Capítulo 140: Enduring (Asahi: Part 11)
"Come on, hurry up!"
It felt like every single thing in this world was being carried on Asahi's back.
An object so heavy, that not even his straight workout could betoken him.
It shared the shape of a chair comprised of hardened stone and jewels, heavy enough to crush those that were not strong enough. Asahi had to carry it as he hiked.
After the meeting and the strange occurrence that had transpired prior to this, Toivo decided to make Asahi undergo a trial even worse than the other ones. A test that challenged even the best of people.
Traveling through an opening of a lush forest, Toivo led Asahi, Brunella, Canyon, Asahi, and the others to a stunning location that teemed with life. A blue river meandered its way through the landscape, feeding the plants that grew closest to its sandy banks. Birds flew across the mist that sharply encircled this plateau as the sun shined brightly in a clear blue sky.
Asahi was following Toivo's orders when he approached the bluff from where the river could be seen several kilometers down.
"Alright, now put the chair down. I recommend you use your legs, not your back."
After he heard that, Asahi gave a stern look of disapproval at Toivo. Skin and pants were all that covered his naked midsection. The grime, bruises, and scars on his skin contrasted with the large, whirling S tattooed on his lower back. Asahi's determined demeanor belied the obvious suffering he had endured.
But he was never deterred because he always put forth his maximum effort in pursuit of a powerful state.
Asahi, who had grown tall and ripped, lifted and bent down swiftly but carefully, taking advantage of the space created by his bowed knees.
Throughout the course of his days being in the mansion, Asahi had focused only on his upper body, ignoring his lower half. Nevertheless, Toivo recognized this right away and made up his mind to put Asahi through this test regardless of the unusual event he saw with the black shockwave.
The weight of the stone chair slipped down Asahi's spine, leaving fresh red marks and bruises all over his body.
His cheeks flushed with anger as he felt himself being pressed to the floor by an overwhelming force. Worried voices sounded out around him.
"Asahi, are you alright?"
"Is he going to be okay?" Said a high-pitched voice.
Tovio, however, responded quickly and deftly by pushing the group away from Asahi and shouting at them with a harsh, icy severe expression.
"Leave this young man alone. I'm doing this for a reason, not for all of you to ruin it."
Even with the weight almost crushing him, Asahi was able to push through and root his feet into the ground.
With each heave and push, the young man used both his muscles and thin legs to eventually place the heavy stone chair down on the ground. The plants that were on its spot were immediately crushed by the force, tossing pebbles into the air, and shaking the ground. Sweat poured down his cheeks in torrents as he took a big, hard breath. Each droplet slipped down his face and fell down onto the ground, exploding on the soft bristles of grass within each impact. He felt the heat intensify as he turned his head toward the source of the sunlight and saw that it was pouring down on him.
"Why is it so hot all of a sudden?" Asahi mumbled as he slid his hand against his forehead. "It's almost unbearable."
"That doesn't matter," Toivo added as he applauded him, staring at each bruise on his face. "Excuses only hold you back. You will not melt like a snowball anyways."
Asahi sealed his lips shut after Toivo uttered that. No matter what, there was nothing Asahi could do to counter Toivo's argument. All he could have thought of was to keep silent. This in return, allowed Toivo to explain himself.
"What you are doing right now serves as a test to see how strong your heart truly is. You can't give in to the pain and discomfort of this world. That's why you need to take this challenge seriously. If you don't, you won't survive among the other nations of this world."
The other members of the team nodded silently, their expressions serious. All of them had a pounding gut feeling urging them to look away, as if this situation would be far more exceedingly painful then they could ever imagine.
However, as silence filled the scene, the sun's rays beat down upon Asahi, slightly burning his skin and making his eyes tear up. His gaze drifted over to the ground; his grip weakened with each second. Just before his eyes could shut, a loud voice immediately stunned him.
"I'll tell you something else too," Toivo said, looking at Asahi with a stern expression. "I have no idea if you're human or not. But just know, that humans are weak creatures compared to all the other races dwelling among this world. They suffer just like you. Take for example, even if you've lived in this world for years, you haven't really experienced true hardship."
After he secured his posture, Toivo paused and looked at Asahi.
From the daggering glare, to the flexible flow that came from Toivo's hair, Asahi could clearly determine that he was serious. He took a deep breath and after seeing one of the his hair bristles fly into the wilderness, Toivo continued.
"No matter how strong you might think you are, no matter how much strength you've gained here, you will never know true agony until you experience it." He said as he turned over to the group. "Isn't that right, my people?"
Upon his question, Canyon, Joshilyn, Brunella, and even Kendra all nodded their heads in agreement; as if each one of them had experienced such suffering. With that moment engraved in Asahi's mind, Toivo scratched his blue-haired beard in confidence and steered his gaze back at Asahi.
"It is indeed so." He said. "If you really want to try and wander this world, then you must endure this. Much like all my students in the past, even Kendra."
The mention of the maid immediately caught Asahi's attention.
