Temple of Origins, Hall of Trials.
Alex unconsciously reached out with his arm and for the first time since its creation, the gateway to the trial of determination was touched by the hands of a challenger.
The moment Alex lay his hand on the white gateway, a loud crack split the stones and the gateway began disintegrating. Drawn up by some mysterious force, the particles of the fragmenting gateway began to float towards Alex.
All the spectators within and outside the temple were stunned and silent, uttering nothing else. They never expected a challenger would be able to damage a gateway like this causing it to fade in and out of existence as its physical form disintegrated.
However, they noticed that the glow on Alex's body had become more erratic glowing brighter and showing signs of changing hues.
'This is just absurd.' The Temple Guard thought. There was no way a soul flame could be upgraded so many times without a bottleneck.
"What is he doing?" Felix said astonished.
"If you ask me who should I ask?" the woman mumbled quietly as she watched the imposing figure press against the gateway shattering it bit by bit. The gateway was simply unable to bear the pressure fragmenting away bit by bit with each crack.
The other gateways within the hall dulled their aura, as though they didn't want to draw attention to themselves. However, the gateway of determination seemed to have ceased all resistance, giving up under Alex's influence.
Perhaps due to the gateway's lack of resistance, Felix was not too worried about the dangers.
"After all, if nothing amazing happens during the trials how can he stand apart from the others and fulfil the prophecy," Felix said to himself.
Within the core realm, however, things were not as calm. The pillars and the plaza had been shattered into massive particles, floating around the massive black hole fragmenting and merging into its nucleus.
Even the spatial chains holding down the Massive gateway were rattling as though they would lose their grip on the gateway and shatter, leaving the trial realm to turn into an isolated space. Within the nucleus, Alex's body was inundated with massive amounts of soul essence pushing into him. The strain on his body rose as the pressure was just too much.
In the distance, the four cupbearers stood watching in shock as they witnessed the devastation.
"This might not be all that bad for us you know. Gold said to the others
"What is going on, boss? Bronze asked.
"If I'm not wrong the origin cup of will has acknowledged a master and is bestowing this new master with its inheritance.
"How can that be a good thing for us, after we were created as replicas of that very treasure? If that happens will we become vassals of the new master?" Silver said worry clouding his face as he had not been polite to this new master when they first met.
"Maybe without the origin artefact, we would not be imprisoned within this temple and could move the entrance of the trial to other places. Not having to compete for challengers with the other origin trials after all not everyone in the myriad realms can access the Temple of Origin." Gold said contemplatively as he watched the changing black hole closely.
"However that isn't what I'm most worried about right now. The new master may not be strong enough to accept all the blessings from the Artifact and will cause his soul to explode and should that happen you can forget about having a poor impression in the master's eyes as the explosion would be enough to wipe the entire trial realm from existence."
Within the nucleus of the black hole, Alex could feel that his body was reaching its elastic limit and if nothing was done he would surely explode with no other choice he ventured into his Spiritual sea within which he saw that the cyclones had reversed in direction now drawing the water up into the sky covering up the entire region.
Nine massive reversed cyclones converged at their apex with a single massive cyclone in the middle and right amid this cyclone was the culprit of the chaos. The Ember of Will Alex watched as the cyclones grew larger and larger with no signs of stopping soon.
Even his spiritual body was engulfed and placed within the centre of the cyclone. Standing before the tiny crystal, it was here he noticed that tiny particles had gathered around the crystal aggregating into the shape of a cup. Alex continued to watch as the core served as the base for the cup's growth.
Finally, when the shape of the cup was fully formed there was a change in the cyclones. They no longer tried to refine the soul essence entering the sea but directly pulled all the surrounding soul essence it was like the silence preceding the sonic boom after an atomic explosion
Within the cyclone, the cup began to take shape and a violet glow began to spread out from within the ember. Alex watched holding his breath as he felt that should the cup fail to gather there would be nothing left of him as he would be instantly destroyed.
Suddenly, right as the moment the final stage of fusion was about to begin, a blue shockwave pulsed out of the middle of the crystal. Instantly freezing the entire spiritual sea. The cyclones were frozen solid standing tall as massive blocks of ice on the sea. The surface of the sea turned smooth as a mirror of ice. The thoughts now turned into whisps of cold air floating in the massive frozen land.
Alex stunned at the changes, turned his attention back to the ember of will only to find it now merged into a celestial-looking tea cup sealed within the massive central cyclone.
Alex tried to free the ember from the cup only to discover that the ember and the cup had become one entity.
On examining the cup closely a bright red display popped up.