Inside the Bonehorde Forest. Inside the golden formation. Inside the cave. Inside the storm.
A storm of great elements. Four elements. Water. Earth. Fire. Wind.
The four elements worked in tandem to bring out a terrifying, yet beautiful storm. However, what was odd… just when Karni started to understand, to feel the elements, they changed. His senses disturbed.
The elements were not pure. They were personification of a will, representation of time, of a period of time.
The Water gained a cold and dark nature. The surroundings changed into white, into patterns. Snow and Snowflakes. Then Ice appeared. It was the Ice element brought forth by Water.
The Earth lost its neutral brown character and became deep, dark brown. It even became slightly wet. Fertile soil, one which could sprout rich forests and jungle. The kind that appeared after the snow melted and the earth was filled. A time of blooming flowers and rich, pleasant aroma.
The fire bloomed richly, yet instead of damaging, it turned into warmth itself. A soft and gentle fire, providing energy to its surroundings. The energy of life to give and a warmth to experience. Lighting up the world.
And last, but not truly last, as all of it was happening at the same time… wind, quickly turning into hurricanes. Sharp and dangerous wind, not the soft kind. The kind that brought great cyclones and storms upon the world. A time that cleansed the world through harshness in preparation for a darker and colder time.
Each element represented a season of its own. They were alternative elements. Winter Water. Spring Earth. Summer Fire. Autumn Wind. The Elements of Four Seasons.
Karni could feel the differences between each element from the pure elements he'd felt before from the likes of Gu Yue. In that one Bamboo Stick, the elements were gathered from the storm.
Yet those elements started changing again. A new transformation. Karni felt the same feeling of time affecting the storm again. The change in Seasons…
But the process suddenly stopped, and the change went away with an anticlimactic poof.
Karni stared a bit as the cave suddenly turned completely silent. It was like the place itself was confused as in what to do. Something went wrong.
The atmosphere found its ground soon, thankfully, and started transforming again. The cave started to slowly glow in four colours. No, it was not the cave that glowed. It was the bamboo reflecting off light from outside and transforming it into four different colours, each representing one of the elements.
The colours became gradually denser, to the point that one could hardly see the original grey colour of the cave walls.
In a sudden burst, the colours brightened, then disappeared. The Bamboo was now so gold, it could have been mistaken for being made of pure gold. It did not look natural.
This unnatural bamboo suddenly shot straight at Karni, into his stomach. Karni could not react at all.
He spewed blood on the ground, and the blood slowly rose and started glowing.
The blood triggered another storm, and the world around Karni transformed.
… … …
The storm became an earthen brown colour. The element of Earth was rich. The Spring Earth element. The same one he felt before.
But this time, the element took over the storm from inside him, from that bamboo stuck in his abdomen area. The surroundings changed, and he was met with a lush forest.
The first thing Karni did was check himself. He was not injured. The bamboo was gone from his abdomen now, but he could still feel it stuck in there. Was it inside him?
What was going on actually? Was he inside an illusion or was he transported somewhere.
Karni only now looked around properly. This… was definitely an illusion. Because it did not feel right. Something felt… very, very wrong. But not dangerous. Just…
The forest… it was "lush", but it really wasn't. It looked lifeless. Like an element of life was simply missing. The trees looked dead despite clearly not being dead. They had leaves and all… they just… lacked something important. It felt grey without actually being grey.
However, the ground they grew out of… it looked exactly like the rich, fertile soil that one would expect in a forest. Deep dark brown, soft and slightly wet. Karni felt the Spring Earth element within it. That part felt right, but the rest of the scenery didn't. The trees… for some reason, Karni's heart knew how they should look like. Despite the uncanniness, the surroundings were somewhat familiar.
The smell in the air was filled with information of the passing time. It was spring. Spring had a distinctive smell. But depending on where in the world one was, that smell was different as well. This particular one reminded him of early spring back home. Back on Earth.
Yet that key aspect of Spring was missing. Liveliness of it. The Earth had the correct feeling and smell, but the rest of the scenery felt empty. Karni could almost imagine how it should really look like. The colour of the leaves, the bark on the trees. It felt odd to look at something and know how it should look like despite not looking like that. His eyes and his brain felt like they were fighting with each other.
Karni first sat down to examine himself. This illusion and world he was seeing… even if it felt like something was missing, there had to be a point to it.
He analysed himself. First his inner body. Around his Dantian, the bamboo he saw before was now staying close to it, simply floating inside him, connected to his Soul Power.
That solved the question of where it disappeared. Karni spread out his Spiritual Power and discovered that the Bamboo was intimately connected to this new realm he was in. The Spring Earth element was seeping into the area.
Karni adapted his Spiritual Power to the elements in the surrounding… or the one element that is.
The element really was rich. So lively, strong, soft, yet durable all at the same time. Karni opened his eyes and decided to feel this element fully with his skin. He removed his shoes and felt the soil with his bare feet. The earth was comfortable to the touch. His Spiritual Power flowed through his body and feet, joining with the earth.
