The haven where the Anointment Exam was being carried out in was a dark forest filled with red trees and vegetation. The sky above the clamouring leaves was pitch black, yet the ecosystem was visible enough to see. This was partially so, due to the pale luminescent light that radiated out of those red vegetations.
However, the major light source of the crimson-forest haven was the sanguine tower of light beaming into the sky right from the center of the haven.
The prophets were not given maps nor directions, but they all turned to the beam as the true center of the haven, where they should all migrate too.
———
The trees were rooted at considerable lengths apart from each other making wide enough paths for people to cross. Yet, Izel treaded the forest like she was a titan, razing past the trees to make her own space.
With every angry swing of her obsidian sword, a tree would be fell without resistance. And with each mighty stomp she took, she would grunt like a predator ready to charge at its prey. But her bellows were only of frustration and sadness, exploding after being bottled up for too long.
She let it all out.
... A week ago, after Izel had gone to submit a report on conquering her second Ordeal to become a believer, she suddenly received letters from her supposed friends about going their separate ways.
Without giving her a say in it, they voted to all come to the anointment to have their team dissolved. All five of them had claimed it was simply because they had a poor team dynamic or weren't benefitting and learning from each other, but they all knew the real reason.
The six of them had met as Seers two years ago. At that time, Izel was a new prophet, while the others had already been prophets for three to four years.
Her friends were slackers, but they were fun to hang around with. And she was fine with doing what they were. But as the months went by, omens that were greater than they had been facing began to appear to them, their missions became more difficult, and it was clear that they had to get serious, or they would really die.
It took a long time, but eventually they realised, they didn't have it in them to keep up with the things that Izel kept seeing, with the dangers that kept calling out to her... and how much thrill she seemed to be getting out of it.
When you think about it, there was really no place for a soaring dragon like she was, in a comfortable snake hole that the rest of her team had created. She was ruining their life of gentle progress, while they were holding her back. It was clear to both sides that she had to be cut off, yet the girl had foolishly believed they would all hold onto her as she got strong enough to protect them. To take the burden all by her self. She had dreamt up a merry, oblivious fictional future.
In reality, they would have all died if their team had kept jumping into the omens Izel led them to. So their choice to let her go was right.
Still. No one had talked about it. Or at least, no one talked to her. The only thing she had received was a sudden text message, and her supposed friends evading her at every turn.
Axe, her white horned salamander blew fire on her sword, burning the talisman plastered on it and setting the blade on fire.
She took another swing at a tree, instantly setting it ablaze as soon as it got cut in two. In time, that fire soon slowly spread across the dry ground unto other trees.
"Am I that scary, Axe? Is... that why they won't even talk to me?!" She asked with a stammering voice.
Axe rubbed his head on her cheek to comfort her. She closed her eyes to feel his cold embrace. But then a burning vine fell on her head.
"Tch! This damn forest is in my way!"
Axe suddenly flew into the sky at Izel's order.
Floating in the air, it soared right into the sky, growing from a 45 centimeter long salamander to an 18 meter loong dragon.
The scales on Axe's elongated snake-like body was white, and its underbelly blue. Its head was a lot more triangular, and it had two horns curving out of it like those of a fierce ram.
Shaking his head from the dizziness he gets from transforming, he opened his mouth filled with sharp rows of teeth and roared out tunnels of wind down to the forest below, fueling the forest fire Izel was starting.
After Izel had deemed it enough, the dragon flew down to her to fulfill another task.
With Izel's sword raised up in the air, the dragon opened its wide maw down at her before shrinking and swallowing the length of the blade while the sword was still being held in Izel's raised hand.
The obsidian black blade, after being swallowed by the salamander, fused with the creature. One of its sides was now white, while the other azure, leaving the hilt and guard unchanged.
Apart from colour, Izel's katana was now a whole lot heavier, harder and stronger, but also more blunt than its regular obsidian blade. And rather than cut, the blade shot out crescent slashes of wind whenever Izel swung it in a direction, making those waves crash into several trees and break them apart all at once.
Izel's strength seems to have improved drastically with the blade in her hands, and her body immune to fire. Although the haven had made her resemble a dragon kin, the sword gave her the aura of one— fierce and invincible. But most of all, wrathful.
———
She had already razed ten kilometers worth of forest into ash, before she decided to stop out of consideration for her limited spiritual essence, and the fact that she had already let of some steam. She was calmer now.
"The evil spirit that used to roam this haven must have been really weak." She said, looking at how much of the forest had died under her force.
Izel was sure that if she had pulled a similar stunt in a place that had been run by even a Sullen grade spirit, the damage wouldn't have been this much. This was because the Spiritual Density of a region determined how weak the environment was, and how much force a prophet could release within them.
For example, the gravity of a region being ruled or was once ruled by a Deceiver grade spirit was multiple times greater than one ruled by a Sullen grade. And this multiplier was at least by two whole times!
The same thing could be said about how effective a Prophet's Totem was. Axe could have only grown for ten meters in a region with average density, however here, he was almost twice as big with twice the fire power.
"My condolences to your dead trees, forest. Should have checked with you if you could handle my katana." Sheathing her sword behind her back, Izel joked at the red forest, her countenance completely different from the emissary of destruction she was earlier.
And perhaps fuming with anger, or maybe masochistic satisfaction, the lights in the forest gleamed even more brightly at her.
"Weird." She knocked on one of the trees as she continued to walk by. After a while, Axe finished putting out the fire with his water breath, then returned to Izel's shoulder.
The creature seemed to nod words into her ears before later bursting to white dust.
"Running? Why? I haven't even started ." Izel said, staring into the darkness, towards her first group of victims.
———
It didn't take long at all. In fact, it had taken more effort running towards them than actually fighting these guys.
Izel stared down at the unconscious bodies of three prophets disguised as various humanoid spirits.
The number, '4' popped up above her cryptex before quickly vanishing, showing that she possesses 4 cryptexes at hand.
"That was too easy. Having Believers as participants is a bit of an overkill for these guys. Pretty much all they can do is hide and join the rest of the scraps."
She looked down at the blade in her hand, playing with it before tossing it in the air so it falls into its sheath behind her back.
"At least I've got my boy, Ikky. I gotta find that little rascal before someone else poaches him."
But it didn't even matter if Ikky had already fallen under a group, when she could just beat up the leader and get her friend.
Izel possessed a second/ Divine grade mark of virtue and a powerful being type totem, on top of being a Believer prophet. Very very few prophets could stand against her in a proper one on one fight. The chances that Ikky would meet one of those few people were too low for her to even be bothered.
"These guys will be fine, right? This is a haven after all."
Izel shrugged, seeing as there were now only two bodies on the ground, meaning the last one had run off while she had her back turned.
"I'm leaving now. So you can come get your pals! Or you know, abandon them." She called out to the third person before continuing her journey.
'The third man had run away', was Izel's only assumption. But that man and his two friends, never make it out of the crimson forest.