Chapter 11 Khyree becomes an Inheritor
Khyree took up the stoppered vial and examined the fluid closely. He was absolutely positive that the liquid inside was a deadly poison. Thanks to his time in the Northern Wilds he had come across essence creatures and beasts whose venom could kill in a matter of minutes.
Of course there were some that worked more slowly, sometimes over days. But Khyree had no idea what kind of poison this was or how quickly it worked. But considering that it was a part of the trials, Khyree hedged his bets on the poison being more on the quicker side of things.
He moved down and observed the bucket of water. Just by observing the waves of energy that it emitted, he was sure that the water inside was what Kendrick had told him was The Waters of Life.
Khyree figured that if this trial was anything like the last one he had survived a simple death would not be enough to secure victory. So he decided to go all in. He grabbed the dagger and it used it to knock the lightning crystal into a cleared space in the sarcophagus.
Next he did the same thing with the fire crystal, though it did take some maneuvering. Luckily, the Apocalypse Scarab Beetles did not seem to mind the crystals. It appeared the crystals had no effect on them at all.
Khyree then poured the bucket of water into the sarcophagus, and poured. It seemed that there was some special mechanic to the bucket itself. For no matter how much he poured the water kept on pouring out. Much more than could be contained within such a simple looking bucket.
Once he filled the sarcophagus roughly halfway full, he then grabbed the vial and quickly swallowed all of the liquid inside. He noted that the poison had a thick syrup like consistency that inflamed his internal tissues as it went down his throat.
Next Khyree grabbed the dagger and stabbed it deeply into his core. The pain was indescribable. He felt like he was literally tearing himself apart as he ripped the blade of the dagger from side to side in his stomach.
Leaving the dagger in place he staggered over to the sarcophagus and laid himself inside. As the Waters of Life covered his body, he felt his body begin to break down on a cellular level. Then there were the pulses of lightning that shocked him.
He could feel the heat from the flame crystal, as the water he swallowed and without started to boil fiercely. Khyree screamed silently in the water as the Apocalypse Scarab Beetles consumed his flesh and blood.
In total, Khyree only lasted a few minutes before his body was completely destroyed. At first there was only the all consuming exquisite pain, and then there was just the cold. It was a level of coldness that no living being could ever endure. It went beyond simple terms like bone chilling. Indeed, it was a level of cold that could only be felt in the after life.
Next there was a moment of excruciating pain. A moment that seemed to last forever. Khyree didn't have the words for it but he felt as if his soul was being torn apart. As if his soul was being pulled in two separate directions. Khyree screamed silently into the ether. The pain continued.
The absence of pain came so quickly, that Khyree found himself still screaming, even after he materialized in the passageways of the pyramid. His screams echoed down their long mysterious lengths.
The sound of his screams brought him back to full consciousness. He found himself whole, and healed of all his previous wounds. In fact he even felt better than he had before. What's more was even his servant's robes were restored.
"Hahahaha!" Khyree found himself laughing uncontrollably for minutes afterwards. He was so shaken and manic from the last trial that he laughed and cried for an unknown amount of time.
Some time later Khyree managed to pull himself together. He rose to his feet, dusted himself off and looked around to see if anyone had noticed him. Still very much alone, he continued to explore the pyramid.
It wasn't long before he came upon a final chamber. This one was formed completely of crystal. The chamber was shaped just like a pyramid as well and rested at the very top of the pyramidal structure he had entered along with the other servants and the inner students. What's more was that Khyree could see the desert through the crystal walls. The sunlight from the red sun shone brightly in the crystal chamber.
There was also one other thing that did not escape his attention, and was in fact the reason why he had stopped just before entering the chamber. There was a person inside of the chamber.
It was an older distinguished looking man in robes of blackest night, and brilliant emerald green jade. The man currently stood with his back facing away from Khyree, with his arms clasped behind his back.
“Well don’t just stand there. Come in and share the view with me,” commanded the man in the chamber. His tone of voice suggested that he was used to ordering people about.
Khyree silently debated with himself the wisdom of entering the chamber that currently contained the presence of an unknown man. Just as he was about to turn around and leave, the man in the chamber flicked a finger and a gust of wind enveloped Khyree and brought him into the chamber just within a few feet of the man himself. Having been dumped unceremoniously on the floor, Khyree jumped to his feet and made his way back to the entrance.
Slam. He had almost made it only to watch as a door was slammed shut on the entryway. Turning sharply on his heels, Khyree bowed and introduced himself to the chamber’s other occupant.
"Forgiveness senior. This one did not mean to intrude. I am Khyree Mourntree, and I am your humble servant."
The man's shoulder shook in silent mirth as he listened to Khyree. "Oh stop that right there. I have been observing you since you first came to this realm. You may be many things, Mourntree. But you most certainly are not anyone's servant and you are the furthest thing from being humble," the man said. He gestured for Khyree to walk up closer.
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Khyree walked up beside the man , and glanced at his profile before turning and looking out upon the desert. The man beside him was tall, somewhere around two and half meters tall. He had a slender build.
The man's head was bald, but he was sporting a long beard that was tied into braids that reached down to his knees. His face was strong, with a noble profile. Khyree couldn't quite guess the man's age. There were no laugh lines or wrinkles around the man's eyes. If anything the man exuded a sense of agelessness.
The old man kept his gaze focused on outside the pyramid. "What do you think of the view, young Mourntree?" he asked.
Khyree gazed out among the sands of the desert, and thought about the question for a spell. "Forgiveness senior, but the view appears to be lacking. There is nothing around for dozens of kilometers except for a hot deserted landscape that appears to be completely devoid of all signs of life."
