Aether stood on a ruin, wiggling his feet over the edge, looking down, and he saw a massive hole. One of those gaps in the Tides that lead only to the void, that didn’t have an end, you just fall, and you continue to fall until you go insane.

He wasn’t even sure you could die; the only thing he could think that could actually kill you is the lack of oxygen, but until you get to that point, if it even exists, it must take a lot. If not, you’re stuck falling down for eternity.

“What a sorry faith…”

He smiled.

“Am I right?” He said, throwing a small rock at one of the many giant statues that were all over the Tides, and watching it crush it. He wondered, what class and rank were these monsters? I mean, he knew that most people inside the Tides were strong, but if they were of the Seeker class, how were so many still alive?

Was it that for the people of the Tides, even a Seeker class is hard to beat?

…

Well, what is he even saying? It’s also hard for him to kill a Seeker rank. The only way he had done it until now has been with cheap tricks. If he has to fight one without any time to study it and find every one of its weaknesses and a way to kill it, he couldn’t do it. And even then, he probably wouldn’t even do it himself, like by blade. But rather something else.

For this stone giant, he had a plan to maybe try and see if he could make it fall and break itself, but how on earth was he going to do that?

Well… he had an idea.

This was… his third day trying to figure everything out. And really, he has been able to make a plan, but not one good enough. So he wasn’t really excited to try it.

He had spoken to many shadows trying to find information, and done many experiments… some going well, while some not so well.

There was one in particular on his first day…

…

…

Aether stared at the statue in its eyes, trying his best not to run away. After all, he was scared to try this out. But it was something he had to know. Until now, he hasn’t seen the statue move, because he had thrown the stones close to it.

And so, he was going to touch it. And then run, if it wasn’t able to run. Then good, he had gotten some valuable information… if it could… he would just have to figure out something else.

Was it dumb, yeah, really dumb, he didn’t know what was going on inside his mind. He was irritated, he just wanted to get this done, to get the heart, and then the information,n and beat the shit out of that guy and finally get out of this place so he could finally start his journey into this book. He has spent three months inside his trial and hasn’t made any progress.

He was desperate, so he couldn’t help but be irrational.

Taking a deep breath, Aether made contact with the statue, and as it saw him, it opened its eyes. He stepped away, being sure that he was far enough away so he wasn’t instantly squished to death.

And to his horror… the stone being could in fact walk.

‘Shit.’

Not wasting any more time, he made a run for it, but not only could the being walk, but it could also run… and damn was it fast.

The being was so much bigger and heavier than him, and yet it could run as well as him; it was as if it wasn’t made out of stone but something really flexible and breathable.

He ran and ran, feeling his legs burn like crazy, until he met a dead end, those gaps in the Tides that went all the way to the void, and this was a lot wider, so he couldn’t walk around; it would take too long, and turning wasted speed.

‘Damn it.’ He had to cross it somehow… and luckily for him, the other side wasn’t far away at all, not enough to make it by jumping… but.

He summoned Voidpiercer, throwing it towards the other side, and watching it as it buried itself deep into the ground. Really, this was dumb, but he just had to hope this was going to be able to hold his weight.

As the statue got closer, he jumped, feeling himself fall as the blade helped him get to the other side.

Hitting the wall with his face, he hurt his nose badly. But that wasn’t the point. He was sure that this wasn’t going to hold for long.

His body was dangling in a hole that went into the void. Aether wrapped his hands around the chains attached to the blade and his right hand, climbing up slowly.

And just as Voidpiercer slipped out. He was able to grip the edge of the other side and get up. It wasn’t over, the statue was still after him, but by the time it crossed, he would be far, far away, and he would just lose it. Now he didn’t know if this meant that he would just have a statue wandering around for him… but at least he was alive

…

…

Thinking back on this memory, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea. But he did have a point, he has been here for a while and made no progress, he couldn’t just waste more time trying to make the safest planes. I mean, in Frozen Crown, he was making reckless decisions one after another, and he was able to survive.

Now back to the plan… since he knew that the statue was going to follow him, he could use this to his advantage, even if it would have been a lot safer if it couldn’t.

Though, as it happened last time, if he did something like jumping into one of the infinite holes, it wouldn’t, so he couldn’t do that and hope that it jumped after him. Plus, he wouldn’t get the heart, since he had no idea if it was a relic.

Its weak point was its eyes, he had learned that from a shadow, a lost whose owner had tried himself to get the heart, but had failed miserably, but in his tryings he was able to drive his blade into its eye, and it was a lot softer than any of his body.

So his plan was simple: to throw Voidpiercer in his eye, and jump off from a great height, that way, since Voidpiercer’s chains were invincible, well, he wasn’t sure, he just hadn’t seen anything break them anymore, it would make it fall with him. It was similar to what he had done with the lion in that one book he had done with his rebellion.

He shook his head, trying not to remind himself of it.

Now the question was from where? He had to find a height that would at least weaken this beast, and while he had the spire… it had a ladder. And he didn’t think that this stone giant could climb a ladder. So while it was perfect, sadly, he couldn’t use it. And how sad, since if he could, he would’t have to walk a lot back to the spire to give it to the others in exchange for the information.

Even so, there were a lot of ruins that might as well be enough to kill one. He just had to find one.

Plus, there was another bigger problem, how on earth was he going to survive? He could use partial control, but he still had no idea how to use his wings, so he was going to get hurt, even if he didn’t die. And there wasn’t even someone to treat him and for him to rest. So how could he not hurt himself.

Well, maybe if he were able to take out Voidpiercer before the statue could weigh him down and make him fall faster, then he could twist himself and throw the blade and use it to keep him from falling.

…

Though he doubted he had the time to do all of that mid-fall. So he came up with the only way.

To use his hair, it had already worked, so if he fell and managed to get Voidpiercer, he could just use his hair to tangle it on something sticking out as he had done before.

Yet again, it was one hell of a dangerous plan, one that might well kill him in more ways than he knew, and he took responsibility for that. He wasn’t going to deny it. He knew better.

It was just that, after spending so much time in this place, he just wanted out; he wanted to get out of this damn place and actually see what the world of this Trial was. To actually start to make progress instead of doing nothing in this place.

He didn’t have time to play it safe.

He had to be reckless.

And this plan was definitely one of the most stupid one he had ever came out with.

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