"The weaver? What are you talking about?"
"No…no…it's nothing. Sorry."
"Ooookay? Let's try this again."
Liam put his hand back on the cube and was immediately met with the same feeling. Instead of being in a black landscape he was standing in a meadow.
He sighed.
'The challenge of oblivion is to overcome yourself. Let's see which self shows up.'
Sitting on a rock in the distance there was a young man with blonde hair and glimmering blue eyes, a floating golden sword next to the man clad in white and gold armor.
"Oh shit."
A younger version of Spathi, himself, the king of swords, and the self proclaimed god of blades.
The young man stood up.
"So it's you, or me I mean…but you don't look like me. What happened to us?"
Liam looked at him and sighed.
"We died. That's it, I'm not you, you're not me. We're different people."
"Different people? Is that all you have to say? After how much we paid for that spot on that throne!"
"It's not like we deserved it, it was a fluke. We found that…by mistake."
The young man got angry and shot forward, summoning a large white and gold claymore and threw it down on Liam. The golden floating sword blocked the claymore before it hit him. The one he recognized as one of his two favorite swords. Sun.
"Ah, it's been a while."
He smiled and grabbed Sun. He felt the raging power erupting in his body.
He swung Sun and hit back the claymore.
"You still use Durendall? That blade is flimsy! We should've passed it down when we had the chance."
Liam smiled as he criticized his younger self. He knew his weaknesses, the ones he had overcome. His ego. So fragile.
"How dare you insult it, you knew how much it meant to us!"
"We were just stuck on nostalgia. Grow up!"
Liam wasn't talking to another person, he was talking to himself, like he could've changed himself.
He swung Sun into Durendall, the flaming blade slicing straight through the claymore and slicing off his younger self's arm off. And then he went for the head, slicing it clean off. His body fell to the ground and disappeared, and Sun floated off from his hand and stayed in front of him locked in place. The body of the golden sword had ice slowly creep onto it.
"What is this?"
The sword was completely covered in ice and he tried to grab it.
|"Accept your second challenge! Overcome your element!"|
The sword disappeared and the landscape changed, it was freezing, he could barely withstand the cold as he was plunged into a blizzard. His clothes weren't warm enough, the snow swept against him. He shuddered and continued on.
Sun faded from his hand and left to go somewhere else. He continued trudging through the snow, down to his bare feet. Before he spotted a light, a fire, a blazing fire, a hearth. It blazed and glowed between the snow. He found himself staring at a cloaked figure, sitting on a log next to the fire that blazed and burned.
The man looked at him, his eyes burned like the fire.
"Well, you're finally here."
"I'm finally here?"
He had a toothy grin and stood up, he had pretty short white hair and blazing amber eyes.
"I'd like to introduce myself, I'm Ignis, the primordial god of fire and dragons."
"Primordial god…? And what exactly is that?"
"We're ancient, powerful beings. But we're not exactly gods. We just govern over certain concepts."
"Isn't that what a god is?"
"…meh."
"Anyways, if you're all powerful, how are you in this realm?"
"Im allowed to go as I please. Besides, I figured I should see you."
"Why would you want to see me?"
"Why would I not want to see the great sword god himself, you were so close…just like Atlas. But you just missed the mark. Too bad that thing stepped in. Perhaps you'd be actually remembered."
"I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that, but okay. Anyways, why is this place so cold…?"
"Well, because your element is ice dumbass."
"And why exactly?"
"No idea. It's probably a reflection of your 'cold and calculating personality' but I highly doubt it."
"…hmph."
He sat down at the fire and sighed.
"But…I'm going to offer you a choice."
A large orange crystal floated in his hand with a radiating center.
"I understand why you might not want to delve down this path again, but I'm offering you my blessing."
He looked surprised.
'A primordials blessing?'
"You can either, delve down that same path from your past life, or simply leave it."
"I'll take it, whatever that is…"
"It's a dragon heart. I knew you would take it."
"And how did you exactly…?"
"Me and fate are good pals."
And he vanished, leaving the dragon heart in Liam's hands. And he swallowed it. Down the hatch. No water, no extra food. Just ate it up.
And suddenly he felt his heart burning, he felt his core radiating like the crystal, his heart burning like the fire.
And a sword appeared in front of him. It looked like Sun, but it was a crystalline blue, like ice. He took the sword and the snow disappeared, turning into the autumn, and he felt his body being sucked out again. Back into the real world.
"