“Ah so you’ve finally made your way inside have you?” Azura looked up at the nondescript person in front of him. It was the being that had spoken with him in his dream before he had found the mysterious book he had been carrying. He paused, did something like that happen? He was confident he hadn’t had any memories of it until just now.
“Inside what? Where am I?” He had a few guesses, but he desperately hoped he was wrong. Well if nothing else this confirmed his theory about the trial of mind. Garrion hadn’t been able to read my mind, so instead of creating the test himself he simply had my subconscious build it. Clever dragon, hopefully it will end soon though. He had no idea how much time had passed.
“You already know the answer to that, so I’ll answer your real question. Why? Well the answer is quite simple. Of course you are correct about your subconscious building this trial for you, but that’s not all. I’m sure you already have an inkling, but the dragon used an artifact that allowed the test to call on spirits of the dead. As to why you’re here if I had let things continue as is you might have learned some things you are not yet ready to hear.”
Fantastic, this being was even censoring things from his own mind. Just what was this thing? “What exactly gives you the right to play with my memories? I don’t know about you, but I can’t say I’m a fan of having my mind controlled by someone else.” The being laughed, the sound changing tone and pitch at random.
“Well of course you aren’t, who would be? If you don’t want me to affect your mind, then you simply have to get skilled enough to stop me. Be wary though, I am not your enemy, and those memories are sealed for a reason. There are things in this world you simply aren’t ready for, and you may balk at the term for now, but your destiny is too important for you to shirk.”
Destiny? Not long ago he would have done exactly that and ignored the advice altogether, but with all the crazy things going on around him he was starting to think maybe it wasn’t so far fetched after all. “Ok, so I have some super important destiny or whatever, you still haven’t really answered why I’m here. You just told me why you pulled me out of the trial.”
The being laughed again. “Clever as always. As you’ve no doubt surmised, you won’t be able to get through the next trial without some of your memories becoming unsealed, and spirits of the dead are hard to shut out, so masking their words to you would be quite difficult. The reason those both matter is because I can’t stop both, or rather if I stopped both it would take a heavy toll on your mind.”
“And you can’t risk damaging me because of my supposed destiny. So what? You plan to give me some kind of warning about the next trial?” He tried to sound sarcastic, but it came out a bit more hopeful than he would have liked. Honestly the mind trial had been pretty rough, and the spirit one seemed like it was going to be far worse.
The being seemed sad, but he couldn’t pinpoint where he was getting that from. “In a sense, though, I feel you won’t like what I have to say. There was a time when your spirit was completely broken, I sealed away your memories, and helped nudge you in the direction you needed to go to reforge it. This next test will surely release the seal on those memories, and while your spirit has grown much stronger, I worry it may not be enough. The only advice I can give is that they are only memories, and thus it is too late to change things. Or at least this version of things.”
He didn’t know what he had been expecting, but honestly he should be used to all these cryptic mind games by now. At least he knew the memory he had been struggling to remember wasn’t sealed by himself, though what could be so bad that a god like being felt the need to seal it off? He assumed that by ‘this version of things’ he was referring to the multiverse theory being accurate, but such things didn’t really interest him. “Shouldn’t you at least tell me what the memory is, so I have some way to prepare.”
“There is no preparation, even if I tell you, it won’t prepare you for seeing it yourself. Besides I’m sure part of you already knows, surely you’ve been given enough clues to have figured it out by now.” That was wrong, it had to be. The only ‘clues’ he had gotten had led him in a direction that couldn’t possibly be. Could he handle it, if that which he feared was reality. He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm. Panicking wouldn’t help anyone, and he was going to have to go through the trial of spirit… whether he was ready or not.
***
Lily wasn’t sure how she felt about her familiar. On one hand he was quite powerful, but on the other he was a literal demon. Unsurprisingly the staff at the school had made a fuss when she came through the portal with a demon on her heels. An archdemon no less, if she had to guess anyway. After her familiar had been confirmed and registered he teleported back to hell saying he would reappear whenever she called on him.
“I knew it was going to be crazy, but I was not expecting a literal demon. I didn’t even know demons could be found in the selection grounds.” Katy’s comment got nods from the rest of the group who had completed the trial. There was only 6 hours left, and Luna and Azura still hadn’t come through the portal. They weren’t the only ones still out there, but there were probably only 10 others at most.
“I wasn’t really expecting it either, but he offered to serve me, and didn’t even bother with a contract so I figured it was safe. Besides in terms of power, he definitely surpasses my wildest expectations. Not to mention the boon of having an intelligent familiar that can teleport to me whenever I call for him.” Really aside from the whole being a demon thing he really was an ideal familiar.
