The moment Mao Lu stepped through the iridescent doorway he entered a free fall.
There was no ground and he found himself hurtling through clear blue sky. Several fluffy cream coloured clouds flashed past him.
A radiant orange sun glowed from above.
There was no land in sight.
Probably because Mao Lu was reasonably used to falling through the sky, he didn't scream. He was admittedly startled but he quickly regained his calm.
A soft voice entered his head. "Hello Mao Lu. I am your light."
The voice was so soothing, reassuring and confident that Mao Lu felt extremely relaxed hearing it.
"Nice to meet you!" Mao Lu replied,he meant to say it normally but his words came out as a large shout as he spun through the air.
"Before you start the trial I would like you to consider your strengths. Darkness made you see your weakness, but understand that weakness is not the only thing you possess." the voice explained, "When you have identified your strengths you will cease falling and the trial of Light shall begin."
"Identify my strengths…." Mao Lu closed his eyes… "my strengths".
Now that he had to think about it he suddenly found his mind all blank.
"What are my strengths?" he wondered. Darkness had told him that his ability to admit his faults was a strength, but because of that all he could think about were the things he was bad at.
"I tolerate people when I shouldn't. I'm far too stubborn. I'm too naive when it comes to obvious things as well."
Mao Lu sighed as the wind ran through his hair. He spread his arms wide and sailed along the air currents. He felt like Peter pan, drifting in the sky and free.
"I wonder what Chàng Bo would say my strengths are. He told me that he's never met a Gatekeeper as caring and nice as me before. Is that a good thing?" Mao Lu mumbled. Even though he was in the middle of this trial, and he should have been thinking about his strengths, he still found his mind wandering to Chàng Bo.
"I wonder how he's doing? Man I should have negotiated with Argenti and found a way to bring him here with me. She was in such a hurry to drag me here and make me train."
Now that Mao Lu thought about it he found Argenti's actions pretty strange.
Before, when both she and Obsidian had come to his house, they had told Mao Lu that they had a new enemy. This new enemy could control the Gates and had used a Gatekeeper book to kill a Gatekeeper. They had also told him that they suspected this new enemy to be the same enemy who framed and poisoned Chàng Bo, because of that they had wanted Mao Lu to stay by Chàng Bo's side constantly and monitor him.
Yet now Argenti had whisked him away for training, and although she'd made counter measures in case a new irregularity had appeared, she hadn't mentioned anything about Chàng Bo. Had she set up a method to watch Chàng Bo and keep him safe whilst Mao Lu was gone?
Mao Lu felt worried all of sudden. Even if this enemy didn't know where Chàng Bo was, they could still find him. Even though Chàng Bo was skilled and strong wasn't he vulnerable being left all alone like that.
Mao Lu had been so startled by the Irregularity, Ben Zi's death, Chàng Bo's sudden confession and Argenti's appearance that he hadn't considered this. He had just wanted to become stronger and had only been thinking about that.
"No I must be overthinking things. Argenti and Obsidian want to use our fate Companionship to lure out whoever hurt Chàng Bo and is controlling the Gates. It's in their best interest to protect him before then.
As long as he stays in my realm he's safe, he's probably causing a mess in the kitchen right now whilst I overreact." Mao Lu sniggered and giggled at the thought of Chàng Bo being helpless in the kitchen.
Even though he laughed he couldn't shake this uneasy feeling he had in his heart. Something just didn't feel right.
"How did Argenti know I reached the Wielding stage?!" Mao Lu felt his heart thud strangely.
Her entire appearance at that time really was just strange.
He had only reached the wielding stage the very day she showed up.
Argenti was the first ranked Gatekeeper, surely she was too busy to be constantly monitoring his progress. To discover he'd broken through to the next stage and to come get him so soon after was just weird. Why was she in such a rush?
Even weirder was when she had confessed that there were tools and other methods to get rid of irregularities, admitting that she had deceived him to test his abilities and speed up his progress.
Surely if she would go so far just to test him she would have waited until he had killed all the irregularities on his own, or at least was at his limit, before extending a helping hand. Why would she stop in the middle of her test, why tell him about it when he'd only defeated two irregularities so far? She said herself that there were probably ten within his realm.
"It seemed like she was really rushed…she just wanted to take me away really quickly. She told me about her little test and even sorted out everything for me in less than an hour all so she could take me here to train?" he muttered.
The uneasy feeling in Mao Lu's gut grew stronger, like a ball of anxiety. "B-B-but why would she do all that?.... Just so that I'd leave my realm with her…. and…and be separated from Chàng Bo" he gasped.
He felt like lightning was racing across his body. "But why would she do that!!" Mao Lu felt increasingly uneasy.
He remembered the ring on his finger, "I'm probably just jumping to conclusions. I'll just check everything in my realm really quickly… I'm sure everything is fine … I'm probably wrong."
Mao Lu snapped opened his eyes and resisted the strength of the wind which was pushing against him. He brought his right hand towards his left, holding his index finger.
He pulled at the silver ring which Argenti gave him.
He pulled….
and pulled….
and pulled….
Anxiety gripped him. It wasn't coming off.
He pulled as hard as he could until a metallic popping sound was heard. A hot pain ran up his hand and through his arm. He screeched.
He had dislocated his finger.
The ring hadn't moved at all. It was clamped tightly onto his flesh.
