Mechanic Alicia Roosevelt

Introduction (iii) The first test

Now that Alicia Roosevelt was this close to this appalling being, she could see that its face was only a skull left without any flesh to occupy its hideous appearance. Alicia Roosevelt had a feeling that the being was gazing at her.

At last, Alicia Roosevelt was the one to lose because of the daunting pressure applied on her by this avian. She was sweating as she felt like she was carrying the entire world on her shoulders, even her shoulders quaked uncontrollably before she surrendered and hung her head low. She wanted to speak but she found out that she could not even utter a single word and she could only curse the avian in her mind.

"Your monstrous desires really piqued my interest. I wouldn't have come here if not after feeling your emanating desires. Many have come here for the dark stone and perished. I know you also came for the same thing as them. Actually, I am the guardian of the dark stone, and congratulations for activating the will of the dark stone." The daunting voice of the avian hammered in Alicia Roosevelt's mind, she was exited as she could not help but shout joyfully in her mind like an exited young lass. But Alicia Roosevelt failed to hear keenly the voice of the guardian when it congratulated her, its voice was not in a celebratory mood but it was full of disappointment instead.

"Activating the will of the dark stone doesn't mean that you can simply take the stone away because of that, many people like you have come here and activated the will of the dark stone but no one amongst that many people managed to take away the dark stone." When Alicia Roosevelt heard this, her face darkened instantly, what she was mostly afraid of was about to show up, Alicia Roosevelt had experienced the life of her father using the forsaken psychic technique, it was a needed before one ascended to the throne. In all those memories, Alicia Roosevelt knew that no power came for free, too much blood needed to be spilled in order to get this power. Even though she had been prepared for this, she was still disappointed after hearing it.

Knowing that its target was now chickening, the avian continued with a mocking tone, "You have to pass three tests before you can get your hands on this stone..." The avian swallowed before continuing, "Do you want to have a try?"

"I came this far for that very purpose, do you think I am a coward who will run away in the face of stupid trials?" Alicia Roosevelt asked the avian with a condescending tone, even if the avian was appalling, she had come to know that it was there to offer her trials, that was the purpose of the avian and if she failed the trials or said that she didn't want to take the trials, the avian would have the absolute power to "play" with her for little while. And at that point, Alicia Roosevelt knew that they could not win against the avian, it was an entity that she didn't even knew where it came from...

"Interesting, you are just as boisterous like your fellows who took the tests before you, but don't be too much enthusiastic and assertive, these tests are not as simple as you may think because many have failed." The voice of the avian reverberated in the entire cave before the avian disappeared in the view of Alicia Roosevelt.

She then found herself confined in a cube, this cube was totally made of shadows that were alive as Alicia Roosevelt could even see vague images of her comrades forming around the cube. In the next moment, Alicia Roosevelt's expression darkened, she run towards the wall of the cube trying to escape but she only banged on this wall, there was no escape.

Presently whilst Alicia Roosevelt was still confined in this cube, her minions out there were in a frenzy, they could not find where Alicia Roosevelt was, they were hopeless, disoriented and in disorder which gave the rotten corpses a much easier time to finish them off, Alicia Roosevelt could only helplessly watch as her knights fell one by one by one, her friends were also not left out, the priest Vlad Levitsky was the first person to be taken out. It was not an illusion that was applied on her by the avian but this was happening for real out there, the strange power that stoped time out there had been lifted and now it was a bloodbath, all these were shown to Alicia Roosevelt while she was still confined.

"Phew!" Alicia Roosevelt closed her eyes and then opened them once again, she was languid while her eyes were now nonchalant, there was no emotions to be seen in them, no compassion, no humanity and positivity, she could still hear the cries of her minions but that didn't faze her, it was as if those cries didn't concern her, she was now like the embodiment of indifference.

A cold snort could then be heard in the background before the avian said, "I can see that you are ready, we can now begin the first test..."

"The first test is all about your personality, what makes you to be you. The dark stone is not an underworld item as everyone anticipated, I can only say that this stone will be contrary to your expectations. So, to be the holder of this stone, you have to accept your imperfect personality to be "corrected"."

"What do you say?" The avian finished by asking in a reverberating tone that could give one the chills.

Alicia Roosevelt knew very well that accepting her personality to be changed was not a simple matter. Her personality defined who she was. She was arrogant, indifferent, brave, proud and a tyrant.

If her personality was corrected now, how would she be behaving once the correction was done? Would she be a timid person? But her personality defined what a leader should be like, if it was corrected, then she would be no less than her stupid brother, right? That would thus give their nemesis an easier time to overwhelm them when she was there acting weak.

The world was cruel and her personality was what was needed to survive in this world as a leader. Alicia Roosevelt felt like all this was a trap, who didn't knew that if she accepted this, she may be replaced by another being with the needed personality because changing a person was not that conceivable according to her.

"I accept for my personality to be corrected." Alicia Roosevelt said finally after pondering about it for some moments, her voice was melancholic when she said those words. It was as if she had accepted for her child to be sacrificed so that she could get more powerful.

After all, in this place, she didn't have a choice because she was the one who came here to seek power, she was not urged or forced by anyone, there was no going back once she stepped in Collow Abyssinian.

"Good then." The avian voice was heard afterwards, it was as if it expected this outcome.

The next instance, Alicia Roosevelt's vision changed, she found herself back in the Whiddiff city. Her vision kept changing at an unprecedented speed as she was shown the different lifestyles of the people of Azuhai. Although the vision was changing at an amazing speed, she could still follow up.

Alicia Roosevelt was shown the poor families going through difficulties in order to survive, they were sold as slaves, tortured, forced to do hard labour, r***d, violated and all the acts that made their life a living hell. She was shown the consequences of war especially to the unfortunate and how the war was affecting the world that they lived in, all these visions changed Alicia Roosevelt without her even knowing, she could not even find a word to say a thing on what she was seeing.

Without even knowing, Alicia Roosevelt had been reborn to a new person, but this didn't mean that she had forgotten about his past, after all, even if one repented all his sins, that didn't mean that the sins that one committed were erased, their sins were a part of them that they would die with them while regretting. But to Alicia Roosevelt, her past had become vague, it was right there but she could not touch or perceive it.

"There comes the second test." The avian didn't gave Alicia Roosevelt time to rest, it went forward with the second test.

"What do you want to use the dark stone for?" The avian asked. This seems to be the second test as Alicia Roosevelt thought, she had been a leader for a long time and she knew how some wicked individuals speaked.