But there, his heart suddenly shook. He felt the edge of the element in this realm. And he looked towards it. It was uphill. Downhill, the element seemed to stretch endlessly, but uphill, there was a complete cut off.
His Spiritual Power went toward the cut off, and a realisation slowly kicked in. That feeling of familiarity was there for a reason. This wasn't just any forest that smelled of the spring. It was the scent of the spring he knew. The uphill led toward a house.
The house. His house. His home. He… he was home!
Karni forgot that this was an illusion in an instant. His firm Spiritual Power turned into complete chaos.
He started running. Running for his home. Running through the uncanny, yet fragrant forest which Karni now completely recognised. Karni lived in a hilly area, in an old house built by his grandparents. On one side of the house was a small field for farming, managed by a neighbour, while on the other side was a steep hill, covered by a thick forest. It was his forest. He spent so many hours here as a child!
But not even 20 metres in Karni's pace slowed. Slowed to what could barely be considered walking. Then he fell on his knees. And finally, he couldn't take it anymore. He lost all strength. He could barely even crawl.
It felt like the weight of the world was put on his very shoulders. The heaviness of the earth brought onto him.
He struggled for a few more seconds, before the inability to continue cleared his mind. He regained clarity and quickly crawled back to a point where he could not stand, but he could sit.
He calmed down. Once he realised how rushed he was, it was easy for him to calm himself. He was an experienced Soul Master by now.
There had to be a point to this.
He had an inkling of what he had to do. Understand this one element. He felt that the weight he was feeling was the key. But this element wasn't a singular entity. It was an aspect of Spring itself.
However, why was his home in this illusion as well? Was him seeing his mother without a face not enough? Now an illusion from a Divine Instrument was conjuring up his home to make him feel even more guilty and homesick.
And then there was this uncanniness of the forest. It lacked its green colour, the feeling of life. It could have at least shown his home accurately. Instead, all he got was an incomplete sense of déjà vu.
Before reaching this illusion… the storm tried to change into another aspect of the seasons. Did the seasons have another element? Say, Spring missing a second element? This inheritance… it was likely incomplete.
If it was incomplete… would Karni even find out why he saw his home? For all he knew, this was just the first test of many. The immediate thing he had to understand was this element, while his home was so… so far away.
Karni sighed. He could see it. He could feel it. But only glances through the lifeless trees. For now, his only choice was to understand this heaviness of Spring that affected him.
What was this heaviness? It was the power of the Earth. The Earth that gave the Spring its foundation to bloom. He knew well the feel of this forest and the ground. The place of his childhood was now filled with a heavy burden.
His Spiritual Power stopped scouting his house, though it was hard for him to take it away from there, since it gave him the appearance of the home he'd been yearning for deep in his heart.
A part of him had always wanted to return home, they even discussed it for Siduo's birthday. But at the end of the day, it was just a passing thought at the time.
Right now, however, he was faced with the very presence of the thing he'd been missing so damn much, deep in his heart. And the recent nightmares of his mother made his yearning that much stronger.
However. He focused on what was around him. He knew he had to. His Spiritual Power focused on the Earth of Spring surrounding him, on the heaviness impacting him.
But the connection felt superficial when he used only his Spiritual Power. Karni did what he used to do when he was young—he dug his bare feet into the ground around him. The soft, slightly wet soil. It always cleared up one's head when they were hit with the coldness of the earth.
He led his Spiritual Power through his legs into the earth, as he did before, forming a direct connection to it. Then he dug in with his arms as well, the Spiritual Power especially flowing freely down the hand that was once burned with mercury acid. The injuries were still visible and had yet to disappear—if they ever even would.
Contrary to what he expected, the connection between him and the earth only made him feel heavier. It was like the ground itself now put its weight on Karni as well.
A heavy, heavy presence of the Spring enveloped him, its purpose of bringing life from the dead of winter—an enormous burden. The Earth was rich, filled with the moisture of the now long melted snow.
All of his being felt the Weight of Spring. He started sinking into the forest ground involuntarily.
Karni did not want that. He wanted to get to his house, or at least truly get to see it. He brought out his Royal Bamboo Panda. He had to at least try to get out of this.
His first and second Soul Ring activated. Karni breathed a sigh of relief, at least he could use his Soul Rings. He felt his durability increase, the weight of the earth easing, just a bit. He could move at least a little bit. He had to adapt to this.
He further used his fourth Soul Ring: Samurai Bamboo Armour.
But just as he was going through the motions… the skill could not even get activated. He even felt a bit of pushback. Karni's mind worked on overtime, thinking of reasons why. Was it that only Lily's Soul Rings could get activated?
Blooming Loti bloomed in the next moment; he needed anything he could get. The skill activated and the Loti bloomed a beautiful earthen green, but it "withered" just as quickly, becoming the same uncanny appearance as the trees in the surroundings. A feeling of lifelessness. It had its shape, but no function, no colour.
