Fire Elemental Trial
Heian Ciemnosc's inner eyes watched as he analyzed the sensations when placing his hands on the fire door. Light fluctuations the size of a small serpent flew everywhere in his mind, but his inner self was still as purely dark as always. His hands felt the hotness, and his dark Soul investigated it. When he felt like enough time and research had been gathered, Heian Ciemnosc slowly separated his hands from it and slowly opened his darkest eyes. Within them, the fieriness from the door didn't reflect, at least not entirely. Although some flames burnt inside, they were completely dark.
‘I’m ready.’ Heian Ciemnosc thought as he turned to look at the dragon, now with its eyes still looking at him after a couple hours. Heian Ciemnosc fixated his eyes on the door again and slowly pushed it open. It seemed about to be pushed backwards, but it suddenly stopped. Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t troubled and silently injected dark Power Energy into it. The door guided that dark Power Energy in tube-like strands, slowly moving to each corner.
His dark Power Energy was slurped in contently. Heian Ciemnosc tilted his head as he discovered the fire door was enjoying being fed with it. It wasn’t because it was Heian Ciemnosc, and that was it. Instead, he felt the fire door simply liked Power Energy this much. If it was an energy of a higher Step, the door would be even more excited… Indeed, somehow, it felt alive. But seeing how it seemed to do little to nothing to the door, Heian Ciemnosc imagined only Godly Energy could actually nourish the fire door.
Psssfuuh~. Heian Ciemnosc heard a systematical, machine-like sound. The door became light and, with another push, opened. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes were fully engrossed at once. What he saw on the other side, naturally, wasn’t the rest of the prairie but a different place where it was within a cave engulfed in fire. However, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t even have time to lift either foot when he felt his body pulled inside instantly.
Fwwsuop! PHAH! Warrrrp… The door closed on its own after Heian Ciemnosc’s body was swallowed inside. The door even arched backwards and elongated its height to skillfully gobble Heian Ciemnosc inside. The dragon, looking at all of this with its shrunk head tilting to the right, looked on intrigued for a few seconds before ignoring it and closing its eyes. It didn’t know how long it would take, but it might be weeks before the kid went out.
… On the other hand, inside the other side, Heian Ciemnosc felt as if going through a tunnel. It was similar to when he went into that spooky place before meeting the Little Lake’s ‘owner’ and… that young man who spoke about weird things. Heian Ciemnosc was no longer a child, but it wasn’t time to delve into those things. Right now, he could only see things pass around the corners of his eyes like descending through an endless tunnel.
Only the tunnel was made of solidified magma, and the occasional sparkling flame would go off anywhere around him. Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t hear anything. Only his eyes could see the passing of time as he continued to ‘slide’ through the tunnel. His body wasn’t harmed, but he felt the temperature increase, even if his body was comprehensively cold and fresh. He slowly felt a notion, as if he was arriving somewhere, and his gaze couldn’t help focusing somewhere while he was still in the tunnel.
Heian Ciemnosc finally arrived somewhere as the speed his body descended in decreased and smoothly stopped as he came out from a hole through the ceiling. Heian Ciemnosc looked up to see the gap immediately closing itself. It appeared as if no such thing was there just a second ago. But it did not move or even make a sound. His Spirit Sense was also useless, and he could only see the same with his eyes without understanding anything. Thinking for a bit as he frowned and kept looking where the hole was supposed to be, Heian Ciemnosc decided to not enhance his eyes or Spirit Sense and do a reading of nature unless necessary lest he wastes an opportunity.
What he saw around him was a first. Although there was a ceiling, and the place he was now in had a limited ‘height’ of around 200 meters, electric clouds and an expansive territory showed in the distance. Heian Ciemnosc felt as if he was in another Kingdom altogether. He looked around, and only a broken desert filled with cracks where magma peeked from the underground and forests whose trees were blazing within but formed no fire and didn’t combust anything around them. There were no animals, and it seemed like the desert he was stepping on was surrounded by those forests.
