[Only those who seek the end shall enter]
Skylar stood on top of a boulder, his eyes glued to the character above the cave entrance of the colossal mountain before him. And this characters for some reason he understands the message they hold.
Some minutes ago, after he and Goldie got closer to this colossal mountain suspended at the very edge of the sparkling cloud sea, it was on this boulder his figure that jumped off Goldie's back landed, and it was this large and striking characters that caught his attention.
"The stench of that thing is stronger there." Skylar muttered then looked above the characters, at the gigantic carved goat head that took up all the space there to the very top of the colossal mountain.
There is definitely something inside the belly of the mountain and there is this smelly guy that have been spying on us somewhere around here. What to do... With a thoughtful look he activated his spiritual vision and scanned from the top of the statue to the cave entrance of the colossal mountain covered in darkness below it.
"Let's see what the end is then." From the top of the boulder about half the height of the entrance in front of it, Skylar figure jumped and disappeared into the darkness of the entrance.
That brat's perception is on crazy level and he is meh scary meh...
So lucky, he didn't see me, meh...
I pray he hits his head and die, meh...
***
[Welcome to the second phase of the trial]
[The trial will begin after nine breaths]
Skylar who arrived in the middle of an ice hell after the jump looked up diagonally at the shinning characters displayed in front of him. And also above him are floating giant spheres of ice and beyond them in the sky of this mystical location are earthly stars of ice and a icy white moon far in the distance that stands out as it illuminate the world below it.
I can't access any energy here, not even a tiny bit of ether... Skylar looked around him at the large ice mountains realeasing icy steam that are probably responsible for the white fog blanketing the ground of the location and maybe the whiteness of the horizon around him.
[Dear candidate. Follow the guide to the end of the path]
[The trial begins]
[0 Decade, 0 Years]
I can't even access the status window... "Its so cold in here." Skylar with only a pant on, hugs is naked chest tightly. "I might turn into an ice statue at this rate." Then his body shivers.
After he chased away the cold successfully, he looked above him at the message displayed some couple seconds ago.
"What's with the years and decades, and where is the guide"
Skipping on a spot on the icy ground of the ice hell in other to limit the coldness getting to his bare feet, Skylar looked around him until his eyes rested on a black object like a dart floating mid air beside him. "So this guy is the guide and where it points is where i should go."
To test his hypothesis Skylar took a couple steps in the direction the darts point and in response, the guide followed closely beside him, affirming its status as the guide.
I see. One last time, he looked at the message and also the timer that follows in front of him carefully.
"There is nothing else to do right." He looked around him after understanding the message, and then not wasting anymore time, he disregarded the chilling coldness biting his skin and begin his journey with the help of the guide that gives directions.
***
[0 Decade, 1 Year]
Still in the world of ice,
Skylar standing on the foggy and cold ground of the region looked before him at the world of whiteness a short distance from him.
"I have been trekking for a year now, no food no water even my body has somehow become numb to the cold and i am still kind of healthy except for the mental and physical fatigue..." He muttered as he dust off the ice particles clinging to his skin. "I just hope the end is this white world and not what i am thinking."
After his short break, his figure continue to trudge to towards the world of white, and after some time he entered it, a place where he could only see whiteness and his glowing guide beside him. He couldn't see anything else including himself.
"I knew it, its definitely going to be a very long story." Inside the world of white- a region where everything his white, Skylar laughed uproariously after he realized his situation that he seems to have expected. Then, after the brief pause, he continue his travel through the world of white with the help of his faithful guide that has never left his side once since the beginning of his unending journey.
"A bastard might have designed this" He mummured as his unseen figure follow a new direction his guide pointed.
***
[0 decade, 2 years]
Skylar, after leaving the world of white appeared before a wooden bridge suspended under a stormy sky, between tall mountains and over a sea of fog that partially submerged the mountains below.
"Ice, whiteness and now storm" Skylar stepped on the narrow and wooden bridge that his somehow faring well under the storm.
"Do i need a guide here. Or the bridge have branches in front" He looked into the distance a few hundred meters away on the bridge where a tornado dances. And continue his journey in earnest.
After a couple hours, his figure appeared in front of four bridges that branches out in different direction from the one he stands on.
"So i need this guy" He smiled, then chose the bridge his guide points to. A bridge which seems to be afflicted with the heaviest storm.