Shit, he had to struggle against the forces with just these two skills. He released his Relaxing Aura. His body relaxed with it. The pressure subsided, but it had an odd effect. He was still forcefully being filled with the element… it was just… easier to handle.
But then he felt the bamboo within him release a small pulse, and his Relaxing Aura was dispelled as well. It felt like the bamboo thought he was cheating.
"Damn it." Karni felt the weight of the world push him further into the ground. But he refused to bend to it. He struggled through the earth. Crawling his way up the hill, toward his home.
But the weight. The weight only increased. Everything felt heavy. It filled him up. Each step forward meant one step deeper into the earth. He was moving forward, but he could see less and less.
He was so close. He saw the lower parts of his house. But his head was barely outside of the soil. It was so incredibly difficult to move with his body submerged like this, but he willed it anyway. He needed to see it. He needed to see his old home!
And when his mouth was under the earth, when his nose could only breathe the earth, when his eyes almost had to close, he saw a glimpse of his house from below. And the world turned dark.
Slowly, the ground swallowed him, the Weight heavy, the pressure squeezing, yet the richness of the aroma and the vitality inside the earth overwhelming.
That's when Karni understood the meaning of the Earthen Spring. The Spring Earth element. To swallow and provide. Nutrients flowed in a cycle. They provided the foundation for life, but once those things withered, they would reabsorb everything to provide more life.
The earth still flowed in him. Transforming his body slowly and painfully.
The Weight squeezed him, pressured him. His body, organs, but more than that. It put Weight even on his mind, on his spirit and soul. That was the Earth of Spring. The Weight was not just literal, but spiritual as well. Weight of responsibility and energy, to provide for the future.
But with the pain and transformation and understanding came control. A full understanding of this Weight and thickness inside him. The Weight of the world around him—control over it. Over weight of oneself, weight of one's strikes… weight of the earth.
Karni's palms—paws—struck, a pulse of the Earth soft and light, easily removed, and Karni climbed out of the earth. Finally, he could see-
… … …
Dead grass. Yellow, prickly ground. One which would be slightly painful to an average human. The exact opposite of the fertile soil he was just in.
He took in the surroundings. A different, yet equally familiar sight met him. A sight of the destination of his summer holidays. A place he visited every summer with his dad. A place of countless warm and cozy memories. Like most Slovenes, he went on holidays to Croatia. He visited his dad's trailer there.
It was a place to relax… but this place seemed quite different. Almost fiery. He looked toward the sea, and as he thought, instead of the sea, it was all fire, behaving like the waves of the water. A living personification of heatwaves.
However, he couldn't admire the scenery of his past for too long. The place he stood at was not fiery, but he could feel the temperature rising around him, he had to test things out and forget about the regret of being unable to see his home.
He tried activating his skills. Blooming Loti, Royal Panda Cushion, Samurai Bamboo Armour… none of them worked.
Well, shit. How was he going to overcome this one? He saw those waves of the fiery sea. They were growing larger. Unlike the previous place where his own house was the motivation, like a test of will—as if the trial knew what he would try to do, this one seemed to be on some sort of a timer instead.
And yet… while those waves of fire were terrifying. They were sort of grey. The fire was there, it was clearly fire, but it lacked a key aspect of it. Karni looked around the place. He looked up.
Yet again, something was missing here. There was no sun, and the light didn't feel like light exactly. And this light was missing from the fire as well. Like a sun hidden behind the clouds, except there was no sun.
In the first place—the first season—Spring, there was Life missing. Now there was Light missing. Or at the very least, it felt unnatural. A Summer without the harsh sunlight, yet only the warmth it brought…
He looked around, how was he to face that fire? Was he to hide in the trailer? He went to look inside it and quickly came to a conclusion. It was just as he remembered it. It was small, with an impromptu kitchen area covered by a large tent. And it had nothing else. It was just as he remembered it. This was not the solution.
This made him yearn to see his dad as well. Though he saw him less often the older he got, he was still close to him. However, in a weird way… he remembered his dad better than he did his mom. He went outside and noticed the waves of fire growing wilder, flowing over the small pier.
Only now did he notice the fishing rod on the stony pier. Karni had forgotten about it, but memories flooded back in at that moment. His dad's fishing rod. He spent a lot of time on that pier, and Karni just enjoyed watching him fish. It was their own way of bonding, even if Karni had absolutely no knack for fishing otherwise.
And seeing those waves of fire flowing over it… Karni realised it… he was to take those flames head on, wasn't he. He sighed to himself and walked down to the pier. For good measure, he even grabbed the fishing rod with his right, burned hand.
In fact, this hand was feeling particularly spicy at the moment. It was especially sensitive to the heatwaves.
Karni sat on a stone "bench" nearby—in truth, it was meant to tie boat rope around it, but people tended to sit on it as well. Being on his usual seating place, and with a fishing rod in his hand, Karni let his memories flow as he started fishing—waiting for the terrible scorching that was about to envelop him.
