golden forest

the original requirement's to become a priest of corruption were simple, one had to survive for 30 days in a corrupted forest, 

urnos was originally a planet of dark rocks and mountains, it was slowly terraformed to become suitable in life, and certain planetary life were biologically modified to help with terraforming it, it was the case with begas as well

these plants and lifeforms, in certain areas of asner, begas, and urnos were corrupted by goddess of corruption, turning them into new life forms which acted slightly different from their original behaviors, due to it being corrupted by the goddess herself, these lands only abided by the goddess words and rules, meaning no other priest of corruption could truly corrupt anything

after surviving 30 days, even if unintentionally one would become a apostate

any being however that couldn't survive the forest would become corrupted, and would attack anything else that entered the forest, even the plant life tried to actively kill any uncorrupted that entered the territory, only priests of corruption were allowed to freely walk in the forest, eve than they had to abide by rules of the forest or the forest would turn hostile towards them as well

the air of the forest was also more toxic than the air in other place, meaning if one couldn't heal themselves with their jikan regularly they would get poisoned, and in turn get corrupted

yet the method to become a saint of order was slightly different, one had to first become a member of light of order, and get a faction before entering, and than they either should have no blood kin, or kill them before they enter the forest,

(the method to join a faction in order of corruption was actually to eat the carcass of your kin)

and after entering the forest you had to stay unmoving and pray for 30 days, similar to how one would become a member of light of order, but you had to pray to both light and corruption at the same time

usage of powers were allowed as well

after morzerk put his luggage in his rented house, that he had rented for 2 months, he started moving towards his destination

on his way he saw many poor and vagabonds, it was to be expected, only the hopeless would stay near a place full of heathens

some even eyed him dangerously, of course it either meant they were either a priest of corruption, or someone whose soul was corrupted by a priest of corruption who had a faction, 

or it could have been simple envy

nonetheless morzerk was fully tense the second he got here, with buckets of sweats just wetting his clothing he strolled towards the forest of corruption

after reaching the forest he couldn't help but sigh after leaning towards a corrupted tree, 

it was too much for his small heart, as people of corruption really really hated people of light like him, the reveres was also true 

glancing at the corrupted tree he couldn't help but shiver, but still be amazed, it didn't look like the normal corrupted controlled by that priest of corruption 1 year ago, rather than spilled gold paintings it looked like a weird organism

its trunk was split into many pieces, each looking like liquid gold flowing upwards, the inside of its trunk was visible, it was mostly hollow but had a weird long cylinder inside of it, calling it a cylinder was a bit incorrect, as it was bumpy, and looked like shriveled foil, it had several black holes inside of it, which would give anyone with Trypophobia a heart attack, from them small spores that looked like black and gold sprinkles was being spread into the air, the leaves of the tree looked like normal leaves, with their biggest and only difference being the fact that they were gold in color, and had several holes inside of them

there was a forest of these trees around him now, the ground was mostly black and dark colored, just like urnos, but there were 'golden sands' that were spread on the ground along the way and some parts looked like they had been sprayed with gold paint, and those spots had alot of holes as well

it looked like a divine fever dream

shaking his head morzerk went deeper in the forest, before kneeling in a prayer pose

staying unmoving in this place was very harsh, and morzerk had to manifest blades of light to stab anything he heard was moving, sometimes he hit thing and sometimes he didnt, through it sometimes he had to activate his jikans mind empowerment to sense any corrupted thing coming in his way, or use grace very frequently to heal his poisoned status, he had to light his 'holy flames' if he felt any weird insect or parasite was landing on him, it was really nerve wrecking to do so many things at the same time, if he coldnt empower his mind using the jikan, or slow down time slightly using jikan he might have already been killed and became corrupted

now it makes sense why those of asner are considered nobles, jikan is a great tool both in civilized times and uncivilized times

so time passed, and each day felt more stressful for morzerk, as his eyes were closed all he could do was rely on his sense of hearing and touch, nothing had a smell in this forest other than humans, 

it was a tiring situation because he couldn't really sleep either, unlike the trial of light where you wouldnt fail if you kept your posture even when you fell asleep, in this forest falling asleep was a death sentence, if jikans grace didn't exist not even a single priest of corruption would exist

morzerk actually fell asleep once, but had to return to earth(?) after he was startled by the sound of a priest of corruption laughing, turns out the priest of corruption was laughing at morzerks sight, as he was still wearing the robes of priests

interestingly enough the priest of corruption left him alone, but morzerk was so scared he didn't break his posture once

he hadn't wore any gloves on his right hand, so maybe to priest thought he was already dead and was becoming corrupted by the forest, nonetheless for whatever reason morzerk survived

and he succeeded to survive the 30 days, uh... maybe, he wasn't sure, 

he was now walking in a weird place, it was a infinite white space, he was randomly thrown here, the first thing he did was check his body, he looked like the way he did in the forest, but the mark on his right hand had disappeared for some reason

with nothing else to do he just walked towards the only object he could see from afar, he wasn't sure if this was afterlife, due to experiencing it, unless it was afterlife with gods present,

