Sophie took a deep breath and said.

“I’m ready, show me.” The priestess smiled slightly at Sophie’s response, she could see how frightened the small girl was.

‘I’m going to enjoy torturing your soul, ‘little Toyotama-hime’.

“Very well, let us begin.” The priestess raised both of her hands into a prayer position, bowed her head and said.

“You might want to sit down for this.” A brilliant flash of light emitted when she opened her left eye. Both Gaël and Sophie were immediately stunned by the priestess’s gaze, they couldn’t move at all and Sophie fell unconscious in place. The priestess closed her eyes and turned to Gaël, Sophie collapsing on the spot.

“The small Maiden is currently asleep, dreaming of the future I’ve shown her. If she can awake from this. She will pass this trial.” Now freed from the priestess’s gaze, my blood flow moves back through my body.

‘What was that I felt just now, I couldn’t move when she opened her left eye?’

“Does Sophie have a time limit?”

“She has 10 minutes, Even if she were to wake up after the time is up, she will still fail. Your best hope for all of your sake is that she wakes up within that time. You seem worried, here. I’ll relieve the barrier so you can heal her and make sure she doesn’t wake up with an aching head from that fall she just suffered.”

From that moment, the clear barrier receded just in front of the Priestess, Allowing me to run over and give her some healing. Fortunately no where was bleeding and I held onto her, hoping I would give her some comfort, if at all possible.

“Don’t worry Sophie, you’re going to make it through this, your brother-in-law’s here to make sure you’re okay.”

_________________________________________

From Sophie’s perspective, everything went white, then everything went dark. She couldn’t see anything, she couldn’t hear anything. She was completely conscious though, so she tried opening her eyes. What she was met with was a ruin, absolute devastation from every side. She looked around, the dead were everywhere. She was back in Esta, and an explosion went off next to her. Screaming in shock, she curled over to protect herself but she felt nothing, there was no pain. Nor was there any shock wave that knocked her back. The confusion got to her at first and when it came to her. She remembered that she was immune to her family's flames and that she had a strong resistance to other fire-based attacks.

“That wasn’t an enemy attack, did it come from the sky?” Sophie looked around to see where the attack came from. When she looked up into the sky, what she saw was a bright, flaming star. The light dimmed, and she could just barely make out the figure of someone armoured. They had a helmet on so Sophie couldn’t see who was behind the armour. Across the armoured person in the sky was a huge wyrm dragon, the markings on the dragon were familiar, it had the mark of the sun on its forehead, stretching out from the forehead the markings had rays that spanned across its long 60ft body, it had 4 short legs and the talon’s looked like it could cleave through steel. The tail was magnificent and it was a bright purple colour, the colour melded as it made its way up the rest of the body, the centre being a sharp red, then it merged into an orange colour in the chest area and finally a yellow head. It looked like it was going to prepare another powerful attack, the mouth opened and it had a bright light shining and charging, growing larger by the second when the armoured person spawned a black spear with golden spearheads in each end. Marks appeared all over his body burning a bright orange and gold colour, stretching from their hands to the rest of their body.

“Is that, Gaël?!” Sophie was shocked to see what could have been her brother-in-law going one on one against such a huge beast. The armoured knight sped forward at a blindingly fast speed leaving a flaming trail in his wake and struck the dragon’s face with their fist.

“Wake up Sophie! This isn’t you?!” It was Gaël, that was his voice she heard, but wait. She was standing right there. Sophie was confused about how Gaël could be talking to her when he wasn’t right in front of her. That was when she saw the dragon recovering, it turned back to Gaël and roared. Countless portals were spawned around the dragon and what spawned from those portals were thousands of arrowheads. Some with jagged edges, others with trident heads, Some were curved and many were straight arrowheads. The dragon fired them all at once, it was a barrage and all Sophie could see was a flaring trail moving at lightning speeds dodging all the arrows. Left, right, up and down. Zig-zagging all over the place, Gaël moved at a breakneck pace in the sky to suddenly get close to the dragon and gave it another magically enhanced punch. The dragon fell from the sky and caused an explosion in the distance, outside of the realm from where they were.

Seeing the dragon go down and Gaël chasing after it, Sophie ran to catch up.

“You can’t catch up to them, They’re too far away for you to try and run, here, allow me to help you with that.” The soft-spoken priestess whispered to her.

Sophie’s vision blurred and when her sight cleared up. She was there, in the forest a short distance away from Gaël and the dragon.