First, it became hard to breathe, then the flames started dancing over his body on the regular. Yet, while the sensation was clearly that of burning, there was this dissonance to what Karni saw and what he felt. It was just like in the Spring Season.
However, this trial had a different kind of suffering. His lungs slowly started to burn. His throat felt completely dry. The air was scorching to breathe. Karni could not help but lean over in a tired pose, trying to calm his breathing, to stabilise his body.
He wanted to let go of the fishing rod, to focus on maintaining his Soul Power in check, but much to his horror, he suddenly found that his burned hand had a firm grip on the fishing rod. It was like the heat of the Sea of Summer Fire possessed it.
The fire spread everywhere. Its reach as wide as the sea that was meant to be in front of him. The waves of Fire grew and grew. Larger, greater, all consuming. The reach of fire, of scorching warmth, was endless.
Yet all of it seemed to gather around the fishing rod, and not only that, it was like the fishing rod was catching the fire… Catching the fire and siphoning it at Karni's hand. And as the first fire was hooked, the waves increased further.
Karni was met with a magnificent, yet terrifying sight. A sight which burned his very soul, but more than the soul, his right hand. An endless reach of the fire, that seemed to care about his hand very much.
The reach. Karni clenched the fishing rod, his mind clear. Right. This pain, the burning, much like his experience of being swallowed by the Weight of the Spring Earth, there was a point to this. He still had to understand this element, just like the last one.
He reeled in the hook, feeling the pain coursing up his arm, sipping into the rest of his body. A deep pain, inside his very bones. The stronger he pulled, the more painful it felt.
But despite it, he readied the fishing rod and cast it again. The very same instance he cast it, the pain enveloped him once more. He could barely keep himself together. The pain sipped in so deep, scorching him from inside, and the fishing rod was the one that seemed to guide the heat toward him.
If Karni could cry, he would, but his body was completely dry, devoid of any moisture.
Yet the hook caught on, as if it caught a fish, and Karni could see a pattern within the waves of fire. A pattern, an endless reach. The fire grabbed at anything it could, it enveloped all in its path. It pulled it and consumed it. An endless Reach, just like this rod in his hands, which seemed capable of casting anywhere. An all-consuming warmth, and a line to catch it.
He grabbed the rod firmly, pain coursing through his nervous system at the slightest of movements. But he pulled, pulled the rod and the fire it was connected to.
And the fire, as if hearing his call, hooked on, and a sense of warmth triggered clarity.
His burned right hand burst with fire, and Karni caught it, reached for the fire wanting to burn him. His right hand took the endless Reach of fire, and made it his. The Summer Fire.
He removed it all. The whole sea of fire vanished with a single pull.
… … …
Where there used to be sea, was now complete emptiness. A stretch of endless land, far beneath.
Karni turned around, wanting to see the trailer he spent most of the time next to during his holidays. But it disappeared too. An endless sky was around him. Grey sky, but not grey as in lacking light or life. Grey as in preparing for a storm.
He looked down, only to find out he wasn't standing on a stony pier either, he was… floating, the winds beneath his feet circling to keep him afloat.
Yet just as he noticed that the winds disappeared, and Karni started falling.
The endless landscape beneath him stretched to the very edges of the world, storms overtaking the countryside around him.
Yet again, this view from the top was familiar. Karni focused on the roads and the houses below. He almost sighed when he noticed it. His home. Again. This time farther away, miles away from him, but he could see it all from up here.
The great expanse of the cold Autumn breeze around him stood between him and his home.
It was a view he had only ever seen through maps. The bushes separating the road from the driveway, the two-story house that housed his grandparents and his mother. The balcony connected to the dining room and his room. The garage and basement area. All of it. But it was so tiny. So, so far away.
However, he noticed a break in the pattern of what he had seen until now. There was nothing that he could see was missing. There was Life missing in Spring, Light missing in Summer. What about Autumn?
Wait, no. There was something odd from up here, but it was subtle. The roads. From his house outwards, they started normal, and became more and more zig-zag-y. More and more irregular. More and more incorrect.
What did that mean? Who fucking knew? The fact Karni could barely see them likely meant that that was the missing piece in this world. His best guess was Destruction, since in the universe, it was the opposite of Life—that was Life in the grander sense, one that was getting close to the aspect of Creation. The Life that was missing in Spring.
But despite the guesses and questions, he knew what to do with what he had found out by now. If his instincts were correct, one of his Soul Rings should work in this place.
His fourth Soul Ring shone. Samurai Bamboo Armour. It lit up. Karni could not help but smile. His instincts were correct. The first area, connected to the Spring and the Earth. The Spring Earth. Lily's first and second Soul Ring, along with his Soul Bone, were somewhat connected to that element. Blooming Loti on the other hand activated but withered in that place, where life seemed to be missing. Meanwhile, Samurai Bamboo Armour couldn't be activated at all, because it had no connection to Earth or life.
