Kaelen was sitting on the ground next to the corpse of the Knight.
He was cooking up some Dark Survivor meat while chewing on the piece he had just cooked and ate it in silence; Kaelen had an odd feeling that he could not really explain.
That Knight had been the first being that he had a semblance of a conversation with.
It was so odd.
He had gave it a lot of thought and he had thought about it often but he was here, in this first nightmare for the past - almost 5 weeks.
He let out a sigh
'lets check out the new memory'
It should be a good memory if it came from an Awakened Devil.
Memory: [Obsidian Requim]
Memory Rank: Awakened
Memory Tier: 4
Memory Type: Tool
Memory Description: ["The tune helps her to calm down... it helps her suppress the darkness festering in her mind; if I play it, will it keep her with me for longer? will it keep her sane for longer?"]
'...'
Kaelen had no words
It was sad, obviously, but the story was almost kind of touching despite being a cliché, the princess and the knight.
Summoning the memory he waited to discern its form as it solidified from the sparks
It was a violin
Yes, a violin
'Huh?'
Kaelen was familiar with what it was; in fact, he was quite good at playing the violin—but then again, he could play a variety of other instruments too. A flute, a guitar, the drums
And even the violin
It was just that if he was going to get a memory from an Awakened Devil, he would have preferred a weapon, but maybe this one wouldn't be so bad either.
He was sure it would have uses.
But not for now; he was running a few hours behind schedule now and needed to walk to the tree—if he made haste, he could reach in half a day
'More walking...'—he grumbled.
But Kaelen was not going to waste time complaining; that would not get him any closer—only walking would
He moved across the vast plains of dull grey grass blades that were crushed beneath his feet—the armor added to the weight in crushing the grass
He could feel there was no nightmare creatures in this plane, so he had his memories dismissed and if one were to attack, his hands would be enough
He moved constantly at a fast pace, trying to reach the end of this trial
'Almost at the next trial... the last trial.'
The tree had grown closer and closer, its black color moving from the bark to the branches that were bare, lacking leaves.
He came to a halt a few hundred yards from the base of the tree—any closer and he could feel that he was going to experience something he did not want to
The grey grass was shorter here, as if even the weeds were afraid to draw too close to the central rot.
He stood there for a few seconds in silence; he didnt move forward; he simply watched—his gaze was narrow and suspicious—tracking the way that light seemed to stay away from the tree
The tree was dead, yes—but Kaelen could feel something wrong with it.
And he was right.
There was no wind in this place, but the tree branches started to shake, making a sound that was like a rattlesnake.
From the hollow trunk of the dead tree something seemed to emerge—it walked out slowly and Kaelen analyzed its form
It looked similar to a woman's form—2 legs, 2 arms, a head—but where skin should have been was wood
Where eyes, nose, mouth and ears should have been were just hollow holes
But that did not draw his attention; he had seen uglier nightmare creatures. What drew his attention was a massive black greatsword that looked the same as his light sword
"Showing off your sword?"
He said as he reached into his soul and pulled out the light sword
"It's kind of cringe but i've always heard that light will triumph over darkness."
The vessel moved.
'Fast...!'
The wooden woman flickered across the grey grass, the sword of darkness trailing a wake behind it.
He swung the lightsword in a massive horizontal arc. The greatsword whistled through the air, its radiant blade carving a line of light through the gloom.
CLANG.
The collision of the two blades sent a shockwave through the ground, shattering the brittle grey grass for ten meters in every direction. The dark steel didn't break; it absorbed the light, the two weapons grinding against each other with a screech of protesting reality.
Kaelen's yellow Tyrant hands surged with power; he pushed, his muscles bulging, and forced the Vessel back.
The wooden woman didn't stumble. She spun with inhuman fluidity, her joints creaking like a ship in a storm. The dark blade lashed out in a series of blinding thrusts. Kaelen parried the first, the impact vibrating through his arms, but the second caught him across the shoulder.
His stone skin held, but the dark sword left a jagged mark on his shoulder that was being mended.
"Too slow," Kaelen muttered.
He let go of the Lightsword with one hand—holding the massive weight of the greatsword with just one glowing Tyrant palm—and reached into his soul.
He brought out the claws of flame and allowed one to fall to the ground while grasping the other one. He lunged forward, the light saber coming down like a guillotine while the daggers in his other hand trailed ribbons of fire, turning the grey plain into a furnace.