The dragon was injured, breathing raggedly, it had a crack in its face from where Gaël had made contact with his fist. Speaking of which, Gaël’s fists were shaking, clenched to the point his hand would have bled if he wasn’t wearing gauntlets.

“You killed your sister, You killed Yuna. I’m sorry but before you hurt anyone else again, I’m going to have to put you out of your misery.”

“What?! No! I would never do such a thing to Ruby, or Yuna.” Her shock at hearing what she would have done to her sister didn’t register in her mind at all.

“He can’t hear you, little one. No one can, you have to watch this and endure the pain and suffering.” The priestess’s laugh trailed off slowly.

Gaël moved forward, with tears in his eyes, behind his helmet. He brought down his spear and stabbed the dragon’s heart. A bright light shone appearing from the dragon’s chest cavity and blinded Sophie.

What happened next was the scene starting all over again. There, Gaël said the same thing as before and as he moved forward. The dragon Roared, catching Gaël off guard. The dragon pinned him down and mauled Gaël to shreds, killing him.

“No! Gaël! Please don’t die!” Sophie was in tears watching this horrifying scene. A bright light shone again blinding Sophie only for the scene to reset again.

“You killed Yuna. I’m sorry but before you hurt anyone else again, I’m going to have to put you out of your misery.

“Wait, what?!” Why is Ruby not mentioned this time? Sophie thought that when Gaël moved forward to stab the dragon, Ruby sped forward at light speed out of nowhere and Stopped Gaël in time from stabbing the dragon, only it was too late for Ruby. Gaël’s spear had stabbed Ruby in the heart.

“No! Ruby!” Both Sophie and Gaël screamed at the top of their lungs at Gaël accidentally killing Ruby.

A bright light didn’t happen this time around, a warm and loving feeling moved throughout Sophie’s body distracting her from the scene, it gave a comforting feeling. That everything was going to be alright, stopping her tears completely.

‘This is, this is healing magic. Is Gaël healing me?! Why would he be healing me?

“Don’t worry Sophie, you’re going to make it through this, your brother-in-law’s here to make sure you’re okay.”

She heard Gaël’s voice in her head and then realised that this wasn’t real.

“This is not going to happen. Not in my lifetime, ever!” Sophie’s resolve had hardened when she heard Ruby’s voice.

“Please… Protect… My sister… My love.” Watching and hearing her sister’s dying words was painful but Sophie had hardened her resolve from this.

“Nope, this is not going to happen, my sister is going to have lots of babies and I’m going to be the greatest Auntie ever, I will protect my family.” The priestess watching this was laughing, at her resolve.

‘You are a strong one, I look forward to watching you grow once you overcome this trial. I think this is enough for you.’ The Priestess thought to herself.

After that scene ended, the bright White flash appeared once more in Sophie’s vision. When she came to, all she saw was my face looking down at her, smiling at her as she came.

“Thanks for the healing Gaël, did I pass?” I laughed at the big dumb smile on her face.

“Since you woke up almost instantly, I would say so.” I looked up to the priestess for confirmation and what I saw was the priestess smiling and nodding.

“Congratulations little one for withstanding my trial. Do remember my words to not repeat what you saw to anyone though, if you do. What you saw may come true eventually.” Sophie stood up and then bowed to the priestess.

“I vow to never repeat to anyone what I saw.” Sophie’s aura began glowing, the aura was powerful. I looked at the back of her hand and what I saw was an extra ray on her brand.

‘Well I’ll be damned, she must have gone through hell to pass that trial for that to upgrade to 4% to her power. It’s a shame I’ll never find out what happened in her vision.’

‘Gaël! Is that your voice?’

‘Yuna? I’m so glad to hear your voice. Where are you?’

_________________________________________

“So you wish to wield me? Allow me to read into your soul.” A deep, masculine voice echoed throughout the chamber with Ruby and Yuna.

“Are you talking to me, please tell me I’m not going crazy?” Ruby asked for the sword.

“Fear not young one, the seal on me only reacts to the purest of souls and it seems you have yet to be tainted.” Ruby raised a nervous eyebrow. Feeling sort of thankful that she has yet to sleep with Gaël. The sword laughed quite heartily. “That’s not the taint I mean young one, what I mean is there is no malice in your heart nor is there any true hatred within you.” Ruby sighed in relief.

“So Yuna couldn’t pick you up because-”

“Yes, she was tainted by Malice when our Progenitor goddess Izanami possessed her. I read her soul when she grabbed me by the hilt. Thus I deemed her unqualified to wield me.”