‘Hmm,’ Heian Ciemnosc’s mind was lightly thinking of ideas when a red, fire blob appeared before Heian Ciemnosc’s body. His head turned to look at it, barely noticing it, and was about to say something when it moved towards him. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t try avoiding it, but he closed his lips as the blob touched his chest. His clothes were burnt, forming a hole, revealing his pale upper torso the size of an adult’s head.
Heian Ciemnosc felt his hands ‘boil’ but didn’t have the sensation. At least he knew it wasn’t harmful, even if he could. He brought his hands up and looked down at them. Heian Ciemnosc saw as a layer of bulbous fire coated them from the tip of his nails to where the wrist began. Just as he witnessed these things and felt the strange ticklish sensations as if millions of the smallest ants were crawling on his skin, somewhat playfully, Heian Ciemnosc felt information suddenly appear in his head.
‘Take my… heart out?’ Heian Ciemnosc felt incredulous as he frowned lightly. Looking at his palms and fingers, Heian Ciemnosc went Claws Out. His dark claws weren’t coated by the fiery layer, but it slowly expanded to shroud them. Heian Ciemnosc still felt weird about it and naturally didn’t trust this. But he also felt as if his body, the real and physical one, wasn’t the one he was seeing and feeling everything.
“...” Slowly and feeling doubtful, Heian Ciemnosc guided his right hand to his left chest. The hole the blob created resulted helpful, as Heian Ciemnosc’s no-longer-dark claws turned fiery red and moved to his pale skin. His movements stopped as his left hand slightly held his left chest with its fingertips. His right hand then resumed as he slowly brought his dark claws into his skin, seamlessly penetrating and digging a hole to look for his heart.
Phhshk, phhshk, phhshk, phhshk, phhshk… All right-handed fingers entered his body, making low, muffled sounds as his skin was pierced. Heian Ciemnosc could feel his skin, flesh, and bones cut through as if it was really happening. His face slowly scrunched and turned, contorting in pain as his hand slowly went deeper. His bones were effortlessly crushed, which shouldn’t have happened if it was his authentic body. And even though his bodily strength and dark Power Energy remained, some things seemed impossible for whatever he got himself into to copy.
While feeling a bit proud of his uniqueness, Heian Ciemnosc continued digging until he finally felt his heart prickled. Immediately, he halted his movements but didn’t retract his hand. As dark blood seeped out of his chest constantly, forming a dark puddle that would stream down the sides of his torso, Heian Ciemnosc’s dark claws slowly slid around his heart until he clutched it with his right hand, encompassing it.
Heian Ciemnosc looked at this place’s sky and noticed it was all filled with smoke and clouds 200 meters above him. Heian Ciemnosc was already with his back against the desert’s ground without knowing when, and he was slowly retracting his right arm with his heart in hand. The magma, peeking from the craters and cracks, glowed brighter as Heian Ciemnosc pulled his heart fully out. When Heian Ciemnosc made part of his heart visible to the world, the magma started rising to the surface.
A pair of ‘strings’ were broken, and Heian Ciemnosc felt it. His heart suddenly became lighter, and he could easily take it out of his body. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes were already gazing down even as he could no longer move his head. He stared at the heart, wanting to see its image outside his body without pumping blood. But by the time his right hand raised it enough so he could see it, it had turned wholly fiery red.
It was the same as with his hands, which remained the same even after penetrating his body. Heian Ciemnosc frowned as he looked at it, turning his head and twisting his wrist to inspect it, but there was not a single spot left without that fiery layer. His eyebrows relaxed, and his eyes slowly gained composure. Inside his head, he felt this was not how things had nor should be, and he started struggling against it. ‘No… no!’
Pshiiift! Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy spread from his veins, along with dark blood, to his hands, not only inside but on the outside, too. Dark blood and Power Energy mixed as they fought the fiery red layer outside his body and scrapped it off. The fire-red layer wasn’t trying to attack back, but it did not want to give in. It resisted and continued to do so even as Heian Ciemnosc went all out and added his Spirit Sense and Soul into the mix.