***
[0 decades, 3 years]
In a jungle of giant trees, Skylar's somehow miserable figure trudges on willfully.
"Its three years now and i can't even access the status window not to talk of logging off."
"When is this meaningless trial going to end?"
***
[0 decades, 4 years]
In a desert of yellow sands and a hot sun overhead, his dirty, ugly and unkempt figure look above at the timer that has been following him except for he was in the white world.
"Goldie must be worried. And i don't know if he has entered and is behind me..."
***
[0 decades, 5 years]
"This time its an abandoned modern world." Skylar looked in front of him at the wreckage of an apocalyptic world that seems to come out of a movie.
***
[0 decades, 6 years]
"Why is there no single living thing in this world except for the annoying insects in that jungle." Skylar looked at the ocean of clear water in front of him located at the end of the abandoned world.
"Well I am used to loneliness." He entered a boat beside him, picked its oar and starts to row in the direction his guide points to.
Is this place supposed to be this calm. I was expecting a twist or something...
***
[0 decades, 7 years]
"One year one region. This is definitely not a coincidence" On the boat and in front of a wall of darkness Skylar looked up at the strange timer.
"I have no idea" He gave up on thinking about its mystery, then stair the boat into the world of darkness.
***
[0 decades, 8 years]
"Just one more cycle " Skylar unseen figure muttered, and in the next few seconds his figure stepped out of the world of darkness into a world like hell.
"Hmm... Strange." Burning stars, boiling mountain tops, very hot earth, flowing rivers of lava. Skylar saw all this around him, he chuckled, then looked above him at the timer.
***
[0 decades, 9 years]
Skylar stood at the boundary of the world of fiery hell and the world of icy hell.
"So after all this i return here."
Then he stepped into the world of ice just like the guide instructed.
"Is returning to the starting point the end." Looking around the world of ice after he moved deeper inside, he saw nothing that indicates the end of the trial. He looked to the side at his guide that has remained faithful in his duties, his brow furrowed at the fact that it still points, then he smiled and followed it once again through the world of icy hell.
***
[1 decade, 1 year]
How do i live this place...
Am i trapped or under an illusion...
But the trial has not ended. Well, that's if the trial is a real thing...
***
[1 decade, 9 years]
"This is no longer funny"
"I am back again at the icy hell after another cycle like the first time."
"Is there a secret in this icy hell that will help me out of here"
***
[1 decade, 6 years]
On the ocean, in front of the region of darkness;
If the ocean and the others have no secret, i don't think i will find anything in the land of darkness...
***
[2 decades, 5 years]
Abandoned modern world;
"The only way out is to forfeit this trial"
I just have to either commit suicide or stop following this annoying guide... "Nah, if there is an end i want to see it. I have already come this far."
***
[5 decade, 3 years]
Unforgiving green jungle;
"Shouldn't i be dead in the real world already?" Maybe there is a new development i don't know about...
***
[10 decades, 4 years]
The yellow sand desert;
"At this point it would be a waste to forfeit this trial..."
"My body has shown no sign of breaking down and since i can bear the physical fatigue, it wouldn't be a bad idea to see this to the end." (Chuckle)
"Maybe the end i seek is the end of the trial"
***
[100 decade, 8 years]
Fiery hell;
"Maybe i am dead and i am in hell." (Chuckle)
"Wait, that means i must have done a lot of evil when i was alive."
"Nah, this is not hell. I am a very good person."
***
[ 899 decade, 9 years]
Icy hell;
"9000 years!"
"This world changing cycle is no longer annoying"
***
[ 999 decades, 9 years]
[Congratulations on passing the second stage of the trial]
"I guess, i am more stubborn." Skylar stood in front of a black and engraved giant gate, his eyes glued to the message floating in the air above him.
After he left the fiery hell, he expected it was the icy hell in front of him he was going to step on, but when he did step on it, his guide vanished and he found himself here in the middle of a hall with a new message floating above him and a weird door in front of him.
[The third trial will begin after nine breaths]
At the message in front of him the edge of his lips twitched.
I hope its not another trap...
[Open the door and enter the land of inheritance]
[The trial begins]
"Inheritance!" At the message before him Skylar expressed perplexity.
"What kind of inheritance has that crazy level of trial"
He moved closer to the gate, float in front of it, and set his eyes on the symbols carved on it.