“So does this mean I pass?”

“Indeed, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Takemikazuchi” Ruby was stunned by this revelation.

“As in the legendary sword god?!”

“Yes, well he’s a bit of a vain bastard” Ruby was instantly unimpressed by this god. “He named me after himself, the power I’m bestowing onto you is the knowledge on how to use me and the Chinese sword you have stored within you. You should be able to wield both of us at a more proficient level now. Please seek out my brethren, the more of us you collect, the stronger you will grow as a swordsman.”

With this ending statement, Ruby pulled out the blade, it was a beautiful blade taking a closer look at it, The hilt was purple with a black leather wrapping on the handle. The crossguard was circular and there were metal bars that spiralled outwards of the crossguard, the blade was straight and it looked like it was still sharp to the touch. There was no pommel just like her Chinese sword.

“I shall now infuse myself with your power so you may call me at any time.” At that moment the Hilt glowed a bright Orange for a few seconds, changing the colour permanently. When it ended the blade disappeared within her soul.

Yuna watched all of this unfold and ran over and hugged Ruby. “Congratulations sister on gaining newfound power,” Ruby swore she could have heard her sniffing.

“Are you crying Yuna? And what’s with you calling me sister?” Yuna jumped back and quickly rubbed her eye quickly enough so Ruby didn’t see.

“Nope, no crying here.” She smiled immediately when Ruby turned around to look at her. “I’m just happy you managed to get us past this trial and gain a new power to help you. Also because we are now both wives of Gaël with Amaterasu’s marriage blessing I figured this made us sisters, that is, if you want us to be.” Yuna ended that statement by her getting nervous and grabbing her arm left, her tail twitching with her head down. Ruby smiled and walked over to give her a proper hug.

“Of course, we can be sisters. I would expect nothing less.”

‘Congratulations on passing the trial’ A soft-spoken voice echoed throughout the room. ‘I will now open the passageway for you to proceed onto the next trial.’ The bricks on the wall where the archway was moved out of the way, shifted with a thunderous roar. One brick at a time they moved until the passageway was revealed.

‘Well I’ll be damned, she must have gone through hell to pass that trial for that to upgrade to 4% to her power. It’s a shame I’ll never find out what happened in her vision.’

‘Gaël! Is that your voice?’

‘Yuna? I’m so glad to hear your voice. Where are you?’

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

‘We just passed our first trial, I got a new sword.’ Ruby shared ecstatically, Gaël felt like he could relax a little more. Knowing that nearly everyone was safe.

‘I’m glad you managed to pass the trial of the sword. I take it we can talk to each other because we passed our trials.’

‘That is true Mr Brand’ Takemikazuchi's deep voice intervened smoothly in the conversation.

‘Who’s this? Why can you hear our conversation?’

‘This is the sword I received, Takemikazuchi, I’m going to call him Takemi from now on though because it’s easier that way.’

‘There’s a soul within the sword or is that the sword itself?’

‘There is a soul within this blade, Takemikazuchi himself was feeling lonely at the time and he wanted to talk to someone, so when he got the great God Hachiman to make me, Takemikazuchi imparted some of his soul so he would have someone to talk to.’ Gaël was feeling very confused with this naming scheme, but didn’t question anything and moved on, accepting the sword’s word.

‘Okay Takemi, are you able to reveal to us any of the trials ahead of time?’

‘I’m sorry but I was not told anything further than to help whoever pulled me out of the stone.’ What rotten luck, the person who designed these trials was a smart one indeed.

‘Fine, we’ll just have to go see what’s ahead.’ Everyone agreed at that moment and decided to just move on ahead to see what was there. Gaël and Sophie moved on from the Priestess’s Trial of the heart through the exit at the back. Yuna and Ruby moved through the archway onto their next trial.

_________________________________________

“I will now reveal the first two monsters, you don’t have long to make your choice.” The priestess in front of Amaterasu lifted her hand into the air and one of the cages nearby opened, what came out of the gate were two chimaeras, they both were bipedal with bull legs, and they both had one human arm and one demonic arm, they both had 3 heads, one lian, one eagle and one Ram head and to finish it off it had a snake body for its tail tipping it with the snakes head. The only difference that Amaterasu could see was the one on the Priestess’s left, all had blue eyes and the one on the Priestess’s right. All had red eyes, physically anyway. Amaterasu used her divine senses as they began to attack.

‘No! Please don’t kill me, goddess!’

