When the deafening voice faded, Boe casted a final glance toward the flickering lights on top of the mountain as he gradually closed his eyes. In the next instant, Boe opened his eyes to see the huge painting hanging in front of him. As he thought back to words he just heard, for some reason, Boe felt a trace of excitement from the voice. It was extremely unexpected to hear such an emotion from the usually gloomy voice of the ancient existence.
“The further we go, the more mysterious speeches we hear.” Brienne lightly shook her head as she stood up from her armchair.
“Nothing mysterious there. Isn’t it obvious that the mountain was populated by humans and they started destroying it? Then, the mountain decided to spare those filthy humans. And I guess, the next painting will depict the mountain becoming a living organism?” Dale chuckled as he jumped up from the armchair.
Hearing Dale’s words, Boe slightly frowned as all of it was exactly what he thought of, but Dale presented it as some kind of silly joke. For a moment, Boe had an urge to say something but then he quickly suppressed it as he calmly stood up and walked to the middle of the room.
A moment later, Kamys followed his friends silently. There was still noticeable melancholy in his eyes when he came up to Boe.
“Let’s not pick the random painting this time, ok?” Even though Dale tried to make it sound like he was joking, everyone could easily hear an apparent nervousness in his voice.
“Why don’t we enter the safest looking painting then?” Brienne immediately suggested as she extended her slender hand and pointed at the painting on the wall.
Three young men followed Brienne’s gesture as their eyes were focused on the picture she considered to be safest. A tranquil scenery unfolded before their eyes as three of them saw a mesmerizingly pure sandy beach guiding their sight to an endless azure ocean with almost no waves disturbing its surface.
“That place seems to be too good to be true in my opinion.” After a few moments, Boe’s voice broke the silence.
“Agree. We’re in the middle of tests of an ancient wizard after all, so how can something that good be an option for us?” Dale shook his head as he scratched his chest; he still remembered the weak looking squirrel’s attack from before.
“But it might really be a test that holds no mortal threat, isn’t it?” Brienne hesitantly asked.
Boe pondered for a moment, before answering, “I guess there is such a chance as well… So, do we go into this painting in hopes of it being safe or does anyone have other suggestions?”
In response to Boe’s question, Kamys silently shook his head as if the choice of the next test didn’t bother him at all.
“We might as well check that painting out. How unlucky can we be to pick another life threatening test, eh?” After a few moments of consideration, Dale shrugged as he lightly chuckled.
“In we go, then.” Boe was the first one to walk up to the painting and press his finger onto it.
*SWOOSH*
After Boe disappeared, Dale was the next to reach out to the painting as he said, “Don’t linger in the room, the time here seems to move differently compared to worlds of the paintings.”
As Dale’s words faded and his body vanished into thin air, both Kamys and Brienne remembered that Dale came into the last painting a whole day later than them and they hastily pressed their hands onto the painting.
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*SWOOSH*
*SWOOSH*
*SWOOSH*
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A blinding light, smell of salty water and refreshing gentle wind were the first things Boe felt the moment he appeared on the tranquil sandy beach. A moment later, sounds of Boe’s companions appearing around him disturbed the soothing silence of the mysterious world within the painting.
“Mhhhmmm” A soft sound came out of Brienne’s mouth as she stretched her tired body.
“Our little princess is already so relaxed. I wish i had such a luxury, alas I don’t have a powerful guardian by my side.“ Dale chuckled as he threw a ‘random’ glance at Kamys.
“You know that i can easily beat your petty ass up if i wished to, the second-in-line prince of elves’ throne?” Brienne’s face was shining with a kind smile as she stopped stretching and looked at Dale. Although, her face was epitome of innocence, the cold and dark aura was slowly being released out of her body.
Seeing actions of his companions, Kamys chose to ignore both of them, silently sat himself down and immediately closed his eyes like none of it had anything to do with him.
“I would love to witness the real power of the so-called ‘Dark Witch’ of The Shadow Kingdom.” Dale’s voice suddenly became cold and his eyes were brimming with fury. Even though he knew that Brienne was probably stronger than him, he still had his own trump cards in case he needed to defeat Brienne. As the most talented son of the current king of the The Dark Elf Kingdom, Dale was always treated as an untouchable entity in this world, so Brienne’s harsh words lit the flames of anger deep inside of him.
With two auras exploding out of Brienne’s and Dale’s bodies, Boe had no choice but to step in, “Calm down, both of you. We have no idea where we are and what will happen in the next moment.”
“Shut up, it’s none of your business!” Dale suddenly shouted as he unexpectedly threw a punch toward Boe.
*BAM*
Before Dale could land his fist onto Boe, he was stopped by Kamys’ palm. “What the hell are you doing?” Kamys’ voice was much louder than usual and his fiery aura was already breaking out of his body as translucent silhouette of the bird appeared behind his back.
“There is no reason to talk with someone like him.” Brienne’s voice resounded as she mysteriously appeared behind Dale.
*BOOM*
With a heavy kick filled with shadow battle aura, Brienne easily sent Dale flying more than twenty meters away.
Right before smashing into the huge tree, Dale’s body strangely arced and he gracefully landed his body onto the ground. “That was a mistake.” Dale’s eyes started emitting a chilling white light as numerous spheres started appearing around him.
While all of this was unfolding, Boe was standing with hands clenched into fists and eyes tightly shut. “Something seems wrong...” Boe clearly felt fury burning within him. Usually, Boe could easily suppress such a feeling and not show any signs of it on the outside. But right now, he felt like something was kindling all his emotions. The feeling was similar to the state when he was under Mastema’s control. “This whole place… Is it the test we must pass?” Boe’s eyes slowly opened and his normal coldness was already regained by him. He once experienced the terror of being controlled by the horrifying demon from the higher worlds, so this kind of influence had no effect on him.
*BOOM*
A terrifying energy wave created by the clash of the sinisterly cold battle aura of Dale and igneous hot attack created by Kamys’ technique destroyed everything within five meters around the point of impact. Two shadows flew off into opposing directions and without even a second of thought, both Kamys and Dale instantly shot toward each other. Seeing the fierce fight before him, Boe shook his head as he glanced to the side where the barely noticeable shadow was already advancing toward Dale.
“Kogochto Karangy”, Boe murmured as he used his ‘Blinding darkness’ technique to temporarily blind all his companions. “Kyolyokyo Kol” Without waiting for their reaction, Boe chanted the ‘Shadow hand’ technique to entrap Kamys, Dale and Brienne. Even though Boe couldn’t actually hold off three people of the same power for a long time, he didn’t care as he only needed a moment of their attention. “All of you are being toyed by someone or something. Get grip of yourself or you’ll completely lose control over your mind,” Boe barked at his friends as if he was scolding little children.
Hearing Boe’s words, bodies of all three of his friends suddenly stiffened and they slowly started realizing how they acted just now. A moment later, shadow hands created by Boe vanished but none of Boe’s companions continued their attacks; they closed their eyes, clenched their hands into fists and were visibly struggling to take full control over their emotions as they sat themselves down in attempts to calm down.
“Hehe, you’re quite interesting, child.” A melodious voice suddenly softly sounded from the calm ocean.