The Sea of Fire he encountered next prevented him from activating any skills, because none of them had the element of fire inside them, but his hand, which had been burned in the past, even if by acid, reacted strongly to it.
And now he was in a place of endless storms. It made sense that Samurai Bamboo Armour worked here. It had intense winds sealed within the bamboo. This had to be a place of Autumn. Of the Autumn Winds.
But he didn't test the skill purely for curiosity. It was for a goal. His goal? His house.
The Samurai Bamboo Armour he summoned cracked almost as soon as it appeared. The place of the crack was just behind him. Out of it exploded a shockwave of pressure, sending Karni downwards at a terrifying speed.
Then another piece exploded. And another. Shockwave after shockwave. All for a single purpose. To reach the house. Karni was forcing the armour open on his own to boost his speed. He hadn't used it like that before, but he realised that it could be used in the future as well.
How would he stop his fall? Simple. He left the front side of the armour intact, so he could explode it to stiffen the fall. It wouldn't perfectly stiffen it, but, well, his durability had grown by leaps and bounds. He was confident in taking it.
Yet, just as his speed was increasing, it was stifled for a completely different reason. A wave of wind collided at him upwards. It wasn't a graduate increase where it would slow him down to a standstill, no. It was a point of power.
Unfortunately, the wind did not strike at him evenly to simply push him back up. It threw him up and sideways. A single point of pressure, just off centre, sent Karni spinning in the air like a ragdoll.
He had to detonate some of the pieces to counter the spinning of his body, to regain control.
Yet just as he did it, another gust of wind crashed into him. Yet again, concentrated. Yet again, wild and off centre.
He was sent off spinning like a ragdoll for a second time.
Damn it, what the fuck was this?
Not only could he not get closer, but he was constantly—Karni could not help but scream this time—"being thrown around!"
Even if he was a Soul Master of high durability, even if his Spiritual Power was in the high echelons of Spirit Abyss, a constant thrashing, without taking any damage, but only being spun around like some piece of meat would completely disorient anyone.
Seeing his home? Please. He couldn't even comprehend what was around him. All he saw were stripes of grey circling round and round. The world turned to mush. It was such fast spinning that even his Samurai Bamboo Armour was taking damage.
He could stabilise the first time. Now, he couldn't stabilise at all anymore. If he even tried, another gust of pressure came falling onto him, flipping him around.
He couldn't differentiate up and down from left and right. The spin was just too much. A normal human would have likely died by now. The G-forces of the spin were beyond the lethal levels.
But to him… well, Karni just felt like puking. A lot. And his answer to it? He closed his eyes. At least his vertigo would somewhat dissipate…
As if. The amount of senses his body was exposed to right now were immense. Him closing his eyes just amplified it.
But between many of those senses, there were moments where they were overwhelmed at different spots. A pressure, a gust. It was where the wind hit him to keep him in this helpless state.
A hit, a greater pressure. A hit, faster spinning. A hit, a greater loss of perception.
A hit… right there, two centimetres off of his abdomen.
A hit… on the very foot of his foot.
A hit… no, a point of power right next to his neck on the right.
This point… accompanied by winds around it, dancing to its rhythm… just below his left shoulder.
It was wind, but different. Like…
What was he here for again? To comprehend the winds of the Autumn, right? But until now, it wasn't just the basic idea of the elements he had to understand. It was the understanding of the aspects behind it. The endless Reach of Fire, and the deep Weight of the Earth before it.
What was here? What made the winds so…
It was so simple. A hit. A point. A point that influenced others. It was no point. It was a gathering. Pressure. A difference of Pressure that brought with it the winds.
It was such a simple, scientific principle behind wind. What really made it was the fluctuations of pressure in the atmosphere.
It was part of the atmosphere. Where the pressure gathered and was freed. A constant flux of instability. From a build up, toward entropy. Yet the entropy here, forced a build up elsewhere.
But if one could go along with it. To tighten it and loosen it…
Karni's Samurai Bamboo Armour reactivated in the mess of his ragdoll body. But he didn't crack and destroy the pieces. Instead, he focused on the aspect within it… Could he control it? Could he adapt it to the outside? Make it part of it?
If he let the air in as well…
Little changes of the air in this area… will influence those around it.
The air within the armour flowed, adapting, changing patterns of movements. It focused on one side, then on another.
Slowly but surely, what was chaos, started to make sense. A bit of change here, spun him faster, a change on the other end, slowed him down. Another change in the flow within, helped him adapt to the direction. And yet another change, sped him up.
Miniscule changes in the airwaves affected the rest.
The forces of nature, such as wildfires, earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornadoes—disasters—were not to be controlled. By normal humans that is. Once a Soul Master understood their principles, he could guide them.
And in a step forward… he could conquer them.
The Samurai Bamboo Armour fell apart into only individual bamboo pieces, still containing the wind inside them. The Soul Power which was stuck inside it flowed over the winds around him. Karni's arm pressed tight. The might of Tempest surging from within, transforming with him. On a deeper level that he could not comprehend right now.