‘That cry of anguish came from the right,’ Amaterasu decided in an instant. She backhanded the left chimaera’s faces, breaking all of their necks instantly. The monster fell and then disintegrated, but the right Chimaera that the man’s soul was trapped in, still kept trying to attack her.

“What’s the meaning of this, why is it still attacking me?!”

The priestess laughed quietly. covering her mouth with a fan she pulled out of her sleeve.

“It’s not over yet, you now have to save the poor soul within that monstrous prison of a body,” Amaterasu growled under her breath.

‘This bitch is getting on my nerves with that high and mighty attitude of hers.’ She once again listened to the heart of the poor soul while still manoeuvring out of the way of his hooks, teleporting out of the way of the snake's jabs and jumping over the lion's head’s mighty jaw.

‘Think, Amat, think. I can’t just disintegrate this place, there are far too many innocent people here. I need some distance’ Amaterasu flew up in the air only for the priestess to open her left eye and stunned Amaterasu where she was and she fell in an instant. Hitting the ground with a thud.

“You’re not allowed to fly away, that would make it too easy on you.” The Priestess closed her left eye and Amaterasu could move again.

‘What was that?!’ Amaterasu couldn’t believe a mighty goddess like her could be stunned just like that. To her, nobody has that kind of power over the divine or rather should have that kind of power. Not often did this happen, but she felt fearful of this priestess.

‘Wait, that’s it. Fear, the same fear that trapped that man in the body of the Chimaera’ That very same chimaera stood over her. It towered her in comparison by height. Amaterasu got up and hugged the chimaera, keeping a tight enough hold to trap the beast but making sure it didn’t get away and couldn’t attack.

“There there, don’t be frightened, your goddess is here to save you. Just relax, I’m here now.” She lulled sweetly to the Chimaera, the beast stopped squirming and slowed its breathing and fell on its knees and then started roaring with its head in the air. A stream of tears fell from all the faces as the beast slowly shifted into the man it once was. It shifted, moulded and then it was finally complete, the shrunken man cried into Amaterasu’s arms.

“Thank you goddess for saving me. I can’t repay you enough.” Amaterasu stroked the poor man’s head and rocked him slowly to sleep.

“Don’t worry about it you poor soul, just sleep for now, I’ll get you out of here soon.” The man fell to the ground asleep and Amaterasu got back on her feet, she slowly walked in front of the priestess once more. Her nerves getting to her now because of that strange power she has, Amaterasu took a deep breath to relax and simply stated.

“Bring on the next poor soul.”

The priestess brought her fan to her face covering only her mouth area:

“Very well” She shifted her fan to her right hand and faced it towards the next gate. The next gate opened and out flew two Eagles with two heads and four wings. When the wings spread out, it looked like an ‘X’ Shape with the heads being at the centre. They perched on the priestess’s shoulders and locked their eyes on Amaterasu.

“Be careful with these two, oh great Goddess of the Sun and Heavens. The soul that’s trapped in one of the birds here shifts back and forth between the two heads in one of these birds, and if you listen carefully enough. You might be able to figure out how to save her.”

The eagles squawked impatiently, wanting to be set free. Wanting to be let loose to taste flesh once again. Amaterasu was prepared to move once again but not before listening closely to find the true soul that was trapped within these creatures.

“How could you leave us?! How could you just abandon us?! We called for you, we called for your name to help us in our dire time of need! You will die for forsaking us to this curse!”

Amaterasu grimaced while listening to the voice of this woman scream at her, but she recognised the voice was shifting not between both heads of one bird but to one head of each of both birds.

“I’m ready priestess.” At once, both birds launched themselves off the priestess’s shoulders and screamed towards Amaterasu. Amaterasu stood there, patiently listening to the woman’s voice and when the voice reached her right ear, she swung her right palm to time the attack that the voice would leave and smacked the right bird that didn’t have a soul in it. The bird was flung to the wall and crashed into the wall of the Colosseum, crushing both of its heads. She then immediately got down on her knees, her head now down on the floor, dodging the second eagle’s attack and shouted.

“I’m so sorry for leaving you to this fate, I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything in your time of need! Please forgive me!”

The bird stopped in its tracks and flew back around, landed in front of her, no longer screeching and placed both its heads touching Amaterasu’s crown. It then began to shape and shift back into the woman. She was no longer consumed with anger and just smiled at the goddess.

“I forgive you Amaterasu, I’m sorry for what I said to you, your words were touching and they held to your meaning. Thank you for coming to save us.” The woman lost her energy and fell unconscious. Amaterasu picked her head up and saw the woman lying there.

