/////

"Argh."

Abruptly Amelia awoke and sat upright, a bad decision because as she did so, her head thumped in pain.

She could feel the blood in her temple in a rhythm as Amelia took deep breaths in hopes of stabilizing herself.

As the pain came, so did the memory of the last happenings following after.

'I was drawn to a strange glint, then a flash of light, Now I'm here…'

"Where am I?" She asked herself

Out of the blue, a voice answered from beside her "Same question I asked myself."

This resulted in Amelia jumping to her feet and brandishing her sword towards the voice, but she didn't feel the weapon on her waist so she instead formed an ice sword..

Although her hostile intent did not last long as she recognized who spoke.

Staring impassively at the sharp sword pointed at him was Vincent.

"Could you drop the sword, or do I have to say please?" He asked sarcastically.

Amelia de-casted the ice sword which made it dissipate into cold air.

"Sorry." She apologized.

Vincent put up his hand to signify his acknowledgment, "It's fine, you were on edge."

"Mmh," She nodded at him.

Amelia looked away from Vincent and examined her surroundings. She found herself in a lava light grey wide hallway, with no branching doors except a bright light on one end and a dead end on the other.

"Where are we?" She asked again.

"I don't know. I've been exploring this place for hours. There's a space at that end" He pointed to the light, "but it leads nowhere and the other end also leads nowhere." He pointed to the dead-end blocked off by a wall "The wall is also indestructible" He added.

"How indestructible?" Amelia asked.

"Took a lightning and fire combo attack for minutes and sustained no damage whatsoever. It's not only the wall, Everything here is indestructible."

"What have you tried to escape here?"

"Everything"

"Everything?"

"Everything" He affirmed.

Vincent let out a sigh and got to his feet, "Either way, I resolved myself to staring at the only clue I've got." He said, directing her to a mural engraved on the wall in front of them.

The mural was a scene of a four-legged, giant two-horned beast buried in snow and surrounded by snowflakes. On its two horns were 6 pairs of stacked bodies of beings akin to humans. And to the top right was a depiction of a half sun and half-moon.

Amelia examined the mural and felt a sense of familiarity from it. As she racked her head to make sense of her feelings, it came to her.

"That's the ancestor!" She almost shouted out.

"Ancestor?" Vincent asked

"Yes, that's the ancestor of the Mammon clan, Maeth the unstoppable."

"So I was right" Vincent saiɗ.

"Huh?"

He then stared into Amelia's eyes with a solemn face, "Whatever we are in right now Amelia, is related to you."

"Me?"

Vincent nodded.

Amelia glanced back to the mural and a thought came to her, one that sent despair down her spine and excitement into her being.

"Do you think that this is…", She trailed off.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," Vincent replied

"First of all, Follow me.", he said and began walking to the bright end of the hallway.

Amelia quickly picked up her sword on the ground and followed after. He led her to the end of the hallway, and Amelia was marveled at what lay after it.

It was like Vincent saiɗ, a space.

A space that spanned as long as God knows where.

The only thing in this space was a dirt floor and white walls that went high into a fog that was stationed mysteriously above them.

"Wow!"

"I know right" Vincent saiɗ after a chuckle. He walked past her and onto the dirt flooring, after a few steps he motioned for her to follow.

Amelia warily raised a foot and placed it on the dirt path, she felt nothing strange and hence placed her second foot on the path.

All of a sudden, The hallway closed with a huge thud making her flinch forward

Vincent heard the huge thud and saw the hallway had now blended into the walls like it was never there, so he proceeded to retreat to Amelia's side.

'She is truly the key to this.' He thought.

All of a sudden, a strong male voice reverberated across the room.

"Welcome Descendant of mine."

"Welcome to the lands where my inheritance lies."

"Since you have set your foot upon the dirt path, there is no longer a path of return, You must journey into the frozen lands, colder than our sacred land, Nif, and seize the power you desire..."

"But such a course is one filled with peril and dangers set to test your will, strength, and worthiness."

"Hence, Three trials shall be used to test you."

"For your first trial."

"You must prove that you are indeed pure of the Maeth bloodline."

"Complete the easiest task your ancestors did every day of their life."

"Survive Nif!"

"Good luck Descendant."

The voice disappeared soon after.

Vincent looked at Amelia with an empty smile, "I guess we can jump to conclusions now."

"We are in an Inheritance Trial."

"An inheritance trial for the Maeth clan."

///// Broscour Forest, Hill Biome./////

Amelia stood at the foot of Broscour Hills. She donned a set of gear tailored for the journey she will undertake.

A pair of double insulated boots underneath a thick jacket, trousers, and headwear made out of special fireborn dark beast fur. All these were specially made by a guild blacksmith for this occasion.

On her back was a plus-sized rucksack that contained food, water, and the basic hiking gear, like an Ice axe, a rope, belay device, etc, and also her special weapon.

Amelia looked towards the top of the hill, which disappeared into the calm clouds leaving only a part of its snowcap visible.

'Sigh, this is not going to be easy.' She dreaded.

'According to the information from the library, Broscour Highest hill scales up to about 29,000 feet. At some point, I'll need an air pocket.'

Broscour Hills was with a small pass that only reached about half the mountain, After that she would need to scale it herself.

The reason for this is due to the power of the Dark beasts that took this place as home. They made it impossible for the pass to extend any further.

Amelia tugged on her rucksack and began hiking the range although not in the usual way.

'[Ether Burst]'

*Boom*

///// 4 Hours Later /////

Ama quit her run just before the mountain pass ran out.

She gazed towards the top and still found herself quite far from it, so she sat the backpack on the ground and began to equip her hiking equipment and her weapons.

Ama planned to go on the rest on foot. Her reckoning for this was that her ether burst would drag the attention of beasts that she may not be able to outrun as she did during the last hours.

So it was better to scale the hill normally.

After getting ready, she continued to hike her way.

Thankfully, she began this journey in the morning, and hence at this point, there were no storms to encounter.

She slowly climbed up the rocky land and a few minutes later she crossed the halfway mark of the mountain and entered into its frozen scapes.

'This seems too easy.' Ama thought.

[AN: Is it now?]

All of a sudden a powerful roar resounded through the hill.

"RAAAAWWWWRRR!"

The beastly roar was so powerful that the land quaked in response, because of this the snow unraveled upon itself and began to tumble down the hill slope.

The roar had caused an avalanche

'Me and my big mouth.' Ama thought before getting swallowed by heaps of snow.

She swore that she could hear a tiny voice in her head before getting swallowed by the snow heaps.

The voice said eerily, 'Murphyyyyyy!!!'

/////

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