Chapter 119: Chapter. 104: Unnecessary Mystery

Lots of things floated in my mind, but as I was about to make an assumption Lumina spoke once more.

“The only artificial part is the Sangir tree. This is part of the trial. Somehow.”

I paused and nodded. “Still, why would Elasia just make a trial like this?”

There was a brief silence before Lumina replied once more. “She said she was unsure of what would happen in it. At the same time, since I cannot remember what happened in my life after making the Prophecy, well⁠— maybe she killed me? Though that seems a bit unrealistic.”

I pondered over Lumina’s words for a moment. The trial was part created and part real, and considering the chamber underground was connected to the Grand Sangir Tree, then it was safe to assume it was part of the trial too. That made me question, why was a dead Lumina part of the trial, and why was she called the first seed? I frowned and decided to investigate. At that moment, a notification went off in my mind.

[You have found the first seed ⁠— Next step: Find the keepsake.]

I had a brief pause as my eyes wandered through the room and quickly landed on a table that was next to Lumina’s body. There was a small book at the edge of it, with some apprehension I approached, the atmosphere within the room was off putting. Soon enough, I got a hold of the book, my fingers were parched with dust as I opened it. The pages had nearly turned solid, but I could see things written.

‘I ran away⁠—’ A lot of the content was pretty much gone, but I managed to read some things. ‘Why is it wrong to exist? Everyone wants me dead, if she heard me I’m sure she’d be mad, but she isn’t here… I wanted her to stay alive. This is my battle⁠—’

‘Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing. Ha, I think she’ll never search here. It’s the place in which we met after all. It’s good… I don’t want her to see me in such a state⁠— its lame.’

I flipped through the pages reading.

‘Adastra. I was very close. But its existence is a sin. A sin to life and to the universe itself. A sin to the stretches of all eternity, a sin to…’ there was garbled text. ‘In the end, I don’t know, I just wanted to understand where all the dark plants came from, and in the end I arrived at Adastra, the ancient tree. The first World Tree…’

‘A world tree is capable of reaping life but giving it as well. Every notorious planet has one in some form. Plant affinity is rare and well received amongst certain factions, but dark plants are crucified and burned at stake. Such is my case. Maybe I should’ve kept a low profile…’

The next page was stained with blood.

‘That bastard really came and did it. There was no resistance to be put. I am not an adversary for that person. All it would’ve done is destroy this place. At least he honored my wish, to leave me intact but take my heart. Ah… I am dying… I regret it.’

I flipped pages as the writing became worse and more blood was present.

‘I regret it. I turned my back on the only person that ever accepted me. In the end, I ended up hurting them and now they don’t know where I am. I hope that I angered them enough to forget about me. I hope she destroys the Prophecies I made just like I said.’

‘Even though I am leaving these notes, whoever is reading this, I hope it’s not you. But if its you, I fucked up big time, I’m sorry.’

The flipped page only to see the end of the book.

‘Thank you for the memories El, that night where you asked me to kiss you and I refused… I regret it. I regret not kissing you. I’ve always loved you.’

My vision became slightly wet.

“I…” Lumina spoke in my head. “I was such a weakling? No, that’s not quite right… I do have missing memories but based on my condition, my heart was taken, everything else were just superficial wounds. Moreover, I cannot quite tell if it's artificial or not. Considering you cannot see mana.”

I felt as if I was jabbed for no reason there.

“Let’s see. The only reason to take my heart would be to cripple me, naturally this wouldn’t kill me and I’d even be able to get a new heart in due time. But it is also clear to me that I decided against it. I decided to just die here with a stupid self mocking smile,” she mused. “Confusing. Continue the trial for now.”

“Lumina…” I took a deep breath. “What even is a trial of will. And what happens once I get a C grade Prophecy?”

There was silence. “A trial of will is simply a trial like all others, you kill things and get stronger. There might be hard decisions to be made at the end of it. But at the same time, perhaps this is not a trial of will meant for you.”

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“What do you mean?”

“Before I continue that, C grade is C grade, I don’t see why are you even making such a question? As far as trial of will not meant for you, considering how weird Elasia is maybe it was a trial that was meant for her instead. All things considered, she had no reason not to tell you the contents of it had she fully known. Then again, my memories are pretty muddled, so I have no idea.”