“Thank you for forgiving me. I promise I’ll never leave you all again.” Amaterasu took a moment to get up, she picked up the woman and placed her next to the man from earlier. Out of harm's way.

“Impressive goddess, to show such humility in your dire time of need and to be able to time your attack while dodging the other was very impressive.” The priestess sounded smug and sarcastic to Amaterasu’s ears. The floor began to melt as she prodded at the goddess’s weakness.

“Just shut up and bring out the next two.” The priestess laughed at the goddess’s provocation.

“You’re in luck, this is the final pair.” Amaterasu’s eyebrows perked at this statement.

“The final pair? I thought there would be 5 pairs.”

“Oh no.” She lifted her fan again and began to pace slowly towards Amaterasu. “Only three pairs, you having 5 followers meant that I would have made you choose which of your followers would have died.”

“You’re telling me I would have to choose between Gaël, Sophie, Ruby, Yuna and Sarah?” The priestess laughed again.

“No Yuna is a follower of Tsukuyomi, are you telling me you forgot one of your main priestesses? Ame-no-Uzume, she helped you out from that cave all those years ago when your brother Susano-o killed one of your priestesses, did she not?”

“You, dare lay a finger on her head and you are dead! You hear me!”

“Just, try me.” The priestess opened her left eye again and stunned Amaterasu in place and slowly opened her right eye, but not all the way open. Amaterasu screamed in anguish, slowly being tortured as it felt like a hundred swords slowly being stabbed into her body. This only lasted for a moment before the priestess closed both eyes and let Amaterasu go.

The priestess moved back to where she was and waited for Amaterasu to recover.

A few moments later Amaterasu recovered her breathing and got back up on her feet slowly, with a limp she made her way back to her original position towards the priestess.

“The final pair shall now be released!”

Footsteps as loud as thunder moved forward, and two giant orks moved forward, they towered above the priestess and Amaterasu.

‘I can’t hear anything from either of them.’

“What’s that goddess? Can’t hear anything? I muted the souls that were trapped in these ogres. In all honesty, I don’t think they have any interest in anything you have to say. I think they have different ideas.”

Amaterasu was confused for a moment until she saw two giant tents being formed in their nether regions.

‘No, I refuse to give body to anyone else besides Gaël.’ She covered herself.

“Oh, someone who is scantily clad as yourself is only hiding the proud beautiful body she has when it doesn’t suit her needs. How selfish of you, and here I thought you Omni benevolent. To think, you could be so selfish in not giving these poor souls a turn at ravishing you like your chosen has done to you.”

‘Never!’ Is what Amaterasu wanted to scream at this bitch, but Amaterasu kept it to herself.

‘Think, no voice. Are there any differences?’ She darted her eyesight between the two. Trying desperately to find the differences between them, The only thing she could see was that one of them was smiling while the other was angry.

‘Wait, that’s it. Lust is a human trait, the one looking forward to defiling me has to be the human soul, it’s probably a criminal hiding behind the mask of the Ogre. No more time to think now, it’s a 50/50 chance this time round.’

Amaterasu formed a fireball and flung it at the angry-looking ogre. The ogre lit up like a bright firework and disintegrated into nothing.

“Well done, Goddess. You found the human soul, now how will you deal with him? He’s very much looking forward to getting a taste of your divine nectar.”

‘Gaël forgives me, but if there’s one thing men love, it’s the sight of breasts.’ Amaterasu prayed to her love, her chosen one, her hero.

Amaterasu lowered her dress robe to reveal her bare chest to the ogre, her breasts gleaming in splendour, her huge mounds perked perfectly in the Ogres' sight. The ogre stopped in its tracks, drool falling from his jaw and began to shapeshift back into the man it once was. The man was bald, had stubble on his chin and cheeks, He had a hairy chest and was muscle-bound with scars all over. He wore what looked like bandits' armour, leather and fur covering every aspect of his chest, legs and boots.

The muscle-bound man ran towards Amaterasu but she dodged out of the way and punched him in the back of the head, he fell unconscious instantly. She put her top back on. Seething and steaming with anger, if she could punch this priestess she would. Taking a deep breath to calm down. She faced the priestess once more.

“Congratulations my dear goddess, you passed the trial. We’ll meet again later down the line, don’t miss me too much.” The priest teleported out of sight, the gate behind her opening for her to pass, she was now able to leave this distorted colosseum.

“I never want to come back here again.”