All he knew was what he had to do. He swung.
The spinning stopped. The Armour pieces stopped, as if an extension, but it wasn't that. The air surrounding them was under control.
Karni opened his eyes… happiness overtook him, until he realised, he could not stop the fall quickly enough.
Despite having it under control, the Pressure of the Wind attacked one final time. The Autumn Wind sent him down. Right next to the house, and into the field in front of it.
… … …
He begrudgingly lifted his head, feeling groggy… and very, very cold all of a sudden. Did the wind really blow so much it even got through his defences?
Nope.
It was Winter now.
And this field, like most times during snow, was filled with snow to the brim. Deceptively so.
In his latter teenage years and twenties, snow was uncommon during winter. He couldn't even remember the last time he had a white Christmas. But when it did snow, it was either very mild, or very aggressive.
The scenery before him, was neither. It looked like a time before snow stopped showing up. A result of multiple days of constant, but not intense snow. This hillside—where a field was as opposed to the other side of the house where there was a large forest area that appeared in the Spring vision—looked to be decently straightforward.
But Karni saw it for what it was. Deception. The left side of the field was especially deep. Snow fell into it and built up, often looking to be around the same height as the rest of the field.
If he wanted to reach home, he would have to avoid it. However, before he started to move, he needed to figure out this trial. It should be the last one.
The first one was connected to Lily, to Earth. The second was that of Fire and Summer, and the only bridge that connected him with it was that burned arm of his. Autumn, which he just came out of, was that of wind, connected through Tempest. It made sense. But… what of Winter? Soul Rings, abilities, a physical injury similar to a burn… those connected him to the seasons. What about now? What would connect him to snow? How would he figure out the underlying aspect of the season this time?
Karni did not know what would happen at this point but… he looked to the left side of the field. Should he even try going around it? The way the trials went until now, he would get pushed into it anyway, no? Maybe like an avalanche would happen or something?
He looked at his house. The closest, clearest until now. The scene he often saw when walking his dog down this hill and then back.
However, he blinked when he realised this… because, the oddness was apparent again, unlike in the Autumn. Was it supposed to be nighttime right now? The streetlight next to his house was on, even though it was decently light.
Hm. Winter. The nights were longest during the winter. Of course, the element supporting it was Darkness. It was the opposite of Light of Summer, which was also missing.
Well, nothing to do about it, since this inheritance was incomplete. He had to figure things out anyway.
He decided to walk to the deceptively thin area of the field. Whatever it was, it was likely going to be painful in some way or another.
Indeed, the further he went, the deeper the snow, just as he remembered. He and a childhood friend of his once went into this part of the field when they were kids to play in the snow and had to dig themselves out.
He was curious how this would change.
The deeper it went, the… wetter it was. Wet? Like water? It felt like he stepped in a puddle. And the puddle was getting only deeper.
That was weird. There was no pond over here. For there to be water below snow like that?
Karni went in deeper while thinking of why there might be water here. These illusions have proved one thing. Everything was here for some reason. That meant there was water here for something as well.
Karni decided to go the nuclear route and let his body fall into the pit beneath the snow. He yearned for his home, yearned to actually see his mother's face, but this was a test, and he believed it might aid him in overcoming his worries.
His whole body turned wet. He could feel it by the movement. He was inside water. Karni opened his eyes…
Only to be left disappointed. It was water yes. Icy cold water, but it was just the ground at the bottom, nothing special. He didn't feel any appropriate chill that would challenge him either.
Water, water, water… If the seasons followed the four main elements. Earth, Fire, Wind… then the last one would be Water, and not Ice or Snow.
Karni stood back up. This was not what he was looking for. It looked like this last one was more of a puzzle than he expected.
He couldn't think of any place close-by that was full of water, especially not water connected to Winter. What was the underlying aspect he was looking for here?
He turned toward his house… it wouldn't just let him walk toward it. That he was sure of. But if nothing else, he should be able to figure out what was going to get in his way, just like it did before.
He started walking, looking for hints, mentally prepared for the next challenge that would face him. The pit, if nothing else, was a clue to the real answer. Coldness of Winter and Water as its element.
He walked to the top of the field of snow and reached the cold, icy road. You could tell that the snow had been bad, as even the road was covered in it.
But… he didn't feel any pressure or challenge on himself.
Instead, he saw the front of his house. But it was different than what it was before. The driveway was there, as was the small garden in front of the house. But there were trees over the hedges… trees which had been cut down a long time ago. Directly in front of him, where the garage should have been, was a small grass field, with a single small apple tree that provided some shade during the summer, while at the back stood a huge old spruce tree that his grandparents planted before they started building the house here. Looking left toward the house, the lower balcony was open, with a wooden fence, instead of being a semi-open balcony like he remembered—with big windows and a roof over it. This was… the house as it was during his childhood. The general shape and area was the same, but all of these places had a place in his heart, forever stuck as a memory.
