Chapter 12: Trial of Heaven
On the ground floor, there was a person who was talking to himself, "He really made it this far? But there is no way that a mortal from a Rank 0 world would get IT, right? Haha, This is really getting interesting. I actually want to see him get IT and see where he will go from there. Compared to all the previous so-called children of Heaven that died here with no memory of them left, I like this one much more. He is not pretentious, like them, and he is willing to give it all for his goal."
"It seems that the Pagoda wouldn't intervene while I am taking the Trial leaving me with free choice," Tom concluded.
On the eighth floor, after saying that, Tom wondered if this information could have been of use in the previous Trials or not? Thinking about that made him a little depressed, but he told himself, "There is no point in me thinking about the past anymore." With that, he took a step to the ninth floor and his final Trial in this Pagoda.
Looking all around him, Tom noticed that the room for his last Trial was empty. There is no Fog here, nothing. Tom assumed that the Fog would probably appear after a while, so he waited and waited for what felt like hours, that was until he finally heard a voice that was familiar to him, except this time it was much more straightforward, and what it said was not something Tom expected.
"To the child who reached this floor, I first congratulate you on reaching a place no one before reached. Secondly, in this Trial, you will be alone. There will be no guide or hint for you. I hope that after all of the years that passed, a worthy person finally gets my..."
After the voice said that, it didn't continue as if what he was about to say was forbidden for Tom's ears to hear. And it didn't continue on until after another couple of minutes passed.
"Will what I can or can't tell you depend on if you pass this one last Trial. So let us start it. Once you feel ready, you need to meditate and enter within your innermost core. A place that is even deeper than your Soul Sea. There you will see your last Trial."
With that, the voice became silent. Tom waited for another couple of minutes, thinking that maybe just maybe, the voice would tell him something of use other than how to start the Trial.
After all of that waiting, Tom didn't hear anything, so he thought that since the voice wasn't going to talk anymore, he needed to start the Trial. However, he couldn't. He was excited to be done with the Pagoda, yet he was anxious this floor, this Trial, would be his last. It was all or nothing. If you ever had a final exam, you would know this feeling. Freedom is but a step away, yet you wouldn't want to miss up on the last step. If you felt that before, multiply that feeling by a hundred times, and you will understand Tom's feelings. I mean, who could blame him? He worked so hard in the Pagoda to get here, and before that, he worked day and night to merge with Noor.
Tom knew that all of this hesitation wouldn't get him anywhere. He knew that the previous Trials, although hard, made him a stronger person mentally, even stronger than the previous Tom, who was plagued with disease.
With that, Tom finally sat down in the lotus position, trying to find the place he was told to reach. Tom started by closing his eyes. Then, he began to breathe in and out with a rhythm he didn't know before. It suddenly came to him as if he had known it all along.
"He who chases his dream with all he got will overcome every obstacle in his path," Tom remembered this saying while swimming in his mind. Although he didn't wholly agree with it. He felt that if you actually put in the work, there would be a hope of reaching your dreams. On the other hand, if you remained stagnant and refused to take action, you would remain stuck and never make progress towards your goals."
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Thinking of this saying was the last thing he did before reaching the place that is said to be deeper than the Soul Sea.
Once He reached that place, he felt a close connection to it, a connection like no other. However, he didn't have much time to feel this connection any deeper because there, out of nowhere, a storm started to gather it came out of nowhere and with it, a ginormous eye appeared. "This..this eye is not not normal. It's a monstrosity," Tom wanted to shout that out, but even the strength to do that left his body once he tried to speak.
This eye was, of course, not normal. Anyone could guess that. This eye was the forbidden eye of Heaven of Tom's World that wanted to destroy him for daring to come into his Dao Soul, a place not meant to be within reach of any existence of a Rank 0 world. Tom entering his Soul Sea already injured it, but because of the Laws the Heavenly will need to follow and the fact it was simply a Rank 0 will, it didn't think it was worth it for it to act. Now that Tom was entering his Dao Soul, which made it enraged because of the damage it was receiving by the second.
The Heavenly will decided that it must wipe Tom no matter what it took, making it willing to pay a price that would leave it in a state of half destruction causing all the world's creatures to suffer.
Tom, of course, didn't know any of that, but even if he knew he wouldn't have cared, he already gave up any shred of what people like to call humanity. Reaching his goal was much more important to him than any strangers, life, and death.
Tom, who had no idea what this eye represented, was filled with fear, yet he started to gather himself back from the shock. Finally, he told himself, "I already knew I would see things like this eye that are out of human imagination. So what am I afraid for?" Tom tried to comfort himself, but this time it wasn't working. After all, how could a mortal face a heavenly will even if it's only a rank 0 will that was acting on instincts?
Tom's mind, which he forged in the fires of the Trials of this Pagoda, was getting destroyed as if he was facing an Eldritch creature.
Tom had screamed a lot before, but not like this.
Tom had Cried a lot before, but not like this.
Tom had grieved a lot before, but not like this.
Tom, who once thought that he no longer wept anymore, cried like a child.
Tom, who once thought that he no longer feared, felt a fear that made him not know what was real.
Tom, who once thought that he was no longer moved by anything, started to feel that the world was shattering all around him.
"To face the heavenly will of a world is no easy task. The fact he stayed alive for even a second is in of itself an achievement sight. Unfortunately, it seems that even this challenger will fail" The same voice from the ground floor spoke, yet again with a tone of genuine sadness.
Tom, who was facing Heaven's will, felt alone. Although he felt alone for most of his life, he never tasted this taste of loneliness. He felt a metallic sour taste in his throat that made him want to cry, but no more tears were left.
Tom felt defeated. One glance was all it took for him to feel despair.
He hated that his body was weak.
He hated that his mind was weak.
And most importantly, he hated that he couldn't control his fate.
Tom Dao's Soul started to shatter, and cracks appeared all over it.
Seeing that Tom's feelings changed, his anger turned into wrath that could melt mountains. "Anger clouds the mind, and wrath makes you blind to all of the beauty of life." The wrath that he tried to fight in the previous Trial raged, which made him blind to the fact that Heaven's will was in front of him. He didn't care anymore. All the fear he had and all the pressure he felt disappeared instead.
Tom, who lost all feelings, became but a puppet with one command, making it move.
"Destruction of this giant ugly eye"
"Destruction of all and anything that came his way"
"Destruction to everything"
With that, Tom cried, although this time, it wasn't a cry of sadness or fear. It was the cry of a warrior who was ready to do whatever it took to take down his enemy.
"AhhhhhhhhhhH"
The time around, the one that started to fear wasn't Tom but Heaven's Will. Once it looked into Tom's eyes, it saw a madness like no other. It, for the first time since its creation, felt a feeling, and that feeling was of fear like no other it knew that it might be able to take Tom down, but the cost of that would be it complete and utter destruction; no, it actually might be something even worse than that.
After it felt that it started to retreat, yes, a mortal was able to make the heavens afraid. Once the heavenly will fled with its eye. The sky began to clear, and the clouds disappeared like they were never there. And there was a fallen man or, should I say, a broken spirit on the ground.