Arson stood on the path that led into the trial for an exceedingly long time. He felt as if he stared his greatest fear in the eyes. The embodiment of what he wanted to experience least in his life, staring right back at him in question, daring him to step forward.
It was in that moment that Arson remembered Micheal’s words. A framework of thinking that he himself hadn’t imagined before speaking to his teacher rattling around in his brain, leaving him feeling unhinged and even more unbalanced.
Have I begun to define myself by the limits made and experienced by my predecessors?
The mental question was a mountain he did not want to climb, but as he faced the reality of what he’d been told, the more he felt inclined to try.
Arson didn’t want to live with limits or boundaries. So he wouldn’t. There wasn’t room in his life for fear. His title constantly showed him that, so he would accept his fear for what it was, yet another limit. If he died within this trial and was forgotten, that would be his fate.
Only those who care to be forgotten, will be…
Arson hit "yes" on the trial prompt, and took a step forward, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders. He knew that the trial before him would be unlike anything he’d ever faced before, but simultaneously felt that he needed to overcome the challenge, or be forever less than he could be by experiencing it.
“You know, I really thought that you wouldn’t take this trial,” Anastasia said from his wrist. Arson nodded and almost didn’t respond, but felt that Anastasia had engaged with him less and less frequently, and wanted to take the chance to build the relationship that he felt he’d taken for granted more than any other recently.
“I wasn’t going to, but I can’t continue to worry about people tampering with my mind, and not take up the opportunity to potentially make myself invulnerable to such things,” Arson explained, feeling that the AI would understand his reasoning, being formed from the scans of his mother’s dead wife and runic systems.
“I don’t blame you. Headmaster Max really had you mixed up there for a little bit when you first made it to Adroit, but it makes me wonder if the Elixir you made will work while you're in this trial,” Anastasia pondered.
“Thanks for that. I almost forgot about those, but I will have to test it once I see how the effects of the trial impact me. I have a feeling that the System’s involvement will make any such workarounds inconsequential.”
“I see your point, but we never know until you try at this point,” said Anastasia, and Arson’s eyebrow rose at how Anastasia chose to speak to him.
“We, huh? Makes me think you are worried that I will forget about you in here,” said Arson with a laugh, but at Anastasia’s response, Arson truly felt touched and sad.
“Everybody else has. Why would I want the one person who remembered me to forget?” said Anastasia. Arson smiled and nodded.
“I see your point, but trust me Anastasia, even if I’m forced to forget you in this trial, taking you from my wrist will never be an option. I’m probably going to need you to remind me of the point of all this while inside this crazy looking place, so know how important our relationship is to me in this moment, as without you I would have most likely died in Endless, you know that,” Arson said, gesturing all around himself. Anastasia smiled and Arson walked further toward the entrance of the first palace.
The closer he got, the more he saw the bones of the dead. Not just humanoid figures, but that of dragons, giants, and even the husks of long dead serpentine creatures.
The signs of battle were everywhere. Arson couldn’t understand how or why the entrance to the trial could look like a battlefield until the next prompt popped up before his eyes.
*Zone 1-?: Zone of forgotten battlefields. Warning: this area transitions between wars lost to time. The warfare experienced is from temporal instances pulled from lost planets where immortals and Ancient Cultivators fought. Tread lightly. Nothing faced within this zone is neither weak nor lacks a powerful killing intent.*
“Well, that isn’t good…”
“Nope,” exclaimed Anastasia. The land around Arson flickered and before he knew it, the courtyard of the palace he strode toward transformed into a plane of islands surrounded by shallow waters.
Arson immediately dove as a drake swooped toward his location. His closed eye dominion showing him that he was already being targeted. He withdrew Sky from his spacial inventory. The weapon roared in his mind, happy to be freed from his watch’s dimensional pocket.
All in one motion he rolled to his feet and took aim with his free hand. Aiming a ray of frost toward the beast's wings in an attempt to slow his attacker, the drake roared in his direction. As he formulated a plan to kill his newest foe, another humanoid figure set off alarms in Arson’s mind as it penetrated the range his closed eye dominion covered.