He… didn't expect that. It was hard to notice those details from the bottom of the field as well. As those could only be seen once one reached the upper area.
So similar, yet so different. He stepped into the driveway and was hit with a sudden feeling of coldness.
"Ah." He couldn't exclaim and made a dissatisfied smile. So, it was his old house that was to be his final trial. How fucking cruel.
Karni walked toward the front door. That one hadn't changed for years. This door had been here since he remembered. It remained unchanged and still in the passage of time.
But it was also colder now. His breath was freezing as he breathed. To think he would have to enter his own house to be brought to the limit.
His hand trembled, not from the cold, but from nervousness, as he opened the door.
What faced him was an air of harsh cold as if from the Extreme North. Except it was in his house.
The entrance area had two doors. The left led to the basement, while the right led to his grandparents' hallway. His grandparents lived in the lower floor of the house, while his mom, he and his stepdad lived on the upper floor. Though as the house looked now—he went into the hallway and glanced at his grandparents' living room and kitchen—this was before his stepdad came to live with them.
But, for the most part, his grandparents mostly renovated the outside, rather than the inside. It was just a little bit rustic compared to what he remembered. A few pieces of furniture were in different places or were ones they did not use anymore.
So, he turned around and looked at another door. He opened it and was met to the stairway upstairs. Toward his living quarters.
He walked up, and as he reached the halfway point, where the stairs curved and had a little midway tiny floor, he noticed the air getting thicker, while also getting chillingly colder.
The air seemed thinner, his teeth started scalding as well. And every step he took, he was reminded of how things looked like when he was a child. The stairs had that ugly dark green carpet they had gotten rid off a long time ago, and so did the hallway he entered.
Except, it wasn't the right shade of green, and similarly, the walls weren't the ride shade of that dirty white. All the furniture in the hallway was old, mostly black, but very scratched.
Yet the atmosphere around here felt blue overall. As if he was looking at it through the ocean floor. A rich element of Water, icy cold Water, was felt all around him.
His breathing felt heavy as well, and whenever he breathed in, he felt like choking. It felt like the inside of his house truly was fully underwater.
He looked first toward the living room. There was a master bedroom here later on. In his childhood, he called it the Orange Room, because the light in the morning used to light it up in a way it looked all orange, even though the room itself had no orange at all in it. And now it was even slightly blue. But softer blue than before, and slightly warmer too. This was not where he was to go.
Then he moved toward the old master bedroom, where today's living room was. The old bedroom was a mess, just like he remembered it. The one window was completely closed, and no light came through. The state of this place reminded him, especially when he came out and looked to the dining room and kitchen area with the old wooden furniture.
His household was actually struggling during this time. Most of the furniture was at least 15 years old, a good number of it going above 20. They were struggling to get through the months, and the only reason they could, was that there were three adults living in this house. However, the house was big and built during a time when land and houses were cheap, though around this time, everything became expensive.
He stepped into what was his room today, and smiled, despite feeling physically uncomfortable. This was the other living room, which was basically a giant storage room with his mother's computer in it, and a lot… a lot of toys littered all over the floor. Before he got his own room, he called it the Big Room… because it was the biggest room in the upper floor.
The family's situation got better over the course of his life. His mom was lucky to find a decent paying job, and when his stepdad joined, the household could be said to have even become of the slightly upper-middle class, enough to afford renovations and building a few things every now and then. Switching the rooms, building a garage, changing the balcony, renovating the dining room. All of it was slowly refurnished over the course of many years.
As for the time his family was barely getting by, he had to admit, his mom and grandparents were good family, he never felt any terrible effects of that as a child, there were only bits and pieces he remembered, the few times he caught them talking and worrying. They taught him the value of money and savings.
But this room was definitely the place. The Big Room. Where he spent most of his childhood playing inside the house. Many, many fond memories. The toys littered around were all familiar.
But this was the only place, where it felt like it was both underwater, yet also completely frozen solid. The room had a layer of ice over everything.
Whatever it was, he had to figure it out here.
The room felt… quiet, uncomfortable, frozen in time. An image of a past that would never return. He walked to the window, struggling to keep his body from shaking from the utter chill in the Big Room.
The sight outside of the room was odd. Directly in front, he could see the giant spruce tree, while to the right, he could see the field he landed in. Except, while everything was covered in snow, it now also looked to be deep under the ocean. The surroundings had changed.
The water pressured him from side to side, giving him flashbacks to when he was dunked under the water for training by Hu Jie five years ago. Except the water was very bearable. The only trouble he had was with breathing.
Instead, it was the absolute cold that terrified him. Completely still, stuck in the past, a cold that transcended time. The longer he was here, the more intently he felt it.
He went outside, so he could take a moment to think, but now, when he exited, this coldness had spread to the whole upper floor. The old hallway, the old bedroom, the Orange Room now covered in layers of ice. Even the bathroom, which was mostly the same except for some furniture, was fully cold.
