Chapter 239: The Tyrant’s Trial

[Welcome to the chamber of the Crimson Fist Tyrant]

A voice immediately greeted Finn inside his head the moment he stepped through fully.

His head whipped around sharply on instinct, searching for the source of the voice before he realized it had come from inside his head.

He claimed slightly, then observed the others who’d reacted the same way as him, if not stronger. The voice had also sounded in their heads.

Finn noted that fact then finally processed what the voice had actually said.

Crimson Fist Tyrant?

His brows rose slowly as realization dawned on him. No wonder he had felt a familiar feeling from the murals in the corridor. The Crimson Fist Baboon soul mass he had assimilated as an Ossuarist back in his timeline.

While he had never physically seen the Crimson Fist Baboon, he had used its strength and lived with its soul mass inside his soul.

It was the only soul mass he had assimilated very easily. In fact he barely remembered how he had done so. All that surfaced to his mind whenever he thought about it was a hazy memory of being angry for no reason, then him using a show of wanton, extreme force. Besides that… nothing.

The Crimson Fist Baboon had been the weakest soul mass he had within his soul back in his timeline. Rank 21/21.

He was sure it was this same Crimson Fist Baboon he had seen on the walls of the corridor. Perhaps of a higher form, though, seeing as this was called a Tyrant.

But then how is such a creature here of all places? Finn thought confusedly. This was a random temple — the first temple they had stumbled onto in the lands inside this Fog of No Return. How was it that a creature that he’d assimilated in the far future was depicted in a temple he was uncovering in a distant past, a different world, and a shrouded location?

Finn sighed and took it in stride. At this point the level of surprise he got from uncanny experiences like these — experiences linking to something from his future — was no longer as dramatic.

[You may step forward to begin your trial]

The voice sounded in Finn’s mind again, snapping him back to attention.

[Succeed, and you may claim the inheritance of the Crimson Fist Tyrant]

[Fail, and only death awaits]

Finn frowned immediately, glancing at the others, who from their terrified looks, heard the same as he just did.

The ground before them rumbled and shifted. The entire empty chamber began trembling as the stone floors separated into large, individual stone blocks, some falling deeper into the ground, disappearing entirely and leaving deep, black, abyss voids in their places.

When the trembling finally settled, what was before them was a single, straight pathway made of the square stones, arranged like a bridge. On both sides, the black void took up the remaining space in the chamber, and even the foothold Finn and the others had was little.

Finn took an involuntary step back as he looked over the edge where he stood. A sense of vertigo overtook him as someone nudged him slightly by mistake, but he caught himself quickly and stood his ground, whipping his head back to identify the culprit.

It was one of the younger sailors that had followed him here. The young man was struggling to remind still, squeezed on the small ledge space with others behind him.

He shot Finn an apologetic look as the nudge had been transferred from someone at the back shifting for better foothold.

Fuck. We need to move immediately. Finn cursed in his mind as he stared at the stone bridge before them.

Were they to simply walk across? Would it hold?

Finn knew this was some sort of test. Like one of those dungeon rpg games he’d played back in his life on Earth, where one had to complete a puzzle, essentially deciphering the pattern required to tread without harm.

But at least in those games there were clues. Here there were no clues Finn could even begin to decipher at all.

What kind of shit test is this anyway? He thought as he received another nudge from behind as someone shifted again.

“You guys better calm yourselves back there!” He snapped harshly as he tried to think. The only clues he could think of were the murals in the corridor. But that had no correlation whatsoever to a bridge!

…Or does it?

He glanced at Althea, who stood next to the Blessed rather comfortably, also at the front close to the edge like him.

​”Althea, move. I wanna jump forward,” he called out to her, intending to leap from where he stood. Althea and the Blessed were the two closest to the front of the bridge.

​Althea, the Blessed, and everyone else shifted as much as they could, giving Finn a clear path to spring from his tight spot at the edge.

​He primed himself, then leaped forward, clearing the distance easily and landing exactly where he had intended, though he stumbled slightly.

