[It’s over.]

These were the thoughts of the Immortal King as the challenger crashed into the wall. From start to finish, the young man was exceptional. In terms of sword technique, the human outclassed him and with that strange ability, he was able to match his physical stats. However, that paled in comparison to the challenger’s willpower. The green flames that he used had a hidden effect of inducing fear. Each member of his undead army carried a fragment of his flames and was thus minutely eroding the young man’s psyche since the beginning. Getting to this final room was not only a testament to one’s physical but also their mental strength. Even when the challenger seemed to have succumbed to fear, he quickly regained his focus and pressured him into a mildly dangerous situation.

[To think someone who has yet to awaken can be so strong. Granted this is only a fraction of the power I used to possess, but this fact does not minimize his efforts. Unfortunately, without access to mana he was bound to lose.]

.

.

.

“Any last words challenger?”

Marshall answered with a cold gaze.

“Ah, such fearsome eyes.”

The skeleton drew back the sword before slashing horizontally to decapitate Marshall. Without faltering, Marshall stared down his opponent. As the blade was centimeters from his neck, Marshall’s vision turned black.

As the black sword was milliseconds from decapitating Marshall an unimaginable scene occurred. The limp arm that still held the longsword moved swiftly and blocked the lethal strike.

[?!?...What is this? That glow, this power, did he awaken??]

From his seated position, Marshall slowly rose to his feet. A purple aura surrounded him and seemed to be healing his wounds. Whether his broken bones, his burn wounds, on his ruptured internal organs the purple light seeped into each of his injuries before healing him at a visible pace. Within a few seconds, he was in perfect condition, no he was at another level entirely.

The strength inside him was surging like raging rapid, and he was not in complete control of it, hence why it was spilling out and creating an aura. This is a common occurrence when an individual is awakened, but the amount of energy being released from Marshall was astounding.

[This amount of mana exceeds even the exceptional cases and the color is not one of the four? Who is he?]

[This sensation must be my mana. Unfortunately, I lack the control to keep it from being wasted, but I’m grateful that I have a decent amount. I’ll definitely need to meet with Bertrand to help me grasp this new strength. First, I’ll settle this trial.]

Even now the two combatants were still crossing swords. With a surge of strength, Marshall pushes the Immortal King’s sword, causing said skeleton to take a couple of steps back. Filled with amazement, the undead can’t help but laugh.

“Hahahahaha! You keep giving me surprise after surprise. Normally, I would allow a unique existence retreat so you may continue to develop, but alas I am not in a position to do that.”

Marshall is startled by the skeleton’s words. Countless theories started blooming in his mind about the nature of this trial and even the undead in front of him. However, now was not the time to process this information, he first needed to clear this trial.

“Let’s finish this,” the young swordsman said with a calm expression.

“Yes, let us,” the Immortal King said with a bony grin before green flames engulfed his body.

With speed incomparable to before, the two rushed towards the other, one figure clad in surging purple lights the other in ghastly green flames exchanged blow after blow. The average human eye would only see their afterimages as purple and green flashed around. Occasionally, the skeleton would hurtle frightening fireballs at the human, but unfazed the target of these projectiles would either dodge or cleave with exquisite swordsmanship and footwork.

Each clash grew fiercer and wilder, but the one who was slowly taking the advantage was Marshall. As their physical stats were now in the same realm, his swordsmanship shone brilliantly.

While Marshall was only focused on how to vanquish his foe, the Immortal King was continuously amazed by the newly awakened. Even an extremely gifted mage would not have as much mana as the human before him, and even if they did, they would not be such adept swordsmen. However, the most fearsome weapon the young man wielded was his indomitable will.

That same mental fortitude helped take the necessary sacrifices to inflict the most damage. Despite Marshall having a few cuts and minor burns, the Immortal King was riddled with cracks and chips. As time passed, each strike the young man delivered became more vicious, shifting from a threatening thunderstorm to a raging hurricane. The skeleton did not simply roll over, rather his usage of his flames increased.

For the umpteenth time, the two combatants clashed, crossing swords and being thrown backward by the force of the impact. After regaining his footing, Marshall pointed his longsword at the skeleton’s head. Within the blink of an eye, a ray of purple light the shape of a sword was emitted from the blade before it lodged itself in the Immortal King’s neck, swiftly decapitating him. In a seamless motion, the sword slashed downwards bisecting the body of the skeleton, before the head had time to land on the ground.

Marshall walked around to face the head expecting to see disbelief or shock plastered on the skeleton’s face, but he was surprised to see a wide grin.

“Hahahaha! You can already shape your mana, no you likely did it unknowingly, either way, it’s impressive.”

“Enough with the needless chatter, tell me the purpose of this place.”

“Hmmm…well this is a trial, who made it and why, I have no clue.”

“…”

“No need for such a stare. I truly do not have any information concerning the origin of this trial.”

“*Sigh* At least tell me who you are.”

“Phyneas.”

“So Phyneas, how do I leave this trial?”

“You just need to accept your reward and then you’ll be transported out. Speaking of which.”

Marshall was astonished when a translucent flame appeared in front of him. It possessed an ethereal-like beauty.

“Go ahead and take it.”

The young man was highly skeptical.

“Don’t worry that flame can’t even burn you. Even if you don’t want it, it’s the only way to leave this place.”

Reluctantly Marshall reached out with his left hand towards the translucent flame. As his hand neared the fire it moved with uncanny speed towards his chest and entered his body. The searing pain he was expecting did not arrive, instead, he felt a relaxing warmth wash over his body.

“What you just took in now is called the ‘Soul Flame’. It is a fire that is connected with your soul or the essence of your being based on which terminology you prefer. How it works is up to you to figure out.”

With these words, a portal opened in the middle of the room.

He already had countless questions and now this ‘Soul Flame’ gave him even more, yet he could feel a sensation pushing him out of this realm. Taking one more look at the skeletal head of Phyneas, Marshall turns and walks towards the portal intent on leaving. When he was halfway through the portal, Phyneas said a bewildering comment.

“See you soon challenger.”

As Marshall abruptly turned around, he felt a force pushing him and went through the portal.

As Marshall exited the trial, he found himself in his new bedroom and not the parking lot. Before he could even move, he realized that he was extremely drowsy and with heavy footsteps walked over to the bed, before plopping face-first onto the mattress. All possible plans and schemes could wait till tomorrow.

In an ascending elevator, a well-dressed, middle-aged man with silky black hair that contained streaks of silver, with a toned physique and a handsome face had an expression of intrigue.

[Strange. Young Master’s signal disappeared for a few seconds and then came back. This technique while extremely useful has its downfalls. I should continue mastering and perfecting it.]

“Sir, we have arrived.”

“Hmm.”

The professionally dressed woman guided that middle-aged man towards a large meeting room. As the doors opened less than a dozen people could be seen sitting at a rectangular-shaped table. A jovial voice rang out.

“Noctis welcome.”

saturrn

Late night chapter. Thanks for reading and catch you later sweet potaters.