Arson spun on his heel to face a giant, an armored figure almost 20 feet tall charged him. Immediately, Arson was forced to pull his constructs from his spacial inventory for support.
Jaqueline, Jillian, and Jane all rose into the air. Each Living Hand Construct using a different form of attack to take aim at the giant armored figure that quickly closed the distance.
As Arson squeezed down on the fan trigger mechanism of sky’s handle, and the weapon began to spin; Jaqueline fired bolts of mana lightning, Jillian fired a ray of frost, and Jane shot conductive water orbs.
The giant raised both its arms to cover its helmeted head, from the various projectiles being sent toward it, dropping its shoulder as it attempted to spear tackle Arson, fully committing to a dive.
Arson didn’t feel confident in not completely being overrun, and jumped, spinning through the air while extending his arm out toward the drake that once more swooped to try and maul him. He felt a cool sensation thrum through his body, the world around him slowing.
This is the entryway… I can’t even imagine what the depths of this trial could be like?
Arson weaved his still spinning blade into the side of the drake's chest, and was yanked upward with the momentum of the creature's flight. The giant slammed down into the ground below Arson, and a spray of sand filled the air around its impact point.
As Arson’s blade was lodged into the side of the roaring drake, his weapon's spinning fan function caused him to collide with the flying creature. If it wasn’t for his Closed Eye Dominion, he wouldn’t have been able to properly analyze what direction the sky or ground truly were located in, but each blink offered him a sense of direction that was incomparable to the use of his eyes.
So instead of smashing bodily into the Drake, Arson pulled his legs inward and managed to land, standing slightly crouched atop the drake, even while it tried to barrel roll to fling him off. Arson would have, once upon a time, loved that he now stood upon a flying creature, but in that moment knew he would have only one chance to strike.
As soon as the drake completed the barrel roll through the air, Arson pulled his blade free, and swung his scythe toward the back of the creatures neck without hesitation. The slash cleanly sliced through the drake's neck and the roar of the drake was silenced instantly. Arson backflipped off the drake's back, no longer being pulled through the air by the dragon kin.
“Behind you!” Anastasia screamed at Arson, the young man unaware of the giant jumping through the air toward him, as he hadn’t blinked since the moment he landed on the drake's back. A giant hand wrapped around Arson’s torso, and squeezed. Arson screamed in pain as his ribs crunched against one another. His predicament only becoming worse as the giant pulled him down and slammed him bodily into the sand below.
Arson’s upper half, however, was thrust into the shallows and held there. Incapable of moving he thrashed violently instantly drowning without a single breath of air in his lungs. The giant beat its chest with its free hand and Arson knew he was in trouble, as even his Living Hand Constructs didn’t seem to be having any effect no matter what they shot at the giant’s armored form.
Arson’s vision started to become hazy, and his ability to move lessened with every blink that passed. Until Jaqueline made her move.
The living hand construct dove into the water and pulled Arson’s crown from his head; the crown transforming in a flash into the shape of a pure white scythe.
Even before the giant could use its free arm to block, Jaqueline swung the weapon; a pulse of mana lightning traveling down its length, as a streak of multi colored light left a trail through the air in its wake.
The second beheading occurred since Arson had entered the very first battlefield, and the young man jerked upright, forced to roll out of the way as the giant’s body plummeted forward almost slamming down entirely onto Arson.
He came to his feet slowly, taking in deep breaths as his lungs filling with air caused his ribs to snap and crack back into place painfully. He spat golden blood into the water below and cursed to himself as Jaqueline placed his crown back on his head.
“Thank you Jaqueline, you too Anastasia,” Arson said as Jaqueline gave him a thumbs up and Anastasia smiled at him as he glanced down at his watch.
