Where is... my life?

Chapter 1: The trial of testing (Ending)

Pain that didn't appear to be at all numbed corroded my senses, as my vision lost and regained focus continuously. My heart was beating like it was going to jump out of my chest. My head felt like i was suffering the mother of all fevers. I tried at first biting my lips, but soon the pain became just simply too much, and a scream came out of my throat; the most piercing howl i ever let out, i was sure of that even without my memories. Not long after i fell to my knees, and then my whole body fell to the groud, unable to muster up the strenght to stand. My eyes started to fail me and the room switched alternatively between pitch black and the bright althoug pale color the walls had started to glow in, but I tried to look at my hand, trying to comprehend what was happening.

Crimson covered the sides of the sphere. I thought that might be blood in my weakened state, However, i wasn't bleeding; that was the pure energy contained in the artifact, dying the color of my skin; first making a design around it, as if it was the center of a small sun on my hand, then a line stood out and climbed my arm, reached to my shoulder making an spiral around my arm, then divided in two; one of the lines reached my chest and stopped right where my heart was, a small circle where it ended; the other passed by the rear of my neck, and got below my hair. That, i couldn't see until that hell was over. My body started convulsing like it had a life of it's own, and i felt myself becoming a rag doll to the sudden movements that i was doing completely disregarding my will; each of them accompanied by a sharp sting of pain.

Then all of a sudden... it stopped.

Not only the pain, but everything did. In an instant, all pain ceased, all movement ceased, all contact with my body ceased. It was like i had died for a moment, i was completely disconnected from my body; i "felt" the surroundings, as if my awareness was expanded, i felt i was quiet, but i couldn't perceive anything from my five senses, nor could i put any strenght anywhere. That lasted for around a minute, during wich i slowly regained control. And when i felt myself in charge again, I finally moved and looked at what happened, at the changes, understanding little.

The only thing clear to me was that the artifact had somehow fused with my body. Perhaps, taken it over. How, was beyond my comprehension. But right now, i felt my mind mine, my thoughts the same as before, and although i found nothing of this funny, the need to press forward was unchanged. I well realized that, without the cape that seemed to heal my wounds, I would most likely be a goner by now, and i decided to assume that, whateer the adquired artifact was, I would also need it to survive what was to come.

I saw no exit nowhere, other than where I came in from, however with the icey path destroyed, going back was not just not an option, but an impossibility. However, directly opposite of it, there was a small, unnaturaly round hole in the wall, around the height of my hand, wich seemed to be around the size of the artifact that just found a new place in my hand. Ready to take it away at any moment, i pressed the sphere against the cavity. However, there was no need for caution. Not for "that" caution.

As soon as i tried, a small part of the groud i was on, just my size, felt unstable. I looked down, and saw it melting. Before i had time to react and step back, I fell down into the opening.

What happened after that was too fast to think anything calmly.

After a couple meters or so of straight fall, it became a very inclinated slide, that i rode on very, very fast, not quite by my choice. Then it started spiralling, messing up with my sense of balance. And not long after, i saw a light coming in front of me; not too bright, but gave the feeling of the light at the end of the tunnel. It quickly became wider. And then i noticed suddenly, a quite frightening view.

There was about a single meter left of slide. In mere instants i'd fall from it... into the abyss that opened up in front. twenty meters ahead, there was the other side, but that was too far, and certainly no time nor calmness for analysis to find a way to cross. My reaction was of pure reflex. I lifted myself up, in a lame attempt to stand up, with my knees flexed, and not a single instant before the slide ended, I sprung my legs up and jumped. Although my mind knew, rationally, the distance was way too long to cross with a jump, despite the impulse.

I did not realize in the adrenalyne of the moment, but my heartbeat accelerated when i tried to do that. Normally i never would have had the time to do all that in such few instants, but my reflexes improved with my heartbeat. The sphere in my hand glowed, and the red design turned crimson.

And now I was in the air... in an unrealistically long and high jump.

It wasn't until I landed safely, a perfect landing, on the other side, that my whole body started to go back to normal, slowly and steadily, and my mind started to process what just happened.

As soon as i pictured in my mind what i had to do, and as soon as i realized it was impossible, that phenomena started, and apparently, the artifact in my hand gave me the strenght to make the feat.

I looked forward; I had finally reached the end.

In front of me there was only wall. Not that low wall that made the rooms, but the limit of the stance. No clues to continue, again. The space was small, not bigger than the room where i got the sphere. Only floor, wall, and ceiling, with a small exception. There was a diminute patch of ground that was made of a cristal-like material; It was aqua green in color, great contrast with the environement, and had an unnatural glow around it, the light of wich faded at mere centimeters.

I stepped on it.

Nothing happened.

In frustration, and releasing all the stress i had been building up since this crazy quest started, I lifted high my fist, and with all the strenght i could muster, punched it.

A flash of light enveloped everything. A sound, similar to an agitated sea, sounded. Not inside my head, but it came from around me; The first real sound i heard since this all started.

The light took over everything, and i lost contact with the ground.

TRIAL OF TESTING: TRASCENDED