Trial Of Forms II - Panoly

Twenty minutes had passed since Arthur had started copying Panoly,

The "oh shit" escaped his lips the moment he noticed the slim, snake-like figures rising in his hands, a.k.a., his veins, even before he observed the bulging muscles on his forearms.

Under the thick layer of fat, the muscles were finally showing their full potential as they kept pushing the fat onto the layer of skin

Arthur didn't know what was happening to him, but he could feel a subtle force. Unlike the strength from his muscles that allowed him to wipe the floor clean with the heavy mop, there was a hint of a force, a power that was rising from deep withing his body. 

The depth was just as deep as his bones, cause this bones that had gone through eclipsis arcanum were the source of this newfound force.

As Arthur closely followed Panoly, he found himself reaching Sam, the future Sovereign.

Arthur looked at Sam who was lifting a bar that was stacked with eight weighted plates on both sides.

Arthur didn't know the exact weight of each plate, but he could surely sense the extraordinary heaviness of the bar.

The mop in his hand had a role to play too.

"If this mob is so heavy, then just how heavy could that be...and Sam...he is lifting it!?" Arthur didn't stop mopping the floor as he spectated Sam's incredible lifting of the weight.

Sam lifted the weight with a form that looked exquisite to Arthur.

"What a form." Arthur mumbled but at the same moment while he admiring the form of Sam, he found Panoly snooping around Sam with his mop.

"Boom." As Sam released the bar, the weights collided with the ground, sending aftershocks rippling through the floor, causing Arthur to feel the tremors beneath him.

Arthur was literally shaking at the realization of the strength that the monstrous Sam had displayed just now.

"What strength, what form, truly a future monarch." Arthur said with a trembling smile on his face, as he was comparing Sam to the noble Cyrus who had conquered even the orders at one time.

But, to his surprise the snooping Legend of Earth, Panoly had stopped mopping.

"Sorry." Panoly said to Sam as he gestured him to move away from the bar.

"I clean here." Panoly told Sam who didn't react much as though this was a normal happening in the Building.

Suddenly, Panoly lowered his back and grabbed the bar from the middle with just one hand.

"Whoosh." Panoly raised the bar, Sam stood with a darkened look, while Arthur didn't know why but he could feel his chin somehow touching the floor.

"I try with one hand, it's no problem." Panoly laughed as he told Sam and mopped the floor with the other hand.

"A-" Arthur wanted to say something but the word didn't leave his mind.

"No, even amazing is an understatement." Arthur shook his head as Panoly gently dropped the weight.

"Bam." 

The same weight that had caused a ripple when Sam had dropped the bar, didn't even make much sound this time.

"Arthur, you stop...why? Clean with me, come!" Panoly laughed and told Arthur as he moved from the area.

Although it looked like Panoly was only moving away but that wasn't the whole truth.

Arthur missed the small three-seconds-long interaction between Panoly and Sam.

Panoly was glancing at Sam and Sam was looking back with an understanding look as Panoly's lips moved.

"Sorry for this...But your technique, just...it's not correctly." The mumbled words from Panoly's mouth reached Sam, and Sam nodded.

The form of the future Sovereign, the form that had mesmerized Arthur, even that same form was not correct.

"The strongest." Arthur had missed this small interaction, but his eyes were fixed on Panoly.

Looking at Panoly's slim back which could be easily discerned through his ragged clothes, no one could tell if this cleaner was a trainer in the first level of the building, a floor for building warriors out of men.

But, Arthur knew whose back he was looking at.

"It isn't just a cleaners back. It is the back of a cleaner who is a trainer too. It isn't just that as this back is the back of one of the two legends of Earth. But that isn't all as this back is the back of the strongest man." Arthur mumbled his words as he understood the weight carried on the slim looking back in front of him.

Hearing the multiple backs from behind him, Panoly turned around and stared at Arthur.

Panoly was still mopping the floor, and Arthur was perfectly following his moves. Thus, Panoly didn't mind the noisy Arthur as Arthur was cleaning well.

Panoly smiled and turned back to mop ahead towards the other areas of the floor.

Arthur continued his mopping journey behind Panoly, someone who he admired and followed with all his heart.

Not only was Panoly strong but it was his attitude towards others.

'Even though he is the one cleaning, he asks others and apologizes!' Arthur as a set of words that Panoly had spoken to everyone were stuck in his mind.

"I'm sorry. Can I clean here, is not problem. Just moment." Arthur repeated the words the didn't sound right as a sentence but that didn't matter.

"The strongest person's form of speaking and asking about cleaning. Truly an immaculate form." Arthur told himself as he was slowly getting enlightened about the trial he was going through.

It wasn't just about cleaning, it was about your form.

"If Truce was telling me about being like water, then Panoly is teaching me about the forms of water even though water is formless." Arthur told himself while realizing that bending something formless into forms, that's what being the strongest means.

Arthur was already deep in the trial and along with the building power within him that was inducing strong changes in him every second, he knew what he was going through at the moment. The flow, the rhythm that he was moving along with, perfectly following every move of Panoly like a genius, it was just a thought that felt like a universal truth to Arthur and it had something to do with the mop in his hand.

Arthur looked at the heavy mop in his hands with eyes of love as he opened his mouth.