Sylvester, at first, didn't feel anything under his crutch as he tried to measure the dark ravine while keeping his foot behind. To his luck, he felt nothing, and the crutch continued to fall deeper and deeper.
"God! I almost fell!" he exclaimed.
Hozin interrupted him just then. "Apostle, you must use both legs, or the ancient magic will not appear. This tribulation is a test for those who dare to cross. Without complete faith in oneself, this ravine will never allow passage."
Sylvester withdrew his crutch and glared at Hozin. "First of all, I only have one foot. Second, how do you know all these rules when nobody has crossed in hundreds of years?"
Hozin pointed to the girl beside him. "Kimino saw you do it. That's how we know the rules."
"I saw you overcome. Don't be afraid," Kimino monotonously added. "Good luck."
'She's cheering me on? Or mocking me?' Sylvester wondered. He couldn't read Kimino's emotions as her face remained unchanged, and her heart seemed dead. She was difficult to read unless something shocking happened.
"Alright, I'll use my foot as well. Chonky, be ready to save me," he decided and simply walked over without a second thought. Darkness was no match for him, as he was the embodiment of light. He believed he'd eventually live and come out even if he fell into the ravine.
'Sylvester, you can do it, buddy.'
"Don't die, bald mister!" Xylena shouted from behind, still calling him bald despite him not being bald for very long.
Finally, he let go of the land behind him and let fate decide his future. With Miraj on his back, ready to fly up, he had nothing to worry about.
"Oh! I can walk on air!"
Rather than falling, he felt an invisible floor under his feet. It felt airy, yet there was something there.
'Ancient magic is…incredible.'
With that, he strode quickly toward the Core Temple. From his viewpoint, he estimated the temple to be at least eight kilometers away from his current location. And all of those eight kilometers was a dark and deep ravine.
He walked continuously without resting, using the crutch. At first, it felt easy, but once he crossed the one-kilometer mark, he began to understand why it was called the Tribulation path.
"I feel the gravity increasing at least fivefold," Sylvester muttered as he felt the force on his wooden crutch intensify. "Miraj, do you feel anything different?"
"Different? I feel nothing," Miraj replied, perched on Sylvester's shoulder.
'So the magic isn't affecting him?' Sylvester was taken aback, and the mystery behind Miraj's existence deepened. 'What is he?'
"I hope it's just gravity and no other test waiting for us."
Crack!
As he crossed the second-kilometer mark, the pressure grew so much that the crutch began to shatter. It wasn't going to last long; that was clear.
"Chonky, give me my spear. I will use it for support instead."
Then, he continued to walk. However, he felt a strange discomfort rising in his body, and especially his mind becoming hazy, unable to think straight. With each step, the effects only increased and made him slightly dizzy.
"Maxy, what happened? Why are you slowing down?" Miraj asked in concern. "Do you want to rest?"
Sylvester did not stop, for he was afraid of being unable to wake up. "No, Chonky. But ancient magic is playing tricks on my head. If you see me losing my mind, it's your job to steer me toward the destination. I will try to keep my feet moving."
"Understood! You can count on me!" Miraj prepared to fly before Sylvester's body and pull him towards the Core Temple.
'What the hell are these visions?' Sylvester wondered as he began to see strange images in his head. They were not his own, for the names, voices, and faces were such that he had never seen before.
Soon, he crossed four kilometers, reaching the halfway mark. That was when everything intensified many times over. The gravity felt as if it were a hundred times stronger than usual, and the visions became so evident in his mind that the barrier between reality and the vision vanished.
The voice was as clear as day, and it belonged to someone from whose perspective he saw the vision in his head. He found himself in a strange body standing in an unknown place. It was a barren grassland with mountains in the distance.
While he stood on a tall rock, there were tens of thousands of people around him, watching him with reverent eyes.
And then Sylvester spoke, or rather the body spoke. "Please be at rest, my beloved people. I am a mere mortal, much like yourselves. I beg you not to revere me as a god. Rather, I am but an instrument, a conduit through which the divine speaks to you. Through me, you may attain salvation!
"The lands that lie beyond us shall one day witness the grandeur of towering buildings, which will house the most devoted adherents of God, those cherished by his loving embrace—Today! I deem this place—Holy Land!"
The scene changed suddenly, and the world appeared much darker, but it was not nighttime. Instead, everything felt dusty, as if a cloud had enveloped the surroundings.
"Who are you?!" demanded the body possessed by Sylvester. "Why have you come to desecrate this holy sanctum?"
No reply was given, but instead, a bright light flickered in the distance, transforming the black dust into a white sparkle. It was a colossal, blinding orb more powerful than any light Sylvester had ever seen before.
And judging from the reaction of the possessed body, the man felt the same. "Why destroy this land I cultivated with such care? Who are you?"