The tree woman leaped, her wooden body defying gravity, and landed on the flat of Kaelen's greatsword. She ran up the length of the glowing blade, her dark sword aimed directly at his throat.
Kaelen sucked in a breath speeding up his body
He ducked the dark blade by a hair's breadth and slammed his glowing yellow fist into the thing's midsection.
The impact sounded like a sledgehammer hitting an ancient oak.
Wood splintered.
The thing was sent hurtling backward, tumbling through the grey dust, but she twisted in mid-air, stabbing her dark sword into the earth to anchor herself.
She stood up, her wooden torso caved in. She didn't feel pain; all she did was focus and stood back as if nothing had happened
Kaelen stood his ground, the Lightsword held high, its brilliance reflecting in his hollow, suspicious eyes. He could feel his air veins pumping faster, fueling his movements as he prepared for the next exchange.
The tree groaned in the background, a low, vibrating sound that felt like a heartbeat and the tree woman's chest had moved back into place
He took a heavy step forward, the Lightsword humming
The wooden woman tilted her head, her empty sockets fixed on him, and then she vanished into a blur of motion once more.
She surged forward, her wooden limbs clicking as she ran
She didn't approach head-on this time; she circled him like a predator, her dark blade carving shallow, invisible rifts in the ground as it dragged behind her
Kaelen could barely follow her movements with his eyes, so he didn't—the hunter's mark appeared and allowed him to track her movements without his eyes as the dot followed her head
She lunged.
The sword of darkness whistled toward his neck, but Kaelen was already moving.
He bypassed the parry entirely.
Taking the risk, he leaned into the strike, letting the dark blade bite deep into his stone shoulder—the impact grinding against his collarbone with the screech of the black metal sword carving straight through his armor
A bit of light blood spilled out of the wound but the armor remained on and he had received an opportunity.
"Got you," he growled.
Kaelen put his strength into a vertical cleave.
The greatsword caught the creature at the crown of her head and traveled straight down. There was no resistance, just a clean cut
The vessel was split perfectly in two.
The two halves of the wooden woman flew apart, tumbling across the grey grass. The sword was still in the hand that had been holding it.
But Kaelen didnt rest; he had expected the battle to be a bit easier since he himself had the strength of an awakened now but he did not expect it to end like that
And he knew it didnt because of a single little fact
There was no response from the spell
He watched as the halves of the creature shifted and writhed, disappearing into the ground along with the sword before walking out again from the hole in the tree it had come from—the line of which was his slash healing in real time
Kaelen sighed
"So that's how it is," he muttered, shifting his grip on the massive glowing hilt. "You're just the puppet on a string."
He looked past the puppet, his eyes locking onto the massive, dead tree right there
The tree was the terror
The puppet charged again, her movements now erratic, powered by the raw, desperate will of the Tree itself that seemed to have recognized a threat
The air around the two combatants began to scream.
The vessel had been moving with some semblance of grace but now she was moving like a madwoman, her movements jerky and erratic
The wooden limbs snapped and ratcheted with every strike, her dark blade a blur of obsidian that carved deep, smoking gouges into Kaelen's stone forearms.
Kaelen didn't retreat. He leaned into the carnage. His flaming organs were roaring now. Every time the puppet's dark sword bit into his skin, the light-water blood hissed and steamed, creating a thick, luminous mist that shrouded the battlefield.
He was losing pieces of himself—chips of stone skin, sprays of blood—but his yellow Tyrant hands remained steady because he knew it would heal and leave just mere scars
He already looked like a monster; what was a few more scars
The Vessel lunged, a overhead executioner's strike intended to split Kaelen from head to toe as he had done
Kaelen didn't parry with the blade; he stepped to the side and caught the hilt of the dark sword with one glowing hand and punched the Vessel's wrist with the other.
CRACK.
The wooden arm didn't just break; it detonated into splinters.
The sword of darkness, robbed of its anchor, spun wildly into the air, a streak of black whistling through the grey sky before burying itself hundreds of yards away in the dead earth.
From what he saw, the creature would need to be recalled into the ground before it was able to regenerate.
The vessel let out a hollow, raspy shriek, her empty sockets widening.
Without her weapon, she lashed out with clawed wooden fingers, tearing at Kaelen's face.
Kaelen ignored the gouges in his stone cheeks. He shifted his grip on the Lightsword, reversing the massive blade so the point faced the earth.
"Stay. Down."
With the full, crushing weight of his body, Kaelen drove the greatsword downward.