He went from top to bottom, even checking out the basement. He had forgotten how different the basement had been once, especially in the big area with his grandfather's old workshop and tools. It was more open and less filled; there were some machines he had forgotten were ever in the basement.
But all of it was now frozen still like before, and furthermore, the basement door that led outside couldn't open.
He ran upstairs. The normal door outside could not open anymore either. He had suddenly become a prisoner in his own house.
However, he didn't panic. If anything, he felt a small sense of comfort. He regularly spent time in his own house later in life and was a bit of a night owl hermit.
The only uncomfortable thing was the loneliness, as well as the fact it was fucking cold. It was getting colder by the second. And above it all, being in this old house made him miss his family more than ever before. In such a familiar place, filled with warm memories, he could not meet his mother and grandparents.
He had tried to move some things around, but they were stuck in place, completely still.
Everything felt still like a picture, and as Karni stood motionless and freezing back in the Big Room, in that short moment, it was like he became a part of the still image…
Still.
Stillness.
A moment of time, captured and frozen, remembered. Winter, where the nature does not move. It is stuck, it is long, it rests, it resets.
The Snow which covers it… It was Water, motionless.
Stillness. Temporal, memorable, cold.
The Winter Water.
It did not connect to him physically. It connected to his memory. Pictures of the past, unchanging, forever Still.
The Stillness of the Water brings forth the Pause of Winter.
Karni stopped shaking. And he stood completely still.
He did not breathe. The feeling of water was telling him to stop breathing in the first place.
Breathless, unmoving. Still.
And without doing anything, except for imagining it, picturing what should happen, the frozen surroundings of the Big Room, of his house… slowly melted.
And with complete melting, and very wet surroundings, Karni took one last look at the Big Room, etching the memory in his brain, determined to remember his mother again.
And stepped out of it.
… … …
Karni stepped into the Cave out of nowhere. There was no Big Room when he turned around. He was exactly where he started.
He breathed in. The storm was still raging, but it was changed. This was no longer that controlled storm where the elements were in equilibrium. He needed to fix it, or Elemental Chaos would consume this area whole.
He noticed the change in his whole body. His bones felt Heavy, hard and durable. He flexed the muscles around them, sensing the element of Earth within them.
He was enlightened at the sense. So that was what he got. It was a basic foundation of control. Control to affect the aspects he understood. The elements in this raging storm seemed to belong to the seasons as well. It was unlikely that he could easily control those four elements otherwise. First and foremost, what he went through served to transform his body into sensing the Four Seasons and its aspects.
The element of Earth of the storm turned Heavy, falling to the ground with a single step.
His right hand Reached, spread the Fire wide, before it swung like a Hook, catching the flames and consuming them within.
His hands spun and clasped, forming Pressure of air with a movement of muscles. Then he opened the hand slightly and increased it, sucking in the storming winds around him to this single point of Pressure. Next, he flattened the air, and released it at the wall, even forming slight cuts in the stone.
And finally, his body stilled, and only his breathing remained, miniscule and untraceable. His imagination flowed… and breathed in all of the cold air.
His neck and spine tingled. The Winter Water consolidated on an almost imaginary level, sticking itself in a spiritual realm.
It was like each of the element got stored in a part of him. The Weight of Spring Earth in his bones; The Reach of Summer Fire in the skin of his right hand; The Pressure of the Autumn Wind within the tiniest movements of his muscles; The Stillness of the Winter Water in his breath and his very nervous system, due to the emotional aspect of it.
Karni stretched and sighed. This was… a great boon to his body… but it was not too functional in battle. It felt like foundation for something greater… perhaps trials like those Tang San experienced when he inherited Sea God Position. Then again, on their own, this level of control could fight against an average Soul Elder.
Was this Karni's foundation for eventual godhood? But the God Realm was gone… was that why the trial was fucked? He could feel the bamboo resting in his Dantian area… but if this was the first trial… and the very first trial was incomplete… that made the rest of the trials impossible to even reach.
What sort of boons might those missing four elements of seasons have brought him?
Karni stretched and sighed again. Welp. Nothing he could do. His body experienced metamorphosis. He shouldn't be greedy. That was enough to make this trip more than worth it. His future cultivation should change drastically due to it. He should consider how this new understanding could help him right now.
He went out of the cave and saw Siduo waiting for him next to two graves. He blinked.
Siduo smiled. "You're back just in time. We should leave right now, otherwise we will be in trouble if we want to save that train you talked about."
Karni glanced at the graves, then to Siduo, but decided to ask later, since she wasn't saying anything.
"How many days was I in?"
"Four. We should be able to reach Shrek in three days."
"Phew. Okay. In that case, let's go…" Karni looked to the two graves again, guessing it belonged to the two creatures he met before. He bowed to them.
Siduo sighed. "They're not truly dead. I'll tell you about it on the way to the train station."
"Okay then- Wait…" Karni stopped. A certain Spirit Soul just spoke to him
"Tempest… what are you saying… WHAT?"