Cut off from the outside, alone in a black void of darkness with no way to feel my body or know when time will pass, all I can do is wait.
The round's name was Isolation, so my best guess is that I must endure and not crack under the pressure of endless time without stimulation.
On its surface, this seems like a quite simple and straightforward first round for the trial.
All I have to do is sit and wait, but the daunting underside of this is that there is no timer signifying how long exactly I have to wait.
The worry that the outside world is moving on without me doesn't seem like an issue, as the tower's rules stated the third and final trial won't start until all challengers are present; and I trust my Inner Circle to stand their ground outside.
If Ember is in a similar situation as me, I trust that he will be just fine as well. As he's most likely lived more lifetimes than I can comprehend, waiting in an endless void may not be very difficult for his psyche.
I've been through something like this before, inside the Titan's Domain the first time I fell inside by accident, not knowing when I'd ever make it out of that solid white box.
Even returning to train, the isolation definitely changed me, but it was possible...
However, as these thoughts race through my consciousness, the fact that the difficulty of this trial was calculated beforehand just like the first one does give me a tinge of unease. My definition of long isolation may be far different from my battle partner's.
Even so, I can't move, speak, smell, or see; all I can do is endure. So that's what I do...
—
What I can only believe to be the first few hours go by extremely slowly, as this is the time when the reality of this situation truly sinks in.
I want to move around or hear some noise; it's like a gut impulse that craves patterns and wants there to be some kind of movement within the infinite darkness that hits my senses.
I try to count in my head, but after reaching 100,000, even this begins to seem trivial.
Then again, the moment I stop and decide to just sit in my own silence again, my mind forces me to restart the count.
I can think about potential scenarios in the outside world, like a fantasy playing in my mind, but they all fall short of the reality before me. This is not my normal mind; I cannot just picture crystal-clear images as if they were reality. All I can do is savor the fading memory of what it used to look like to see.
It's not like I'm closing my eyes to see this darkness; I don't have any eyes to close. This abyss of nothingness is everything I have.
Colors and sounds become nothing but a fading memory as I recalibrate to what's before me.
I don't feel hunger, pain, or pleasure whatsoever. My count reaches 100,000 again, and it doesn't feel like I'm counting fast or slow at all.
Both concepts begin to split away.
Maybe in the first few hours, I could have guessed that I'd say one or two numbers in my head every second, but now I can't tell if seconds, minutes, or even hours are going by between each number.
I begin to have mental slips in between each number I count, spacing off into the endless void, not remembering whether or not I was imagining what it was like in the outside world or still counting, and having to reset my numbers again and again.
From this point forward, I never make it back anywhere close to 100,000 again.
I consciously realize this, but there is nothing else to keep my mind occupied. I can only think about using my system, or the faces of my teammates, or the impending battles in this tower for so long.
The daunting feeling of being trapped in true endless darkness because of my soul pact with an immortal being that keeps me partially sane. Slipping away for too long now could be catastrophic if this is just the beginning.
Fleeting memories of Ember's calm eyes and unfazed demeanor in every situation we're in begin to make far more sense. When looking into the void of eternity, what is there truly to fear...
There's a point where this notion is all I really think about, and an eerie calm washes through what's left of my mind.
I sit in the darkness, with only darkness on my mind.
I know I have a goal: it is to endure, but at a certain point, I don't know why or what I'm enduring for.
There isn't anything else to do though, so endure is what I do...
—
Darkness envelops reality and becomes it.
Days could have passed, maybe years, decades, centuries, millennia; I don't know.
My mind has put its walls up. The moment I lost the ability to count any further and accepted this reality, a mechanism in my mind decided to save its conscious thoughts, tucking them away into the depths of my consciousness; only to let my subconscious play with the endless darkness and lack of stimulation in my surroundings.
If anything happens in the void around me, it is impossible to tell, as I've mentally cut off my conscious mind from its surroundings as an automatic defense mechanism.
—
In reality, my subconscious wanders, and it finds what I sensed slightly the moment I started this trial.
It is an invisible, unsensible, undetectable energy floating around in my mind.
When my active thoughts attempted to pursue it, it could never be found, but now, my subconscious plays with the invisible energy left within my mind that is Divine Ether.
It acts as though it has a mind of its own but moves extremely slowly, only communicating with my subconscious on a scale of years rather than seconds as a usual conversation would.
My mind accepts this conversation as a slow-moving white mist in a sea of darkness, and it creates a barrier between the nothingness and my true mind deep within, shielding it from the passage of time while having a conversation with my subconscious.
—
903,881 Years, 7 Months, 2 Weeks, 4 Days, 11 Hours, 30 Minutes, and 16 seconds pass...
—
Silver light and an ancient-sounding voice echo through my mind, waking me up from the longest nap I've ever taken.
[Round 2 of 3 Shall Commence]
[Round 2 of 3 Title: Perception]
[Objective: Find the finish.]
As I see these words flash through my mind, the feeling of my body returns to me, my tight grasp around my soul sword is evident, and my divine core burning bright in my chest is powerful and ready to take on the world.
Ember looks at me with an expression of concern, and the second head of the serpent moves toward us.
It is all extremely overstimulating, as it feels as though I just stared into darkness for a few months, or maybe even a full year.
It feels longer than any time I ever spent in the Titans Domain.
I remember counting, and waiting, then counting more... then just darkness... and now I'm awake.
It really didn't feel like much of a challenge now that I look back on it.
There is an overwhelming feeling that comes over me as though I'm definitely missing something, but too many things attack my mind at once.
