However, just as his consciousness was about to blink off, he heard that babyish chuckle once again.
The exact same chuckle that enraged him whenever he thought of how it had miserably disappointed him twice.
That momentary lapse and intrusion of rage snapped Soren out of his reverie as he realized the true nature of the trial before him.
It was indeed not a test of brute strength or power, but a test of his inner resolve and determination.
Closing his eyes, Soren dived deep into the recesses of his mind.
Then he began to search for the truth hidden within the suffocating storm of doubts and tempestuous fear.
Then under the brightest of curiosity and coldest of logic, Soren managed to push back the shroud of fear and doubt.
Then he found it.
It was a spark of flame that seemed to be flickering on the verge of final collapse.
Soren instantly recognized what the spark of flame was.
It was the very same spark of flame that had helped him contain the second wave of the Sentient Emerald Core's self-detonation.
He didn't know where it came from or how it managed to get here, but the more he focused on it and try to scrutinize its origins, the more the flame flickered fiercely.
Before long, Soren begun to push aside his own insecurities, and the flame finally seemed to have found a route to surge out of its confines; and surge it did.
~ WHOOSH! ~
The flame erupted outward, spiraling into an inferno that slammed into the tempest of fear and insecurities that had almost snuffled it out.
The duo clashed multiple time, but it merely took few seconds before the flame swallowed up the tempest and exploded into an even stronger inferno that dyed the entire world, red.
But whilst his fears and insecurities had given way to his determination and resolve, Soren still persevered, peering even deeper into inward spark of flame within the raging outward inferno.
To him, his answers were still separated by the roiling stormy cloud of doubts and as he peered deeper, a path cleared between the Spark and the cloud of doubts above.
Then as if responding with a resolve that matched Soren's, the inferno raged even fiercer, rising higher and higher with an unrelenting level of heat would melt even the densest of ores.
It whipped and rose towards the thick cold blanket of swirling doubts with an ever-soaring intensity and collided into it.
~ BOOM! ~
A soul-tremoring explosion reverberated within the area, sending shockwaves that rippled out the crystal and destroy it totally.
Simultaneously, within Soren's Soul World, a crack appeared in its skies, and the very raging inferno that had shattered the Mirror of Insight suddenly surged through the gaps.
However, instead of wreaking havoc here, it instead picked the Sun hovering around one of the three planets within Soren's Soul World, bringing it to life.
The Sun hummed to life, its soothing sound rippling across the entirety of Soren's Soul World.
In that instant, a wave of clarity descended upon Soren's soul body, swirling around him like the graceful embrace of a wind spirit.
He began to remind himself that his past failures were not a reflection of his worthiness, but mere stepping-stones on his path to enlightenment.
"True insight cometh not from avoiding failures, but from embracing, learning, and evolving from them." He thought aloud, in a tone that was wizened, just like the scholar that he once was.
Soren began to realize that every defeat he had suffered in his past lives had indeed each taught him valuable lessons.
It was these lessons that were gradually and subconsciously shaping him into who he currently was and the ideal personality he was striving to become.
The moment this realization dawned on him, his vision abruptly blinked off, as if someone had turned off the TV.
Upon opening his eyes once again, Soren found himself standing before another mirror.
This second mirror not only revealed his own reflection, but also the reflections of those he held dear.
His friends, his allies, and even his enemies; how their lives had influenced his emotions and led him to making both sound and flawed judgements that had brought him to this moment.
However, with the raging inferno now swirling around him with a hunger to destroy, Soren made a lightwork of the trial before moving onto the next mirror.
---
For hours, or perhaps what felt like it, Soren moved from mirror to mirror, each one revealing a different aspect of his being.
Yet through it all, he remained steadfast; his resolve ever-burning and never-wavering.
At the end of each trial, a newfound aura of clarity would surge into him firming his heart, resolve and beliefs even further.
By the time he exited his final trial, Soren had already long embraced all the truths revealed by the mirror; accepting the flaws and imperfections that made him who he was.
A deep sense of calmness oozed out of every fiber of his being; and this time, when he gazed at his reflection, it was no longer wavering, but steady and resolute.
Outside the Chamber of Secrets... The Tortoise watched on with a tinge of awe present in its expression.
"To think he would attain [One with Self] in a trial meant to show him the way to his [Zen of Self.]" It muttered to itself in disbelief.
Back within the Chamber of Secrets...
Soren subconsciously reached out and gently pierced his hand through the final crystal.
Then just like before, the preceding crystal shattered, and the energy within it flowed into him in gentle surges, and in that moment, Soren received his final enlightenment.
"True Wisdom is not only the mere accumulation of Knowledge, but the ability to interpret it through the innumerably varying perspectives of everything else."
Upon coming to such conclusion, Soren then began to review everything he had experienced so far, through the lens he had obtained in this trial.
As he did so, Soren's Soul Body began to shimmer with a brilliant light that bathed the entire chamber in a radiant glow.
As the glow receded, Soren found himself staring at a tome with a cover adorned in intricate glyphs that seemed to shift and phase in and out of reality.
