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"ZZZzzzz..."
/Shine…/
Sunlight shone on Silver's face… "Urg… Someone… someone turn down the sun…"
'Turn down the sun? What am I saying…'
"Wait, a minute… sunlight?"
Silver slowly opened his eyes, frowning "… Where the hell am I?"
Green everywhere, the calm sound of leaves rattling in the weak wind… "A forest? How did I get here? Am I dreaming?"
Silver kept looking around, but he saw only green everywhere. A strange forest illuminated by the warm sun…
"This doesn't look like a dream at all. Complex thoughts and feelings are as real as they could be."
'If there's one issue… is that my body is translucent…' He thought as he looked at his hands
"If this isn't a dream, then what is this? What triggered this?"
'The blessing? Why would the blessing cause this? Is it because my body grew stronger and I lost control of my powers?'
Wondering what to do, he first thought about stretching. He felt the warm wind and the prickly grass on the ground. His joints cracking and muscles stretching under his skin…
When he finished, he stood before the woods, pensive.
"I'm still in my pajamas... staying here wouldn't do much… let me look around first."
Braving the woods would be too dangerous and stupid, so he first climbed the trees to see what stood around him to give him a sense of direction.
/Sheem/
Silver slowly turned translucent as he climbed the tree, "At least these still work."
In the blink of an eye, Silver disappeared because of the effects of Chameleon.
/Rustle/
He climbed the tree and, from its canopy, gazed into the world around him.
"... So I am in a small valley of some kind?" He muttered as he looked at the distant mountain
Around him, green hills filled his vision for as far as he could see… not even mountains peeked out on the extreme horizon.
There was only one mountain within sight. Around half a kilometer south of his location… stood an extremely tall and bizarre mountain, unusually rectangular, as if it had been carved and left there like an obelisk.
Silver couldn't see the mountain's peak as it pierced the clouds. He saw only water falling from the clouds, a waterfall far beyond sight.
"A small valley hidden in the hills with a massive mountain-like obelisk… It's hard to pinpoint exactly, but the forest should have a diameter of about four hundred meters before the hills that over."
'I can't see what's beyond them though… not from this angle.'
He felt odd, a sickening sense of dread filling his stomach before it went away, replaced by… nothing, "What is this place? Did I die of a heart attack and go to heaven? I'm too young for that!"
Silver squinted his eyes, using his Plasmids to enhance his vision, "That mountain… Is that… statues?"
"Those statues are odd… but they attract me in some way… now that I think about it, I feel… normal."
'I don't feel anything special… no anger, no fear, no strangeness, no… It really is like being trapped in a dream, feeling nothing until you're placed before something.'
"What is happening to me?"
'It's been a long time since I was caught up in such an unusual, indescribable event… it brings back some memories…'
/Jump!/
Silver wagered that between waiting for something to happen, it was best to seek it out instead. So he jumped down the tree, traversing the woods to the distant mountain.
…
/Shaa…/
/Ribbit/
"Hm?…"
/Ribbit/
On his way, Silver stumbled upon a large pool of water. Several white frogs were standing on what seemed to be red water lilies.
"They're quite cute. What species is this? I've never seen anything like this before."
One of the frogs turned to face him despite his camouflage. This frog in particular had a strange crown-shaped leaf on its head. It was also the largest and fattest of all frogs in the pound.
""…""
The frog looked in his general direction for a few seconds before resuming what it was doing… which was nothing.
'What a strange frog. Why does it have a leaf on its head? It's quite odd-looking… maybe it's some sort of courtship behaviour?'
Silver deeply inspected the frog with curiosity, much to its annoyance. Noticing Silver didn't go away, it lifted its left foot and…
"This… is it shooing me away? This darned frog…"
'I feel offended, somehow…'
As he passed by the pond, he saw his reflection in it. His face was blurred as if someone had "censored" it.
When he focused, he managed to see his face after a while… but it was a hard feeling to explain.
