Azura was starting to hate mountains. Obviously the steep incline and tempest level winds werenât bad enough of course the rock had to be covered in more and more ice. Thankfully the being either couldnât or didnât care to disrupt the temperature enchantments in his clothes. So as miserable as the trek was, he wasn't yet frozen solid.
He wished the being had at least given him an expected timeframe. He got more and more jittery each second that went by in his currently excruciatingly slow climb. He would probably survive the fall, but with all the ice he would slide down quite a ways, and frankly he got the feeling if he fell he should let himself fall as far as he could safely to help him get distance.
Letting the morbid thoughts go he kept climbing, having to use his blade to stop the wind from dragging him back. The icy ground didnât provide much friction so it was pretty exhausting to keep himself from slipping. His movements were jerky, but extremely quick. They had to be if he took a split second too long to get the blade into the ground a bit ahead of him he would be pushed back several feet.
âI must really be broken.â He grumbled. It really wasnât natural that these awful conditions actually made him feel less tense than the beautiful scenery he had first arrived to. I guess when you live your life always expecting bad things to happen itâs always better the devil you know.
His muscles ached, but he wasnât willing to risk another break so on he went. Magic the only thing allowing him to breathe properly at this height, and keeping his lungs from failing altogether at the exertion he was currently doing. He couldnât put into words how grateful he was when he began to feel a familiar magic bearing down on him. He was close now, or given how powerful the being probably was not as close as he had initially thought, but he was at least making noticeable progress now.
The wind even began to die down as he got closer and closer to the top. He imagined that wasnât a natural phenomenon. Apparently the being awaiting him was kind enough to block the weather even this far from his lair. His arm went painfully numb pretty quickly after he retracted the blade. He imagined his legs would do much the same when he had some time to sit and take a breather.
He wasnât as surprised when another of his copies memories appeared in his head. This one didnât die, but had found an interesting familiar in the forest. Part of him regretted not taking that path at the beauty of the ethereal dusk wolf. They were a rare species, but they were intangible and invisible in the dark unless they didnât want to be. They were beautiful during the day though. Snow white fur with natural blue markings.
He would have loved to have one as his familiar, but if he left now he would be hunted and killed, so he simply sighed and continued on his way.
***
Cynthia was a little relieved. Azura had retracted his statement about her being the least likely to pass the second he had found out what the trial was, and he had been right. Siara had come out of the portal about 30 minutes after her with a small ball of moss. She hadnât realized that was her familiar until it opened its little eyes. Thatâs so cute!!! What kind of monster is that?!â
Siara was startled for a second before recovering. Her eyes glanced at the serpent wrapped around Cynthiaâs legs, it wrapped around itself a few times, making it up almost to her knees. âOh sheâs a moss giant.â She gave Siara a confused look. That cute little thing was a giant? âDonât let its current size fool you, moss giants can rapidly shrink or expand, and they can also create almost any plant theyâve consumed before.â Her eyes widened, well Siara certainly found a good partner for her. âWhat about yours? Thatâs an adamantine serpent isnât it?
She looked down at the shiny silver colored serpent keeping her legs warm or more accurately stealing her legs warmth. She didnât mind though, once he had warmed up it felt nice. âI have no idea, he wanted something to protect and decided he liked how warm I was. I donât know much about monsters to be honest.â She bent down to pet the monster some, it hissed appreciatively.
Siara gave her a raised eyebrow. âYou chose a familiar without even knowing what you were picking?â
She flushed. âWell there arenât many I would recognize, and he seemed nice soâ¦â
Siara chuckled and smiled at her. âThatâs sweet, besides it worked out for you, adamantine serpents are fiercely loyal, and they get their name because their scales are supposed to be completely unbreakable.â Her eyes widened, she âhadâ gotten very lucky. She was a healer, so a partner that could shield her from most attacks would be completely invaluable.
She opened up her bond with her familiar. It was an interesting experience, it wasnât quite the same as her telepathy, it was clear and stronger. Words couldnât really pass through it, but the feelings and pictures were enough for them to communicate to each other. She expressed her hope that he would protect her well, and he had happily agreed.
âIs there anything else I should know about them? I definitely need to find out how to care for one.â She hadnât thought about it until just now, but she would have to feed him and probably other responsibilities. She had never had to care for an animal before and she had no idea what to do.