“Well I suppose it’s a good thing he’s intelligent, I was worried you’d be the only pair without any good decision making abilities.” She glared at Katy, who simply smiled back with a playful glint in her eye.
“Haha, very funny. So we just going to pretend I didn’t score better than you on the 2nd trial?” She was big enough to admit she was among the weakest of their group physically, but it wasn’t like her only good quality was her magic power.
“By like 3 points!” Katy raised her hands in exasperation.
“Still, if I did better than you, and I’m dumb what does that make you?” Katy growled at her. Lily however was smiling with the same glint Katy had held seconds ago.
Roran chuckled at their childish antics. “Alright, that’s enough. We have more important things to be talking about. Like for example why a demon as powerful as that simply chose to serve you, and on top of that didn’t even ask for anything in return. Demons almost never do anything for free. The fact he didn’t even make a contract to prevent any orders he found disagreeable is especially concerning.” She winced. She had of course already considered all that, and had come to the conclusion it had something to do with her ‘unique magic.’
“He probably just realized how amazing I am.” She tossed her hair flippantly. She was probably laying it on a little thick, but her powers having some relation to hell wasn’t something she really wanted out in the open. Azura would no doubt figure it out on his own, but he was fairly good at knowing when to use discretion. She valiantly ignored the questioning gaze Roran sent her way.
***
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Luna slowly woke from her sleep. She felt almost weightless, the curse that had been crushing her under its pressure was finally gone. In its place she felt a soft light that seemed to synergize with her own magic making her feel stronger than she ever had before. “Impressive recovery. Normally someone cursed that severely would take weeks to recover.”
She glanced towards the voice to find a giant bird. It was easily 2 of her tall, and radiated a warm glow through the star like patterns glittering across its dark feathers. She had already been introduced, but the celestial phoenix still left her in awe. “It was probably because Azura’s seal kept it mostly at bay.”
“His spellwork was indeed impressive, but you underestimate the impact you yourself had on its effectiveness. A lock can only be as strong as the gates it seals shut.” She blushed. Azura had mentioned something along those lines, but it was hard for her to believe. She had been on death’s door before Azura had cast his seal, so clearly it wasn’t something she could have survived on her own.
She quickly sat up as she remembered the time limit she was under for the trial. “How long was I asleep for?! I still have time to finish the final trial right?!” She took deep breaths, hoping to keep herself from freaking out. She knew logically that getting rid of the curse was far more important, but still a part of her would rather have continued to deal with the curse as long as it meant she got into the academy.
“Worry not child, some time yet remains. The portal has yet to close, and no new mana signatures have entered the grounds.” The phoenix’s voice was soft and soothing, and somehow made all the worry and anxiety disappear as quickly as it had come. “In fact, I believe I have an offer for your other concern as well.”
Other concern? The only thing that came to mind was actually finding a familiar. She supposed the phoenix did have a pretty impressive sensory range, so finding something compatible with her should be easy enough. “Wow really! Thank you so much! I was really worried I wasn’t going to make it in time, but with you guiding me, I should be able to do it!”
The phoenix let out a low warbling sound, which she assumed to be a laugh. “No need to guide you anywhere I’m afraid.” What? Her eyes widened, the phoenix couldn’t possibly be suggesting… “My time for rebirth draws near, and I can think of no one better to spend my new early years with.” She didn’t respond at first, too awed at the very idea of having a celestial phoenix as a familiar.
“Are you sure I deserve such an honor?” She wanted to believe it, but it felt too good to be true. She got her curse cured, and she got an extremely rare and magically potent familiar. Granted the phoenix would take quite some time to return to her full strength after being reborn, but even as a baby should be fairly formidable as far as familiars go.
“Is there any reason you wouldn’t? Your purity of heart is the only reason you survived the curse long enough for it to be sealed, and that seal wouldn’t have been enough to hold it back for long if almost anyone else had the same curse you did.” The bird's head tilted slightly to the side. “Well perhaps 2 others that came with you might have survived as well, but for wildly different reasons.” Even without being told she felt guessing the 2 that would survive was a rather easy endeavor.
“I don’t know about purity of heart, but if you’ll have me, I’d love to have you as a familiar.” She idly wondered if everyone else was doing ok. Azura’s luck was almost as bad as hers, but aside from being chased by monsters until she was exhausted her luck hadn’t really impacted this trial much so far. Hopefully that meant he was fine too.
