God Ash: Remnants of the fallen.-Chapter 752: Heaven’s Gates (2).
A sweet subtle breeze...
It was like a lover’s caress, like a gentle touch of love.
It carried a pleasant coolth that made Cain slowly open his eyes.
The moment he did, he felt relief pervade every part of him. Sighs of relief also broke out from behind him.
"We— we survived!"
They had finally broken away from the storm.
The {Argent Amphithere} swam shakily through a sea of clouds painted golden by the light that shine from everywhere, all at once, in all directions.
Cain smiled and gently patted the creature’s back,
’You did a good job. Well done.’ He said directly into the beast’s mind.
Then he let out a pained groan as he collapsed into its back. Experience new tales on novelbuddy
His body twitched and spasmed in agony before he turned motionless.
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’That hurt!’
Not just his body, but his spirit also. Both had incurred varying levels of damage due to the stunt he had just pulled off.
Channelling mana out and into the elemental vault was nothing new to him. He had done it plenty of times.
However, this time had been a tad bit different. First, he had to use {Lightning Thief} to gather the electrically charged mana from the atmosphere and siphon them towards himself.
Using the skill, he would then create a funnel that would pour all the energy gradually into the {Elemental Vault}.
The process had been simple, but the execution had been nothing short of a heart stopped. His heart had almost dropped several times as the currents raced through his body and spirit.
It was a terrifying experience.
Yet, it was not inherently horrible.
And that was because he had managed to gleam some rather useful information.
However, he was not given much more time to ponder on it, as he felt a presence approach them.
Forcing his eyes open, he winced slightly and sat up.
The enormous frame of the {Wind Drake} had cast a shadow over the Silver Serpent. Urging his contracted beast to remain calm, he looked up and smiled at the Wind Drake,
"Aren’t you going to come down?"
The titanic, reptilian body disappeared a moment later, and a humanoid covered in white scales that looked more like parts of an armor set than anything appeared on the back of the {Argent Amphithere}.
Asteron stared at Cain calmly. Then he turned to the rest of them,
"You all did well surviving that."
Cain shrugged, then stood up,
"Damn right we did. Those ugly bastards nearly turned this guy to scales and bones." He said, tapping the back of the Silver Serpent with the sole of his foot.
The {Argent Amphithere} hissed violently in agreement.
Asteron chuckled,
"My apologies for not swooping in to help earlier. However, you seemed to have it under control." He said, his tone seemingly implying something.
Cain completely ignored the innuendo behind his words and raised a brow,
"By the way, where are the other two?"
Asteron glanced up. Cain looked up as well and saw two distant figures swimming in the Sea of golden clouds as well..
He nodded.
The only constant that had remained even now, was the mountain they had initially climbed.
Its body had shot through the two layers of sky, and yet, its peaks were still nowhere to be found. Judging from the slope of the mountain, they were still far away as well, unless it plateaued at some point.
"They are looking for a place to land on the other side of the mountain. Judging from our circumstances, the next stage of the trial should reveal itself soon. It will most likely have us resume climbing the mountain."
The mountain they had been climbing possessed more than one peak. The peak they had.been headed to also stretched into the boundless heavens, its end far away from sight. Cain was beginning to doubt if the mountains even had peaks in the first place.
For all he knew, they could cry welp stretch on for eternity. It was just that enormous.
Before something of this size, he felt immeasurably small.
Cain sighed, then nodded,
"Alright. Thank you for keeping us informed."
Asteron shook his head,
"I told you, didn’t I? You all are now one of us. We won’t abandon you."
Cain couldn’t help but chuckle wryly,
"Well, I appreciate the sentiments."
Then he curiously asked,
"By the way, where are are those two, Grimm and Cello?"
Asteron frowned, "Well, they were separated from us within the storm. Regardless, they should have arrived here by now. They will probably head up the same way we are headed so we should see them again very soon."
Cain hummed then nodded at the Wind Drake,
"Is that so..."
Asteron nodded. A light gust of wind enveloped him and his legs lifted off the silver scales. Then he took off into the skies once again, transforming into the enormous creature mid air.
Cain remained silent, merely looking up at the three circling beasts change their flight patterns and began flying towards the mountain once again.
Because of the violent storm, they had tried their possible best to steer clear of the mountain and its surrounding area in order not to smash themselves to death. This had resulted in all of them ending up rather far away from the mountain.
Cain urged the Sky over Serpent to head back as well, following the three beasts flying overhead.
"Well, he seemed rather nice, didn’t he?" Cain heard Evangeline say as she walked up towards him.
He chuckled, "Maybe a little too nice."
Evangeline hummed, "What do you think he... they are after?"
She turned to stare at him,
"We know why we are here, but what about them? Why are they here?"
Cain shrugged, "Doesn’t seem that important, does it?"
Evangeline sighed then lightly tapped him on the forehead.
"Hey..." He raised a brow at her.
Her indifferent face has a slight smirk on it,
"Come on, think a little bit more."
Cain frowned, ’Think? About what?’
Then he froze.
Now that he was forced to think about it, he realized something. This trial, or rather, the concept behind these trials was indeed a bit strange.
Not just this one, but the first one as well...
According to the system, the first trial had occured at a completely different time compared to the one he lived in.
The events he had witnessed in the past were thus either one of two things; a true reiteration of the past, or a false replica.
A false replica made specifically for the test.
If so, then why?
Why was this period and place chosen? Why were these people chosen to be in this trial as well?
Were they also partaking in the trial as well, or were they inherently a feature of the trial.
Not the ’Trial of Heaven’, but rather, the ’Trial of the Second Order’.
Cain was suddenly filled with the urge to ask a few questions to satiate his curiosity.
Evangeline shrugged, "You are probably right. The reason they are here might not be important. But it could give us an idea as to what their motivations are. And depending on how important they are to the story, it might give us some clues."
Cain nodded thoughtfully,
"You’re right."
He recalled the events of the first trial...
The key to completing it was in his interactions with the people within the trials not the events of the trial themselves.
While this trial seemed a bit different, perhaps there were more similarities than he thought.
’It’s possible. Definitely possible.’
They continued to follow behind Asteron and the other Godly Beasts.
After some time has passed, they finally made their way close enough to the mountain.
There, Cain saw something that caught his eye.
There, embedded on the mountain side directly above a cliff on the mountain, was a gate.
And not just any ordinary gate.
It was a beautiful white gate lined with golden accents and highlights.
It exuded an aura of divine majesty.
It was also incredibly out of place.
"Looks like we’ve found what we are looking for."
The Godly Beasts dove down from the sky towards the cliff. Cain steered the {Argent Amphithere} down to do the same.
Upon landing, Cain could only feel gladness for having his two feet planted on solid ground once again.
"Oh? I was wondering when you all would show up."
Cain looked up to see Grimm, the Dark Elf–Barbarian Hybrid walking up to them alongside Cello, the Ifrit.
The three Godly Beasts has already transformed into their humanoid forms.
Avalon seemed surprised,
"You two are here already?"
Cello nodded, an annoyed expression on her face,
"The storm brought us to an area with not a lot of trouble. Killed what we could, and outran the rest."
Grimm nodded, then his eyes scanned the crowd before settling lasciviously on Evangeline who gave him a blank stare in return.
Sensing Evangeline’s mood sour the moment she saw Grimm, Cain cut him off just before he could say anything.
"Do you know what this is?" He asked, addressing Cello.
Cello looked towards the enormous gate in the mountain’s side then shook her head,
"Not yet. Still, I can make a guess."
Asteron walked forward,
"No need to make guesses."
His gait was confident as he walked away and approached the gates,
"This will take us into the heavens."