Chapter 22: Chapter 22: The First Trial

Chapter 22: The First Trial

 

Dracolan K’Wul, King of Tava, did not wait for anything and began his speech.

“Voyagers, Patrons, and Advisors, welcome,” he started after he sat down on a gaudy chair they placed for his convenience. The teenager was wearing regal purple robes with golden accents. The crown sitting atop his head was the same blur of colors as Byrone’s Boon. The only static colors in the crown were the gemstones. Oddly enough, the crown gem resembled an eye.

"We are all gathered here to send off our courageous voyagers into the treacherous dungeon. We wish we could aid everyone even further. Alas, our hands are tied. The dungeon would not allow any interlopers. Only those marked by the vile contraption can breach its borders. Fortunately, all hope is not lost. With immense pride, I am pleased to declare that this century's challenge is one that we have been best prepared for.

"Tava has always been a land of innovation. Thanks to our visitors from years past, we have endeavored to integrate technologies of other worlds and prevail in face of such adversity. The supply containers you carry have a storage capacity hitherto unseen. The weapons you wield, and the armor you don, have all been designed with efficiency and finesse that surpasses everything that came before. Of course, you also wield the unparalleled artifacts crafted by my great ancestor…”

Parth began to zone out as the teen king began droning on in a flowery language, telling them things they already knew. 

The talk of valor, strength, and innovation seemed excessively rehearsed. It didn’t really suit the king for some reason.

It sounded fake.

Parth knew about the tragic circumstances behind his early rise to the throne. Parth could even empathize to some extent. He too had lost his parents on the cusp of adulthood, after all. Of course, immediately being thrust with the responsibility of an entire continent was not something he understood.

Regardless, the king’s inexperience showed. There were no flaws in his diction. No real fault with the speech as well. The thing it lacked the most was conviction. What was supposed to be a rousing speech was instead just a fluff piece. Shame.

Despite all that, thunderous applause graced the end of the speech. He was the king, after all. Subsequently, the king vacated the dais and walked alongside his armed guard into the top box. Prime seat for watching people disappearing inside a spatial anomaly.

Once everything settled down, the announcer’s voice blared over the speaker. 

“Voyagers, please gather in front of the stage.”

As Parth and his team got up, Lord Kach cleared his throat and stood up.

"We will meet in a week. You are not allowed to perish. None of you are," he said solemnly as he locked eyes with each one of them and shook their hands.

“What he said,” Celeste stated in a similar tone and pulled everyone into a group hug. “Come back safely, we will rock this dungeon,” she finished.

“You bet,” he said as he started walking towards the huge space cleared in front of the stage.

“I’ll see you in a week,” said Moira stoically and followed after Parth.

“God willing…” said Kwame as he joined his teammates on their trek to the launching space.

It took a couple of minutes for all the teams to say their goodbyes and gather in front of the massive artifact.

“Be safe out there, you hear me?” Parth said in a low voice as he fell in line right next to the triplets.

The kids were fidgeting in their spots. They seemed nervous, which was a first for Parth. He knew that they were adequately prepared and determined to make it through. But he had never seen them this nervous. Even Zircon, as shy as she was, was never so nervous.

Moira just wordlessly hugged the kids and patted them on their backs, giving them what amount of reassurance she could with that gesture.

“We’ll all be fine,” said Emilia’s confident voice as she joined the gathering with her team in tow.

She seemed entirely nonchalant about this whole thing. Parth couldn’t tell how much of that was a façade, and how much was a reality.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that her demeanor had set several surrounding folks on edge.

Which was completely natural. Right before a fight for survival, the only people who were unruffled were either idiots acting with false bravado or those who were insanely strong. Given what her artifact was, everyone immediately figured out that it was the latter. From experience, Parth knew that she was no idiot. She was strong, but not completely untouchable. Not yet. Hence his confusion on how much of it was a façade.

“Don’t die out there, boxer. We need to have a rematch once we get back,” said Andrea.

“Right back at ya,” said Parth as they both grinned in unison.

“Please deactivate all your artifacts. Avoid using mana for the duration of the transfer. This is for your own safety,” said the announcer.

Parth glanced at Emilia and saw her withdraw the Hollow Crown with great reluctance. He would feel the same if he had some unknown enemies about and had to turn off his extrasensory perception.

“Clear. Voyager headcount fulfilled. Initiating transfer in T-minus 60 seconds.”

The moment this was said, the area they were standing in got enveloped in a golden barrier. The Ormium statue in front of them was glowing with a golden hue as well.

“Do not panic. Do not use your mana,” the voice reiterated as the timer dipped below thirty.

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In less than a minute, he would be in the dungeon. The thought itself made him anxious. The tension in the arena was palpable as everyone was feeling the same way. Compounding the anxiety was the fact that there was a major complication at the very beginning.

Before he knew it, the thirty seconds were up.

He gazed up at the statue and saw that the eyes of Byrone were emitting a blinding light. Right as the timer hit zero, the golden light engulfed them all and he couldn’t see anything for a moment. When the light washed over him, he felt a prickling sensation all over his body before it stopped as abruptly as it came.

As his vision returned, he found himself floating in what could only be called space. Distant stars were illuminating the inky black surroundings as he floated in place. There were no planets in sight. Even if there were, they must have been too far away for him to comprehend.