Althea reached for him subconsciously and steadied him, though he did not need the help. “Have you figured out the safe paths?” she asked, nodding towards the bridge.

“No,” Finn replied. “But the Blessed does,” he looked at Ailin and narrowed his gaze at her.

“Your path is yours to figure out alone, Errant. I shall not help you…” she answered him in an ancient voice full of meaning and intent.

“Hmm,” Finn grunted, then faced forward, observing the bridge. “Thought you might say something like that.”

Suddenly, the look in his eyes changed, and he roared, startling everyone, including Althea.

Thumping his chest like he’d lost his mind, he took off seemingly without care and started running across the bridge in erratic steps.

“Follow and step only where he steps!” Althea yelled out to the others and made to take off after Finn, but the Blessed shocked her by charging forward deftly.

Althea stood stunned for a short beat before snapping out of the daze of seeing Ailin moving like a trained fighter, practically a step behind Finn.

She jumped and followed as roars and yells resounded behind her — people pumping themselves up, spurring themselves into action, building courage as they took a leap of faith.

She didn’t look back, keeping her eyes only on the blocks Finn and Ailin stepped on, and committing them to memory, careful not to misstep.

Aahhh!!

A panicked yell and the sound of grinding stone came from behind as someone misstepped, causing one of the stone blocks to fall into the black abyss surrounding them, taking the person along.

Althea still did not look back, keeping her gaze forward as Finn weaved erratically towards the end of the bridge.

Finally, with a last leap, she reached the end of the bridge and landed on solid ground on the other side, panting and finally having the time to look back at the survivors.

Three people.

Only three people made it to the end with them.

The others had either misstepped, or they hadn’t been able to keep up with the pace and fell behind, forgetting which blocks were safe.

The three survivors from the crew fell to their knees and to their backs, panting heard as they tried to calm their frantically beating hearts. They thought they would die like their comrades.

Somehow they hadn’t. And now that they survived, sorrow about the loss of their comrades followed. Perhaps even guilt. It was evident in the way their shoulders slouched, and from the looks on their faces.

Althea grit her teeth and turned to Finn with a firm gaze. At least they had survived. Somehow Finn had led them through the clear paths on the bridge. Was his powers somehow able to work inside of here? Had he spotted flaws to be able to weave his way through safely?

Or…

Finn took a deep sigh calming his rapidly beating heart.

What the hell just happened? He found himself suddenly smiling at what he was feeling…

Thrill.

In this dangerous, unknown temple, he was feeling thrilled?

What was he? A masochist? Did danger get him going? Or was that something else entirely?

All he knew was that in the moment before jumping onto the bridge, he had tried to replicate the Crimson Fist Baboon from his memory… No. Not just from memory. He tried to immerse himself as if he had the Crimson Fist Baboon soul mass within him right then.

Even though this body was different, his soul remembered the feeling. His soul remembered how it was like being immersed in the powers of the Crimson Fist Baboon.

What followed had been a blur.

He simply moved without thinking, moving as the Crimson Fist Baboon… or rather, in this case, the Crimson Fist Tyrant.

A Tyrant didn’t care for petty traps, puzzles or games. A Tyrant — A Crimson Fist Tyrant, simply forged forward and made their own way.

In fact without knowing how, Finn was certain there had actually been no safe path across the bridge. He had been the one to decide what paths were safe. The steps he had taken with firm conviction, fully embodying what a Crimson Fist Tyrant was, had been affirmed as safe by the temple itself.

Finn instinctively believed this to be true.

That had been the goal of this test. To decide whether he had the will of the Crimson Fist Tyrant. The one who had the audacity to roar to the heavens and question them. The one who dared to question existence itself.

Finn breathed out deeply, finally calm. He glanced at Althea and caught her staring at him. He then glanced at Ailin and could’ve sworn there was a hint of a smile on the edges of her lips. But it was gone before he could be sure.

“Let’s go,” he addressed everyone. “This test is not over.”

He turned and headed forward through the door and into the next chamber, where a voice greeted him immediately.

[Congratulations on passing the first phase of the Crimson Fist Tyrant’s trial]

[The second phase will begin now]

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