"Kendra?!" Asahi trembled as he felt the chair push his back.
Toivo lightly chuckled and nodded his head.
"Yes. Even she… was trained. Now. I want you to go back to that chair. Alright?"
"Understood, sir." Asahi replied as he returned to the stone throne.
As the silent breeze passed by, making the situation awkward than it already was, the blue-haired wise man stood there silently, staring at the chair. All the group's eyes were locked on the chair, waiting for anything to happen among the quietness.
After a couple moments of unnerving silence, Asahi's tilted to Toivo, gulped down a breath of anxiousness and asked.
"What are you doing? Are you not going to sit on it?"
"No." Toivo said as he shook his head, suppressing a devious smile. He placed his hand against Asahi's shoulder, leaned over to his ear, and whispered. "I want you to throw it into the river."
Asahi's eyes widened in surprise at the demand. The demand itself was baffling considering just how long it took to carry it here.
"WHAT?!" Asahi exclaimed with red, blistering eyes of frustration. "Are you insane?! Then what was the reason for me to bring the chair?!"
"To amplify your strength, of course." Toivo replied with a flawless smirk. "Now. Throw it. Or the training session will end."
Taking into consideration of the possible suspension of the training course that Asahi partake for several days, simply couldn't afford quitting now. After he had wiped grainy particles of dirt off his eye, Asahi replied to Toivo while he grappled his fingers onto the bottom of the stone throne.
"Okay." He said with trembling breaths. "If you say so."
Squatting down, he firmly grasped the chair's reinforced base. His head felt like it was about to crunch. The stone throne was so unbelievably heavy, that when Asahi had tried to carry it with his legs, the pressure from one end of his leg to the other matched to that of five boulders standing in a tower. His eyes watered, his limbs almost starting to collapse in exhaustion. But despite these indicators, to everyone's astonishment, Asahi felt the bottom of the stone throne part from the ground.
(Yes! Now's... my chance!)
Now carrying a forced grin in both irritation and exhaustion, with all his might, Asahi lifted the entire stone chair up into the air, capturing the group's flabbergasted gaze.
"There's no way..." Canyon mumbled with his shrunk eyes.
"Impossible." Brunella uttered as she took two steps back.
Though Asahi's actions were to grab many people's attention, only a few had uttered. Kendra, Realma, and even Toivo (the instructor himself) were speechless of what they witnessed.
Not long after, the group heard Asahi's victorious screams resound across every corner of the valley as he kept his arms locked at a powerful position. Then, after he had slowly tilted the chair and his body over to the sinking valley, Asahi launched his legs upward and hurled the chair into the air with all his might, screaming.
"AHHHHH!"
After the world heard his elongated scream, Asahi took three stumbling steps backward and exhaustingly watched with the others as the stone throne made its swift descent.
The tip scraped the air, the fog, and finally the teal surface.
A blossom-shaped splash rose into the air as the group watched it speedily plummet into the river and shatter into the huge river below.
Following the impact was a deafening smash that reverberated over the entire vast valley. A sound that matched a collision from a meteor. The aftermath of the collision startled every animal in the area, disturbing the inner peace temporarily; leaving nothing but shocked faces on the group. It was truly something monumental.
. . .
Seconds after, Toivo and the group hurriedly pulled Asahi back up and applauded him.
"Outstanding performance!" Brunella said as she crossed her arms.
"There's nothing more I can say but... wow." Canyon mumbled, looking over at the clear blue sky.
Kendra's covered her mouth with her hand, her azure eyes bulging in surprise. Speechless, she hunched over to the ground and blinked rapidly, disbelieved of this occurrence.
"Are my eyes... lying? Did that boy actually do it?" She whispered with a hidden admiring grin. "He's... a lot more stronger than I expected."
While the intriguing tone ceased, Asahi retrieved his sanity and analyzed the situation. He noticed all the group's faces carried a sense of wonder and awe after that moment; as if shocked that a boy like Asahi could manage to pull up to such a feat.
(Unbelievable.) Toivo whispered aloud in his mind. ("I never thought this day would ever come. I suppose I can come to the conclusion that Asahi learned that he could use his upper-body strength to counteract his lower-body weakness. As a matter of fact, I could see his legs bulging in strength. Now THAT is determination. Unlike my other students, Asahi truly IS someone special.")
As Asahi stood there, flabbergasted, his feet rooted into the ground, the group cleared their path for the wise green-haired man to walk through.
"Excellent performance!" Toivo said to Asahi as he clapped his hands, stepping forward with a proud smile. "Though you may not have shown it earlier, I can see those exercises and practices have worked out for you. Any more, and your physical strength could possibly match me!"
"Really?" Asahi said with rounded eyes.
"No." Toivo answered with a prideful chuckle. "You have proven yourself that you are strong, that much I can say. But I'm afraid that it's going to take something more to get to my level of strength."
As Asahi's excitement began to die down, Toivo's green-blue eyes anchored over to Kendra before steering over to the exhausted white-haired boy, saying with absolute seriousness.
