While this was happening, Aiden was in his own hell. While he had managed to keep the lava away while holding the cliff he standing on together, this was not a permanent solution, and the situation was worsening with every passing moment.The lava flow grew and the amount of water he could draw was not enough to cool the lava enough to make them solidify completely before a fresh stream flowed over them.This was in addition to the fumes that he was creating from the water cooling the lava.To say that it was quickly becoming a hindrance would be an understatement... The fumes were obscuring his vision as well as contaminating the air, thereby making it hard to breathe.The situation was tough and things were looking grim with Aiden who was at that moment wheezing and coughing violently.Suddenly, the sound of continuous cracking could be heard... Aiden pulled himself up to react accordingly, but his situation had gotten so bad that he ended up just coughing instead.The problem showe
Slow and steady, Aiden continued his way up the rock formation, finding grooves wherever he could for leverage. A few more times, the lava chose to show its problems, splattering into his path or simply changing directions suddenly till he was climbing directly into it.In situations like this, he was quick to change directions, or in some other cases, he simply put out the heat with a nice spray.One look, up at the right half of the chasm, showed the lava flowing off the edges… If he had still been standing in its path, it was easy to imagine the situation he would be in at that moment.But trouble would never cease to come because he noticed very quickly that the lava was spilling over the sides… This would not have meant much, but the side he could see clearly was the one that lined the wall of the chasm… The same that he was at that moment climbing.The best and worst part of all this was the progressive movement that the lava was taking… It was literally moving in from the outsi
At that moment when every one of them was facing their trials, Fraser just walked out of his house with Alyssa following close behind him.She looked quite elegant at that moment given that her scales sparkled subtly in the light of the rising sun. She was obedient this time around and followed quietly as Fraser led the way up to a large hall.When he and Alyssa arrived, a lot of people were already waiting in the hall. They were all dressed similarly to Fraser, ready for business. This also translated into the mood in the hall as almost no one spoke loudly… There were whispers here and there, but for the most part, they all maintained a solemn, and serious expression as they waited.Fraser walked up to a group of people amid gazes that were plastered on him and Alyssa… Mostly to Alyssa, who noticed this and raised her head high as she soaked in all the attention.She drew a lot of whispers and it temporarily broke the quiet atmosphere in the hall. Fraser could not be bothered by this
Aiden had spent only spent about an hour in the blizzard before it began to subside. This made him show his face again. As he stepped out of the pile of snow that he hid in to avoid the cold, he saw that the skies had cleared for the most part.It was not all blue skies and sunshine, however, the overcast of the snowstorm still prevailed, but it was a lot better than it was earlier. This prompted Aiden to get moving, and he spent the next half hour trotting through thick snow with nothing in sight, except for the wall of mountains in the distance.At the half-hour mark of his walking, he found that things were a lot weirder than he thought they were. Chief among the reasons for this thought was the weather that had quickly gone from overcast after a snowstorm to full sunshine in his face.He also found the barren land to be testing, so he assumed that he was in another trial, another world, or whatever it was supposed to be at this point.While Aiden trotted through the snow, a girl w
"That means we were assigned to the same city as Randell and his team", one of the men who sat around a table.There were seven of them there, and they were bent forward, discussing. They seemed to be in their own little bubble, such that the loud noise from patrons in the tavern did not bother them.Fraser was also there, however, he did not bring Alyssa with him this time. He simply waved off the man's gripe about their assignment being the same as Randell's."You have nothing to worry about. You do know that we have very different assignments despite going to the same city?", he ended his statement with a question.The man did not look convinced, because he answered a few seconds later with a question of his own…"We all know Randell very well… He has some sort of vendetta against you, as well as every person who has something to do with you. It's not out of the question for him to find a way to attack and ruin this mission for us"The man's statement drew nods and sounds of agreem
"Now, why did I not get this as the welcome committee", Diane said."I thought you said that you appeared in a field of flowers?", Deirdre asked with a look of confusion on her face."Yes, I did. However, outside that field of flowers was a lot of barren lands, before I managed to get to you", she answered. "In comparison, this place is a paradise", she added.In front of them at that moment was a valley, beautiful enough that the only description that could be given to it was that it was a paradise, just as Diane had mentioned.Aside from the flowers, plants, and beautiful trees that filled the valley, animals were grazing in the fields. From animals that looked like deer, bulls, and oxen, to the more predatory ones with sharp canines designed to gouge on the flesh of their prey, the place was a biome with a sustained living."Well, the charm fades fast when you get to watch everything die multiple times, stuck in the same spot with no way to make a difference to the outcome of every
