What Is Life, If Not A Trial?

Sliding on the floor, the Captain had barely escaped the diagonal slash of the unholy spirit. While it pulled its legs out of the ground to reposition itself, the Captain quickly recollected his thoughts.

'This is bad. At any time, I may succumb to its powers and fall limp. I should retreat. But I've come so far! What about the lives that have been wasted?!'

The blades of the spirit suddenly sunk into his neck from both sides, with the Captain managing to slide back, letting them tear pieces of his flesh off.

'Blood!'

He was now losing blood, and fast. His psyche was also wearing out. It was clear that he wouldn't last much longer.

The spirit itself was also with its scars and two sliced off legs. It's empty eye sockets were also fashioned earlier on by the knight captain's blade. But it could still go on.

The light in the captain's eyes soon faded as he realised what must be done.

'I promised myself that this would be the last time. The number of lives taken this time was just too much. So much that even my greedy heart wishes for no more bloodshed.'

The spirit wasted no time crossing meters of distance in a fraction of a second, slashing the Captain at his neck and heart at the same time.

Showing skillfulness, trained agility, and especially resolve, he managed to dodge the attack at his neck. But the limbs of the spirit were long and he was very drained, so he could not shift backwards and avoid the scythe. The life preserving way out was to block with his arm, and use the spirit's force to push himself away. The spirit had sliced through his gauntlet, flesh and bone, cutting off his left arm. While the other slash had also ripped through his bulky chest plate and sliced his chest open.

Stumbling, the knight dug his sword in the ground and stood up right. And with his already lifeless eyes forecasting his imminent death, he dug his fist into his chest. Then, finding the crystal embedded within his body, he crushed it.

In the world of the Omen, the power to utilise the essence within spiritual crystals determined who the strong were.

The prophets could absorb that essence from the creatures they slayed, but that was only a mere fraction of it.

Industrialists could use that essence to enhance important technology, but they could utilise even less than a mere fraction of it.

Sins topped the category of spiritual essence utilisation by one specific technique available only to them. That technique allowed them access to four times what prophets could. That is, they could use half of the full essence of a spiritual crystal.

But this technique was almost never used by one crystal holders, and on dire situations by multiple crystal holders. This was because it involved them sacrificing the entire crystal along with its essence, eventually waning out their lives inbthe process.

And as a one crystal holder himself, doing what he was doing would surely cost the Captain his life.

The blades of the evil spirit were relentless. They charged for the Captain of the knights again.

A wave of wind blasted about from the moment of the scythe's collision with the Knight's sword. Then a second later, one scythe flew violently into a wall, leaving a trail of black mist acting as blood.

The spirit shrieked in pain before leaping away. But before it could fully grasp the earth, the Knight batted it off with his glistening sword.

Leaving shockwaves with each clash, the two battling figures were dashing and blasting from cave to cave, both bathed in a slight luminescent glow. The spirit was being used as the wrecking ball destroying the walls within the mountain. And it could barely keep up, but was still persisting nonetheless.

The roles had been heavily switched.

In minutes, the spirit was left struggling with only its useless humanoid limbs and one scythe spider-like leg.

Crashing into another cave, the spirit fell on its back as the Knight approached it. Then, holding his sword above his head, he muttered,

"I'm taking you down with me... You and that wretched king."

Ready to strike, his one hand suddenly loosened around his sword as he caught sight of two nearby figures.

"N– No!" He stuttered with shaky eyes.

For meters from his side was another spider spirit with all its twelve limbs attached and clean. There was another one of the monstrosity he had sacrificed so much to kill. How heart wrenching that discovery was.

But wait, that thing looked off. It looked even more lifeless than the one beneath him as it stood in front of the second figure. And that second silhouette was of a boy with pale white hair.

This boy was standing with his head clearly floating above his head, with a strange expression on his face. One of the other spider spirit's scythe was frozen in the middle of the boy's detached head and neck, with another punching right into the boy's chest.

With the same grotesque smile on that bloody boy's face, his head dropped down to the ground, soon along with his body.

"I did it~ Hehehehe. I won in the end! I'm the one laughing! Me! Not you!"

"W... what are you?" The Knight's blade fell to the ground as the layer of light around him flickered off.

"My... Soul." He muttered again, noticing his energy depleting faster than it was supposed to. He should have been able to last for a few more hours, so why now?

"You had lost the moment you thought death was the better option. Even if you knew you would die, you should have kept denying it till the end!

That thing you're using, it exchanges your life for power, doesn't it?

You poor soul. You let it seduce you!"

The Knight looked down at the spirit beneath him as it tilted his head towards the talking head in silence.

'So that was the secret. Seduction.'

All those soldiers had died at the hands of the spirit, and most had died faster when they put down their swords themselves and saw relief from this hard reality. They were all slowly being wrapped up in the spider spirit's webs of fear, till eventually they could no longer use their limbs and will... Till they were completely helpless in its trap.

They had been seduced by the most beautiful, and yet ugliest thing in both the Earth and Realm— death.

The dying Knight realised that the only thing that had kept him alive throughout all those encounters with the Jorogumo, was the will to return to his family. That will made him sober enough to notice the seductive web and not let it curl around him. Yet in the end, even he had succumbed the moment he gave up on seeing those loved ones.

'They were right.' He chuckled in self ridicule. They had warned him never to even think of using that move in battle. But here he was.

The spirit near the talking head suddenly burst into black mist and flowed into the one beneath the Knight. Its limbs soon grew back and its scars healed. Then, slicing the head of the Knight clean of his head, it crawled over to the head of the boy and tilted its head with an upside down smile.

"What?" Ikky's amber coloured bloodshot eyes stared into the spider's own eye holes. For some reason, those hadn't healed yet. They looked even natural now as they matched the black void of a mouth the spirit had.

#Me...eat... me.# The spirit said in a scratchy voice.

"...?"

{With pleasure.}

A black rift in space suddenly opened up, allowing an enormous and sharp fingered grey hand out. Before the spider spirit could scramble away in fear, that hand grasped it and gently pulled it into the rift.

{Come now child, Let me baptize you in my pot, and make you into soup.}

Ikky's dilated pupils stared ahead as the rift soon disappeared along with the spider. But in no time at all, a prickly feeling struck his brain as white light bathed his body. He was getting healed.

Well, was it finally over?!

{You can rest for now. This is only your first omen after all. We have so many other worlds to visit, other ingredients to taste and yet, so little time.}

A golden scroll appeared floating before his eyes as his body repaired itself. Ikky slowly read the messages on that scroll:

———

[Every trial is issued according to the capabilities of the given. Still, only a few are relentless enough to realise their own potential. But you are one of those who have blessed themselves.

We wrote the story of a Knight worth a hundred pawns, a Calamity that could vanquish a thousand more, and a lone witty pawn with boundless will. All this to show that life is not for those with raw power, but for those who can tread the blades of suffering. For what is life, if not a trial?

Believer Equinox/ Nox/ Ikky. Recite your attributes and receive them, so that they may manifest and assist you on your journey.]