"It's Heart!" Arnold exclaimed when he heard Satina's riddle.

"Very well... you did good and for your reward..." Satina gave off an ominous smile and snapped her fingers once again.

The next moment, Arnold saw a couple of empty black armours moving towards him. One of them had a sword in his hand while the other had a spear. Arnold, who had been in countless battles till now immediately understood what they were going to do next and prepared to dodge their attacks. But at the last moment, his body refused to move!

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. I won't allow you to not receive your reward. After all you've earned it." Satina smacked her lips again as she used her powers to bind Arnold to his place.

"You can't do this!" Arnold exclaimed.

"Oh my dear boy, this is MY domain, I can do whatever I want here." She said, "You have no idea how 'bored' I've been after staying trapped here... all alone with no one to talk to or in your case, with no one to torment. So be a good boy and make me happy!"

"You bitch!" Arnold exclaimed as the armours moved closer to him. "Your out of your mind! This wasn't mentioned in the rules!"

"True, I never mentioned what would happen if your answer is correct now did I? Well now you know."

Arnold was now finally in the armours' weapons reach. They quickly unsheathed their weapons, aimed for Arnold's defenseless back and quickly slashed it twice. Blood erupted from where the weapons penetrated his skin, his wounds were like a broken water hose... the blood kept coming out of them.

Arnold was in a lot of pain. He was quickly reminded of the pain he felt during his fight with the Wyvern. This skinning pain was a lot similar to that. He tightly gritted his teeth as the armours stepped back to their original position. The floor which resembled the night sky, got tainted by his blood. He saw Satina with the corner of his eyes.

"Oh this pleasure!!!" Satina was moaning with pleasure after seeing Arnold in pain, "If it still isn't clear then I'll make it clearer for you. For every right answer, I'll get 'pleasure' while you'll be subjected to pain, but seeing you in tatters after answering just one riddle... I doubt if you'd even make it to the 10th riddle, huhuhu!"

"Are... you just... going to talk or... are you going to give... me the next riddle?" Arnold panted heavily and straightened his back to face Satina once again.

"Commendable... commendable indeed..." Satina murmured, "As you wish, here's your second riddle - Glittering points that downward thrust, sparkling spears that never rust. What are they?"

"I thought... this was... a trial... not some joke." Arnold smiled weakly and taunted Satina, "I use them... all the time... the answer is Icicles."

"You a puny little mortal, dare to mock me! Guess I need to discipline you a bit more." Corners of Satina's mouth twitched as she snapped her fingers again. This time not two but three armours came forward to slash and stab Arnold.

Arnold who was already expecting it, barely flinched and after the armours were done, he quickly sealed the wounds with ice. Thinking it would at least slow down the blood loss.

"NEXT!" He roared loudly.

Satina was a bit surprised at what she was seeing... even after losing that much blood, Arnold was still walking towards her.

"Lives without a body, hears without ears, speaks without a mouth, to which the air alone gives birth." Satina gave him the next riddle to solve.

"A simple one... yet again... the answer is... an Echo." Arnold mindlessly mumbled and kept walking.

Unknown to Arnold, Satina was intentionally giving him riddles that were easy to solve so that he wouldn't be able to recover from his previous wounds.

She did so because, because even though the condition for failure was death, Satina couldn't do such a thing because her master, Shiva who was also looking at the trial from his own domain, had strictly prohibited her from taking Arnold's life, that is, unless she wanted to lose hers as well.

At the surface, it looked as if it was a trial of intelligence but in reality it was a trial of will power. Shiva wanted to know whether Arnold would be able to ensure hellish pain and still manage push through the limits of a mortal being, which was an essential condition for 'ascendance' and so far Arnold's performance was up to Shiva's expectations.

Everytime Arnold answered a riddle correctly, the number of armours that attacked him increased by one and as a result he was getting more and more wounds. He had also tried to use his elemental abilities to make a barrier to protect himself but the armour's attacks ignored his barriers and manage to hurt him. So in the Arnold decided to not create anymore barrier and use his abilities to seal his wounds instead.

"NEXT!"

"What kind of monster are you..." Satina whispered.

"I said NEXT!" Arnold looked up at her and gave her a smile that sent shivers down her spine.

"Ninth riddle - A cloud was my mother, the wind is my father, my son is the cool stream, and my daughter is the fruit of the land. A rainbow is my bed, the earth my final resting place, what am I?"

"Try... not... to... make it obvious next time..." Arnold said in a weak voice as he forced himself to get up, "Rain... the answer... is rain."

He knew that the answer was right when he saw ten armours rushing towards him, the armours stabbed him everywhere... his naked body was covered with ice that he used to temporary seal the wounds. But after enduring so much, his legs gave up. He fell face first on the floor, Satina thought it was over, but it wasn't. Arnold was crawling towards her using his hands. There was only one thing on his mind... all he wanted was... to get home.

"What a madlad..." Satina mumbled, "The Last riddle! It brings back the lost as though never gone, shines laughter and tears with light long since shone; a moment to make, a lifetime to shed; valued then but lost when your dead. What Is It?"

Arnold was panting harder than ever, he wanted to forget about everything and rest... his eyes were getting heavy. He couldn't feel his legs anymore. His entire body was getting numb, slowly, very slowly. He was losing consciousness but he had to push through it all... for Nicole... he had to get back. He slowly lifted his head. The throne was just a step away... but wasn't it enough? Hadn't he done enough already?

'NO! It isn't enough... I have to find a cure for Nicole... I have to reclaim what I lost... IT ISN'T ENOUGH YET!'

"Looks like you lost..." Satina said in an emotionless voice. "Failure means-"

"You think you can kill me?" Arnold mumbled to himself. "You dare to think I'll die?"

To Satina's surprise, the bloody and battered Arnold slowly forced himself to back on his feet, refusing to let the pain stop him.

"The answer is... memories... you can't Kill me anymore..." As he uttered these words, darkness shrouded his vision but in the last moments, he saw a faint light glittering in front of his eyes.

___

You've successfully completed the trial.

Ascendance process will now begin.

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