"Things just keep getting better."
'My body, the scenery, this frog, the water… everything's off about this place.'
/Clack!/
"!"
While he was focused on his thoughts, Silver tripped on a rock and fell face first into a bush, flattening it.
"Arg!... Phew… I swear, this place…"
Silver shook his head as he tried to focus. He slowly brushed his shoulders and arms before pushing himself off the bush.
But as he raised his head, he came face to face with… a large and menacing, emerald spider.
It was utterly massive, around two meters tall, and over four meters wide.
"!"
Silver jumped in a hurry to defend himself, but the spider didn't even move. Its multiple pairs of eyes looked at him with… mockery?
Silver frowned and had the feeling to cuss at the spider, but just as he was about to do so, he hesitated.
'Why did I think that?… No… Why did I even think the spider was mocking me?'
/Shaa…/
The spider looked at him for a few more moments before turning around and going to the trees. Only now did Silver notice the massive wall of webs standing before him.
The spider used its legs to open a perfect hole in the web, showing what was behind it… It was the rest of the forest.
""…""
Silver and the spider looked at each other for a long while in a stalemate… but it Silver wasn't the first to move.
/FWOOSH!/
Soon enough, the spider lost its patience. It turned to him, and before he knew it, he had been caught in its web!
It flew by so fast he didn't even process it!
"What?..."
Before he even realized it, he had been thrown onto the other side of the web. The hole closing behind him…
He looked back and forward before scratching the back of his head and scoffing, "This is getting more incomprehensible the more I explore this place."
"What am I going to meet next? A talking bunny? A dragon?…"
Silver dusted his clothes and continued on his way.
...
/Splash!/
After a few moments, the echoes of running water reached his ears; he was close to the waterfall, he could almost smell it.
As he reached the base of the waterfall, Silver found a large lake of greenish-blue water. It had an ethereal light shining out of it, looking rather… palatable.
"This water… it almost makes me want to drink it."
Silver trembled, unable to look away.
'Something's wrong. I just can't walk away… My mind tells me no... but my body…'
If something was wrong, he could just spit it out, right?
"… Caution is always welcome."
Silver put his finger in the water and removed it quickly, testing it. The seconds turned into minutes. But nothing happened.
"… everything seems fine. The water is as clean as it looks."
'Will I regret this?…'
He went to the water and took a small sip… 'Mnnn… This… this is the best fucking water I've ever had!'
'Not too cold, not too hot. In fact, its temperature seems to change to what I need the most!'
Silver's body instinctively went to the water to drink more of it… But he found that suspicious!
"Wait! Why is my body like this?... This is already too much."
'I want one more sip, but…'
"STOP!"
He jumped backward, away from the water.
Amidst rapid gasps, Silver trembled in the corner amidst the bushes, "Haaa… Haaa… That was dangerous."
'This water is too strange, I better not get close to it for some time.'
"But I am so thirsty... did that water make me like this?"
""…""
He carefully gazed at his surroundings and locked eyes with a deer that was drinking from the small stream.
The deer was beautiful, being fully blue with golden linings as if it was wearing armor with shining purple antlers.
""…""
They locked eyes for a moment. But the deer just seemed like any other deer.
Silver bit his lips, "You aren't going to speak or anything like that, right?"
The deer raised its head and… tilted it to the side.
"Right… I guess I'm going insane thinking something like that."
But the deer did something that would completely baffle him… It lifted its right front hoof and kept "pointing" towards the water.
"You… of course… What? Do you want me to drink that? No thanks, it's quite addicting."
Somehow, the deer seemed to understand him and nodded in agreement. It lowered its face into the water once more and kept taking large gulps without care, as if its stomach was truly boundless.
Looking at it, Silver once again had a strange thought, 'Is that… a nefarious expression?'
The deer kept drinking the water with a strange expression. It's quite nefarious but… What constitutes a nefarious expression on a deer??