“I have a quest of many steps that I received from you when I used the tree you taught me.”

“A quest? I cannot give you quests. Maybe I left it before dying? What is its name?”

“Lumina’s Will.” I became confused. “Did you not give it to me?”

“No.” I felt a surge of strange excitement within me. “That said, this is interesting. My body is or was technically intact. And a quest? I like where this is going.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just focus on the quest for now. I do have a finite lifespan as a memory or will. I must rest.”

And then, there was silence. I could only hear the sounds of my breathing as I thought for a moment. It sounded a bit stupid to me that the trial was meant for Elasia, but then again I barely understood how trials were made. Maybe she had no control on it and could only just desire the location. I didn’t really get it, to be honest. I sighed and my eyes looked around the room looking for some type of hint. It said to find the keepsake.

I turned around and I saw a candle above the door, the ceiling was of dirt with a myriad of roots. The walls were made of stone brick that were parched with plants and dark greenery at the edges. The uneven light made it hard to see the patterns on the wooden floor, but it was dark and almost soft, and the air itself was earthy yet stuffy at the same time. To be honest, I had quite a hard time believing the place was just created for the trial.

My eyes wandered around, taking all the little crevices of the room simply looking for any objects. But there was only a book on a table and Lumina’s body sitting on a chair. The rest of the room was as empty as it got, at least from a cursory glance. I took a deep breath and threw the book inside of the ring, which was getting very full at this point. I had to empty the mana crystals I got from the other nest at some point.

I took a deep breath and decided to forget about the implications of where I was ⁠— whether I was defiling her rest or not, stopped mattering ⁠— I moved around and inspected her body in detail. She was at peace, at the same time I failed to see anything abnormal aside from her lack of clothing. I paced behind her and inspected the ground, and that’s when I finally saw something. Aside from some dried blood, there was a collar on the ground. It was made of some type of black string, and as a centerpiece there was a small crystal that seemed to be broken.

With some skepticism I awkwardly maneuvered myself to grab it without touching the furniture. It dragged on the ground for a second as I lifted it up, and I inspected it under the candlelight. The broken crystal seemed empty, and murky.

[You have found the keepsake ⁠— Next step: Restore it using the blood of the first seed.]

My eyes wandered to the timer just out of curiosity to see how long I had been in the forest.

[Trial Period: 29 days 4 hours 20 minutes]

20 hours. I mused for a moment before turning to the next step. My hand trembled just a bit as I read the instructions. How was I even supposed to use Lumina’s blood? It was all dried up. I pondered for a second. Maybe with water? I frowned. Still the idea of touching her body just made me feel weird. Maybe it was the peaceful expression, or just the calm and quiet atmosphere.

I shook my head and took out the water pouch that I had. Pouring a small amount of its contents on the dried floor, I sat down and mixed the dried blood with the dirt and water. It took a few minutes of stirring and scratching and some questioning of what I was even doing, but eventually I saw it become dark and murky. It wasn’t blood, but it was the best I could do. Without thinking too much about it, I lowered the crystal into the water.

It just sat there as the uneven candlelight cast my shadow over it. Seconds passed as the water ripples returned to a normal state. Just as I was about to sigh and try o think of something else, I saw a tinge of light on the water under the crystal, it was green. It expanded and almost gurgled right into the crystal, surrounding it and loading it with a pale green light. The crystal visibly regenerated before my very eyes, slowly but surely it gained material by absorbing the water until finally.

It became a crystal of swirling mana.

[You have restored the keepsake ⁠— Next step: Use the keepsake’s light to descend further.]

I lifted it up as its green light filled the room. It was a bit overwhelming, but that’s when I noticed a tunnel behind Lumina’s body, the wall was almost illusory. I glanced around for a moment and noted that I wouldn’t need to move the body, which was quite nice. I took a deep breath and questioned what I was even doing for a brief moment. It was supposed to be a trial to get stronger, not some mystery stuff.

A sigh left me as I stepped around the chair and reached the tunnel. It all had taken a very weird turn, a turn that I was unsure if I was happy or content with. One that was laced with mystery even though it didn’t need to have it.

With a small amount of annoyance and a heavy heart I stepped onto the tunnel.