He didn't need to breathe for some reason and felt a sense of disconnect from his body. He raised his hands in front of him, only to see the edges blur.

His entire body was like that. The edges kept flickering between a blurry shape and its actual shape. The more time passed, the more he was convinced that this was not really outer space. The scenery was very different from what he had experienced when the dungeon had forcibly dragged him from his world. At that time, it felt like he was drowning underwater and felt pressure from all directions. Then again, the distance involved was different. The statue was transporting them inside the dungeon that existed on this planet. While the dungeon had torn through the fabrics of dimensional planes and plucked everyone from alternate universes.

As the glitching of his contours continued, something else caught his attention.

Parth turned around to get a good look, and once more saw the doppelganger that graced his dream the night he bonded with the gauntlets. The same green skin, the same black markings, and most of all, the same face behind all those extra features.

It was weird because Parth could never forget that dream. Usually, even the most persistent of dreams disappeared from his memory by the end of the day. They were inconsequential after all. But that dream had been seared into his memory for some reason. He could recall it in vivid detail. He did not know what it meant and had thought of it as an odd occurrence at first. Even though he recalled it, it was not at the front of his mind. He had other priorities, so he hadn't thought much about it. Seeing the doppelganger again confused him greatly.

Was he hallucinating due to the stress of the situation? Or was this an effect of interacting with each of Byrone’s artifacts for the first time? He could not tell.

The interloper looked at him impassively as sparks were dancing around him. Parth realized with a start that he was translucent. At first look, it was not apparent. Yet, he was not completely opaque. If one squinted the right way, one could see the stars behind him. 

He was stumped about what all this meant.

Even if he knew, he could not do anything, as the stars all around the vast space began glowing the same gold as Byrone’s statue. With each second, the lights only got brighter.

Gold light washed all over him once more, and he had to blink the spots out of his eyes.

Before he could regain proper vision, he already noticed several differences though. The bodily disconnect had disappeared. He could feel his feet planted firmly on the ground. His ears heard the whistling of the wind and his skin felt the same wind brushing against it.

As his eyes finally adjusted, he bore witness to a sprawling forest all around him. The scent of pine assaulted his nose at the same time.

Despite all the briefings and the information packets, a tiny part of him expected his team to be here with him. It was wishful thinking on his part, but he still hoped for it deep down. There was a reason why the first trial was always the most dangerous one.

No matter. He just had to regroup with them.

Parth tensed as he heard the sound of something crunching from a little distance away.

He mentally berated himself for not going on alert the moment he arrived. With the flick of a mental switch, the marks on his forearms glowed. The glow was visible even through the suit he wore. In an instant, red-tinted black metal flowed out of both the markings and engulfed his arms. The next second, his trusty gauntlets finished taking shape.

At the same time, a tiny trickle of mana was flowing throughout his body, ready for anything that might jump out of the shrubbery.

A few seconds passed just like that and nothing happened. It was time to get moving. If something came, he’d just have to punch the stuffing out of it. He walked up to the biggest tree near him and glanced at the top. Nodding to himself in satisfaction, he took a few steps back as mana flooded his feet.

Mentally preparing himself, he shot toward the neighboring tree at an astounding speed. The moment he neared it, he leaped vertically and easily broke the personal records from his mundane life. Midair, he pushed at the tree with one leg and maneuvered towards the bigger tree.

He then placed his other leg on that tree and pushed back towards the first tree, diagonally moving upwards with each push. Alternating between the two trees, he was a blur as he kept jumping upwards.

Within seconds, he reached out with his hand and caught the tallest branch of the bigger tree. Allowing the momentum to carry him, he swung upwards, rolled, and perched atop the tree in a crouch. His hand never left the branch.

Bracing himself against the trunk using his hand, he slowly stood straight. The tree was not the tallest by any means, but it was tall enough to allow him a peek at the horizon. 

From his vantage point, he could see most of the area around him. As far as the eye could see, it was all the same. Trees everywhere. There might be some clearings at some locations, but he couldn’t exactly tell from his elevation.

One thing that stood out was the massive monolith in the distance. It looked like a geometrical structure carved out of marble.

He knew enough about the trial of the land to understand how big it really was. The trapezoid’s shortest side was a couple of kilometers long. It didn’t look like that from his current location, so the destination was pretty far off.

With trepidation, he fired up his ring and looked at the timers and the timestamps. Once again, a part of him had hoped that the communications module worked. Once again, that part of him was disappointed. As Celeste had said, the dungeon interfered with any communication mechanism they came up with. It would have been so much easier if it worked. They were confident about the recording devices attached to their armors though. It hadn't worked for them the last couple of times they tried it. But apparently they made some headway with their tech that would facilitate their recording devices throughout the trial. Parth didn't care about it though. The footage could help with retrospectives and could help future generations. But right there, right now, it did not help him.

He would have to rely on the offline functions of the ring alone. That was nothing to scoff at. But navigation would be sorely missed. Especially in such a situation.

In seven more minutes, the signal would go out. That would set the tone for how this trial would go.

He just hoped that his teammates were close enough. In this sea of trees, regrouping would be the most challenging part.

 

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