Silver sat down with his hands on his head, "Why do I keep thinking like this? I feel as if someone's trying to shove something inside my head."
/SLURP!/
The deer drank the water with such power that it was as if it hadn't drunk water in seasons…
/Hustle.../
/Whispers/
"!"
The deer's ears suddenly perked up, and it sped into the forest, disappearing from his sight.
Not long after, a small light shone in the distance amidst the bushes.
"If I am not mistaken, that's where the waterfall should be falling, the lake… Why is it suddenly shining?"
/Chattering…/
'Wait… is that voices I hear?!'
Silver was decisive.
-Invisibility-
-Sound Muffle-
-Smell Mask-
Silver couldn't keep so many Plasmids active at once, nor could he perform a more complex one.
With time ticking down, he stepped forward… but he felt something off at that moment.
"Hum? Why am not getting tired? No... my body is definitely weakening, but I am not feeling any mental exhaustion for some reason."
'At this rate I should be able to keep this up for a few minutes.'
Using a small bush as cover, he gazed into the light on the other side…
"It's beautiful…"
Thousands of yellow flowers were shining in the big lake… more like a pond because of its shallowness.
/Whispers/
'The voices again… but where are they coming from?'
Removing his attention from the flowers, he noticed a large rock in the middle of the lake. Behind it was the falling point of the waterfall and the mountain itself.
'Above the boulder? It seems to be thirty meters tall… damn, I don't have a good angle…'
He turned to the lake. The water was still pulling him quite strongly, but if he didn't look at it, the feeling was easier to resist.
'This strange phenomenon needs to be researched… I'll bring some of it with me if I can.' He thought as his right arm turned translucent
After some time collecting the water and some flowers. He activated Cloud Walk and "ran" towards the rock, avoiding touching the water directly.
…
/Touch…/
The rock in the middle of the lake was completely smooth, like a large gray egg.
/Whispers/
The whispers were much louder now, but the waterfall itself muffled them, making it hard for him to discern them.
'They seem like women's voices… hard to tell what they're talking about though.'
He placed his hand on the rock, "This… my hand is stuck. What is this rock made of? Glue?" He exclaimed out loud as he pulled his hand away
'Strangely, pulling it is pretty easy… I can't make sense of this at all.'
"For all interesting this place is... I just want to go home."
'Time to climb it.'
…
"Urg… I'm feeling sick…"
The higher he climbed, the stronger his feelings became, and the greater the feeling of nausea within him grew.
'Maybe there was something in that darned water… or could it be my mental exhaustion? I can tell that something is happening… maybe my time in this world is coming to an end. But I can I trust that?'
Silver looked back, he had only climbed halfway to the mountain… "I need to end this quickly before I black out."
'This shouldn't take long. Climbing it with my Plasmids is easier than just flying up there while maintaining them.'
…
"One… Two… One… Two… haaaa…"
'What is going on?! Does this rock never end?! I have been climbing this shit for what seems to be half an hour, and I am almost losing consciousness!!'
'I had to stop my Plasmids just for the sake of this, but it doesn't look like the women have noticed me yet.'
"I should've… just flown up there… here I was thinking this was going to be easy... It's just thirty meters, I thought... to hell with this place."
"I should have just avoided this rock and climbed the mountain itself..."
/Slip…/
"Dont fail on me now, rock! This grip is the only reason I've been able to make it this far!"
"I will not fall! The only way is forward!"
His "grip" on the stone suddenly tightened and, surprisingly, within a minute, he arrived at the top.
"W-What?… Huff… I was sure that there was quite a bit left… f-fuck this place."
'No matter. My head hurts already just from thinking; I can not bear to waste brain cells trying to figure this out.'
He looked behind him to see the vast forest… only for his headache to intensify, "How… just how?! I am sure I climbed several kilometers... but I am only…"
Thirty meters high…
"... ARG! I hate this place!"
