Mack turned his head and as usual a small plaque was there giving instructions.
# If the cold is not for you, may the fire burn in your heart #
"Weird, I was expecting something like 'become the iceberg' or something"
Said Mack, using a grave voice for the words as if imitating someone in a mocking tone.
[...]
"It seems you can't help me on this one."
[indeed]
Mack looked around and saw the red ground, a very familiar red ground but with gray sand covering parts of it.
Mack lowered his body and lightly touched the gray sand and put on his mouth.
The sulfur taste was easy to spot.
Mack raised hia head and looked to the horizon.
He could see nothing different for miles and miles.
All ahead of him was the same scenery. Just like the trial before, not even a a tree could be seen.
"So, its a volcano. That will be my second."
The memories of when he went up the volcano at atacama desert resurfaced his head.
It seemed like it was memories from another life, the odd feeling that the passing of time gave to his memories only served to reinforce how much he changed since then.
His personality became more calm but his actions more decisive.
He now thought much more before doing something. But when he decided. he acted as if had no tomorrow. Even in the small things.
That's what he thought of himself at least. But in true, Mack always planned his actions very carefully even before meeting the book.
"Ok, lets go and have a barbecure of Mack today."
Said Mack aloud as if to reafirm his own will that he needed to keep going foward.
The heat was not so intense as he expected when entering the gate, but he knew it was just a matter of time before his lungs feel like burning with the dry and hot air.
Mack walked the arid land and each day he drank a few mouthful of water from the ice ball in his backpack.
After walking for what seemed like ten days Mack stopped. He felt something odd today.
There was a feeling buging him for a few hours, as if something was watching him, but was not quite that, it was a calling.
Mack closed his eyes and waited for the feedback from his passive scan.
"Nothing. What is happening?"
Mack kept having this weird feeling as if something was close to him or following him, but his scan showed nothing all the time.
Mack looked around, even knowing that there was not a single soul in miles.
The dry land now had a few magma pools from time to time and smoke raised from them.
The rest was covered in gray ashes.
He looked behing and his footsteps seemed to go in a straight line but they disappeared after a few miles.
"Nothing unusual, expect this creep feeling that something is close to me."
~sigh~
"Maybe is some side effect of so many time in isolation"
Said Mack removing his gaze from the trail of footsteps and walking foward.
Mack kept walking, taking short pauses to rest and drink water from time to time, and this continued until his path was blocked.
After twenty-five days since he entered this gate, Mack already had no more water, and today, the trial get a bit harder. In front of him, all the magma pools seemed to connect to each other, forming a magma lake.
Mack could not see the end of the lake and the path ahead seemed to always go down instead of up.
Mack thought he would climb a volcano, but it seemed that when he entered the gate he was already at the mouth of the volcano.
Always going down a bit.
And today he seems to have reached where the magma was.
because in front of him was all plain magma nothing else.
"This thing is fucking huge, whats the size of this thing?"
[I cant say, unfortunally]
"No problem, I was just curious"
Mack looked to the sea of magma and the feeling of something calling for him only intensified.
This feeling has been annoying him for days already. Sometimes he seemed to be observed and sometimes to be called.
He knew his clothes only made thru the snow because of his will, but would they survive this magma sea? He was not sure.
Mack stepped on the magma and smoke came from his feets.
Pain came from his toes as they melted and Mack rolled back to where he came.
But not a single scream of pain came from his mouth.
"That hurts, geez."
His blackened right foot seemed made of wood in front of the magma.
Mack, seated by the side of the magma lake, pondered in what to do.
The first gate of duality seemed more gradual then this one, here he didnt feel much heat until now, calmly advancing.
"Should I fly over this? But for how long? What if the sulfuric air made me go unconscious?"
The more Mack thought, more it seemed he would to need to walk on fire.
He could fly, but it seemed if he did it he would not benift from this gate, at least was what his guts told him.
Mack waited for his body to regenerate hos toes and removed all his clothes puting them on his backpack. Than he retracted his Argonian cape, that thing could not be damaged but it felt odd to be naked and using a cape. What kind of man would do that?
Naked again and with a sea of magma in front of him, Mack put his backpack in the ground by his side and walked straitgh to the sea of magma.
Bubles of sulfur came to surface all the time, giving this place the feeling and the smell of hell itself.
Mack knew he needed to adapt to this, all mages used fire spells everytime. This was his chance to be almost unbeatable by mages.
Mack took a step and his naked feeta touched the burning magma.
Smoke raised from his fingers but he didn't stoped.
Walking on fire, he kept going foward.