***
The world around Azura once more shifted, and he found himself facing The great dragon once again. “Well 2 down I guess.” he one he had been dreading since the beginning neared. He wondered why this trial would unearth whatever memory had been sealed, but the guardian spirit’s had not. While Garrion was likely orders of magnitude stronger than the spirit, the dragon wasn’t strong enough to overwhelm the guardian of the library. He supposed it was a topic to study when he had more time and resources available to him.
The ancient dragon released a deep bellowing laugh, this one was strong enough to shake the cavern. “True enough, I feel you would have passed either way, so I won’t fault you for the outside interference you had no control over, but whatever being is guarding you better stay out of the next one. If I feel any outside forces helping you, I will eat you.”
That was a little concerning, but the supposed ‘guardian’ did say that they couldn’t interfere with both, so hopefully that meant he was safe from being dragon food. “Do you know how long it’s been since I appeared in the choosing ground by any chance?” His clock spell worked by pulling from a seal he had on him that kept track of time passage, but he wouldn’t be surprised if the mind trial had distorted his internal time.
“Indeed I do, it has been roughly 20 hours, not yet a day, but I imagine that ups the pressure a bit does it not?” he snorted. A bit the dragon says. He has 4 hours left to deal with the spirit trial, bind his familiar, and then find the portal to return to the academy. If he didn’t then he wouldn’t get into the academy, and all his carefully laid plans would be for not.
“Well apparently I’m in a bit of a hurry, so if we could get the last trial started quickly I’d very much appreciate it.” He bet the others didn’t have to deal with trials inside of the trial. He really wondered which deity he had pissed off to have luck like this.
“I thought that might make you a little more eager, very well. Just remember, you chose the path you’re on, even still no one can prevent the world from shifting the path they walk.” Perhaps so, but even if it was the world itself that pushed him, nothing was going to prevent him from pushing back.
The dragon placed one claw on his head and chanted something in a language he didn’t understand. He felt a pain like never before, the sheer agony overwhelming all of his other senses. He refused to lose consciousness, hanging on to his sanity with every ounce of his will. The ceaseless assault of the intense seething pain, hit hard against the bulwark of his will, but held. Even as he felt like his body was being torn apart. The pain was even worse than when Garrion assaulted his mind, or perhaps it was the same, just across his whole body instead of just his head.
Then as quickly as it had come, it had vanished leaving him feeling almost… empty. Despite the reprieve from the pain his senses had yet to return leaving him in an empty black void. Color slowly started to return, leaving him in a familiar room. This was where he had conducted magic experiments when he was little. Except not like he remembered it ever being. Books were scattered all over the place, and complex magic circles littered the ground. He noticed lots of rare ingredients scattered about. More powdered mithril than he had ever seen, and several different gems that were clearly holding large amounts of mana.
Whatever was going on here must be huge, because this was more complex than all of his other experiments combined. Wait other? Was this his experiment? He didn’t remember this, or rather he couldn’t remember this. The sealed memory, it must be starting. His mind was still a little fuzzy from the intense pain he had suffered mere moments ago. It took a bit longer for him to realize he was moving. He didn’t know what this spell was, but his body seemed to.
He delicately measured the distance between each mana crystal, and carefully spread out the powdered mythril between them to create artificial mana pathways. As he worked he began to realize the kind of spell he was working on. Horror rushed through his veins. He was trying to reverse time. Even the foremost expert on spacetime magic could only reverse time a couple of seconds, and that takes more than an hour to set up. It was deemed too difficult to have any actual use, yet the study of it was still heavily restricted. Mostly because of the huge dangers associated with time magic.
The more he worked on the complicated spell, the more sure he was that this wasn’t going to have a small effect of a few seconds, but in order to supply the power, and properly regulate the intense magic this was going to channel he had to take several risks. Some of the circles surrounding the big one were designed to create an opening to the spirit world, while some were designed to draw in the intense natural mana that would flow through that gate.
He was both impressed with his younger self, and horrified by his own recklessness. He knew without having to be told when this happened, the phantom tears he could feel on his cheek told him everything he needed to know. He was trying to save his brother, but he supposed the saying about the path to hell was rather accurate after all. He already knew the spell wouldn’t work. Despite all the spell work looking flawless, and the careful consideration he put into each ingredient and the placement of every carefully drawn circle.
A part of him already knew what would cause it to fail, and though he denied it with every fiber of his being. The growing dread as the spell neared its completion could not be denied. The memory he wanted to stay buried, unfortunately the time of his denial was almost up, the spell was finally finished, and try as he might he couldn’t stop himself from activating it.