บท 27: The Phoenix Trial
Following after Feng Baichuan, Mesa soon found himself in a valley facing a giant boulder with a small phoenix symbol on it. Feng Baichuan took out a small knife and cut his finger with drawing blood and smeared it on the phoenix symbol. After which the boulder rolled out of the way showing a massive hall in the mountain and behind it a dark hallway.
*DING [ "Incoming mission: Take the Phoenix Trial, succeed perfectly and obtain three drops of Phoenix blood.
Reward for completion: Ability Lottery Ticket, Character Summoning Lottery Ticket and Equipment/Armor/Weapon Lottery Ticket
Punishment for failure: All Mangekyo Sharingan and the Sharingan will be sealed away for 1 year."]
Hearing the system give him the quest he was waiting for made Mesa just all the more excited to take on this trial and obtain even more powers and also a comrade.
"Alright, here we are. Just go in and go in to that dark hallway in the back and you will eventually walk into the Phoenix Trial. From this point on it's all on you. I wish you the best of luck and whether you make it not, the Phoenix Spirit will throw out regardless so you don't have to worry about getting out of here." Said Feng Baichuan as he was about to walk away before Mesa asked him another question.
"Hey! Quick question. Do you have any idea what the Phoenix Trial entails?"
"Sorry, I cannot help you with that. Those who have gone through the Phoenix Trial cannot speak about its content. This way those who take on this Trial cannot have any knowledge before the Trial." Said Feng Baichuan.
"Well it was worth a try. Anyways, I'll see you guys when I get out. Goodbye and wish me luck." Said Mesa as he walked into the Trial grounds.
"Best of luck to you and I'll see you back at the village." Said Feng Baichuan as he waved at Mesa and walked back to the village.
After walking into the Trial Grounds the boulder rolls back blocking the entrance to the Trial Grounds. After walking into the hallway at the end hall the light dies down until nothing but complete darkness remains.
'The spirit Phoenix should appear shortly if I'm correct.' Thought Mesa to himself and right there in the darkness, two horizontal golden lines appear that soon became two giant golden eyes in the darkness.
"Greetings, human. Welcome to the trial grounds. You are the first challenger without the phoenix bloodline in these past thousand years." Said the voice directly into his mind.
"So you are the Spirit of the Phoenix, huh?" said Mesa.
"That is correct. I am an immortal soul left here by the phoenix, yet I am also an existence independent of the phoenix. I preserve this trial ground and receive all challengers. Spirit of the Phoenix, is the most fitting title for me." Said the Phoenix
"Well then, I am here to officially take the challenge of the Phoenix Trial."
"Very well then, are you ready?" asked the Phoenix
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm himself down, Mesa opened his eyes and looked at the Phoenix with eyes full of determination and gave him his answer.
"Yes, I am ready."
"Before I explain to you what the Trial entails, I wanted to thank you for saving the people of the village. Though their ancestor had committed a grave sin all those years ago and I cursed him and his descendants, it has been long enough for them to live with this curse. You are the first one in a thousand years to have taken the challenge without being in possession of the Phoenix bloodline. I truly hope that you can pass this trial." Said the Phoenix
"I hope so as well."
"Well then. The first part of the Trial is the Purgatory Flame Demon, the second part is the Arrows of the Phoenix and the last part of the trial is the Corruption of the Heart's Flame. If you wish to forfeit during the trial, you may shout out at any time and I'll immediately let you leave the trial grounds. You may die if you forcibly endure the trial…. I wish you good luck up ahead."
Just as the Spirit of the Phoenix's voice faded, the pair of golden eyes slowly disappeared inside the world of pitch black darkness. Moments later, the darkness disappears and the world around him transformed into a field of deep red. Looking around Mesa could see erupting volcanos in the distance and the field was covered in magma. Looking up in the sky, he could see that it was covered in a thick layer of clouds with lots of lightning flaring up.
Meanwhile…..
Back at the hall where the Spirit of the Phoenix appeared, Jasmine appeared. Shortly thereafter the Phoenix Spirit appeared too.
"Ahh, what do we have here? To what do I owe the pleasure of meeting a divine practitioner on this remote little star. The level of strength on this little star is far too low for you divine practitioners to even bother with it, let alone come here." Said the Phoenix Spirit.