"However, you shall focus on that later. You have another trial to attend to."
"Another trial...?" Asahi stammered with a raised eyebrow and breaths of exhaustion. "What do you mean?"
"You see that river, right?" Toivo asked Asahi as he led him over to the sharp edge of the cliff. "The one that's full of rocks and debris?"
Asahi nodded silently, urging Toivo to continue with a louder tone.
"Good. You're going to have to climb down the cliff and swim across to the other side of that river."
"Swim? Across a river?"
"Indeed. You will have to swim across the river with the remaining strength of mine has. But I'm not too worried. You're a strong young man yourself, you'll find a way eventually. Almost every student of mine does." Toivo replied as he shrugged his shoulders, chuckling uneasily. "Heh.. I didn't really expect for you to react that way. Something about swimming frighten you?"
In addition to the sentence, Asahi clenched his jaw in fear.
Because of Toivo's question, it had aggressively released a chain-reaction of traumatic recollections of Asahi's awakening to this world in his mind.
Schools of fish. Saltwater stinging his eyes. Clusters of bubbles. The cold chilling floor of the deep; Asahi recollected it all.
Although there were many times Asahi wanted to tell the truth on what he had felt during that awakening, when Aletha isn't around, he usually covers the event up with a lie. And as an illustration to his frightened face, Asahi replied simply.
"No."
As Tovio held his arms tight to his body, he angled away from Asahi and narrowed his eyes down at his feet with suspicion. A cold air of speculation entered in-between them; a storm of thoughts bursting into everyone's mind.
But just before Asahi could utter anything else, Toivo hurriedly swept the suspicious atmosphere aside and hollered.
"Ah. Then this trial should be a walk-in-the-park for you." He said as he weakened his posture and knelt down to the view. "You know Asahi, every student who has ever come to my mansion before you.... had to endure this exact trial. Even me."
"Strange." Asahi mumbled as he reeled back toward the others. "So... after this, I will receive a medal? Or reward? Or any clear indication of me passing your so-called trials."
Toivo nodded his head unevenly as if unsure of his own reward..
"Yeah. Something like that."
. . .
After the awkward silence, Canyon approached Asahi and patted his back, congratulating him with a radiant smile.
"Good job, Asahi."
Following him, Joshilyn, despite having been silent for quite some time, lifted her spoon out from her mouth and smiled.
"Excellent work. Not even an adventurer like me could accomplish something like that."
Even Kendra decided to cheer him on.
"You did an amazing job! Keep it up!"
Being showered in praises, Asahi felt a boost of confidence emerge in him. However, the moment was cut short when Telos stepped in and rushed.
"Alright, let's go, Asahi." He said as he crossed his arms in impatience.
"Huh?"
"You heard me. This is just the beginning."
* * * * * * *
After the brief celebration, the group and Asahi followed Tovio deeper into the valley, where they clambered over rocks and stepped through crevices along the cliff's edge to reach the river below. While others may have questioned his motivations, Asahi only saw the benefits of his candor.
Asahi stared at the water. The river looked deep and wide. But more importantly, he couldn't imagine himself swimming through the murky water, where anything could lurk beneath the surface.
"Alright this is where your next trail begins." Toivo informed as he stood at the shore, watching the fish swim underwater. "Just cross that river toward the other side of that valley, and your trial will be finished."
. . .
But all of that changed as soon as Asahi stepped foot into the clear liquid.
. . .
(Minutes after…)
Rolling rocks stomped on tufts of grass. Trees started to topple down and crash into the river. Something ominous was brewing.
A white-haired man appeared beyond, racing over the riverbed while clinging to the handle of a blade. He climbed the rock pillars quickly, panting heavily the whole way. Then he looked down and saw that he was no longer near the river.
This rising mountain was simply too tall to fathom in its entirety.
In spite of this red-herring, Asahi kept his nerves in check and gazed upward. Giant scarlet birds flew overhead, tossing additional rocks into the river. This is what he believed at the time.
"What's going on?" Why is the ground shaking like that?"
Suddenly, a voice inside his head responded to him.
(It would seem as if the chair you had thrown triggered something to happen. Thus, it gave this result.)
As he crossed a bridge of rock pillars overhead, seeing the waters of the river sink and drain into the opening crevices, Asahi stopped in his tracks and mumbled.
"Where is everyone?"
Asahi clung to the rocks as he descended the tower. But just as he thought he was safe, blue light began shining off the underlying rock mountain. There were groans and cracks as rocks broke apart like diamonds. Looking around, he heard everyone call out to Asahi.
"Be careful!"
He dropped his blade and fumbled to get down the weird mountain he was on, completely befuddled. Unexpectedly, he stumbled and hit his head on the hard stone, causing him to almost fall unconscious.
As the ground beneath him shook and the cerulean light began to encircle him, wounds began to develop all over his body.
Even now, there was one thing he couldn't ignore. He was still standing on this spinning, living, dangerous rock.
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