Siara chuckled. âDonât worry about it too much. Thatâs one of the major reasons to do a binding ceremony. If he needs or wants anything from you heâll show you.â She sighed in relief, Siara was right. She wasnât just going to be tossed in the deep end she had him to help her. âHave you named him yet?â Oh right, a name. That was definitely something she should do.
âNot yet, how about you?â She was a little ashamed that the first 5 names that popped into her head were all basic descriptors of her familiar.
âYeah I named her Gaia, it seemed appropriate.â She sighed, so Siara was much better with names then she was that much was clear. Siara was absentmindedly petting Gaia while mulling something over. âYours is a little harder. Not any super obvious ones that come to mind.â Unless you were her and thought of names like metal or snake.
âI could just give him a regular name I guess, but somehow John doesnât really feel appropriate.â
Siara laughed. âI donât know having a giant snake named John would be pretty fun in its own way, but if youâre going for a regular name thatâs more unique maybe Cyrus? Or if you want to use a name from old legends like I did, maybe Loki or Ouroboros might be appropriate.â She mulled them over, but she didnât really want to name him after something if all she was going off was that he was a snake.
âI think Iâll name him Argent.â It wasnât great, she knew. In the end it was basically just his color but in another language, but it sounded ok. At least to her it did.
Siara just gave a confused look. âIâve never heard that before, does it mean something in particular?â
She thought about lying for a split second, but one of the others was bound to know, and no need to double the embarrassment by lying about it. âIt just means silver. I couldnât think of anything else, and it at least sounds a little better.â
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Siara chuckled. âSo you think silver doesnât make a good name huh, you should tell the boss that.â Siara laughed harder as Cynthia flushed in embarrassment. She had forgotten that was his family name. He didnât seem the type to care much about that, but insulting a family name was a very dangerous thing to do. Even if you yourself were a noble, or perhaps especially then.
âPlease donât mention that to anyone, I wasnât thinking. Nothing good would come from people knowing I said that.â She did her best to send her worry through the link she formed as well as her words.
Siara stopped laughing, and her mirth was replaced with confusion. âWhy? Who cares, I was just teasing a little, it's not a big deal.â
âNobles take things like that very seriously, insulting the name is the same as insulting the house. My mother and his father donât exactly get along either, so if word got out that I said something like that it would be blown way out of proportion regardless of me and Azuraâs wishes.â She didnât mind being a noble most of the time, but she knew that was mostly because her parents sheltered her from the worst of it. She knew enough to know that even an innocuous statement like that could result in spilled blood.
Siara just gave her a confused look. âI mean if you say so, it doesn't make much sense to me but not like you even technically said it anyway.â
She chuckled silently, she said that all the time when she was little. The argument never did her much good, but she didnât do a lot of âtalkingâ with people she didnât trust anyway, so she figured it was probably fine. She was starting to get a little tired, she had used a lot of magic during the binding ceremony. She put her hands into the sign for rest.
Siara seemed to catch it and shooed her off with a soft smile. âIâll keep a look out for when the others come through.
***
Azura was just about done with this stupidly tall mountain. It wouldnât have been too bad if he could use magic, or if he had been able to prepare better, or at least if he wasnât freaking out about how long it was taking him. He was finally able to end his vertical climb when he hauled himself up and over a ledge to find a surprisingly wide flat area leading up to a cave going deep into the mountain. The cave was huge, at least 15 ft tall. That was comforting, the monster that was focusing on him was either limited to 15 ft tall or was a shapeshifter.
Unsurprisingly that thought didnât bring him much in the way of comfort. He took a deep breath to gather his courage and then stepped into the pitch black cave. The second he stepped foot in the cave the magic presence became thick enough it was hard to breathe. The mana in here was far more dense than anything he had ever experienced
âSo youâve finally arrived human.â He cried out as immense pain sprang from nowhere in his head. âYou try to resist me? Allow me into your mind so I may judge your worthiness. Your resistance is impressive for one so young, but you will break long before I tire.â
He grit his teeth against the searing pain, and stared defiantly into the darkness. âWorthy for what? Youâre the one that told me to come up here.â The being could try, but he would die before he let someone past his defenses. No one needed to know the secrets he held.
There was silence for longer than he expected. The splitting headache didnât ease, but the deep resounding voice in his thoughts remained suspiciously silent. Continuing to fight off the invading presence in his mind he took slow and unsteady steps forward. âWhat do you want from me?! Iâll answer some questions willingly, but I wonât let you rummage around in my head as you please!â He shouted into the darkness, his own voice grating on his ears and somehow making his splitting headache hurt even worse.
