Chapter 916 Moving Forward
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When I woke up the next morning, I found Benladann awake as well, she was looking at the ceiling rather gloomily. She seemed to be still thinking about things. I had already told her everything I could but even then, maybe that wasn't enough. I have to come out with something better or perhaps more fitting of what she wants to hear… Or maybe I should let her be?
"Good morning." She said with a calm smile.
"Good morning, are you okay?" I wondered.
"Ah, yeah… I was just thinking, and come to think of it, you never talked about your own stuff." Said Benladann.
"Oh, my own stuff?" I wondered.
"Yeah, what did you see in your trial?" She wondered.
"What did I see… Well, I found myself." I sighed.
"Eh? Yourself?" Asked Benladann.
"Yeah…"
"Nobody else found themselves except you… Just what was the trial about?" Benladann asked while quickly growing more interested.
"Not even I am sure, but it was probably about accepting my former self… Or maybe about leaving it behind and moving forward without caring about my past. But I couldn't really do that." I said while shrugging.
"Why not?" Wondered Benladann.
"I… I cannot really neglect who I was before. It is what made who I am right now." I said. "Trying to forget that would… make me feel empty. With my own mistakes and my own problems, with my own flaws, everything… It built up my character in the way I am, even the most terrible of flaws was a brick that slowly built into what I am now."
"I see… I-I guess you're right, you're very right!" Benladann said, suddenly realizing something. "Maybe… I should just accept who I was then and also see it as part of what I am right now, right?"
"Oh! I-I guess?" I asked. "I suppose that can also be used as a comparison. I had never thought about it. But the thing is, I didn't really completed my Trial."
"Eh?" Benladann asked in surprise. "How did you got out of it if you didn't complete it? T-That doesn't make much sense…"
"Well it seems the trial just let you go as long as you reach a conclusion. I simply used my Ability to Absorb Divinities and absorbed my other self. I didn't wanted to kill him or let him go, so I brought him with me and merged him with me." I said. "I guess it is something only I could do."
"So that was it… You merged with him…" Benladann said. "Ah, this is still hard to process, but I guess if it coming from you, I can't really help but believe you at the end, you're always having some insane powers you showcase around anyways."
"Haha, I guess you're right. Now let's wake up, have breakfast, and then let's tackle down the last trial…" I said. "After this, we'll be able to finally receive some solid answers."
"Alright." Benladann said.
Like that, we gathered around our makeshift camp and enjoyed some breakfast with everything we could offer in terms of food. Warm drinks were also good at warming our hearts and giving us the resolve to fight, when we were all over, the only thing left was to prepare. I quickly decided to use once more my strongest buffing spell on everybody, increasing the parameters of everyone by a bit, all while letting them feel stronger magically as well, as this buff resonated with their dragon marks.
"Then let's get this over with."
I pushed open the door, quickly revealing an enormous hall made of crystalline ice, not so different from the previous one, but without the many smaller and annoying rooms spread everywhere. This was merely just an enormous room, I guess you could say it was more similar to the first Trial's room, but without the big crystal we had to protect.
"This room is empty?" Miranda asked, walking around while we walked right behind her.
"Yeah, it seems empty, what's the trial?" Wondered Benladann.
"Maybe we have to go through something special again?" Wondered Yuki.
"I don't think so, it said that this trial has something that not even the Venerable was capable of defeating, but that we could…" I said while still thinking about that phrase.
There was no way she was saying the truth, right? How can there be something a venerable couldn't handle so she had to leave it to us? What's there capable of only being slain by us and not her? It simply didn't made sense at all.
We kept wandering and walking into the room, as we inspected every nook and cranny, but there seemingly was nothing of interest within this vast hall, there were just walls and walls of ice.
"Huh? T-That's…"
Miranda, however, suddenly stopped walking, staying still while looking in front of her, almost completely dumbfounded by what she was looking at. Everybody quickly noticed her and wondered what was happening, she seemed too surprised.
"That… that wall, look!" She said.
Miranda pointed at the front of us, a wall made of ice crystal. It looked almost the same as the other walls but had more pillars of ice crystal than the others. I didn't knew what she was talking about, as it was simply another wall… Or was it?
The moment I put more thought and sight into it, I quickly realized what it was. Beneath the walls, there was the faint silhouette of something. An enormous creature clad in black scales and with red shot eyes open. The density of the ice crystal was so strong we were unable to see it until now. And despite its menacing appearance, it had no presence at all, nothing at all. It was seemingly completely dead.
"What is that thing?!" Benladann asked.
"Is this the Trial that the Venerable spoke of?" Asked Yuki.
"But what is that? I can't really make up what it is inside of my mind…" Sighed Miranda.
"It looks like… a dragon." I said with disbelief.
Another dragon…?
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