***
"Help me! My son! Help!"
A blurry image of a man drowning in a deep blue sea was screaming his words to Elric.
"Father! I am coming!"
Elric chased after his drowning father. He is currently in his present human form. He swam recklessly just to save his drowning father who seems to sink fast to the bottom of the ocean like a solid piece of rock.
"Help! I am drowning!" His father pleads.
"I am coming! Father don't go!", Elric cried as he felt the distance getting farther and farther.
"No. I can't breathe! This water. I am sinking fast. I can't make it. I am dying"
"No. Wait!"
"Goodbye, my son." The father bade.
"Father no! Wait don't go! Wait!" Elric panicked. He swam even faster and deeper, desperate to save his father who is dropping real quick to the dark unknown abyss.
"Go back son. It is too late for me. But you; you can still make it." The father cried back. Elric knew that they are underwater, judging from the cold sensation of the water itself. How they managed to communicate while underwater was something that Elric paid no heed since he got used to his times in the water realm. For him, a human talking in the water was just a normal thing.
"I will get you Dad. Just swim closer to me." He tried reaching his hands while he used his feet to push himself deeper. His finders desperately bent to reach for his family.
"Go back son. You still have much to do." The father calmed down and reminded him.
"I am coming, Dad. I am getting closer." Elric insisted. His whole body shone with soft lights as he dived deeper in this dark abyss while his father slowly faded in the darkness. His figure completely dissolved in the deep shadows of the unknown sea.
"I am proud of you son. Goodbye." the father's last words can be heard. Elric's eyes teared in regret. He was just not strong enough to save his father. While it is true he was not the best father the world presented for him, he was still after all his father.
"Father, nooo!" Elric shouted as his consciousness went back to reality.
"Bwaah!~"
A face of a human with slight gills on his neck suddenly appeared on the surface of fine sand. His eyes are red from crying and his hair unkempt from being buried in the sand. He was gasping for more air while his heartbeat wildly. Half of his body is still buried in the sand.
"Father..." Elric muttered the words as he slowly calmed himself down. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and exhaled with patience. He repeated his breathing exercise for more than five times before he finally pushed himself up from the sand.
He cleared himself of the sand and scanned his surroundings. What he saw next brought a surprise in his eyes.
"What happened here?" He said as he turned around to see his whole surroundings.
The whole area he is standing from has been wrecked to unimaginable state. The once beautiful coral forest and colorful plants are gone, even the nearby coral mountains are turned into fine sand of various colors. It appears they are made of different objects from coral rocks to even the sea trees.
"Did I transferred while I fell asleep? As far as I can remember, I was in the middle of the grassy field surrounded by coral mountains. I never knew that the water realm has its desert. But how come this dessert doesn't look natural?"
Elric bent down and touched the colorful fine sand surrounding him. The moment he touched the sand, Elric remembered the reason he was here.
He remembered the water tribulation summoned by the Spirit Cleansing Pearl.
The first wave tested his mental resilience where it tried to erase even his memories because of the pearl's purity and potency. Elric managed to guard himself against the mental cleanse because of his newfound calmness and fortitude brought by the God Reckoning Tribulation.
With his fate-tested life, Elric's mind has seen and experienced far more challenging mental attacks for him to lose to a mere pearl's test. No matter what, Elric was still challenged and has experienced another form of enlightenment.
He could now think even clearer and the world seems to become slower in his eyes. He could control his thoughts even better and think in advance before making any moves.
The second and final wave tested his physical resilience by summoning a ravaging water tornado and drilled its tail at Elric's main body itself. Its power was something that Elric never expected as it tried to crush him down into bits and pieces. Truly the Spirit Cleansing Pearl was like a double-edged sword that is capable of transforming you to new heights but risks losing your life on the process as well.
The test was just simply to survive and let the water tornado drill their powerful tails on him. Thanks to his Dragon body, the water tornado only managed to rip the surroundings but not his ever recovering body. Wherever the tornado hits, his body was being purified of its hidden impurities. From Elric's sharp dragon eyes, he could see small dark patches of unpurified essences leaving his body where the tail of the water tornado hits.
While the rampage of the water tornado hit him, its sheer presence lifted everything the surrounded Elric, from small rocks to coral to trees and even the colorful mountains where slowly shattered into dust from the sheer might alone.
It did not take long for everything to be crushed into fine dust, leaving Elric to be the last one standing in the middle of the water tribulation.
Elric felt like a car covered in black sticky mud, while the water tornado was like a powerful gush from a water jet, hitting his metal body with its sheer force and effectively painfully removing the unwanted dirt.
With each time, the force of the water tornado became stronger and stronger and Elric is now kneeling in agony.