Elias trembled as he took a step towards a wall of flesh. His tan bare body could feel the heat radiating from the sea of flesh in front of him. He tried his best to imagine inscribing his belief on every inch of his body and mind.
Life is valued by strength, strength gives value to life, Life is valued by strength, strength gives value to life…
Elias had his eyes closed, so he did not know that he was just one step away from the glowing flesh. He took one more step, and then another.
He was completely absorbed in the disgusting flesh as he let out a shrill scream. Pain engulfed him, as if his limbs were being torn apart and then reattached just to be torn apart again.
A small worm of doubt emerged in his heart.
He felt his blood vessels being extracted and then reattaching consistently. But that was not the most painful experience. The most harrowing pain emerged from his chest; if he knew what a heart attack was, he would consider the pain in his heart right now a million times more potent.
Soon his face was too detached and reattached, making him unable to scream. He felt as if he had been thrown to an inferno naked and was being maliciously stabbed and slashed by a butcher.
To him, each second felt like a lay and each minute similar to a day. He was unaware of it, but he was being tortured for about two hours before he felt his body loosen up.
…
Elias felt throbbing pain in his head as he opened his eyes. He was laying on a strange material with a crown on his head.
Elias looked around lazily. He was in a small room made from orange-ish wood adorned with various golden ornaments in the shape of strings.
Elias raised his hands and clenched them, trying to find any difference in him, but could not.
Did I fail or ascend?
A bright white light flashed beside him as the old man reappeared. He was wearing long, flowing, golden clothes.
"You… failed, kiddo."
"..."
Elias looked away from the respected duke, sighing before nodding.
"I see. How am I alive then?"
The old man chuckled, "Of course you are alive! You are my disciple. I have a friend who excels at healing; healing you was a bit tricky, but it worked out."
Elias chuckled as he recalled another part of the false treasury he got.
…
As a priest, one must have a space tributary Requim capable of storing things, an offensive, a defensive and a time tributary Requim of reversion.
That is because healing tributary does not exist.
One cannot create something out of nothing; Time tributary Requim has a low but prominent amount of material and energy tributary essence.
To revert huge injuries, one would need to use material tributary Requim too.
…
"So… what went wrong?" Elias asked, his voice plain hiding the anger bubbling inside him.
"Well, the flesh did not burn or turn dim, but black smoke rose from your chest, so… You failed to embody your belief.
If I were a second too late, you would have been dead, though."
"How do I… reinforce my belief?"
"What was it?"
"How do I-"
"I am asking what your belief is."
"You old fuc- funny man, it is that strength gives life value."
Elias could not help but laugh as the respected duke sighed
"I have a man, talk to him. Take a break."
***
Flieday laid face first on the warm woody structure in the crack; her breathing was steady as a familiar covering appeared around her.
Flieday did not walk up till three Dusklays later. As she stood from the hard ground, the voice once again spoke.
[You are now a Laity. Any danger to you has been washed away. Now I shall teach you how to control yourself.]
Flieday raised an eyebrow as she picked up a small scrap of bedrock wood. One of the hardest natural woods was in her firm grasp as she tried to crush it.
Of course, only a laity cannot destroy such strong wood which had survived the wraith of a grade three beast.
[Everything is made of essence. Essence can be divided into posi- starlight and moonlight.]
Flieday let out a sigh and contemplated whether using this true treasury for her benefit would help her to rule a tribe.
[Essentially you will extract lights from the world and use their attractive and repulsive properties.]
As the voice explained, the pale man picked up a shard of black bark. It started to glow dim red as the voice explained.
[This is starlight. It repulses from other starlight infused objects.]
Another shard of black bark started glowing red too as the pale man picked it up; when the man brought two of them together, they repulsed and fell backwards.
[But starlight and moonlight attract, for they combine into the whole.]
The pale man's hands stretched and picked the two fragments again; this time, one of the fragments was glowing blue.
They both flew to each other and slammed into one disfigured bark.
…
A vast group was marching towards the south, towards the Moon Tribe. The group was quite a bit larger than it was a few Dusklays before.
Dawn felt the surroundings become humid as she contacted Inky.
We had to slow down and find other tamers since Flieday abandoned us; since then she had not returned.
So Flieday definitely enjoyed playing those games with me and I still am curious about how she hid from Inky.
Dawn was quite confident that Flieday would return to the group and play with her once again. After all, she suspected that Flieday enjoyed playing games with her, and that might be the goal of that young demon.
What? Flieday is back? With a grade three beast!