"I am here because some things happened in the God's Realm and now my life has been tied with his. But that's not why I came here before you. I came here before to tell you to keep a close eye on him, I am pretty sure that he will be the greatest surprise you have ever seen." Said Jasmine with a sly grin on her face.
"Care to elaborate?" said the Phoenix Spirit whose interest had been piqued.
"Wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you beforehand, now would it? Just make sure to keep a close eye on him and save any questions you might have for the end." Said Jasmine after which she disappeared.
Back at the Trial…
As Mesa was looking around the literal hellscape he could see a lake of magma in the center. After taking a few steps, the lava lake suddenly starts erupting until a giant figure completely made of lava steps out of it. This giant was a whopping 33 meters tall with two giant 10-meter tall horns on its head.
"(whistle)…..That is a big, big flaming pile of rock. Alrighty, then. Let's get to work." Said Mesa as he got ready fight that thing.
"That thing is a high level Earth Profound Realm fire beast. And in this place, surrounded by all this lava and fire, it can indefinitely regenerate its own vitality and profound strength." Said jasmine.
"Thanks for the tip." Said Mesa as he put his hands together forming the snake-seal. Right at that moment the Purgatory Flame Demon lifted up its leg and tried stomp Mesa, who immediately flickered away appearing behind the Purgatory Flame Demon.
(A.N.: From this point on I will name the Purgatory Flame Demon PFD, because typing it every time is annoying.)
WATER STYLE: EXPLODING WATER SHOCK WAVE
And like that Mesa starts expelling an enormous amount of water from his mouth. The amount of water was so huge that it caused massive flash floods of up to 20 meters high and crashing into the PFD with so much force that the PFD was swept away like a rag doll. A few minutes later the water settled and new lake, nearly 15 meters deep, came into being were there was only lava before.
And soon the PFD would stand up and tower out of the water, but it was obvious that the flash flood had caused it much damage. The bright red-orange glow had reduced to a dark crimson glow, it was missing an arm and there were chunks of its body that started to fall off. But not long after its body started to regenerate and bubbles started forming in the water. Realizing that the new lake was not gonna last long before it's completely evaporated, Mesa quickly summoned his nine clones and they spread out surrounding the PFD in groups of three. The PFD not knowing where to aim just started to swing its massive arms al around it sending fireballs to every clone. And soon hitting the clones around it only for those clones to be replaced by another clone that emerged from the water.
WIND STYLE: RASENSHURIKEN
WATER STYLE: WATER DRAGON BULLET JUTSU
Like that one off the clones in each group would throw a Rasenshuriken while the other two would use the surrounding water to launch the Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu. Just before the jutsu's hit the PFD they would merge with each other and cause the Rasenshuriken explosion to turn into massive water tornados utterly devastating the PFD. After the three water tornados were over the PFD was still not defeated, but it was reduced to an absolute pitiful state. It had lost both its arms, it torso was reduced by at least half, it had lost a leg and it gaping holes on its head. Seeing a golden mark on its forehead glowing, the PFD started regenerating.
"There!! Target that golden mark on its forehead. Its aura is the weakest at that point so it must be its weak point." Said Jasmine
"Got it. Thanks." Said Mesa.
And like that a clone started running towards the PFD. As it got in front of it, it started using Geppo to launch itself straight up in the air all the way above its head. Afterwards it re orientated its body towards the PFD and used Geppo to launch itself at the PFD head at full speed. Holding its arms spread out in front of its head like a diving posture, it activated the Chidori on both its hands. Less than a second later, just before the PFD was done regenerating, the clone dove through its head like bullet emerging from the other side and straight into water. After its weak point was pierced, the PFD started to collapse as its body extinguished and disintegrating.
"Success!!" said Mesa with a smile before the surrounding started to distort. When the distortion ended Mesa found himself in a vast expense of flat, scorching wasteland.
"Second stage of the trial: Arrows of the Phoenix." Boomed the voice Phoenix Spirit.
