TRIALS IN THE DARKNESS.
THE FIRST TRIAL OF EARTH
CHAPTER 11
I jerked upright in a place of total darkness. I could not see my own fingers much less anything around me.
I tried getting up but my legs failed me. I fell down again on the floor with a quiet thud. My head ached with a terrible pain, and so did my right hand. I tried getting up once more and succeeded.
As I stood up a bright light burst out in the room and eliminated all darkness and shadows that hid in the corners. I could now see where I was, and truth is, it wasn't much.
I was in an empty, dome shaped room. Many jagged and curved pillars popped out at random places, supporting the structure. The walls were painted a light shade of grey, and on the roof, a lotus shaped mark pulsed with a black light. It seemed to be the source of darkness.
"Where am I" I asked myself as I walked down the room. It took awhile to reach the end of the room, but as I got there I saw three doors, each one marked differently.
The on to the far left was marked with a leaf, the one on the middle with a water drop, and the one on the far right marked with an orb of fire.
"Hmm, I guess there isn't any harm in going into one of these doors, I mean, they're not like … dangerous or anything." Walking quickly into one of the doors marked with a leaf, I walked into a place, a beautiful lush and green forest.
The sunlight appearing through the holes between the leaves on the canopy, the smell of nature, and the calm and peaceful sway of the trees made the forest seem like a Utopia.
The trees grew some hundred meters tall and were completely covered by leaves. There was not much space between trees, creating an impenetrable shield of leaves to shield the ground from rain and excessive sunlight. The ground received sufficient water and sunlight only to keep it growing, and no more.
A crumpling noise made me look back, and I saw a brown snake slithering towards me, it was brown, the scales looked smooth and delicate, and its tail was nowhere in sight.. Not wanting to hurt the creature, I simply bent down and picked it up.
"This is one huuuuuuge snake" I said to myself as I picked it up and pulled, but could not locate where its tail was.
After following the snake's body for quite some time I reached a hole to which the snake seemed somehow connected.
Digging up the hole with a Kunai I saw the snake's scaly body turn into a rough bark-like … wood. It took a while for me to figure out that the snake was actually a root.
Just as I figured it out, the root-snake attacked me from behind; I jumped up and tried to summon my usual Shadow Partner. But as I tried to do so, my right hand started to pulse and sent terrible waves of insufferable pain throughout my body.
Falling down to the ground, the pain that started from my right hand became too much to bear. I stopped the impossible summoning of the shadow partner and the pain suddenly receded.
I avoided the root-snake's attacks and sent many a kunai towards it. The root-snake avoided most, but one struck it right in the middle of its body. Drawing out my dagger, I ran towards it with all the strength that I could muster and slashed the kunai's blade.
The force of the impact sent the kunai sliding with all the ferocity of a bandit's dagger through the snake's body. Running with the dagger and keeping up with its pace, I slashed at the point where the snake's body turned into wood.
The snake's head reared back and lunged for my head; I ducked down and prepared for a final attack. Using the power of my legs as it pushes up in order to reach the snake; I slashed the snake with an arc of my blade.
The snake's head met head on with my blade and split in two, the split divided the snake in two, turning it back into a normal piece of wood.
"Damn, that's one vicious piece of wood," I said, kicking the snake, and then laughed for absolutely no reason at all.
Walking again towards the other side of the forest, I encountered other sorts of wooden beasts. I saw a tiger, it's tail connected to a tree, the rest of him was … just like a normal tiger.
Pretty soon, I came to a clearing. A large circle of death with absolutely no sign of a living creature or trees all there was was a rotting stench and a graveyard of rotting wood, flesh and leaves.
"The Hell happened here?" I asked myself in confusion, staring at the circle of death.
Jumping into the middle to more closely inspect the circle, I made a deadly mistake. They say curiosity killed the cat, and I never actually listened to that saying. I jumped in the middle of the circle and landed on something soft. Looking down, I saw the fire magician that burned down my house, holes in his heart and in his neck. More carefully inspecting the other bodies around me, I saw that they were all the people I have killed in the past few years.