It was in this position that Aiden lay for the next few hours while the hail and rain let out their fury on the land. The pain eventually went away, but Aiden remained on his back. He did not move a muscle as he began to converse with Zarek at some point.The between him and Zarek was regarding this bizarre world he was in, and the only response he got from Zarek was that he had no clue what the world was.According to Zarek, he expected that getting pulled out of the trial of lava would have meant the completion of the test he was facing. Getting pulled into another world was one he did not expect. Since that was all the information he had on the issue, and given that he could not leave the tiny hole he was hiding in while the hailstorm was still on, Aiden chose to search for any relevant information in the library to pass the time.His search for a solution yielded no useful information that he did not already know or was just useless for his situation.As he sighed at the frustrati
It was early in the morning, and Fraser just handed Alyssa over to the Queen. He had decided not to take her along as she would draw a lot of attention.As you would expect of the willful character that Alyssa was, she got grumpy and kept to herself the entire time. She even decided not to give any sort of goodbye as Fraser walked away from the palace. It wasn't until he was almost out of her line of sight that she turned and looked at him with eyes that sparkled in the light.Fraser did not notice this, however, the queen who stood beside Alyssa did, and she stroked Alyssa's scales in response. Alyssa also responded by resting her head on the queen's lap.Fraser did not know any of this as he walked back to the barracks. His expression had changed from the normal look a person had to an indifferent one that seemed to tear a hole into anyone who looked directly into his eyes. This meant that as he walked into the barracks, the people who were about to greet him pulled back and were fr
The crowd was pulled from the tragedy that the nobles caused, and some people started to point to the group suspended above them, whispering and murmuring various pieces of gossip.This was a topic that excited them all, however, the ones who were most excited for the revelation were the nobles who finally knew the people who beat them to occupy the highest floor of the tower.They did not hide the wicked grins on their faces and Aiden saw these grins on their faces. He also saw that the group were starting to descend from the sky into the midst of the crowd. That was bad and was quickly made worse when he noticed the nobles setting their hounds on the group.He could guess their thoughts. Even if the group was stronger than they were, given the position they occupied, they did not believe it and wanted to know for themselves how powerful they were.This gave Aiden a headache and his mind began to spin quickly, looking for a big enough distraction that would give the group a chance to
None could ask the other for help because each had someone attacking them, however, they were not noble scions for nothing. Despite being overpowered by the golems, they dealt some damage over time.It was not immediately obvious, but they managed to hold their own, and avoid grievous injuries even though there were several close calls.It took them each about an hour to circumvent their respective golems and deal enough damage to break through their chests.Hadrian was the first followed by Oscar shortly after with Tristan clocking in third, a few seconds behind Oscar. He was unhappy with this but he had no time to be unhappy because his face soon changed into a somber look. Oscar who had just tried to pick up the glowing multi-coloured orb was surprised to find the orb roll away from him and float up to meet the orb that came from Tristan’s golem. This also meant that the orb in Hadrian’s hand was the only one that remained.Oscar and Tristan noticed this, but they could do nothin
No one cared who had said that word because they all ran. The sight of the gray tentacles rising like pillars from the depths of the abyss was enough to scare every one of them.At the same moment, there was a rumble that spread across the skies of the city at that moment. Everyone heard it. Aiden, sitting in the restaurant was jolted from his thoughts and joined everyone else as they looked up at the ruin.He witnessed a few of the tentacles of the beast appear on the edge of the ruin as he had seen before they entered the ruin.‘That bridge, huh? They might be lucky enough to escape'.He did not care much if these people beat the ruin and made it to the temple. He had gotten his rewards and he was happy with that.Tristan and his group had immediately dashed off the bridge, but the tentacles came down on the bridge at a lightning-fast speed.This attack ripped the bridge apart, leaving just three people from Tristan’s group unscathed.Tristan’s face was painted with horror like ever
