of the Eternal." As he finished the last line, the star stopped spinning and white colored light started flowing downwards, forming the shaft of a staff. The staff slowly stopped glowing and I finally managed to see it in it's complete form. A pure white staff, with no motif or indentation on it's shaft and a rainbow colored star at it's top took form in front of my eyes.
The staff slowly floated towards me and I grabbed it in my hand. As soon as I did, a line of text appeared in my vision.
[Staff of the Eternal - magic staff
Quality: unique;
A staff created of pure spirit energy, mean to be wielded only by the person who inherited the Eternal legacy.
Bound Magic: Guiding Star (1 use)
Effect 1: Increases the power of all elemental attacks by 100%
Effect 2: Reduces the mana cost of all time and space magic by 50%
Effect 3: Converts spirit in mana at a ratio of 1 spirit for 2 mana.
Effect 4: Can store up to 1000 mana inside the staff.
Effect 5: Soulbound weapon.
]
As I was admiring the simple but perfect staff, the young man said again.
"Representative of the Nexus, may your path forward be guided by His light."
As his words ended, I woke back inside the trial grounds, staff nowhere in sight. I looked around and eventually asked Ai:
'What happened with the staff?'
[It melded with your soul and it's stored inside. You can summon it any time you want.] as Ai's words ended, the staff appeared in my hand out of nowhere. As I gently caressed it, I said to Ai:
'This was quite a difficult series of trials, but it was all worth it in the end. This staff is amazing.'
[It is indeed.]
'Ai, what was that at the end?'
[That was the spirit in charge of the trials. He was also a being of the soul race.]
'I meant about the Nexus. How did he know about that?'
[He read it from your memories and could probably also feel my presence.]
'Will there be any problem with the world spirit?'
[No. Most of the trials took place inside a soul space. Either yours or one created by the spirit of the trials himself. It should be all right.]
I nodded and hid the staff back inside my soul before I checked my status and started walking out of the trial grounds.
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 19;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 4 325/80 000;
Health Points: 310/310;
Mana Points 550/550;
Level: 28;
Vitality: 31;
Strength: 34;
Dexterity : 32;
Intelligence: 55;
Resistance: 30;
0 free stat point
———
System Points: 11 200;
Spirit: 1000 (650);
]
'Ai, how long was I inside?'
[Three days.]
'I wonder how Anise is doing.' I thought as I continued on my way. Once I reached the exit, I was greeted by an anxious looking Anise. A smile appeared on her face, replacing the worry from before as she started running towards me. She hugged me tightly and said:
"I was so worried. What did it take you so long?"
"Don't worry, I'm fine. How were your trials?" I replied as I returned the hug, gently caressing her back.
One of the guards came towards us and interrupted us before she could answer: "You two can continue that outside. Come, it's time to check and see what you gained inside."
"What do you mean by that?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. As far as I knew, there was no such thing as checking for what any of the trial takers gained inside.
"A directive from the capital said that any person who spends more than two days inside the trial grounds must be checked for what they gained inside and are supposed to pay a tax if there were any out of the ordinary rewards. The pay can be monetary or to service the Empire on the battlefront for a period of time. The trial grounds are the property of the Empire after all."
I turned to look at Anise and she shook her head, saying that she knew nothing about it. Since the staff was hidden inside my soul, I didn't fear they being able to find it, but the entire thing seemed a little unjust to me.
I looked at the guard and said: "I didn't receive anything inside, but I disagree to you searching me. As for the trial grounds being the property of the empire, that couldn't be any more wrong. If the Empire really owned them, they should be able to take whatever they want from inside."
The guard seemed pissed about my words and moved his hand towards the handle of his sword. I smiled at that and said in a carefree tone: "You would better not do that, or you won't even know how you died."
As my words ended, I could feel Anise grabbing my hand and softly squeezing it. I gave her a reassuring smile and turned back towards the guard whose face was not starting to turn purple.
Seeing him about to pull the sword out, I teleported near him with a finger pointing straight at his forehead. A small white flame was floating gently at the top of my finger as I said to him: "Are you sure that is such a good idea?"
The color disappeared form the guard's face as he stuttered: "Sir Wizard, I apologize. Please forgive my earlier words. I am really sorry"
Seeing him terrified out of his mind, I dissipated the fireball from my finger and teleported back near Anise who was looking at me like she had just seen a ghost. Grabbing her hand, I started walking away as she followed absentmindedly after me under the stares of the guards and all the people waiting in queue.
As I got away from the trial grounds, sounds of agitation and excitement started coming from our back, but I ignored them and continued walking forward.
After recovering from her daze, Anise said to me: "Was that space magic? Without a chant?"
I nodded and said: "Yeah, time flowed differently inside the trials and I had quite a lot of time to practice. I can only do fast, short range teleportations for now, but it's quite good in combat. How were your trials?"
"I don't know. I don't remember anything about what happened inside."
Now I remembered that the trials was supposed to erase your memory so I asked Ai: 'Why can I remember what happened inside?'
[It might be related to the fact that you passed, or it might be because I could always restore your memories and the spirit of the trials knew that, so he didn't even bother.]
'I see.' I exclaimed in understanding and said to Anise: "Too bad. That might mean that you didn't pass all of them."
"Does that mean that you passed them all and your remember yours?"
"I do."
She looked at me with amazement and said: "What did you gain then? I only managed to level up around five times."
A smile appeared on my lips as I took a look around to check if anyone else was nearby before materializing the staff I received from the trials. Anise moved her hand and caressed the shaft softly as she mumbled: "It's beautiful. What does it do?"
"Magic amplification, reduced mana cost for spells and mana storage. That's pretty much everything, besides the ability to carry it inside my soul"
"What magic does it amplify?" she asked as she looked at me with sparking eyes.
"All of it. Elemental at least."
Anise's mouth opened wide as she heard my words. She took a moment to calm herself and said: "I think every magician or wizard in both continents will hunt you down to steal it if they knew you had such a staff."
"That will be for naught. The staff is soulbound to me and no one else can use it." I replied with a chuckle as I hid the staff again inside my soul.
Anise retracted her hand and said: "Truly a perfect weapon. Too bad I didn't finish the trials. Can you tell me what they were like?"
I nodded and started telling her about my trials. Once I was done, she said with a bitter tone: "I'm glad you got to see Alison again."
Seeing her downcast look, I pulled her in my arms and kissed her lips for quite a long time. As we broke out kiss, I looked into her still dazed eyes and said: "Don't worry. My love for you isn't any less than my love for her. You are both precious to me."
Her expression slowly became focused again as she hanged her head and replied softly: "I know."
We continued walking north, holding each other's hand in silence. Wishing to break the awkward silence, I asked: "What about Oliver? Where did he go?"
"He got out ahead of both of us and told me that he had to return north. He also said that if we're looking to join the battlefield we should ask for him."
"Is he someone well known in the war?"
"I have no idea."
Nodding, I cast Zephyr and we proceeded north. The thought of fighting on the battlefield made my blood boil.