"Black Gold, how!" With his hand coated with natural energy he felt the gate and its pattern with it.
Didn't they say its nigh impossible to work with black gold, how can someone carve on it this intricately....
Skylar looked at and felt the fine engraved pattern on the giant door with a mixture of awe and bewilderment.
"This pattern is like a puzzle" He flew up and looked at the center of the door which holds nine colored gems in a circle." I guess you solve the puzzle and arrange the gems in these grooves according to your answer."
I don't have time for that. And who knows if i can really solve it... He looked away from the gems.
"Let's use a shortcut" He placed his hand on the engraved door made of black gold and in no time a hole that can fit his figure appeared through it. And not wasting time, he entered through the hole and into the land of inheritance behind it.
***
"Its been a long time."
A voice coming from a being seating on a throne, a voice that seems to blend all human voices in existence reached Skylar who is landing gently on the black floor of the room behind the black gigantic door where the throne and being sits.
"Yes, a long time indeed." Absentmindedly Skylar responded the unusual voice. His pace never faltering, he walked past the being seating on the altar at the center of the room- the only thing in the black room, and a couple seconds later arrived in front of the wall behind it.
(Silence)
"Do you want my legacy?"
After a brief silence that permeate the austere and timeless room, the voice once again reached Skylar, who with great fascination has been reading the pictures engraved on the wall of Black Gold behind the altar.
"No thank you." Skylar answered then change his location to another wall, one beside the figure on the altar.
"Are you the crazy guy in these stories?" He asked, his back to the figure and his eyes on the wall.
"Of course, back in my era they called me the immortal slaughterer, the ender of times, venerable bloodstorm..."
While the figure list thier titles, Skylar left the wall, walked past the figure, never casting them a look once and arrived at the opposite wall which also contains carved pictures that tell stories.
"Your story is like that of a xianxian MC... You block my way i cut you down, your parents seek revenge i cut them down, you bring your elders i destroy your clan..." Skylar turned to the cloaked figure after he pieced together the stories on the walls.
"Do you now want my legacy?" The fully cloaked figure who seems to be staring at Skylar asked a second time.
Skylar smiled at the concealed figure. "Why should i seek someone else legacy when i have mine, unless i give it someone else on your behalf."
"Thank you, i will find someone else myself then." The figure responded. Then they proceed to remove their black cloak and throw it at Skylar. "Inside the cloak is your reward for completing the trials."
Skylar caught the cloak, examine it for a couple seconds, then stare at the wierd figure in front of him. A figure young and old, tall and short, white and black, male and female, ugly and beautiful...
"Lorgh, ghul. . xhol , , huxci..., hjji, hijj, .."
"What" Skylar felt the glitching figure laughed at him in mockery. Then like time slipped past him or like he woke up from a dream, he found himself on the bolder sitting in front of the colossal mountain, exactly the spot he stood before he dived into the darkness of the entrance that's no longer there.
Interesting...
"Goldie, how long have i been gone?" Skylar turned behind him at the one mita tall Goldie who seems not to be surprised at anything at all.
"You have never let here. You just stood here like an idiot. You know..." Goldie rolled his golden eyes at him.
Then Skylar smiled and looked at the cloak in his hand. "For how long was i an idiot?"
"About nine breaths. You know." Goldie rolled his eyes again at him.
"I see." interesting... (Chuckle) Skylar chuckled then hold out the cloak for Goldie to see. "Goldie can you see this cloak?"
"Where did you get that?" Bewildered Goldie stare at the frayed and shabby black wooly cloak that seems to have a lot of stories to tell.
Skylar chuckled at his partner, then turn to look at the statue of the goat head that is still present where it was.
This spying idiot is next...
"Come out." The sound wave of his stern voice hit the goat head statue violently. "I know you are there." He narrowed his eyes and his presence turn suffocatingly dark after he did not receive the reply he wanted. "Don't make me drag you out."
"Forgive me my lord, meh" Suddenly, from within the goat head statue, a spiritual entity with the physique of a short wizened old man with a long white beard, but a pair of white goat legs, a pair of goat horns, and a goat tail came before Skylar and Goldie. "My lord please have mercy on this ignorant servant..." Banging his spiritual head on the bolder he tried to appease the scary figure looking at him expressionessly down from above.
"Goldie, its time we leave."
***
END OF VOLUME 1