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Slowly, cm after cm, the fiery red layer was overthrown by Heian Ciemnosc’s darkness. His efforts caused long lines and streaks of dark to form amidst the red. What began as an advancement from his ‘force’ against the enemy continued with his overall victory as his darkness started spreading everywhere and notion a single line as before. It was like planning a sudden attack with lightning attacks on different fronts and winning each.
Heian Ciemnosc felt his capabilities drained fast, and before he knew it, his veins turned dark all around his body as his hands struggled to ‘escape’ from their predicament. The darkness scrapped the enemy layer like dried paint on his pale skin. But the paleness was only briefly visible before it was overtaken by the dark. Heian Ciemnosc’s mind slowly gained a set of words from the deepest parts of himself as his dark claws rapidly regained their original color and consumed the red layer like nothing.
‘I am darkness…’ After saying those words, the world seemed to fall into it. Obscurity reached everywhere, even below where the magma was trying to soar and explode everywhere. It became solid as cold emanated everywhere, not in a matter of logic and laws but simply… out of terror. The forests and the rest of the desert appeared in Heian Ciemnosc’s mind as if his Spirit Sense was finally free to do as it wished. Just as Heian Ciemnosc’s hands turned wholly dark, pure dark, everything around him seemed to become the darkness itself. Him.
He lost consciousness, just as he was ‘here’ with his mere consciousness and not his actual body. He was gone. But Heian Ciemnosc didn’t simply lose all notion. After everything went dark, a layer of bloody red existed within his mind, turning everything he had ever experienced into a world of fire, from the cruelest of deaths of his loved ones to his merciless actions of massacre against whoever dared to even put their toes on his path.
Heian Ciemnosc watched all these as if he had actually always seen the world this way, always controlled the Fire element, and brandished it instead of darkness, as he had always done. It was like going back in time and doing all that at once. It was a marvelous but numbing experience, one that felt way too real that it turned scary. But Heian Ciemnosc, even without an active consciousness, was calm and quiet watching these things.
But time was all gone…
“GASP!!” Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc felt his eyelids as if underwater. The moment he did, he blinked, his eyes opened, and he saw a fire ceiling with veins and membranes of lava or magma as if creating a perfect cube with him inside. Seeing he was undoubtedly alive and well, he sat up, only to see walls and a floor of identical origin as the ceiling. Heian Ciemnosc was somewhat panicked as he stood up wobbly, almost falling flat on the floor twice or more.
‘Where am I?! The Fire Core has to be in the door’s Space!’ Heian Ciemnosc thought as he looked around before staring at his chest. He didn’t know if this was a Space, Sub-Space, or Semi-Space, although it might be the latter since it seemed like a broken world that could never be, and the tunnel he went through at the beginning had to be a Sub-Space. But the only thing that was deepest inside his head was to know whether what he wanted was here or not.
“What the…” Heian Ciemnosc exclaimed as he looked at his missing clothes. They were still there, and he wasn’t indecent, but a hole the size of an adult’s head was in the middle of his chest. There was also dark blood, which can’t get dry, barely starting to be consumed by his body. It was clearly commencing this process just now, and it hadn’t been years, contrary to what Heian Ciemnosc experienced before waking up. It seemed as if only a few seconds went by.
“...?” He rapidly took a look at his palms, then the back of his hands, and saw some droplets remaining, eaten by his skin as they returned to his body without an injury on it. His chest was also without any wound, but there was blood all over… What happened? Heian Ciemnosc thought for some moments before deciding to let it be. He couldn’t tell what this was all about and didn’t dare nature-read this place out of nowhere.
“!” Suddenly, as he looked around, another source of information appeared in his head. Heian Ciemnosc started to believe this might be a broken Space and Dimension. Otherwise, even with some sort of intelligent ‘thing’ preceding over it, it wouldn’t be this cold and deadly, isolating even. He looked around and felt this cube room he was in was in the middle of a tremendous, seemingly endless territory of fire.
The place this cube room was had to be a very small one, but with incredibly pure, filled with wisdom, and majestic Fire element’s energy and history. If knowledge was here, Heian Ciemnosc was sure to get it. He couldn’t miss this chance!