'To hell with math and physics!' He thought as he threw a pebble down the lake
/Splash!/
"That's right. Focus… I just hope I choose the right path."
He turned around, this time gazing into the large waterfall. Up close, it looked more like a river that was tilted sideways. The water looked perfectly still, even though Silver was sure it is falling...
"Jellyfishes… are those crabs? Even some…"
/Splash!/
A big dolphin jumped from the waterfall and fell back into it.
Silver's expression darkened, "... I don't have words for this anymore."
Golden mist gathered at the foot of the waterfall. Something deep within Silver told him to go there.
"This feeling again? I feel as if something is guiding me… now that I think about it, I should've just climbed the mountain directly."
'This strange feeling… I don't like it. It's as if I am being manipulated.'
But he did nonetheless, since he had little options… "Getting down is always harder than getting up."
'Should I just jump down?'
His gut was quite clear…
NO!
…
"One…"
"Tw-Two…"
"O-ONE!"
With difficulty, Silver descended the mountain. Throughout his descent, he felt as if a mountain had fallen on his shoulders. It was only an illusion, but it was one more reason he hated this place.
"Harf!... Huff!..."
He grew so tired he was forced to rest every few meters. The only thing that kept him stuck to the rock was its unusual suction… but it wasn't all-powerful.
/Drip…/
By now, the tips of his fingers were bleeding, torn between the suction of the stone and the weight on his shoulders. Even his forehead was injured due to how many times he scratched it against the "smooth" rock.
/Step/
Out of nowhere, Silver suddenly felt ground beneath his feet. Looking down, he noticed a small patch of rock. He had reached the bottom.
"I did it… I did it! YEAH!"
/Slam!/
He fell backward, hitting the ground pretty strongly. But somehow, the fall didn't hurt in the slightest.
'Urg!… Hum?… It… doesn't hurt?'
Silver opened his eyes and turned around with difficulty, "It's just normal stone..."
/Knock knock/
"It's pretty solid."
And then it hit him… "What am I doing? Hitting a rock to see if it is hard?"
He lay on the ground, tired. His entire body sore… He looked at the waterfall, thinking about what to do.
Strangely enough, at the point where the waterfall met the ground, its waters "parted" ways. Making a path towards a slightly lit cave.
"Of fucking course there was a cave here…"
"Huff… I don't think I have any strength left for another adventure..."
'I will rest for a minute and then go.'
...
/Step…/
There was a massive statue carved from the mountain rock right before the cave. It resembled a woman, but Silver couldn't figure out who it was.
"A goddess?"
He reached out to touch it, but at the last moment, he jumped back. Shock and disbelief were in his eyes…
/Tremble/
/Boom!/
/OPEN!/
Another bizarre scene occurred. The statue opened its eyes and looked straight at Silver, but it didn't move.
The entrance to the cave was also sealed away by a large boulder, blocking him.
/Silence…/
Silence reverberated throughout the area. Even the echoes of water behind him stopped.
An immense sense of danger spread within him, and Silver almost trembled from it… still… he had to proceed.
"Haa... Excuse-me? Do you… know the way out of this place?"
"You shouldn't be here…" The statue replied
However, its eyes soon darted elsewhere. It looked at the boulder behind him at the lake's center. For just a moment, its eyes changed…
Was it curiosity? Amusement? In either case, it didn't seem to hold ill intent towards him.
"... So you've climbed it. Perhaps you hold the qualifications… the Ichor flows through you… stronger than anyone else's… this isn't…"
It grew silent…
"I understand." It voiced all of a sudden as its gaze fell on his again
"Look… I just want to leave."
"Why leave when the end is in sight? Is that the extent of your vision?"
"The end of what?"
Its doubts reinforced, the statue stopped frowning… it even chuckled in amusement.
"Is this too their will? Even at the end…"
"I am getting more confused."
It ignored him, "You seek to leave. I know how..."