The radiant blade pierced the puppets. It tore through the amber sap, through the reinforced heartwood, and deep into the cold, grey soil beneath. The impact was so immense it created a small crater, pinning the wooden creature to the world like an insect on a needle.
The sword kept it hooked to the ground and sure, it could be recalled into the ground but it will take a few seconds to get off his blade before moving into the ground again
Kaelen didn't waste a second watching her struggle.
He knew the tree would find a way to pull her back, heal her and send her back to kill him, so he needed to take it out first
He felt that feeling of knowing victory was at hand again and allowed a smile to grace his face
He reached into his soul with the other.
A Kaelen began to move
He sucked in a deep breath, more than he had done a few minutes ago and felt the flames burn through his blood and make them speed through his veins, powering his legs as he ran around the tree with the Burning Blood tipped at an angle, allowing the liquid to flow
The liquid didn't just pour; it was an oily stream that was all over the trunk's base.
Then he looked behind him
The puppet was already being pulled into the ground, and it would likely return to the battlefield in about a minute.
"So I have a minute more to make sure you burn."
He smiled, brandishing his claws as he lunged at the trunk
The yellow Tyrant hands gripped the jagged, peeling bark with crushing force. Kaelen began to scale the Great Tree.
As he climbed, he kept the Burning Blood mug active in one hand, hooking his elbow around a gnarled branch to steady himself.
He didn't just pour the liquid; he let it lather.
The thick, oily ooze cascaded down the trunk, caught in the deep, necrotic furrows of the bark. It bubbled and frothed as it met the sap of the tree, creating a slick, dark coating that looked like obsidian skin.
He climbed higher, past the first ring of skeletal branches, drenching the underside of the limbs. The liquid ran down the length of the wood, dripping onto the grey grass far below like a black rain.
Kaelen moved in a vertical spiral, ensuring that every inch of the tree's massive girth was saturated.
Just as he completed the task, the vessel appeared again
It started to climb up the tree itself with devastating speed as if the tree were helping it
"Too late," Kaelen muttered.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he opened his hand. One of the Claws of Flame tumbled from his grip.
The dagger fell through the air, a streak of red-hot metal spinning end-over-end. It looked like a falling ember against the backdrop of the massive, black-lathered trunk.
The moment the glowing tip touched the first layer of the Burning Blood lathered on the bark, the world disappeared.
WHOOSH.
It wasn't a slow burn. It was an atmospheric explosion.
The oily, fuming liquid Kaelen had spent those 2 meticulously applying didn't just catch fire—it detonated.
A wall of orange and violet flame roared upward, following the path of the lather like a fuse. In a fraction of a second, the entire trunk of the Great Tree was swallowed by a pillar of inferno.
The vessel, caught mid-climb, was instantly engulfed. Its shriek was cut short as the flammable ooze coating the wood turned into a suit of living fire. The creature became a silhouette of charcoal.
Kaelen himself jumped off the tree, falling down into the flames and landing on the ground
The tree was shaking
Kaelen watched it with a somber gaze, feeling the memory of the Knight's words playing in his mind again.
He let out a sigh and told himself
'Im doing this for me.'
He summoned the Obsidian Requiem and started to play; it was a song that he was very fond of—"Carol of the Bells."
The sound flowed from the violin into the air; the melody seemed to have a physical effect that he could not see as his eyes were closed
Beautiful purple crystals started to form; each one was illuminated more due to the orange flames that had already begun dying down
Kaelen felt the song flow into his own mind—the melody seemed to cleanse his mind and take away the numbness, then the rage and madness flowed too and before Kaelen had realized it he was able too feel again
That was the ability of the violin
It created the crystal flowers when the melody was played and those crystals and it seemed that playing the melody allowed for a mind cleansing effect as well
'...The flowers were supposed to be on the tree'
The knight and the princess were meant to be together but he had left the tree after it became corrupted because it most likely attacked him but he didnt have the heart to kill her
Would he have won if the knight and the puppet attaked together?
He probably would but not without a gamble like the battle with the tyrant
He opened his eyes after a long while of playing and looked at the dead tree that began to crumble into ash in a way no normal tree should
[You have slain an Awakened Terror: Dying Darkness.]
[You have received a memory: Dark Sword.]
He let out a smile; his eyes were soft as if he were tired.
But he did not want to sleep
He was tired of being here alone now
'Time to end this trial...'
He moved over to where the tree had just been and picked up the six awakened shards and then turned to the white door that appeared
'I wonder what this trial is going to be like?'