Chapter 3

At the trial Venue in the church of Lumia, the deacon of the church holds a crystal ball the size of a watermelon in his hand as he explains how the trial of virtue and the test for elemental bearing will be conducted.

“The trial will be conducted individually by the priests of the church. Each of you will have to place your hands on such a crystal and enter the illusory world that is inside the crystal. These crystals are directly linked to the goddess Lumia and will have a scenario that the goddess herself has laid out for you. Each of you will most likely have a different scenario for the trial which will test your virtues. Any questions?”

“How do we know we have passed or failed?”, one of the attendees asked

“That’s simple actually, you will be removed from the illusory world when you pass the trial and have the sigil of Lumia will be imprinted on the back of your palm. This sigil is the blessing of Lumia and remains for about a year until you get used to the powers that you will be awakening in the elemental bearing test. It serves as a sort of protection charm for you against your own mana”

“What if we fail?”

“These isn’t any precedence of anyone failing the virtue test yet, so you can go ahead without any worries. The goddess alters the scenario based on what is best suited for the individual”

“Alright now everyone forms 2 separate lines and head into the 2 chambers ahead one at a time”, said one of the priests in training who was acting as a helper during the ceremony

Ursla went ahead of Kein into the chamber of the trial. Ursla was from the borderlands of Hermathera which had been ravaged by the ongoing war, after the pillaging of her village by the enemy country of Gustak, Ursla was left an orphan dying on the battlefield but due to a trick of fate she was rescued by a passing pilgrim and was brought to the church of Lumia.

Ursla’s trial was pretty grim to the say the least. She found herself back in her village before it was destroyed but this time instead of a helpless child, she was an apostle of Obscurian the god of darkness. Obscurian was an agent of chaos and liked to sow discord where he went and such were also his followers. With the darkness of Obscurian corrupting her mind, she had to face the destruction of her village again.

“Hey, Ursla can you help me with the dinner?”, Ursla’s mother asked, who had died in the real world protecting her form an arrow

“Mom, -sob”, Ursla burst into tears seeing the face that she had not in the last 10years

“What is it? Did you get into a fight with Hick again?”

“No, Mom, we have to leave right now. Gustak is going to attack soon”, She steadied herself as she thought about the horror that was about to happen

“What are you talking about silly girl. We just signed a peace treaty with Gustak”

“No mom you don’t understand, they are going to violate that treaty and attack starting from right here!”

The ground shook as the sound of war drums could be heard on a normally peaceful day of the countryside. It was too late. The Gustak army was already here.

“RUN! Gustak has invaded!!, -argh!”, a shrill scream warned them right as an arrow pierced the throat of that person

“Mom we have to go right now!!”, Ursla ran towards the back door of the house

As they exited the house, they were greeted with the sight of the villagers being slaughtered regardless of who they were. Ursla saw people she had known when she was a child, who had taken care of her being murdered in cold blood right before her.

“Kill them! They deserve to die!”, a voice spoke up in Ursla’s head as she watched the horrific scene, it kept repeating the same lines over and over and just kept getting louder and louder

“KILL THEM!!”, Ursla tried her best to resist the urge to just destroy everything as her consciousness slowly faded

“Honey, are you alright?”, Ursla’s mother was now carrying her on back and running away from the village

“Mom?”

An arrow coming from behind goes straight into the leg of Ursla’s mother causing her to fall as she shields Ursla from the impact

“Mom!!”, Ursla remembered that this is how it happened last time too, the arrow was poisoned and her mother died the next day

“KILL THEM!”, Ursla could see the pursuers catching up as she frantically tried to carry her mother to safety

“Somebody help me! Anyone!”, Ursla couldn’t help but pray for help at this dire moment

“Alright then if you really need my help why don’t you offer something in return?”, the voice in her head spoke a different line

“What do you want?!”

“I want Lumia’s head!”, said the voice in a fit of rage, it was Obscurian trying to corrupt Ursla into one of his followers

“No, I can’t, the church of Lumia is where I grew up. I can’t betray them like this”

“Well then, I suppose your poor mother will just have to die again for saving a helpless little child like you, HAHAHA!~”, said the voice gleefully

“Silly girl, you should run. They will take sometime to get here. Leave me behind”, Ursla’s mother broke her trance as she spoke in a weak voice while pushing her away

“No, Mom, I can’t, not again!”, The pursuers had almost caught up to them

“I love you mom!”, Ursla stood as a shield between her mother and the pursuers

The last thing she saw was an axe coming down towards her as she woke up in the trial chamber. The sigil of Lumia glowing brightly. She broke into tears as she recalled those memories, she thought she had forgotten.

“Congratulations, you have passed the trial with a great score. The Brightness of the sigil indicates the purity of your heart”, said the priest who was administering the trial

“Thank you, where do I go now?”

“You can go back outside and wait for the elemental bearing test. It will be conducted after everyone is done with the trials”

“Okay”, Ursla left the trial with a feeling of Joy and regret at the same time. Joy for being able to see her long lost mother once again and regret for not being able to spend a longer time with her

“Kein, you’re up next. Don’t mess up!”, Ursla mocked Kein as he entered the chamber for the trial

Kein with his jumbled memories could not provide Lumia with enough to create a scenario for his trial and was instead greeted by something even odder.

“Hello Kein, my name is Vygil”

“Hi, is this my trial?”

“Well, Yes and No”

“What does that mean?”

“Lumia was having trouble testing you so she asked me for help. You see I’m supposed to be the observer of this world. The 3rd god of the vigil. The watcher. I do not usually interfere in matters related to the world but your case has intrigued me”

“I don’t understand, wasn’t the goddess Lumia supposed to be super powerful and be able to handle anything? Why does she need your help and why am I intriguing to you?”

“Haha, slow down young man. Some questions can only be answered with time but right now what I can tell you is that you do not belong in this world. A few years ago, I felt an anomaly in the space-time of this dimension, around the same time as you appeared at the church. Have you had any odd memories or anything that you feel is not right about this world?”

“Yes, there is no cake”, Kein said in an almost disappointed voice

“Cake? Something that even I do not know off. Very interesting. Well as you can see, your vocabulary and previous existence are not of this dimension. I will make it seem to everyone that you passed this trial and hope that you can bring some clarity to yourself about your origins in the future. Goodluck Young man”

Kein awakens feeling more lost that ever. His mind was full of questions that not even the gods of this world could answer. Who was he? Where did he come from? Why did he know about cake?

“Congratulations, you have passed the trial”, the priest administering the test felt a little disappointed as the sigil was barely visible which mean that Kein had barely passed, not knowing that Vygil faked the result without actually having done a test at all