"Step forward… or backward. The decision is yours."
"… Can I ask you one question?"
"You may."
"What is this place?"
"... That answer will to you in time... if you step forward."
"How did I get here?"
"... That is also an answer that will come to you… in time."
"..."
'I can see that smirk, don't try to play me!'
"Fine… can I pass through now?"
The statue gave him a deep look…
/Crunch.../
The boulder slowly crumbled into pieces, unsealing the passage.
"Don't fall into the temptation. Strive forward, head tall, and your destination will remain within sight."
/Step…/
/CLACK!/
As he entered the cavern, the boulder reformed and blocked his way out… "Excellent…"
…
/Meanwhile…/
The statue opened its right eye sneakily… "Is he gone?... PFFT! HAHAHA! I can't believe there is someone who still challenges these old trials."
"But I'll give him that, he made it quite far… He was quite handsome though… If I wasn't tasked with this boring job... hum, it's not that era anymore."
"I never thought I'd see a human again… brings back memories…"
'I wonder how things have changed.'
The statue smirked and chuckled before turning into stone once more.
…
/Shine…/
The cavern was filled with blue torches spread around a few meters from each other. To his left and right, the ground had been carved with small waterways where the strange water flowed through to the entrance.
Ignoring those, Silver also noticed footsteps on the ground.
/Whispers.../
He could hear them… he was getting closer.
"Harf… Harf…"
'The deeper I go, the worse I get.'
"She told me not to give in to temptation… but I have no other choice."
'It's either that or losing conciousness here.'
/Slurp/
Silver bent down and took a sip from the water stream. His body recovered a lot of its energy, but he could feel himself losing control of it.
"ARG!"
Using telekinesis, he pulled himself away from the water.
"I… need to… resist this urge!"
For a full minute, his body and mind fought for control… until he regained his composure after closing his eyes and thinking about something else.
After a few minutes of walking, he reached a massive double door. The door looked to be made of marble and was filled with many hieroglyphs of unknown origin.
Silver tried to pull it open, but it didn't budge.
/Hummm/
The door hummed a strange sound, and several symbols lit up on it.
"One… Six… twelve. Twelve symbols."
"A crab, a lion, a bull, twins…"
"Arent these… the twelve zodiac signs?"
'This is easy…'
He arranged all the zodiac signs in order.
/Hummm/
The door glowed and opened, leaving a hole just big enough for him to pass.
/Cronk.../
With the snapping sounds of iron, the giant door closed. He turned and looked around the place, taking a glance at what his destination was.
From the ceiling… He could barely comprehend what he saw; it felt as if he was looking at the cosmos.
"A solid arched ceiling, painted… but somehow, it feels as if the paintings are moving."
The walls looked alive, as paintings of beautiful women and animals filled the entire place. Some of those paintings even looked at him. Some were curious, and others startled.
/Splash/
"He heard the sound of water splashing. So he looked forward to see…"
"... What..."
Multiple giant pools of water. Filled with many… naked women…
And they sure didn't seem happy to see him...
""…""
"Eh..."
He tried looking around the place to see if there was any other passage, but there was none.
The end goal of these trials was these pools of water...
He noticed that the pools were slowly being drained away through some water paths on the ground…
They were the exact same ones outside of the door…
This meant that the water outside in the lake was...
"Damn..."
For a moment, he remembered the deer drinking water and the statue.
'No wonder the deer had such a perverted expression. That fucking statue tricked me!'
'The hell is this reward?! The water I was drinking was…'
"Bathwater..."
""…""
For a good minute, the woman just stayed there looking at him before one of them literally blinked at his location and punched Silver in the face.
/BANG!/
/SWUUUSH!/
Another one of them intervened by blocking her punch. But the impact of their fists alone created a massive wind that swept Silver high in the air. The sound almost rupturing his eardrums.
Amidst the chaos and pressure bearing down on his body, he lost consciousness…
…
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Notes
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