Awakening Of The New Emperor

POV: Recruit 79

I sat in silence. Whatever, whoever this was, had just asked me a question, however it didn't quite stick with me as much as this place did.

The bright light emanating from the figure, of which oddly resembled the statue, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was the same person, really started to give me a headache. I didn't know what was real and what wasn't.

"Why so down?" The figure asked with it's head tilted slightly.

I bit down on my lip out of frustration. "I don't know, maybe the fact that you just brutally dismembered me, tossed me into a bit, and now I can't tell whether I'm hallucinating or not, because none of this should be real!"

It felt good to release a bit of the feelings that was welled up inside of me.

"I'm sorry to say boy, but this is very real."

"First off, don't call me boy! I'm a grown man, that should be obvious enough! Shit," my mind kept spinning in circles.

"Why am I here? And if I'm not dead, how do I get out?" I asked.

The figure didn't answer, instead taking a few steps forward before it stopped just before me. It knelt down, almost like it was trying to pity me. I still laid on the hard surface.

He, or it, studied me, it's glowing presence flickering slightly like it was barely clinging to life.

"You are here because you fell in the hole," it finally said, voice carrying the weight of something beyond my lifetime. "I think even you could've answered that for yourself. If you didn't want to come down here, you shouldn't have fallen in the hole."

"How the hell was I supposed to beat that thing?" I screamed. "It's made entirely of stone, and on top of that, it has stone armor!"

The figure began laughing uncontrollably.

"You aren't supposed to beat it. You're supposed to lose, that's the test."

I scoffed, shifting my arm to prop myself up slightly. The feeling of having both my arms back felt amazing, but also like it was a stranger to my own body.

"If getting beaten to a pulp and tossed into a bottomless pit makes me pass with flying colors, then call me the strongest man alive," I spat, still annoyed as I struggled to keep my body propped upwards, facing the figure.

A long, choking silence enveloped us shortly after.

"36 previous participants took the trial before you," the figure broke the tension, which I was slightly grateful for, as I had lost any words. "Each and every one of them died. However the difference between you and them, is that even when you knew you were going to die, you still tried to find any way to survive."

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked. "Who wants to die? You're telling me people really accepted their death, even in such moments void of hope?"

"Yes. What can a soul do if they aren't powerful enough to keep themselves alive," he replied.

Something about those words made my breath hitch.

Even acknowledging my loss for words, the figure didn't respond right away. Instead, it reached down, fingertips grazing the petals of a spider lily, watching as they shuddered beneath its touch. "You know, you reminded me a lot like myself. I fought. I bled. I had died, or at least I thought I did, many—many times."

"I always believed that I alone could bring order to a world that only knew chaos, be that one for people to look up and feel protected, no matter where they are," the figure expressed honestly. "But as I watched the people who I had trusted with my life stab me in the back, I knew that I had ultimately failed in my mission."

'Bring order?' I thought.

Wait.

Could it be—

"So it's true!" I exclaimed. "Are you really the Emperor?"

"Yes, but no," the figure replied swiftly. "I'm simply a databank holding his memories, my only task to seek out the victor of trial 2B."

'2B? I guess that's the code name for this trial?' I thought to myself, curious.

I had better questions to ask anyway.

"Wait—wait, what you said before—'stab me in the back', you mean the cause of the great fall was because you were killed?" I asked.

"Yes."

'So everything we've been taught is just straight lies...'

"From the farthest back I can think of, all we've been told is how the Emperor had given up his power in search for his next successor, a race for power," I remarked.

"All lies," it spat.

"Learn to make your own truth," it continued after a brief pause.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry. This was the man who had ruled before everything crumbled? No—no, it wasn't. Just a fragment of his memories, I suppose. But still, it's the closest thing anybody would ever get to the real him...

"As a boon to your endurance," the voice spoke.

It reached into the glowing mass of its own chest, the light bending and swirling like liquid around its fingers. When it pulled its hand back out, something rested within its palm.

A small, intricate object.

Just looking at it sent a cold, ominous chill down my spine.

Dark metal, engraved with runes that pulsated ever so faintly in the abyss. I couldn't even tell what it was, only that it radiated hefty amounts of nexus energy in such a condensed object, unlike anything I've seen.

"A measly gift of my own for your journeys ahead," it finally continued, as the object began floating towards me slowly.

"While nothing more than a casual nuisance on its own, if you choose to embrace it—learn it, I promise you won't ever live to regret this detour of yours," the figure finished as I noticed it's body slowly crumbling away.

As I watched the figure fade away, glitching out at different moments—I couldn't my gaze from constantly being drawn back to the object.

It floated seamlessly just above me, a slight hum radiating from it.

I slowly reached out with my reformed hand—hesitant, uncertain—before finally grasping it.

And the moment I did—

What the hell...