Then with a sense of awe, he grabbed at it, and the moment his fingers touched it, a pulse of primal energy washed through all of its pages and surged into Soren.
Then the tome snapped shut, and dispersed into motes of light that followed the same route as the primal energy.
Though the primal energy was just a tiny, tangible manifestation of what the codex was made out of, it was still enough to give Soren's Soul Body an overall upgrade.
Then the codex appeared within Soren's mind and opened; each of its pages flipped of their own accord with a faint luminescence that revealed the many untold secrets, and forgotten knowledge inscribed within.
Runes of ancient languages long forgotten dotted its pages in batches, giving Soren a brief glimpse of the vast repository of knowledge he would soon be exploring.
Then Soren's vision blinked once again, and he found himself once again hovering before the Tortoise's face with a sense of humility and newfound curiosity.
His spirit was totally uplifted, and his resolve utterly stronger than ever.
"You faced your fears and embraced your truths young one. I never thought you stood a chance." The Tortoise remarked.
"You have proven yourself, Soren. With the Origin Codex in your possession, you now hold the key to the necessary insights needed to unravel the endless mystiques hidden in the enigmatic cosmos."
Though his trials were far from over, Soren believed that with all that he had gained in this trial, he would at least stand a better chance against the others ahead of him.
Then his vision blinked off once again, even as he made a mental note to always try to consciously experience what he felt was a teleportation of some sort.
Upon arriving, the Cosmic Vagrant allowed Soren the time needed to digest his gains, knowing he would undoubtedly need them in the upcoming trials.
Soren on the other hand, didn't feel the need to hear any words from it, so he simply gave a nod.
Upon seeing this, the latter 's vision suddenly blinked once again; his destination; unknown...
---
After a time that felt both like an unknown number of days, and a few breaths, Soren found himself at the location of his second trial, and it was a disorienting majesty in its own right.
Soren found himself absorbing the sight of a sun-kissed valley of two volcanoes, located right at the heart of a scorched desert.
The setting sun in the distance bathed the region in a dull, but contrastingly hot glow.
For a moment, nothing happened.
No response to his presence.
No change in the atmosphere or even seismic activities.
However, the silence only lasted for a single moment before the temperature of the atmosphere began to rapidly rise.
The dormant volcanoes began to glow red as their nuzzles puffed out clouds of smoke that soared high into the sky, darkening the dim daylight even further.
Then it happened...
What Soren had initially thought was a setting sun suddenly began to move, and with each of its movement, the temperature in the area began surge higher and quicker.
The volcanoes began to spew red hot lava that streamed down into the valley.
Intrigued by the sight, Soren pinned his gaze onto the moving majestic ball of flaming gas.
It slowly unraveled itself until it finally unfurled into a majestic a majestic avian monstrosity whose feathers shimmered with the colors of the morning sky.
"As I live and breathe!" Soren exclaimed as his eyes widened in awe. "A... a living phoenix!"
He almost jumped in excitement.
"Thought to only exist in myths, and mentioned only in bedtime stories..." He blurted in excitement, failing to notice the rising atmospheric temperature.
The phoenix spread its wings and flapped it once; catapulting itself into the sky and leaving behind powerful shockwaves that rippled across the valley.
The shockwaves gently washed over Soren, warming up the chilling aftereffects of his previous trial ground as it continued on and slammed into the mountainous volcanoes behind him.
In response, the earth rumbled intensely as a very powerful seismic activity rocked the valley.
The volcanoes spewed out rivers of lava that kept gaining momentum and volume with each passing second.
Upon reaching its intended height, the phoenix abruptly spread its wings wide and burst into a sea of flames.
As if in reverence, the volcanoes also erupted; shooting pillars of lava into the heavens, dyeing the sky bright red as a nostalgic feeling washed over Soren.
Compared to the theatrics of his flames of resolve, this was even more majestic and mind-blowing.
In the blink of an eye, the atmosphere of the desert suddenly turned into a furnace from hell.
Visible plumes of heat began to appear randomly; superheating the sparse moisture in the atmosphere, which in turn amplified the rate of temperature rise by several folds.
Raging Golden Flames billowed out of Soren's figure in retaliation, spiralling into a massive inferno that matched the intensity of both volcanoes combined.
But Soren took control of it through his will, condensing its size until it wrapped itself around his body like a tongue of flame around a wick.
Seeing this, the phoenix cried out in challenge as it burst out of the sea of flames and began to nosedive towards Soren.
Soren lost his composure momentarily as a newfound fear creeped into his heart as he watched the majestic monstrosity descend like Yama's finger.
But as it got within range, the phoenix suddenly angled its descent slightly, shooting past him, but leaving behind a trail of flames that licked at the one shrouding Soren, extinguishing it with a puff.
The true intense heat of the present ambient atmosphere buffeted Soren who watched the phoenix descend into the valley before him and land with an explosion that could put a nuclear warhead to shame.
The entire valley became bright red as the lava melted even further turning into gushing streams that soon became a raging river of flames and magma.
"Welcome Soren; seeker of the Origin Pupils." The Vermilion Monstrosity spoke with a melodious cadence that didn't lose out to the one Soren had heard earlier.