With a rumble, the ground shook and amalgamated into a colossal skeleton, made out of the dead bodies of all those I have killed. The skeleton's height was roughly 10 m high; its eyes were red with hate and malevolence, its fingers pointed to a deadly retractile claw. As it grew, I ended up standing on its head.
The skeleton shook its head violently in order to get me off. I jumped off its head and spun to the floor. Rushing abruptly, the skeleton charged towards me, its hand pointed and threatening to cleave through all my defenses and kill me.
Jumping towards the side, I dodged the worst effect of the thrust and suffered only a small injury on my arm. Drawing my Ilbis, I showered the gargantuan skeleton with an un dodge-able barrage of Ilbis.
All the Ilbis struck the skeleton perfectly, but something was wrong. "It doesn't even feel the Ilbis, it can't feel pain." I realized.
Trying to think of a strategy, I had no choice but to dodge its attacks futilely. Pulling out 6 Ilbis, I concentrated my mana into the shuriken.
"AHHHHHHH!!!!" I screamed out in pain. It has not yet subsided. I am unable to use mana, and it was all because of this mark, this lotus, on my hand.
'I have to figure out a way to end this, I have already suffered almost fatal injuries to my body,' I thought to myself. Drawing out 5 bags of mesos, I jumped towards the skeleton. As it opened its mouth to scream its attack cry, I flung the 5 bag of mesos and an extra bag filled with Ilbis in.
This action no doubt cost me my legs. As I attempted to gyrate away from the skeleton, it swiped me with its claw and cut me across my left leg.
Blood running and pain searing through my whole body, one question haunted me. How do I use my mana if this lotus mark continued to send off such powerful pain waves?
FLASHBACK
Surroundings: Schyth and his father are sitting in a wide open area, no trees, nothing, only a table between Schyth and his father.
Schyth's father: "Remember this Schyth, as a member of the clan of Hirazen you have inherited a great power. The power to transfer pain, and all your emotions, into a powerful surge of mana. When the pain is so great that you are unable to stand it any longer… it will come. But beware, in this form, nothing can stand up to you."
Schyth: "I understand … father …"
END FLASHBACK
I woke up to real life and my own surroundings, the skeleton still charged at me with his hand. I concentrated mana into my hand and once again the pain returned. As the pain surged through my body, I could feel myself getting weak. Then, when everything started to become blurry, and when I was close to fainting, the pain suddenly subsided.
The lotus mark on hand was overshadowed by the Hirazen family symbol, a circle with 4 triangles, pointing to North, West, South, and East.
I started to glow a dark blue as a sense of invincibility took me over. As far as I could tell, I had an unlimited amount of mana, I felt unbeatable.
With this power, a sense of evil also came, at first, I didn't notice, but I would soon notice.
"Ahahaha," I laughed at the new power. Jumping over all the futile attacks of the skeleton, I continued to laugh, and then, summoning 5 elemental attacks, fire, ice, lightning, wind, and earth, I created a thin covering around both my hands, with the power of 5 elements. It was one of the most powerful attacks I had ever created.
As the skeleton once more attacked me with its claws, I grinned maliciously and returned the thrust. My attack went straight through its arm and destroyed it. Shards of bones, flesh, wood and leaves splintered, cracked, and evaporated. What was left of the arm fell heavily on the ground.
I went next for the other arm and the legs. I destroyed it all, and I had enjoyed it. The skeleton now lay on the ground, helpless to its own demise.
I lifted its head up … slowly from the ground, spat in it, and destroyed it. As the skeleton died, I returned to my original form, the assassin who can not use his mana, but knows of sorrow, regret of torturing one's enemy. And as I looked down to the body of the skeleton, without a head, legs, nor arms, I knew what my father's warning for. It was not for he feared me getting hurt, it was because he knew, with such great power, one usually loses himself, and I had done just that.
Author's Note: Guys, just because I've stopped nagging you, it doesn't mean you should stop reviewing…really.
Shortie: Hello.
Kalypto: Hihi
Shortie: I'm bored
Kalypto: Me too
…
Shortie: So…this is life…
Kalypto: Yup…
