Beatitudes

Episode 73.

A forest pulsed with greenery and life as a peculiar aura pervaded the air in the surroundings. Over a patch of land surrounded by black trees with dense green leaves, a strange ripple suddenly pulsed outwards in the air following which a hand emerged from the blank void like an apparition of sorts. It paused as it was and went no further, after which it was immediately retracted. Then about a second or so later, the same hand popped outwards like it previously did, followed by a foot in black that wiggled a bit after which it retreated into the void again and a leg came out after it like someone was stepping through the void. But even that paused in its track as it was soon retracted.

Any one person watching the scene would be petrified in place as looked on while those with relatively stronger minds would also be stumped for words by the extremely odd sight.

But since there was no one to witness such a scene, everything remained peaceful and unmoved despite the disturbing scene that continued on for a few more seconds without pause.

Finally, the scene returned to normal as no more body parts extended from the void to break the balance of the scene.

But the silence was once again broken as the ripple in space appeared again, extending even further at this point. This time around, the figure of a person in sleek dark colored fighter gear appeared as he stepped through the void, this person was naturally Isaac who had just been testing the wonders of the space he had just passed through, unaware of the odd scene he had displayed on the other side. Closely following behind him were two other figures in the same sleek dark colored fighter gear, one being a male and the other a female. The male figure had a curious expression on his face as he surveyed his surroundings, while the only female of the three had a thoughtful light in her eyes as she quietly looked around. The two were naturally Harry and Hiya who followed Isaac through the mountain trial entrance after him.

Isaac looked around as he also surveyed his surroundings, the vibrant greenery and peaceful quiet of the place made him feel like had just reappeared in the peaceful and tranquil Jade forest, not feeling any sense of danger that he expected to as he usually did.

It was after looking around calmly for a while that a certain thought popped up in his mind that made his thoughts freeze in place, he was just about to say something when Harry beat him to talking and said the exact same words he was about to say,

“How are we going to do this, I can’t sense any beast anywhere.”

It was then Isaac realized that this was a mountain trial, a different space entirely from the normal world, he couldn’t sense any beast as well and he didn’t know how exactly they were supposed to ‘clear’ a mountain trial.

Isaac suddenly had the feeling that he had been played, he was about cursing under his breath when a black shadow flitted across his eyes and came to a stop floating right in front of him.

Isaac was startled into battle mode as white mist burst out of hand and solidified around it like a glove, he then swiftly swung the white glove covered hand at the black shadow. What he just did was all reflexive as his body moved on its own yet his reflexes were surprisingly quick as his reaction although rushed had allowed him to smash the black shadow at almost the same time as it had appeared in front of him.

But although his hand had connected with the black shadow, instead of smashing it away to a considerable distance, his hand had actually passed all the way through the shadow, while the shadow itself simply distorted slightly like it was being dispersed into the air before it came back together like nothing happened.

Surprise and alarm flickered across his eyes as he also reflexively backtracked as quick as he could. But contrary to his expectation, the black shadow which he expected to jump at him or something simply stood in place without moving as a voice sounded out from it

“Calm down will you…”

The voice spread out from the black shadow to enter the ears of the trio who had just been about to attack with the thought that it was a beast from this separate space, but as the voice reached their ears and registered in their heads, they could only pause, not because it was a beast hat could talk, but because it was Adam’s voice that they could hear from it, Harry stared at the black shadow with confusion in his eyes as he spoke up,

“Adam? is that you? Did you get swallowed by a beast or something…”

The black shadow that was just about to say something in response to Isaac’s frantic behavior paused completely as it turned to stare directly at Harry who had just spoken, it stayed silent like that as it stared intently at the confused berserker. Even Hiya turned her gaze from the shadow to the perplexing being that was Harry.

At this point, the shadow was stumped for words as Adam who was still lying lazily on the mountain outside had a strange look in his eyes, Horace in his head chose this moment to speak

Horace: He’s a rare dumb specimen…

Adam said nothing to that, but his not speechlessness seemed to silently acquiesce to those words,

Back in the mountain trial space, the black shadow said not another word, making it look like nothing but an odd cluster of black smoke. Everything seemed to have frozen as Adam had no words to reply Harry while the others didn’t exactly understand what was happening themselves to explain.

It was until after about half a minute had gone by did Isaac who had calmed down his adrenaline filled blood speak up with another question,

“How are you here Adam, didn’t you say you couldn’t enter this place?”

His words immediately broke through the stagnant atmosphere as the black shadow finally responded, completely ignoring the still confused Harry.

“Well I’m not actually here with you guys, I meant it when I said I can’t enter. This is just an apparition, a particular skill of mine. With it I can’t come in as well, but since I still can’t exactly trick the laws operating these things, this apparition of mine is just an apparition, I can’t use it to do anything else other than conversing with you guys.”

Understanding dawned in their eyes but right as Isaac was about to speak, Harry once again spoke up with relief on his face,

“It’s good that it’s a skill of yours, I wondered how something so small could swallow a fully grown human like you while you could still talk.”

“…”