However, only beams of warm light attacked, so intense that even the sun would cower. Yet, the man did not waver and fought back against the light.
"I will never allow you to ruin the land that has finally joined the world as one!"
With that, the battle between a man and the light began. It went on for a long time, and Sylvester witnessed every moment of it. However, no conclusion seemed to arise from it, regardless of how much the man tried to push through.
"MAXY! WAKE UP!"
Unfortunately, he couldn't see the end of it as he felt his mind awakening to reality, and Miraj's voice reaching him. He felt his vision returning to normal and a warm, wet sensation surrounding his face. He also realized his body was lying on his back on the ground.
'Ah? Am I in the water? Did I fall into the abyss?'
However, as his vision normalized, he saw the daylight emerging. But soon enough, he also noticed a big, cloudy face and a pink tongue licking him all over.
"What are you doing, Chonky?"
Miraj finally stopped and hugged Sylvester's neck. "I brought you to the other end, Maxy! You stopped talking and became like the undead Bishop Lazy makes. But I dragged you along."
Sylvester rested and regained his lost energy. He found that the intense gravity no longer affected him, and instead, there was an abundance of Solarium that revitalized him quickly.
A few minutes later, he slowly rose to sit and surveyed his surroundings. As expected, he found a colossal structure towering in front of him. It resembled a grand temple with simple walls and pillars, but its sheer size was unimaginable. The pillars supporting the walls and roof were each fifty meters thick and went hundreds of meters into the sky.
Surprisingly, there was grass all around, and large ponds filled with water and fish surrounded the entire temple.
The building was primarily constructed of bricks made of dirt, with some gold used as highlights here and there. But the entrance door was small, reminding him that no matter what, he was still the size of an ant compared to the structure.
"Let's go inside, then." He stood up with the help of his spear. Miraj assisted him, excited to see what was inside the massive structure they had struggled so much to reach.
The atmosphere in the vicinity felt much more refreshing, and the aura had a calming effect on his heart and mind. It was Solarium, but also much more than that. There was a peculiar positive energy that uplifted his spirits.
With high hopes of discovering something remarkable, he entered the small door that led to the temple. He expected to be astonished and perplexed by the sight, but instead…
"Is this it?" he exclaimed, finding nothing but vast emptiness inside.
The colossal structure was entirely hollow from within. From one end to the other, from the floor to the distant ceiling far above, there was no obstruction of any kind. Furthermore, at the top, there were a few enormous light crystals that illuminated the interior.
"The walls have ancient elder runes carved all over them." After examining it closely, Sylvester noticed ancient elder runes carved all over the walls. Even the floor had intricate patterns resembling rune circles. However, they made no sense to him as he had never seen anything so complex before.
"How am I supposed to study this without any guidance?" he wondered and cautiously studied the walls and floor.
"Maxy, look! Isn't this a button?" Miraj suddenly exclaimed, having reached the center of the floor, right in the middle of the rune circle.
"Button? No, this is a mini-rune circle inside a rune circle." Sylvester examined it closely. "Let's try activating it. But be ready to attack, Chonky."
Miraj quickly picked up Sylvester's spear and hovered mid-air, ready for swift action. Meanwhile, Sylvester knelt down and placed his palm on the rune circle.
"Here we go!"
Woosh!
He infused a small amount of solarium into the rune circle. In response, he sensed the solarium expanding into the larger Rune circle and spreading throughout the floor, reaching the colossal walls.
The solarium continued to rise, eventually reaching the giant crystals on the ceiling. But that was just the beginning of the magic, as the light crystals seemed to lose their radiance, getting drained by the walls.
In an instant, every single Elder Rune text on the walls began to shine. All four walls of the building were covered with small lines of text consisting of who knows what.
Boom!
The ground shook, and Sylvester rushed to the door to look outside. As he expected, the enormous ravine was filled up, creating a plain dirt path, allowing Hozin and Kimino to cross over.
'How much magic did it take to achieve this?' he wondered and turned back to try and decipher the runes.
"So a scheming murderer is my heir?!"
"WHO'S THERE!" Sylvester roared nervously in response to the sudden voice.
"A lowly imposter is my heir?!"
Sylvester readied himself to battle due to the increasing animosity in the voice. "Reveal yourself!"
"Now, you have beheld!" Out of the floor, from where Sylvester activated the small rune circle, a ghostly golden shining figure of a middle-aged man emerged.
Sylvester took his spear from Miraj. "Enemy? Or mistaken identity?"
The ghostly figure drew near Sylvester. "I have witnessed it all, Sylvester Maximilian, or must I say Johnathan Colt Westerling?"
Sylvester's jaw tightened as the confrontation seemed imminent. "Who are you?"
"I am Luther Vas Hermington, the—"
"Wait!"
Sylvester interrupted with a much louder voice.
"The first Pope?!"
Thank you for reading. GT votes are much appreciated.
