Eclipse's eyes fluttered closed, and his mind went blank. The next thing he knew, he was floating in a realm unlike anything he had ever seen. The air was alive with movement, as if the very fabric of space was in a state of constant flux.
Stars whizzed by, some at blinding speeds, while others moved with a leisurely pace. The celestial bodies seemed to be connected by ethereal strings, which pulsed with an otherworldly energy. The strings appeared to be controlling the stars, guiding their paths through the cosmos.
Eclipse's initial fear gave way to awe as he gazed upon the breathtaking scene. His eyes widened in wonder, drinking in the sheer beauty of the starry expanse. The strings seemed to be weaving a cosmic tapestry, with each star playing its part in the grand dance.
As he watched, two strings of stars intersected, giving birth to a smaller string. A new star burst forth, its light flickering to life as it began its journey through the universe. Some stars, however, were extinguished in their infancy, their brief existence a mere spark in the grand scheme.
Some stars drew close, infinitesimally close, but never quite touched. Instead, they diverged onto separate paths, as if destined to never be together, weaving a complex pattern that defied comprehension.
Eclipse's mind struggled to grasp the underlying order, but it was like trying to catch a handful of sand – the more he tried, the more it slipped through his fingers.
"Beautiful," he breathed, the word barely escaping his lips. The sheer majesty of the scene left him speechless, his heart pounding in his chest.
Some stars had their strings suddenly disengaged from the tapestry, coiling onto themselves. He could see similar stars gradually dimming before fading away with their strings. Others became connected with the tapestry, their stars becoming brighter than before.
"Am I also connected?" This thought popped into his head, looking down he saw a string passing through his chest, appearing on the other side. It was at that moment he realized something – the place his string was coming from was connected with a few strings, but behind him, it was an array of strings with lots of color, black stars that looked like black holes, golden-colored and more.
As he was about to try and move, the same ethereal golden book appeared in front of him with some characters he couldn't read.
Κρίθηκε η ακεραιότητα της ψυχής σας, προετοιμαστείτε για τη δίκη της Ύπαρξής σας.
But before Eclipse could say a thing, the diary beat him to it. "Prepare for your trial of existence." This was the first time he had heard this kind of voice – it was genderless and had a kind of mechanical feel to it.
But he couldn't ponder on it before he felt a tug on his chest, looking to his chest he saw his string coil itself around his form, and then he blanked out.
His awareness returned, and he was disoriented from the continuous blanking out. As he tried to regain his bearing, he realized something critical – he couldn't breathe. His still-closed eyes flung open, only to see, more like behold, darkness in liquid form. Darkness in front of him was flowing.
His eyes widened as he still couldn't feel the ground below him. The ground was a mixture of solid and liquid, and he couldn't find his footing. It was like he was in a vicious liquid.
But he was falling, which was good news. However, he wasn't breathing. Without his footing, he couldn't move. He started to panic as he tried to move down, up, sideways – still no result.
His panic soon turned to despair as he started to lose focus. He rapidly inhaled, desperate for air. Atlas, no air. He began to lose focus.
'Is this the end?' Eclipse wondered. 'This is how I die.'
As he was about to lose consciousness, his mind or, to be exact, his very being told him to move up. And with that hope came, and with hope, focus. He tried to move upward, and to his surprise, it was easier this time.
So he began to move upward, no wiggle, upward. And then air, more like a string of air. He rapidly inhaled the string of air and moved upward with more determination.
It became easier to breathe the more he moved upward. And then he stopped. Why? Because a feeling of wrongness began to spread throughout his body. It was as if he continued upward, he would surely die.
"Weird, the more I go upward, the more easier it is to breathe. Then why this feeling of wrongness?" It wasn't that he trusted his instincts – no, far from it. The truth was that all his life, he hadn't gotten a feeling from anything before.
The best example was back in the hallway where he shoved people out of his way. He didn't even feel a trace of killing instinct until he saw the monstrosity. Everyone froze because of the killing intent, but he was somehow blunt. He couldn't sense or feel it anywhere.
So suddenly feeling as if he was going to die if he continued was enough for him to stop and reconsider.
Not knowing what to do he stayed there in complete silence, only his constant breathing. After so time his intuition told him to move down, for a moment he doubted himself, raising his head the feeling of dread returned, facing down his intuition calmed down.
He gritted his teeth took in a deep breath and sank down, no longer putting force on his upper body, resolutely shanting 'a leap of Faith in his mind'. He gradually sank down and the previous feeling of elation came back, he could even feel something caress his body which he distains to be air inhaling slightly to put his theory to test, he breathed in fresh air and then in a frenzy sank down at a faster as he put his hand on the elastic darkness pushing himself down, but the same feeling of dread came again,he stopped dead in his tracks.
"What the hell". He prevented himself from speaking out loud before but the frustration was too much as he shouted out in anger. Facing down the feeling of dread returned, facing up the calm feeling returned, he was about to lash out in anger when a thought presented itself in his mind.
'what if the path out of here changes'. He couldn't shake the thought out of his head anymore and the more he thought about it the more logical it became.
"How the hell am I supposed to leave here". He already tried to summon the dairy but it wasn't responding.
"The hell wrong with this trial". He quickly calmed himself down knowing panicking wasn't going to solve anything. He thought back to all he knew about the first trial.
The trial of Existence, unlike the later part of the trial, this was a trial issued by his very soul, it was the test his soul use to test if he was worthy if wielding the power within itself.
And failure to pass the trial led to his very existence being wiped out. Yes that was the punishment for failure, and this was the reason he took the feeling of dread rather seriously. After thinking about all this he still didn't find any clue of getting out of here.
The feeling of dread gradually became nearer causing him to flee upward, and then downward as the feeling changed direction, for a long time he kept going up and down, and then despire started to set in, a lump, not of sadness but of despair.
He started to take deep breaths as he resigned to death his life started to flash before his eyes, all he could summarize was — bitterness. His life was filled with betrayal and bitterness, he recalled when he was on top of his clan, pride was second nature to him, how a girl threw years older then him, his first love — Elara, how she acted submissive towards him, but that all changed when he failed the expectations of the masses. Thinking about Elara his anger flared overshadowing his despair, he gritted his teeth as he looked for was to escape this deathtrap, the anger in his chest burning hot, as he remembered his promise to Elara.
"They would come a day where you all will beg me to save you, but then it would be too late". Elara dismissed him as well as the rest of the clan members, but the young boy intended to keep to his promise. Seeing he was about to die his anger burned brighter, he put his hand on the flowing wall of darkness trying to climb up to escape the dread underneath his feet, and started another round of running about. But everything will surely come an end, it was as if the air was limited and he had exhausted everything, he began to lose focus as his consciousness blurred and then he went unconscious, his body temperature plummeted and he gradually became a cold corpse.
He died.