Arson heard another roar in the distance, and immediately ducked down, positioning himself beside the giant’s body, closing his eyes to try and gain a clear picture of his entire environment. As he hid there he became aware of multiple battles being held by groups of drakes and many more giants.
“This place isn’t somewhere that I can hold back in,” Arson said, not only pulling up his hood, but pulling the cloth further down, revealing his mask for the first time since leaving Endless.
The mask took on the features of both a Dragon and a Phoenix, the mixture creating a truly terrifying visage. Arson opened his eyes and looked through the eyes of the mask; his vision overlain with runic patterns that offered him information. Secrets of the flows of mana and the environment around him displayed as if he’d peeled back a layer of fog that hid the truth from his eyes.
He wouldn’t be able to use the mask for long, as it always came with severe headaches the longer he used it, and also required him to sleep. Neither affliction being something he could currently fare with easily without repercussions. He only felt the mask necessary for two reasons. One, to be able to easily find any weaknesses of the opponents around him; and two, to hopefully be able to find a way out of the current zone he’d walked into.
“Anastasia, scan the area, and let me know if the density of mana thins anywhere,” said Arson. His voice now causing the very air around him to vibrate underneath the weight of his mana being focused through the mask he wore.
“Yes sir.”
Arson slowly rose and prepared for combat, gripping his weapon firmly. Another three giants rushed in his direction, and Arson charged his palm full of twisting mana lightning in his free hand, while sending a burst of mana lightning down the length of Sky’s shaft and toward the tip of his weapons blade.
Arson hadn’t had to push himself in this way since he was completely consumed by the trials of Endless, but felt his smile grow as his feet left the ground and he took flight.
A sonic boom billowed outward as he broke the sound barrier. Even more mana lightning summoned as he pushed toward his enemies, not just in his palm and down his weapon, but swirling down the lengths of his legs as well. Arson roared and prepared for impact, cocking back his arm to ready himself for the palm strike he planned for the forwardmost giant.
“Die!”
The giants entered his range and Arson felt time slow. He extended his arm, flying underneath the reach of his first enemy, slamming his palm into the chest of the vanguard giant, the titan’s chest exploding as the bones of Arson’s own arm shattered completely. Not stopping, Arson spun, slashing Sky with such intensity that his opposing arm didn’t break, but flopped uselessly to his side made completely numb by the might of his swing that had bisected the second giant.
This was all before he barely managed to send his final spinning kick, charged with mana lightning into the skull as the overhead attack cracked the giants head open, forcing the final giant to its knees before the lightning surged through its body killing it in a near instant.
Arson plummeted to the island below. His Living Hand Constructs flying a small circular pattern in the air above him as his bones either snapped back into place, regrew, or his limbs took their time to regain the loss of sensation entirely.
With his eyes closed surrounded by the bodies of the giants he’d just slain, Arson cursed, watching a group of drakes dive toward him attracted by the now dead giants that lay mutilated around him like a perfectly defenseless meal.
Come on, come on…!
His Living Hand Constructs began to focus fire on the closest target, and the culmination of attacks was enough to bring down the first of the seven drakes. Luckily for Arson a couple of the drakes behind the first collided with the first, but that didn’t stop the four behind the tumbling group from soaring unhindered at a fierce clip in his direction.
Come on, come on…!
Finally Arson’s bones finished healing, just barely fixing his body enough to allow him to move. He kipped up to his feet, and squeezed the handle of Sky, once more spinning the blade of his weapon as he pumped mana lightning into the weapon.
A massive cyclone of wind burst from Sky, causing the drakes to be buffeted with wind as they tried to close the distance. Only for Arson to pump even more mana into his weapon to make the scythe spin faster, pushing out enough wind for the drakes to be forced to a near complete stop in the air above him.
He kept the torrent of energy created by the fusing of mana lightning that merged with a tornado of wind in the direction of the drakes, roaring his rage at the beasts as his attack shredded through the group, scattering drake body parts all around himself as the devastating energies blew the creatures bodies into chunks of viscera.
“Bring it on!”