What his little head received was simple, merely some instruction. Basically, all he had to do was to prepare before… he was bathed in flames of fury and Fire element!
Heian Ciemnosc sat cross-legged without changing his clothes since they would be burnt anyway, and he would be switching to receive Second Step uniforms later. He only kept his dark coat in his Covert Space bags, covering them with dark Power Energy before starting meditation. His darkest eyes closed, and he fell into a contemplative state as his dark Power Energy circled. Spirit Sense flourished everywhere around — and — within him, and Soul energy traveled each nanometer.
Slowly, a whole day went by with Heian Ciemnosc spending every second in meditation. Contrary to Elena’s thoughts, Heian Ciemnosc had barely started achieving the ‘early’ level of solidifying his path. The array formation had helped a lot, sure. However, it was focused on helping deal with a breakthrough or advance efficiently through their cultivation base, depending on the individual.
It was practically useless for someone like Heian Ciemnosc and only him, whose path was the most stable and solid in the entire world either before or in the future. There was no doubt about that. It had only given Heian Ciemnosc a little push but nothing more. However, this time, he might be helped more than expected. With the next phase of whatever this is, a test, exam, or probatory steps. Heian Ciemnosc was determined to go through these flames.
… After such a long time in this cube room, which was new and intriguing in his still inexperienced mind, Heian Ciemnosc slowly opened his eyes as he stared at the walls before him. It was the same as before, appearing to be veins or membranes of lava and magma. However, this time, dark orange twirls spread around each wall, the floor, and the ceiling. They were seemingly about to let whatever was outside in at any time now.
Tap, tap. Heian Ciemnosc calmly stood up, the center of his torso bare as he looked at the walls, the floor, and the ceiling. When he stared up, he felt like the Fire element outside was looking at him from all angles, but especially from above. It had to have a life of its own, but currently, Heian Ciemnosc focused his mind on what was to come. He could worry about understanding everything about the Elements when he was strong enough and needed it in order to continue cultivating.
… … pst… piak… crr… … CR- CRAAAAASHHHH~!!!!!
Heian Ciemnosc waited. He looked at the ceiling and surveyed everything around it. The dark orange twirls were slowly moving that even Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes could barely notice it. Suddenly, one of the twirls on a wall sounded, sending fiery orange smoke in as it went up before dissipating. Another twirl made a sound like a whiff of fire invaded but didn’t give rise to anything. Heian Ciemnosc remained unperturbed as he kept looking up, his eyes serene.
All at once, the whole cube room broke apart under Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes, which could only slightly widen before being consumed by everything that this room had been protecting him from before!!
Fiery red, yellow, orange, and even blue, purple, gold, and green swatted in, taking place where the cube room used to take, leaving nothing without their colors and properties. Heian Ciemnosc was engulfed in less than half a second, his body and presence gone instantly. Only black smoke remained from his previous appearance as his clothes all turned into nothing. The rest was unknown.
‘...’ However, in Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes and point of view, his pale eyelids were tightly shut, and his fists slowly formed. His body was slightly encroaching as if about to take the fetal position at any given moment. However, the pain of being bathed by flames of the Fire element and its derivates started seeping in, his sensory system alarming him with the pain, growing to an excruciating intolerance. Heian Ciemnosc kept quiet and tried keeping his body and state the same… But for how long would he last?
Out of nowhere, he opened his darkest eyes. Fire element blasted against those eyes. His fists formed, and his body arched backwards, becoming vulnerable to the Fire element at once. From behind his body, several colorful flames stabbed him, giving rise to the opportunity for anything else to find a way to enter his body before passing through it and continuing on their way as if Heian Ciemnosc didn’t exist, but still with the objective of targeting Heian Ciemnosc.
Feeling the Fire element’s flames pass through him nonstop, everywhere around his body, and without any rule to follow… it broke apart any restraint in Heian Ciemnosc.
‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHWUUUUAAAAAAAH!!!!!’
Only in his mind could he howl, as even with his mouth wide open and his face turning darkly ferocious, not a single sound was emitted from his body. Even as dark Power Energy was incensed all around and within him!
…