The trials began, as everybody entered their respective rooms and so did Drake. The trials for each person were personally made for them. Apparently the power of the tower made it so these rooms created the perfect trial for these people to go through, their greatest fears or the things they depended on them most. It was something they had to get with which would make their minds and bodies change, something that would let them reconsider things as a whole. Some of them had their priorities quite straight, however, and their trials were similar.
In front of Hector and Kraxka, their trial was the same, a beautiful and delicate-looking Lizardman girl. Although both were in different rooms, their reactions were almost the same, and their words as well.
"M-Miminga?!"
Sometimes, even your loved ones would appear, a trial that you have to go through to learn more about yourself, and your dependence on them. Can someone truly surpass the trial, if it depends on you slaying the person most important to you?
Meanwhile, as some fought their one loved ones, others experienced their traumas and fears the most. Inside the room where Charlotte had entered, an old and bearded man wearing black armor and wearing a shiny black gold crown decorated with red and purple jewels appeared in front of her.
"Charlotte…"
"F-Father?! What are you doing here?"
"I am truly disappointed on you."
"Eh…?"
"Your talent for forging was the worst of my entire family. You've brought disgrace to the royal family of dwarves."
Charlotte fell into silence before her father's words. She knew it was an illusion, but his voice, his appearance, his stare filled with emotions and intent was so strong and realistic that she couldn't help but remain mute, in silence, fearful of her father's words.
These were the words she had been fearing this entire time. The confrontation with her father after having ran away, the greatest fear of her entire life. Every day and night she knew one day she would have to confront him eventually. She couldn't keep running away from her family forever…
"Father… I…!"
"Being sorry is not enough. You not only dare refuse to learn blacksmithing nor any of our great arts, but you even run away, seeking your feeble dream as a captain of a boat?! Dwarves are not made for the sea; we are made for the forge!" The man roared back at the girl; his stoic voice was so strong it made her feel even smaller than before.
And through strange powers within the tower, Charlotte felt smaller, her entire body slowly began growing tinnier, until she regressed to how she looked like when she was ten years of age, the same age her father told her something that broke her heart for the rest of her life.
"You're a disappointment."
Charlotte gritted her teeth, trying to fight the emotional damage she was receiving, her heart was beating faster, and she suddenly fell into the floor, kneeling while beginning to cry.
"I'm sorry, father! I-I've tried everything I could… I've really tried everything I could! But I was… I wasn't able to forge like my siblings… Everything always came half-assed… I…!"
"You ungrateful child! SILENCE!"
Her father's voice mightily roared, like a spark of thunder, it hit her strongly, throwing her into the floor.
"Uagh!"
Charlotte felt dizzy and weakened, that hit wasn't merely just emotional… that really hurt a lot.
"There's not a single thing worth mentioning about you in this family! You have not done anything for any of us. You grew spoiled by the maids and turned into a lazy girl that is a good for nothing!" The Dwarf roared. "You're a pathetic waste of oxygen and space, the greatest disgrace that our family has ever had! And your dreams? Your pathetic dreams are about going to the SEA?!"
"I-I… But father…! I… I've always loved to be in the ocean…" Cried Charlotte.
"A lowly place where only the worst of society gather, the outcasts that nobody wants go there! You want to be part of those people, Charlotte?!" Her father thundered her with his words, as they hit her like electricity.
"But I've met many people that was good people…" Said Charlotte.
"You've only met the nastiest rats the world can offer! And you, yourself, have become the nastiest of them! You held a promising future, but due to your total incompetence you ruined it all! I have gone through so many hardships and embarrassments due to you! You don't know how much… I HATE YOU!" her father roared back at his own daughter, proclaiming he hated his own kin.
"F-Father…?!" Cried Charlotte, driven to tears as she saw her father's hammer, the same he used to forge, raising over her head.
"You'll receive the punishment I should had given to you back then! You'll receive what I should had done long ago…! You useless piece of garbage… Get out of my sight! Since you were born… you ruined my LIFE!"
"No… father! Noooo!"
CLAAAAASSSSHHH!!!
An enormous lighting bolt was unleashed the moment Charlotte's father hit her with his hammer. The entire room was filled with lightning and smoke, clouding the vision of her father. The man remained stoic, but his face grew redder as his veins began to pop out in fury.
"CHARLOTTEEEE!" He roared like a demon, suddenly finding a gigantic ship in front of him, with a magical barrier. The enormous vessel had suddenly been summoned based in Charlotte's desires and protected her.
As her father furiously roared at her, Charlotte found herself hiding inside her ship, in a corner of a small room where she had her bed and her things… Fearful, she was crying desperately, incapable of confronting the source of all her anxiety, her fears, and her own depression.
"YOU COWARD! COME FACE YOUR FATE! I'LL BLOW THAT HEAD OF YOURS OUT OF YOUR HEAD!"
Her father's ruthless words were like those of a barbarian. Yet, they felt right on place with a man such as him, who had swore at her even worse things in the past…
TRUUUMMM…!