The billowing sound of laughter rang through his head. âHow long can you hold out human? Your will is strong, but you donât yet have the strength to back it up.â He grit his teeth and continued to stumble forward. The splitting in his head suddenly multiplied and the pain brought him to his knees. âIt is a kindness that I am only using a fraction of my power. If you continue to resist, I will show you all of it.â
He didnât know if he could handle more than this, but sealing some of his memories and rummaging around his head were 2 very different things. He couldnât no he wouldnât let anyone do that. His mind was the only thing no else had the right to taint. It was the only thing that was truly his, he refused to let this being in. Even if he died here he wouldnât allow his spirit to be violated. âJust do it then, even unconscious Iâll resist.â He glared at the empty space.
âVery well then, perhaps when you wake you will know to be more careful what you wish for.â His head suddenly felt like it was about to burst. A pain worse than anything he had ever felt assailed him. He screamed as everything went black.
***
He didnât know where he was, his thoughts couldnât properly form. All he knew was pain. Something was trying to dig through his head, but he wouldnât let it. Why wouldnât he let it? He couldnât think clearly enough to come up with a reason. Would letting it in even stop the pain? He didnât know. It didnât matter anyway. He didnât know why, but he knew letting this thing into his head was bad.
He fought with everything he could spare to get the presence out of his head. It wasnât enough. The more he fought the more his head hurt, and yet he couldnât stop fighting. If he stopped now what was all this pain for? He still didnât know, but everyone had always called him too stubborn for his own good. Why break the trend now?
He was surprised when the haze of his mind cleared a little, the influx of memories from his last copy lessening the pain for him, if only briefly. The memories helped him recall who he was and why he was fighting so hard. Although he hadnât known that he could experience pain so bad his copies would disperse, good to know.
The pain lessened even more allowing his mind to function a little more clearly, but then he was surprised to see the pitch darkness he was surrounded by shift and shape itself into a vast blue sky. He saw the world below him, part of him recognized it as the choosing grounds, but the other part was panicking because he was falling and his magic wasnât responding to him.
âSurrender your memories human, you can not begin to imagine the fathoms of the power you fight against.â What else was new? His father had always set him up to fail, and yet he hadnât and he didnât intend to start now. The ground was closing in, he couldnât use his own magic and his enchantments werenât working, but he remembered something important.
âIt doesnât matter, this is all in my head.â The world rippled at his words, but he didnât stop falling he didnât care to. He couldnât afford to waste his energy, he wasnât going to be able to outpower this creature anyway, even if he pulled out all the magic he had stored over his life he still wouldnât be a candle compared to his volcano. Even so he resolved to fight.
âEven mental injuries can leave scars.â Well that was menacing, and hit closer to home than he cared to admit, it didnât matter though. He had decided to fight, so until he couldnât anymore he would fight. Right before he hit the ground the world changed again.
This time he felt more in control of himself, and for the first time he actually saw the being trying to force itself into his thoughts. He looked like an old man, with a long wispy white beard and a balding head. He didnât look frail though he looked lean and strong, like he had fought hundreds of battles and even age hadnât made him any less deadly. âWhat are you? I know youâre not human, but there are a few x rank threats that might be able to do something like this.
The old man sighed. âThis is no longer my doing human. Apparently I have found myself stepping on bigger toes than I could have possibly expected.â Something bigger than an x rank, that was impossible! How could you even get stronger than that? Even his father would be at risk if he tried to fight an x rank on his own, and he was perhaps the strongest human in the world, or if not he was close to it.
He looked around, and was surprised at the familiarity of it. It looked a lot like where the guardian spirit of the forest had taken him for its test. Except this time they were on one of the floating islands, and they were much bigger than he had thought they were then. A grand white castle bigger than the entirety of Grand Forge Academy gleamed in the light of the⦠not sun? There was no visible source of light, yet it was bright enough. It was probably less than 500 feet from where he currently stood. âWhere am I?
âYour body still lies in my home, as for where our minds lie I do not know, but it feels like somewhere I shouldnât be. Never before have I felt like an invader, but the power here is impossibly strong.â Was it? He felt fine. The beings power no longer felt like a crushing weight, but it didnât really feel like something else had set to replace it.
âIt feels so peaceful here.â The beingâs eyebrows rose, clearly surprised by his response. The gates to the castle glowed brilliantly for a moment, and then he saw everything and nothing. Too much passed through his head for him to hold, and sleep took him.