The old man sighed before speaking. His eyes were lost in memories from ages untold. "Ah but it was not always so. Once upon a time there were other structures besides this one. There was an entire city full of living breathing people. Men, women, and children. They lived their entire lives in this realm. There were even fertile fields that extended as far as the eyes could see, filled with all types of foods and medicinal herbs. There was also a forest that contained all manner of beasts and creatures." The old man lapsed into silence.
Khyree found the words to be so vivid that he could almost picture the scenes of life in his mind. “Senior, so what happened?” asked Khyree. The other thing that was clearly conveyed was the sense of loss that the old man felt. He spoke as if he carried the weight of ages on his shoulders.
“The master of this realm moved on to a higher plane a long time ago,” replied the old man. “Without his energy, everything deteriorated over time.Until this is all that is left, and sadly even much of this will be gone soon as well. Did you notice how much smaller the sun is now as compared to when you first entered this realm? The size of the sun represents the amount of ambient energy remaining in this realm.”
Now that he mentioned it, Khyree did notice that the red sun did appear to be smaller. Perhaps half the size it was originally.
“For the last ten thousand years I have stood watch over this realm, as I have waited for a new master to be selected. One who could fully appreciate and utilize this realm once again,” the old man continued. “Every thousand years I have opened a portal to the outside world in the hopes that someone worthy would come along and complete the challenges that my master had set in place. Nine times before this one I have experienced disappointment. So much energy was wasted. The lives harvested, barely enough to reset the many challenges.”
“Senior, when you say harvested do you mean to say that everyone who fails the challenges forfeit their lives?” inquired Khyree. For immediately he had started to think about his friend senior servant Kendrick. Khyree would not even be in this realm right now if it wasn’t for Kendrick.
“Yes. Failures equal death in the trials,” replied the old man stoically.
Anxiously, Khyree asked the words that were on his mind. “Senior, what of those that came with me? Did they all fail the challenges?”
The old man had seen thousands of people take the trials over the years. Of course he knew what was going through the young man’s head. There was someone that he cared about among the other participants. “Of the forty-three other participants, thirty died during the first trial and ten died during the second trial. The other three were still continuing the second trial when you came here. Now their individual trials are paused, contingent on you.”
Khyree ignored the last part of the old man’s words. He didn’t think that it was relevant to his current concerns. He had only participated in the trials to help his friend. The thought that he had survived but that his friend had not bothered him quite a bit. “Forgiveness, but there was another servant that came here with me, just a few years older…”
The old man interrupted Khyree’s question and asked him one of his own. “Mourntree. What is it that you want most out of life?”
Filled with impatience and anxiety, Khyree answered in a rude tongue “Freedom, senior. But that’s not really important right now. I need to know if my friend is still alive.”
The red sun outside the pyramid dimmed a fraction as the old man turned to regard Khyree with eyes that glowed fiercely in the chamber room. Khyree felt a surge of unstoppable pressure that drove him to his knees in front of the senior. The old man looked down upon Khyree with a domineering expression on his face. “Shall I ask the question again?”
Khyree felt as if his bones were about to start breaking. He gritted his teeth and pushed back against the pressure with everything he had in him, but it did no good. This was a pressure that he could not brute force his way through, at least not at his current level of strength. Accepting his loss, he schooled his expression and responded. “No, senior. I heard you quite well. What I want most in life is to be free. To have the freedom to come and go as I please and to be there for my friends and loved ones, through all of the good times and bad.”
The old man retracted his gaze and went back to looking out over the desert. Khyree was relieved that the pressure had gone away as well. “Ah. So it is not the true freedom that you seek. Devoid of all emotions and attachments. The death of all ego. But rather the freedom to determine your own fate, and to protect and provide for your family. It is an honorable goal young Mourntree, but one perhaps outside of reality for one such as yourself.
For you see the power to truly determine one's own fate, is beyond that of any mortal man. If you want the kind of power that will allow you to break through the walls of fate, and protect those you hold dear then you will need to transcend and become one of the strongest Immortals to ever traverse the heavens.”
“With all respect, senior. I have no interest in becoming an Immortal.”
The old man nodded slowly as he continued to gaze out among the sands. “Well then it's a pity about your friend.”
“But I thought you said that there were still three others in the second trials.”
“There are, but they have already failed the trials. Their energy is just being held in the spellscript while we have our little talk, it has yet to be dispersed. Now if you choose not to become the Inheritor, then this trial period will come to an end and all of the participants will be harvested for their energy in order to reset the trials, and yes this includes you as well.”
“And if I accept?”
“Then the trials will come to an end, and you will have some choices to make. Specifically about what to do with the energy harvested. You could invest the energy into the realm and restore some of its lost functionality. Or conversely you could use some of it to revive several of the participants.”
Khyree didn’t really feel as if he had much choice in the matter, but there was a potential hold up as he thought about his unique condition. He felt that he needed some further clarification. “You’re not really giving me a lot of choices there senior. But there is a problem that you should be aware of. Due to a special condition concerning my body, I’m not able to cultivate. So if you could just let me and my friend leave, then you could do whatever you want with the rest of the participants.”
“Ah yes, I am aware of your condition,” replied the old man. “I discovered it when I had to reconstitute your molecules and summon your soul back from the Ether. It was a particularly difficult and draining endeavor energy wise. You really are a piece of work. In truth I have never seen your type of condition before. I doubt anyone ever has. Now while I cannot fix your condition, I can work around it. The choice is yours. So what will it be Mourntree, death or glory?”