Even if this first round was easier than expected, the instant connection to 35,947,021 links of loyalty is quite overwhelming.
I can't remember the exact number of links from before, but as my perception seeps back to the battlefield outside the tower, my eyes widen, and I realize it was all an illusion...
Even so, I do remember being extremely confident about the odds of the battle outside going into this, and what I can see around me, the battles aren't going quite as planned.
Some time has certainly passed.
With the silver serpent's head coming closer, I make the split-second decision to open my Rising Emperor's domain to make some changes in order to help those on the outside before I won't be able to anymore.
The same instant I do, the silver serpent's eyes flash silver again, and my vision is blurred.
—
Just a few moments ago, my whereabouts inside the tower were cut off from everyone on the outside world.
Maria has been injured by a strange demonic energy-laced dagger, while Abby was knocked backward by a ball of darkness, stronger than any attacks Ember threw at her during their training.
On the other side of the desert, Raven is having a rude awakening of her own; as the aura alone from this demon unleashing its bloodline made it through her divine stealth True Core's ability, rendering her trump card useless.
Both the Demon's body, spear, and purple-glowing Demonic Greater Form grow in size, becoming far larger than Raven's battle form, and suppressing her movements entirely with its aura alone.
Not even sending a concentrated attack Raven's way, she winces, having trouble even looking up at the massive Demonic Form. It speaks loud enough for the entire Dark Continent battlefield to hear.
"You have all been doomed from the start. We can suppress the strongest in this world with ease. Our Lord shall reign supreme, and you shall obey..."
It releases a real wave of intimidation, and Raven is sent flying backward from the shockwave alone.
It grins and lets out a low laugh.
Its fellow True Core on the other side of the desert matches its tone, as they have both shown their dominance, and no one in this world is anywhere close to strong enough to stand in their way.
The link from within the tower is severed, and even the Crimson Army has its hands full, fending off eight times the number of troops attacking them from both sides.
Arie has managed to keep the casualties at zero so far, as his full concentration has been saving soldiers in danger from afar while the Crimson Army fights with everything they have.
However, that too looks like it's soon to change, as two high-level yellow cores are coming their way, one of which is dead set on Arie, as it's the one that he almost killed and humiliated in front of its Lord.
Even as all hope of salvaging this fight seems lost, no one backs down.
The Saint and Arie turn their focus to the Generals while Fisher and Lydia pull back to stop being hyper-aggressive and make sure to watch the backs of their fellow troops now while the full yellow cores handle the front lines.
Maria tanks the purple wound that won't go away no matter how much self-regeneration she does at the moment. It only slowly heals, and would take minutes that she doesn't have to fully recover on her own, so she recharges her soul energy sword to face the superior demon that threw that hit.
Abby, forming half a dozen spears of rock around herself, shakes off the hit she received and zips around the back side of the demon to support Maria as it comes her way.
Maria pulls out a small white knife from her item box, one of the unique items Raven gifted her when they cultivated together in her volcanic base.
She lets go of it, and it begins to spin around her Ice Goddess form, leaving a trail of white ice behind it. There is a faint divine energy coming off of it, and Maria's expression tells this won't be enough of a boost to turn the tide of the battle, but it will give her enough time to wait for support or think of another idea that will.
This is proven true as she and the demon collide again.
Maria is overpowered just slightly by their collision and has to twist out of the way again, but as the second dagger comes hurtling toward her midsection, the white icy blade hits it, and it's thrown just off course enough to avoid hitting her.
Abby sends a massive raining attack of earth pillars down on the demon, and it has to use up another attack to destroy them; giving her just enough time to curve around to Maria and use her restoration magic to heal the demonic wound on her side.
—
While Maria and Abby have just enough power and gear to fend off their Second-Class Bloodline Demon, the First-Class Monstrosity staring down at Raven is in a league of its own.
"You still dare to look at me like you have a chance at winning?" it arrogantly yells while pointing its black and purple Greater Form's spear down at Raven, making her look like an ant in comparison.
The ripple in space the spear makes as it comes closer sends Raven flying backward just from the radiation; but her grip on her blades stays tight and her eyes stare up at the Demon without fear.
It laughs, retrieving its weapon and flying forward while yelling again, "Very well, I understand, the strongest warrior of humans wanting to be killed while holding onto hope for their world..."
Then, it throws its spear forward, faster than the eye can see.
It almost looks like the spear disappears in the demon's grasp, and only reappears when it makes contact with Raven's chestplate.
It shatters, and the shockwaves it creates crack through the entire dome, sending her flying downward toward the desert floor, coughing blood.
The Demon yells as she plummets downward.
"While I understand, I do not respect your wishes. You are a human, and we are your gods. You shall submit, and I will make an example of you to the world as my personal slave. Go against the Demons that rule you, and this is the result. Even your strongest cannot resist."
Another massive boom echoes throughout the dome as a crater is formed on impact and the purple spear pins Raven to the rocky desert floor.
It missed her vitals by mere millimeters; this was clearly done on purpose as the Demon floats downward with a twisted grin on its Greater Demonic Form.
However, Raven's hands still grip the silver blades, and her eyes are as sharp as they were when the battle started.
That's because, on the way down, the sensation of the view inside the tower returned.
Now, after impact as the Demon comes closer, a notification rings in her inner ear. A new unique buff is granted within her system interface.
Raven has become the fourth General of The Rising Emperor, and now watches her unsuspecting prey float down toward her from above.
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Author's Note:
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