'i might have already died, an became corrupted' is what he thouht

after who knows how long he finally reached his destination, it was a long staircase, walking on it and going up, he realized the infinite whiteness had disappeared, and instead all around him was replaced with a scene of a forest, a normal forest, and while walking further up the forest turned into a civilization, and the civilization became more advanced, the more he walked upwards, the more advanced the civilization became, until it suddenly stopped and crumbled, everything was destroyed, than it was started again, with a tree spouting and the cycle was restarted again, morzerk simply looked at the cycle, but after a while the forest changed slightly, it became corrupted, yet the human kind held on, and existed for longer than they could have without this impending doom

and if they were destroyed, the corruption would give birth to them again, as normal humans and life, in the way they were before as advanced, and it would wither away and start again after human kind became more advanced, it would sprout, and if humans were destroyed, and everything was no more, the corruption would give birth to their cities again, the humans again, and wither away until they were advanced way more than they were compared to before, and would sprout again, this continued until human kind conquered stars, worlds, galaxies, universes

morzerk merely was a spectator, walking upwards on stairs, and after who knows how long he finally reached where the stairs led him, it was a big door, 

morzerk, resolving himself pushed the doors open, and what welcomed him was a throne room, split into two halves

one halve was corrupted, and shrinkled, while the other half was pristine and beautiful, on the throne sat a sleeping woman, morzerk got closer to the woman,

her right half was golden, looking like a shriveled golden foil of some kind, with cracks all around which showed empty darkness, it had a empty eye socket on its right sight, with its insides not visible, the gold covering its right side looked like it was flowing. its right sides hand was long and had 6 fingers, it was clawed and looked shriveled like the rest of the right side it had hair made out of gold, the left side however, looked like a sleeping woman, with silvery white hair that ended in a golden color, pristine skin, its eyelid was closed, and unlike its right side it had only 5 fingers

realizing that this was the goddess he as praying to morzerk quickly went to a kneeling posture, and eyes the goddess carefully, and after who knows have long the goddess only eye lid was opened and she looked down on morzerk

"what is your name, child?" she inquired, her voice sounded like it was a mix of muffled breaking ice and a beautiful singers

it made morzerk shiver, yet he answered "its morzerk, goddess"

the goddess only eye looked like a human eye, with its only difference being its glowing golden color

"morzerk, a curios name, what does it mean?"

"it... im not sure... i wasn't ever curios about it" morzerk answered with embarrassment

"i see, morzerk what do you believe your biggest flaws are?" the goddess asked and morzerk couldn't help but be scared, this was like if yur teacher came to your home directly, pulled out a exam and told you this is the exam that defines 100% of your gpa, it was truly scary

"i... is it... my ignorance" he answered in the best way he could

"no, although it is a small part of it, your biggest weakness, and sin is not ignorance morzerk" she said with a low voice

"its your greed, your greed that blinds you, makes you unable to think"

"yes... yes that is correct"

"do you think you are worthy to be my saint, my most beloved believer, with such greed? you who dont care about closest around you? do you believe you are worthy?" the goddesses words echoed through the walls of the throne room

"you who used the knowledge of the world to your advantage, wouldn't have cared where you join, whatever you become a saint of seekers, saint of vows, or an eternal saint, you merely wished to become my saint due to the respect it brings"

morzerk started shaking

"you who are ignorant to not know your names meaning, and its essence, morzerk, the greedy usurper, do you think you are the only one with great knowledge of this world? the only one who knows of events that will happen and have happened?, what makes you think i would make you my saint?"

"i..." morzerk couldn't get his words out

"i am not worthy..." he got the words ou

"no, you are not, you are anything but worthy, yet, there is only one thing respectable about you" the goddess finally said

"your will, be it for greed or anything else your will is strong, and worthy

so i will restrict you, until you learn how to control your will, and subdue your greed, you can be my saint, yet you cannot be my saint until you truly be able to control your will" these were the last words the goddess said before morzerk was back in his body