Looking up, Mesa could see an enormous Phoenix gliding across the sky. Seconds later red dots started to appear in the sky. First just a few but those few quickly grew to become a dozen and then hundreds and then thousands of those dots covered the sky. And like that a loud screech was heard as the dots, that are revealed to be mini phoenixes made of fire, suddenly gained lots of speed and come down towards him. After quickly downing a Senzu bean to restore his energy, Mesa uses his Observation Haki to its limit and keeps dodging every phoenix-arrow that comes towards him using the Body Flicker Jutsu.
Every time he dodges one arrow, another one would come from behind him keeping him constantly on the move to dodge the arrows. A while later the ground was littered with holes and debris that was caused by the arrows impacting the ground. At first these would cause Mesa to slip up sometimes, after which an arrow would hit him. But a quick use of Kamui made sure that the arrows would pass through him harmlessly. After remembering the intense ninja training Mesa had subjected himself to after coming to this world those holes and debris soon didn't become a problem.
After a final wave that brought down many hundreds of arrows at the same time did it finally end. The ground covered in holes and the dirt had been burnt black after all those arrows that hit the ground. It was the final wave that gave Mesa the greatest difficulty. He would dodge most arrows, but the sheer volume ensured that there were arrows that would hit him. While he used Kamui to ensure that most of the arrows that hit him passed through him harmlessly, there were still some that managed to really hit him. But thanks to the Universal Energy Immunity Ring the fire damage was negated while the blast did cause him some pain.
The surroundings changed again after the end of the second part of the trial. Standing in the darkness again, a pair of golden eyes appeared and the Phoenix Spirit started speaking again.
"Very good challenger. Your companion was right; you truly have surprised me with all those weird powers. Though I have many questions I would like to ask you, I will save them until the end of the Trial. The third part of the trial is coming up now: Corruption of the Flame's Heart. This part is the most difficult part of the trial. In the past 329 challengers have passed the first two parts of the trial. But only seven challengers have ever managed to pass the third part." Said the Phoenix Spirit.
"(whistle)…. That is a pretty steep failure rate, don't you think." Said Mesa
"Indeed it is. The reason for that is because the third part of the trial is a trial of the heart. It does not involve fighting, but instead involves the choices within your heart. If you are firm enough towards the pursuit for power, then even if you possess weak profound power, there is a chance you can easily pass. On the other hand, if you do not possess enough determination, then passing your life in the mundane world can also be an option. After all, power is not everything in life...…... Are you ready?" said the Phoenix Spirit.
"Yes…. I am ready." Said Mesa.
"Then I wish you good luck." Said the Phoenix Spirit before a flash of light caused Mesa to close his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, what he saw caused him to open his eyes wide in shock. He was back in his old apartment from the day he died. Looking around the apartment, he could see that everything was exactly the same as the day he died. The gray linoleum that covered his apartment floor, his coffee table littered with letters of debt collectors, a cheap gray acrylic couch with stains on it, an old TV that still had the big butt on an old school table he found. Looking at the kitchen he could still see the dishes he had left in the sink that day. Listening to the sounds outside, he could hear the typical New York sounds. Cars honking at each other, police sirens going off in the distance, people yelling at each other in the streets. Walking over to the mirror he could see that he was back in his old body. The short, thinning black hair, the unkempt beard, a black shirt with the company logo on it where he worked, blue worn out jeans and sneakers.
"Hmmm…... very interesting. There truly is more to this mortal than meets the eye." Muttered the Phoenix Spirit to itself observing the situation.
"This must be Mesa's home back in his original universe and that's what he must have looked like before his death." said Jasmine to herself as she didn't want to miss a single second.
While he was in a stupor over being back in his original body in his original universe, the doorbell rang. Walking over to the door he opens it, only to be frozen seeing the person standing there. It was a woman in her late twenties with blonde hair that reached past her shoulders. She wore a red leather coat over a dark blue buttoned shirt that she closed all the way up to the top three buttons with a white tank top underneath, dark blue grey jeans and black leather mid-calf boots. The woman was 1.65 m tall and not fat but not thin either with normal sized breasts. Seeing this woman stand before him, Mesa couldn't hold in his tears as he rushed towards her and enveloped her in a hug whilst crying.
"sniff…. Sniff…...I missed you so much mom." Said Mesa as he was holding on to her.
"I have missed you to my darling little Ray." Said the woman as she too hugged him back.
"Ray?!?! Isn't his name supposed to be Mesa?!" said Jasmine in shock.
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