"I journeyed east to the land of spirits to meet the great elder.
"I was told that it would take at least a week to get there if I go by the forest route and a month if I go by the mountain pass."
The forest was a habitat for many demons and monsters so I decided to take The mountain path.
"The mountain was so cold and filled with snow. I always wondered if it snows in the land of gods".
The huge snowstorm made my journey to the land of spirits a bit difficult.
"To make myself faster, I decided to travel light and take only a one-handed sword and a thin chest guard".
After going deep in the mountain and nearly drained of energy, I met with the goddess of snow, fighting some monsters.
She was a beautiful woman with silver-white hair. She was dressed in all white, dazzling me with the unbalanced iciness of the fabric.
"I have not met a more beautiful goddess like her before".
She had a bluish-white staff made of ice in her hands. I stood there watching her fight. When she slew all the monsters, I went up to her and introduced myself.
She introduced herself as the snow queen and told me to follow her. She led me to a cave and we took shelter there for the night. It was dark and gloomy covered in snow. The ground was moist and soft.
I chanted "ignite, insidious".
The ground ignited and a small flame was lit around it.
"We are safe from the wild snowstorm for now".
When we both settled there, I asked her for some answers.
"The told me the only way to go to the spirit realm is to slay the gate keeper, a giant mountain golem".
She was kind enough to assist me in killing the golem. So we decided to form a party till we kill the golem.
I put out the flames and we both tucked in for the night. The next morning we woke up early and packed up. She showed me the shortest path and instead of traveling for days, we reached our destination in a week.
We fought a few monsters along the way and I managed to figure out her fighting style. She kept the other monsters away from the golem giving me the opportunity to go head to head with the beast.
I took out my sword and thrust my body forward swinging my sword as fast as possible and in return, It threw giants boulders at me. I used the snow to camouflage my self.
"It is too risky to block its attacks and by the time I dodge his attack, it would be too late."
I separated my legs and held my sword forward, head high in one hand, and kept my other hand behind my back. I focused all my strength in my sword and made a fireball appear in-front of it.
With all my might I thrust my forward to it sending the big ball of fire to the golem. Just like I thought it burned the beast within minutes turning it into ashes.
I was still unrefined and couldn't control fire perfectly. I nearly collapsed out of exhaustion. The last move took all of my strength.
A huge gate opened up magically and someone came greeting us. It was the gateway to the spirit realm. This was the point where I said goodbye to the snow queen. But when I turned back I couldn't see the snow queen".
"Where did the snow queen go. It looks like she left without telling me. Nonetheless I have to keep going forward".
I decided to move forward and entered the spirit realm. The atmosphere was very different from that of the divine realm. All kinds of spirits lived there.
"I heard stories of how it was the spirits who gave the gods the power to control the elements of nature".
All the spirits were glowing brightly in different colors. The spirits who had achieved perfect element control had their elemental beast surrounding them.
Livium, the water spirit was the one who came to greet me. She was enveloped in a rotational column of water signifying that she had mastered her power. I stayed at her place for the night and woke up the following morning to hear my destiny from the spirit king. The spirit king lived in a castle like building. He was an old spirit who was supposedly the strongest of all in the village.
There were myths of how he foresaw the future of the summoned heroes. I entered the chamber and stood there was the great elder. He was glowing in a violet light and was standing at the center of the room. I offered my respects to him and introduced myself.
"come closer my child and I will show you your destiny".
The violet light surrounded both of us. Everything around me became dark. It was pitch black. There came a red light like a fire, then I could see water droplets around me. The ground began shaking and there was a symbol like a lightning bolt in front of me. I could then see a dark figure shrouded in a dark mist.
I was very confused and didn't know what to do. Everything turned black once more and the next thing I saw was the spirit king eyes staring at mine.
"What just happened. Who was the dark figure I saw"
"what you saw is the near future. The dark being you saw is the demon lord. you must master all the elements of nature and take down the demon Lord you foresaw".
It took me a while to process everything in my mind. Little did I know then that the dark figure I saw was none other than myself.
I was asked to come at midnight when the moon is lit up to officially welcome me and decide my nature spirit attribute. I couldn't explain what happened but I got the gist of what I must achieve. I left shortly after that. I returned to Livium's house and took a short rest. I asked her to show me around the spirit realm as I will be living there for a while. We went around the village and did a lot of fun things. Midnight finally arrived and there was a party held there. I was called upon by the spirit king and there was silence everywhere. I was given an enchanted crystal with a rune etched on it. I held it high above my head with the moonlight over it. It was the most beautiful sight I have seen in my life. However unexpectedly the crystal shattered and it emitted a dark and poisonous aura. A small violet smoke encircled my hands. It left a mark on my hands which looked like a symbol of poison. I felt very weird and my hands burned like crazy. I howled in pain and not before long I passed out.
I woke up at Livium's house the following day. My memory of last night was unclear. I was greeted with a casual "good morning". The food was prepared and kept beside my bed. I had a lot of questions but I decided not to trouble her. I told her I would go to meet the spirit king again later today. She gave me a pair of gloves to hide the mark. I ate quickly and left her house.
For some reason everyone were staring at me and it made me really uncomfortable. Some were terrified of me while some were giving me bad looks. I went inside the castle and met with the spirit king. He looked awfully angry but equally worried about me.
I removed my gloves and asked him what the mark is. He gave a deep sigh and started explaining.
"Usually whenever a hero is trained in the spirit realm, they develop a spirit attribute which would be their primary weapon. Fire, water, lightning, wind, ice are the basic spirit attribute that one gets. There are exceptions like light and dark magic attributes which are very rare even among us".
"So which spirit attribute did I develop?" I asked in excitement.
The spirit king looked worried as he said the word "poison".
I was confused. "I do not understand what's that got to do with the villagers hating me".
He stood up and asked me to come with him. I followed him to a dark room which was glowing with a white light. He faced me and held my hand. I stared right at his eyes and I saw something terrible.
I was enveloped by the dark violet smoke last night and everything around me turned into ashes. The area became heavily poisoned. It took all the spirits combined power to stop me.
"Is this what happened last night?"
We both were speechless. Fear started taking control over me. I was shivering and scared. I was spacing out. I understood why the villagers were scared and hated me. I left the castle without saying a word and went uphill. I avoided eye contact with everyone and walked quickly. I reached the tallest point on the realm and sat there leaning on a peach tree. I didn't know what to do or where to go.
As I pondered about these in my mind a small girl leapt from top of the tree and dived straight into my hands.
I leapt back instinctively and let out a small scream
"what's a girl your size doing up here", she gave off an intense weird aura.
"Hey there, haven't seen you around here, who might you be".
"I am the hero who came from the Devine realm, and who might you be".
"I am the Viene, the daughter of the demon king"