"Forgotten Path?" Nash raised a brow as he shifted his attention from the skeleton onto the staircase and touched his chin as he asked, "So I simply need to ascend the mountain and we are all done? We can finally leave this place?"
"Yes." the skeleton responded cooly, giving Nash the feeling as if it was sitting in one place with closed eyes and was meditating, something which was rather strange to see as it had no eyelids and its hollow eye sockets still gazed into the distance in silence.
"Seems easy enough." Nash, however, didn't care about it and just simply shrugged casually before taking a step forward and placed his right foot onto the first staircase gently.
"So... What is this trial all abou-" feeling as nothing happened when he placed both feet onto the first step, Nash was about to say something when suddenly a peculiar sensation swept through his body for a split second and vanished the next, startling him greatly.
"That... Was strange..." Nash patted his chest to see if anything strange happened to him, but finding there was nothing he raised a brow and glanced at the skeleton.
Feeling the gaze on its bones, the skeleton didn't move but began to talk, "If I were you, I would not waste my time pondering on useless things. Everything in the Forgotten Land will vanish soon, so if you don't hurry up and reach the peak both of us will be erased from existence... or at least our souls as far I am aware."
TREMBLE!!
"Huh?" as Nash listened to the skeleton's words, a slight tremor shook the ground below his feet, forcing him to raise his head and widen his eyes upon a sight he could hardly believe could happen.
The small hill in the far distance together with the trees and all the other plants on it bit by bit began to turn transparent, gradually turning imperceptible as nothing but whiteness engulfed and replaced the previous emerald green scenery!
"You have only one hour." the indifferent voice of the skeleton sounded in the air, snapping Nash out of his daze and forcing him to realize that things truly seemed direr than he initially believed them to be.
"Wait... One hour?! Are you trying to pull my leg or what?" Nash blurted out somewhat loudly, but seeing as he was getting the cold shoulder from the emerald creature once again he shifted his gaze back onto the serpentine staircase with a now slightly stiff complexion.
"Is this for real? One hour won't be enough time for me to reach the peak!" Nash said seemingly to no one, but once he glanced back and watched how the scenery in the far distance gradually vanished, he had no choice but to clench his teeth and finally move.
Pushing his feet against the staircase, Nash kicked off and began to run, passing several steps in a blink and even more after a few more seconds. During this short amount of time, the strange sensation appeared once again and swept through Nash's body just like previously, but with the sole difference that with each step the volume grew by a pinch!
At the start, it was akin to a feather tingling one's skin here and there a few times, but the higher Nash ran and the more steps he took, the stronger the sensation became and the more piercing the feeling turned to be!
After the 100th step or so, the tingling sensation became stabbing, almost like small and thin needles were punctured into his skin through his pores which were pushed deeper and deeper into his flesh! By the time he reached the 200th step, this piercing became so painful that he could literally swear he could feel his bones getting stabbed by invisible powers, driving him almost to the edge to stop and scream!
But somehow feeling that if he does stop now it was very likely he won't be able to proceed on any longer and even try to go back down if not stay there with contemplating thoughts what he should do, he just bit his lips and continued to run, which slowly but surely began to turn into jogging than walking the higher he went.
"Fuck... This starts to become unbearable..." cursing out loud as he kept his gaze firmly on the steps before him, Nash tried to keep his focus away from the almost skin-peeling pain that washed throughout his body by instead counting the steps he passed.
"4436... 4437... 44-, cough!" raising his hand to cover his mouth, Nash lowered his eyes slightly and watched as deep red blood dripped down onto the ground before his feet through the small gaps between his fingers.
Even the taste of bitter irony lingered in his mouth, making Nash know he was indeed not hallucinating and what he was seeing was indeed his blood!
"Souls can... bleed too?" asking himself with surprise as he wiped the blood away from the corner of his lips, Nash raised his gaze and showed a bittersweet smile.
"Almost halfway through and I have less than thirty minutes. I need to hurry up." without looking behind to see what the scenery in the distance looked like, Nash kicked his feet against the ground and while suppressing the urge to cry out from the pain, he began to run once again; of course, it was more than jogging than running, but he definitely was moving faster than he previously did.
After a minute later, Nash finally passed the halfway point and he was already high above the clouds, revealing the peak for him in its full glory below the clear blue sky! However, despite being such a holy sight in front of him, Nash was incapable of savoring the moment to stop and enjoy the scenery as he forced his body to move forward even though blood flowed down the corner of his mouth and his complexion was paler than a sheet of paper!
Another ten minutes later, roughly seven to nine minutes before everything will be decreased and be engulfed in everlasting whiteness, Nash finally reached the final hook in the serpentine staircase and the only thing that severed him from reaching the peak was a few steps and...
"Bleargh!" throwing up a huge amount of blood once again that formed a small pond in front of him and flowed down on the steps behind him, Nash fell onto his knees as the pain in his body was literally torturing.
Every muscle, every tendon, every bone, and even every organ in his body felt almost like they were pierced, cut, twisted, and squeezed, making his blood flow not only out of his mouth but even out of his nose and eyes, giving him a rather horroristic appearance at the moment.
"How much more?" Nash raised his ghostly face gently and with a blurry vision through his barely open eyelids he began to count the number of steps he still needed to take to finally reach the top.
"24... huh..." Nash showed a smile filled with relief, but that smile quickly turned into a painful grimace the moment he attempted to raise his body and move once again.
'Argh... Come on! If I have already reached this point why would I fall now? Move... MOVE!' roaring in his heart to make his body budge, Nash bit by bit raised onto his feet and while enduring the pain in his body raised his foot and began to walk once again.
First step... Second step... Third Step...
After reaching the fifteenth step after four full minutes of struggle, Nash fell onto his knee once again but quickly raised his body and continued to ascend while drawing extra will and strength from parts of his body he did not know even existed before!
And after another four minutes later, when Nash finally placed both of his feet onto the last step and reached the peak, making it just in time before his body would have been engulfed by the spreading whiteness that was only inches away from his body behind him, time seemed to freeze and a blue light with a size of a human fist appeared in the air and floated in front of Nash.
"What... is thi-" Nash was about to ask a question, but was rudely interrupted as the blue light suddenly flashed and with a great force akin to a bullet that bent his head backward crashed into the middle of his forehead, almost forcing him to tumble back and fall into the whiteness behind him!
[Trial of the Forgotten Path successfully completed!]
[Because your Soul has not been engulfed by the Forgotten Light nor did it crumble under the Forgotten Pain, you will be given a Blessing according to your Soul!]
Whoosh!
In the next second, as sounded, Nash felt as the torturing pain in his body began to vanish, and slowly what replaced it was a warm and refreshing feeling while something deep within his right eye began to get hotter and hotter by the fraction of the second!
"Argh!" quickly raising his hand to cover his right eye that now made him feel almost like it was burning, Nash was on the verge of losing himself and tearing his eye out of its socket, but luckily the burning sensation quickly vanished, almost like it wasn't even there to begin with!
[Congratulation! You have acquired Special Blessing: Soul Eye!]
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A/N: Hope you like the story so far! Also, Merry Christmas to all of you! <3