Mao Lu's eyes were wide with horror. As he hurtled through the air he nursed his finger.
"Something is wrong…something is wrong." he mumbled.
He cried out as he popped his finger back into place.
As it popped back his bones made a harsh metallic sound.
"Light! I need to leave the trial, there is something wrong, something urgent. I need to leave the trial right now!!!"
The calm soft voice appeared in his ears again.
"You are not allowed to leave the Tempering Heart Trial. Once the trial begins you must complete it. You can not move on to the next stage of the trial unless you pass this stage. If you fail you are eternally kept in limbo and made to take the test again and again until you pass the stage."
Mao Lu gritted his teeth, "Are there no exceptions?"
"None. If you wish to leave the trial quickly then I suggest you think of your strengths so you can progress to the next stage." it answered in a matter-of-fact no nonsense tone.
Mao Lu bit his bottom lip, "Damn it, damn it, damn it!"
Mao Lu was extremely worried. He didn't know how long he'd be stuck here, he'd been too naive, he'd just went along with what Argenti said, he didn't question her, he didn't think she was plotting anything. He still had no idea what she was planning or why she would do this, but he doubted she was up to anything good. He couldn't shake the feeling that Chàng Bo was in danger.
How long had he been in here, he had no concept of time in this place.
"Chàng Bo please be safe!" he prayed.
_____________________________
SOUL CHAMBER
"A….. A friend of your Mother."
Chàng Bo hesitated, he was both startled and surprised.
"H… How do you know my Mother? Who are you?" he asked.
The disembodied voice faintly whispered again. "A friend… Here to help…"
"My Mother disappeared a long time ago don't fuck with me, if you know her show me proof. I'm not a fool that will ignorantly do what you say just because you say so."
The voice paused for a while as if it were thinking. "I will show…. evidence later…. There isn't much time…. That woman… She will find you and kill you….or before she gets to you… that Gatekeeper pet will torture you and and rip your soul apart for information that you do not have.... You….you will die in vain….First we escape… Then we talk…"
Chàng Bo shivered, "Rip apart my soul? Why would they do that, what information are they after? And who is 'she' exactly?"
The voice was getting impatient, "Chat later… Now escape! Agree… trust me… Come with me."
Chàng Bo tried to move but he was still bound by the chains. "If I could come with you I would."
"As long as you agree….that is all that matters." A bright light appeared in the dark mist. It surrounded him and wrapped itself around Chàng Bo.
He suddenly felt a strong attraction towards it. Before he could blink he was sucked into it, his limbs slipping out of the chains like butter.
…
Outside of the soul chamber, Creed sat at his desk. He slowly sharpened a long rectangular blade which was white in colour.
This blade was a soul slicer, it could be used on spirits or ghosts to extract memories. It was a ruthless but efficient tool used to interrogate spirits and discern their secrets.
Creed's red eyes were a bright shade of blood as they concentrated on sharpening the blade, as he pulled a green coloured wet stone across its sharp glowing surface, he muttered an incantation which caused the blade to brighten.
He was so concentrated on this process that he didn't notice the marble sized Soul Chamber turn dull. Nor did he notice a slight wisp of white smoke drift away from it and disappear into the floorboards.
______________________
TEMPERING HEART TRIAL
Mao Lu calmed himself. If he didn't complete the trial then he would be stuck inside. If he wanted to get out he needed to move on to the next stage.
He closed his eyes and breathed, "What are my strengths?"
"What am I good at!?"
Mao Lu generally couldn't think of any decent qualities about himself. He tried to think about what other people had told him.
All his bosses had always called him a hard worker. Of course Mao Lu had never really agreed with these things. He lacked the self confidence to take such compliments to heart. He had only worked hard because he had to, to survive and put food on the table, pay rent and pay debt.
He'd been told before that he was very self disciplined, but he only liked to be strict on himself due to his upbringing, or more specifically because of his strict father. He was just used to having a routine in how he did things, and if he had something to do he preferred getting it done straight away rather than leaving it till later since that was easier. He wouldn't really call that being self disciplined.
Mao Lu scrunched up his face, he needed to think harder, "I need to think of my strengths".
He was always called stubborn, Gates had claimed his stubbornness was a strength, that he had a strong willpower. Though Mao Lu wasn't sure if this was a good thing, most of his friends had highlighted his stubbornness as a negative feature, and often he was called obstinate and foolish for it.
Mao Lu had also thought that his compassion and desire not hurt others was a strength but Chàng Bo had called his compassion and trust basically naivety and weakness.
In this case he couldn't think of any strengths….
"This is going to be hard and this stage of the trial hasn't even started yet." Mao Lu sighed.
"Well done, you can now move on to the second stage of the Tempering Heart trial, the Light." The soft voice entered his head.
"Huh?" Mao Lu was confused.
"You have identified and thought about your strengths."
"I did?" Mao Lu's eyes were round.
"Your strengths are that you are critical of yourself, you are hardworking, self disciplined, you have strong willpower, you are compassionate and also trusting.
One's strengths are always hard to identify, it is easier for others to see the goodness inside of you rather than for you to see it in yourself. Even though you don't believe these are your strengths, they are. And by the end of this stage you will accept these strengths, you will gain confidence, and find strength from that."
Mao Lu suddenly saw flat ground appearing out of nowhere, he was falling towards it at a rapid speed.
"Well then, let the Light stage begin." the soft voice announced.