SSS Awakening: Rebirth of the Strongest Vampire God-Chapter 718: The trial begins
One screen after another flashed in front of Damon, stacking so fast they almost overlapped. He blinked, slightly stunned. "...You really didn’t hesitate," he muttered.
The old emperor snorted. "Hesitation is not the mark of a good emperor, son. Now go and win the whole damn thing and come back as a monster, this entire world will tremble before!"
Damon looked up. The emperor was standing straighter now, his earlier exhaustion gone, replaced by something fierce and stubborn. He now understood why this man had ruled the deserts for so long.
Alzara stepped forward and hugged her father again, this time tighter than before. "You better take care of yourself," she said fiercely.
The emperor chuckled and patted her head. "Same to you. If you get hurt even a little, I’ll haunt him from the afterlife."
Damon smiled. "I’d rather not deal with that." He gave a nod to the emperor and then stepped into the portal along with Alzara. From there, it only took a couple of minutes before they arrived in the wilderness once again.
Damon barely had any time to explain what happened to anyone as the event countdown started right on time.
He recalled his blood avatar without hesitation, closing his eyes as memories, experiences, and sensory fragments flooded back into him. Then the two inner blood avatars followed, their accumulated insights merging seamlessly with his own. His aura stabilized. His foundation sharpened.
And just as the countdown reached zero, golden light surged around him.
[Ding! The Golden Throne stirs. You are summoned to answer its call.]
Damon felt the familiar pull of the teleportation skill. Except this one was a lot stronger. Space twisted. The world shattered into streaks of light and shadow, and his entire being felt as if it were being crushed into nothingness.
Despite all of his recent upgrades, for a moment, it was as if he did not belong to him. He was a mere insect in front of the godly force that was all around him. The pressure he felt when he had looked into the pair of eyes was nothing in front of this force. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
It had an absolute dominance that made every little bit of defiance fade away. There was no going against it. It was a rule that every living being, no matter if they were a God or not, had to obey. They absolutely had to submit to this inevitable authority.
Damon’s knees buckled. His soul screamed in agony. Every inch of his being shivered and trembled. His mind reeled from pain and then blanked out. He was almost at the brink of collapse when the teleportation finally ended, and he felt stable ground underneath him.
The world around him continued spinning as Damon took a moment to stabilize himself. He was then forced to close his eyes again and take several deep breaths. When he was finally in a position to take in what was around him and feel a sense of normalcy, more than 15 minutes had already passed by.
Damon was very aware of the time because right there, in the corner of his vision, a massive ticking clock bar floated silently, counting upward from zero until what seemed to be ten hours. This should essentially mean he had ten hours in this place?
He looked around, and the world was still a bit blurry, except for the path in front of him. As he focused on this path, he suddenly had a vision. A mountain full of golden doors emitting splendid golden lustre. The doors further up the mountain had a brighter glow as if they were closer to the sun itself.
The vision vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving Damon standing at the same spot. He was not very sure what any of it meant or what he was supposed to do right now, but one thing was clear. He needed to climb, and he needed to climb fast.
Damon quickly dashed up the mountain in front of him. The path was an upward slope, so it was easy to confirm that this was the mountain he had seen in his vision. The trial was probably related to him reaching one of those doors or the peak of the mountain.
As for what was behind those doors... he probably had to open one to know for sure.
Damon did not waste time. He quickly started climbing, but before he could take a few steps, he noticed someone familiar from the corner of his eye.
Coincidentally, it was none other than the golden masked bastard from the Canadian Northern Frontier guild. Unlike Damon, the guy was still in a state of daze, his body all wobbly and his face contorted in pain.
Damon did not stop climbing. At the same time, he sent out a miasmic bullet towards the guy. This was definitely a perfect opportunity to take care of the guy. However, when his bullet reached the guy, a golden barrier sprang up and prevented the attack from reaching.
To Damon’s surprise, the barrier remained bright and intact, no matter how many attacks he unleashed. Frowning, he lifted his own hand up and observed.
And there it was. A faint golden sheen.
Once again, Damon was not sure what was happening, but he could see that there was a sort of barrier in this place that prevented one player from fighting against another player. Nothing was actually stopping him from standing here and trying to break down the barrier by slamming more attacks on it.
Except, doing so would only be a big waste of his time. His gut feeling told him that the trial was more about climbing this mountain and getting to those golden doors rather than fighting with each other. Damon chalked it up to being one of the rules of this place.
Either way, he decided to find out more about it later. For now, his focus would only be on getting to one of those doors and opening it. From the looks of it, he currently had a head start advantage, and he was not going to lose it.