Aiden was dumbfounded. How was this a reward? It simply contradicted itself. The problem it caused was having him be a prime target for the Zaltyr, but it would also save him from them once.Then, is the mark erased once the life-saving opportunity is used?[Yes, everything returns to normal after that]This made him heave a sigh of relief. He tried to look at this from a positive perspective. This meant the mark was not meant to specifically protect him from the Zaltyr, its main purpose was to protect him from every other thing that tried to kill him.Thinking about it this way made it easier to accept the fact that he was going to be in trouble with the Zaltyr sooner or later, albeit only slightly.Elder Zarek watched Aiden go through his thoughts for a few minutes while he thought of the command he had received from The World Seed.Aiden had recovered his thoughts at this point and decided to check on his elemental seed. He was elated to see the changes to his elemental seed.The mu
None of the thirty remaining survivors was stupid and they took things as calmly as they could. There was no visible harm to resting till a problem was identified and this was something they unanimously agreed on.As they expected, there was something that was out of the ordinary and it was found after two hours of waiting.The quiet rumble that came from the depths of the chasm was enough of a wake-up call.Theo of the Arco twins was the one who made the first comment, breaking the silence. None of them believed that crossing the bridge would be easy from the start, however, the realization that some unknown danger lurked beneath was enough to bring them flashbacks of their time in the maze.“There’s something down there as well? Why is this trial so difficult?”“Good thing we were patient…”“Patient? What does that do for us?”“Theo is not completely wrong. Every stage of the trials had been harder than the last”, Oscar took a deep breath.“Indeed… Something that can cause such a ru
“You just had to jinx it?”Raven rolled her eyes in response.The orb glowed and the rubble spread across the hall was drawn to it. One piece after the other, they mashed together and barely a moment later, a statue had formed.This statue looked the same as the ones they fought before, save for a few important differences. One, this new statue was massive, at least three times as tall. Two, the statue now had a weapon – A halberd which it swung around. Three, most importantly, it had lines running all over its body. Looking close enough these lines were runes just like the ones Aiden and the rest had, but these were very close to being complete, easily dwarfing the ones they had.Their expressions turned grave as the glowing eyes of the massive statue locked onto them.It was a golem, and it wasted no time. With a roar that sounded like thunder, it wielded its halberd and charged at them.There was no running from it, because, a sweep of its halberd made the hall feel claustrophobi
Raven who had suggested was the first to move, and the moment she did, everyone else followed her one after the other. They got to the stone coffin amidst their careful creeping without any problems. The unnerving feeling that they felt from the statues kept them on their toes as they expected everything to go wrong at any moment. "Now what", Raven asked. Aiden and Connor stepped here, and as he instructed; "Keep an eye out", the two of them pushed the lid off the stone coffin. They were right to be worried, because the moment the stone coffin opened slightly, light burst out of the opening. They were taken aback by this absurd light show, however, the light was like a tonic, one that breathed life into the surrounding. Life into the several warrior statues that lined the walls. Each of their eyes opened with a snap, glowing a bright orange, followed by cracks that came from the loosening of the joints on the statues. Gadiel was the first to speak regret about the situation, but
With Aiden and Connor leading the way, they stepped onto the rope bridge. The silence that fell on them at that was quite unnerving, but it helped them keep their focus. This meant that their reactions were spot on as they responded immediately to Aiden making any signals.This was the moment that they finally understood the danger that lay in the chasm beneath them. Apart from the scary chasm that looked like a bottomless pit, a sight that already promised them death should they fall into it, there was something else living in the chasm, and the dreadful atmosphere it brought with evidence of its existence sent chills running their spines. The conclusion here was very simple, there was trouble and they needed to be careful.Listening carefully, they heard the silent rumbles gradually fade away, taking with it the tense atmosphere they felt. You would expect Aiden to make a sudden dash to get across as quickly as possible, but he didn't. He was taking no chances, so continued steadily
"Three days?!", Raven started."Oh, don't get worked up, it was more like two and a half days", Princess Eleanor chipped in.Unfortunately, this did not change the reaction Raven had; in fact, her reaction got worse at that moment as she got frantic and almost lost her mind as she looked around."Calm down, Raven. Things are not as bad as you think. We are out of the grassland maze; of course, we had to wait for everyone to de-petrify before we continued…", Deirdre explained."So, what trial do we have now?", Raven asked and immediately got a response."Oh, the long rope bridge, strung across the chasm that has a tentacled beast living in it", Deirdre responded like that piece of information was of no consequence.Raven was silent as she stared off into space for a moment. When she got her mind back, she asked almost immediately… "Are we crossing now that I am awake?"A question to which Princess Eleanor answered in a snarky and sarcastic tone… "Hopefully". Her comment got a few gazes