NOVPUB
Chapter 256: Take A Bath In Hell
***
{Outside The Projection}
The moment the projection paused, showing Malik standing at the base of the Frozen Wall, the whole crowd came alive.
"Look at that!"
"This is it, this is it!"
"We’re finally gonna see it!"
"Another damn secret! Another piece of why he’s so—so—"
The last one waved his hands wildly, unable to even find the word.
"You ever heard a Crowned Trail lasting that long?"
"No. No way. It should’ve burned out on the second day."
"And yet he pushed to the seventh."
"...What the Hell’s he made of?"
"Even when he was so... weak?"
Saying that word felt almost sacrilegious considering what he accomplished.
Feeling the same, the scarred woman, not so far beside them, clutched the back of her neck.
"God... how did he survive all that? Seven days! Seven days in that cursed snow!"
"Did you see his fingers? Black like coal! And still—still he walked!"
"Oh, I saw more than his fingers..."
Another woman smirked, half-hiding her grin behind her veil.
"Did you see how that coat clung to him after the fourth day? The man’s carved from stone."
Apparently, some of them were still... arouse—affected by his face, finding pleasure even now.
"Ugh, you vixen."
One of the men next to her groaned.
"You focus on that now?"
"Say what? If you’ve got anything you wanna say to me, say it to my face, yeah?!"
"He’s right, you know; I doubt you’re sane."
"Oh, you’ve done it now!"
Tension rose, but before they could get into something more than a petty argument, Roya raised her palm.
"Stand down."
And they did.
Logic, or rather, their survival instincts, overpowered whatever emotions they had bubbling up.
Not caring for their squabbles, the projection pulsed, resuming.
That confused the crowd a slight bit; it usually waited for them to react and reach a point or a conclusion. Was it doing the same as it did before?
They could not say, for their attention was immediately grabbed.
Malik, breath ragged, arm hanging limp, took a single step forward towards the dome of ice.
In response, the crowd leaned in as one.
Though it might seem like it, their Sultan was not walking to victory.
The hall knew that. He was walking to break himself again.
And they weren’t going to miss a single moment of it.
Noor and Roya were first among those people.
Roya even more so.
She was shivering.
Excited.
This was it.
What she waited so long for.
What she used this projection for.
What she extorted and killed to attain.
Another secret to Malik’s strength.
She only hoped that this was replicable.
And so, she watched as he paused before the doom.
He extended his hand and lightly touched its surface.
Whoosh!
A ripple ran through her, through the crowd.
Malik was gone.
***
{Inside The Projection}
Malik calmly glanced around at the landscape before him.
This place... this realm seemed to stretch on forever, Wells of Aether dotted about.
Here, the very air buzzed with life, flooding his senses, stitching up his wounds.
But he wasn’t the only one soaking it in.
Beside him stood a pale, humanoid figure—waiting, hand outstretched, palm up.
Yeah, Malik knew exactly what they wanted.
He slipped the pouch off his belt and dropped it into their palm.
The being bounced it in their hand, as if weighing it, then gave a small nod and waved him through.
Malik took a step forward but then paused once more.
Thump.
Suddenly, it all rushed in. Knowledge. Whispers of this realm.
Annoyed at the mental intrusion, at how easy it was, he shot a glance back at the Kahin—the reason for this flood—but quickly shook it off and focused on what was ahead. No time to get lost in his head, in what-ifs, this being was no enemy.
In any case, he now knew how this place functioned.
It was pretty simple.
If one wished to get stronger and rank up the Divine Hierarchy, they were required to immerse themselves in the Essence of this realm.
Each Well before him contained a fragment, an Aspect of the Well’s Aether, waiting to be harnessed by a Magi worthy of its gifts.
And in this realm, it wasn’t brains or brawn that mattered. It was instinct.
One must find the Well that sang to their soul, the Well that resonated with their Divine Essence, their path, and rise above, nearing immortality.
Closing his eyes, Malik let out all the air in his lungs and held himself breathless.
Replacing air with the surrounding Aether, he let it flow through him, embracing it as a part of his being. He then focused on his Aether core, ensuring that it absorbed none of it, allowing it to flow undisturbed while he could... experience its Essence.
Thump!
Suddenly, he felt a pull.
A specific location some distance away had beckoned him.
’Found you.’
With that, he set out into the realm, seeing all the wonderment up close.
Shimmering Wells of Aether were all around him, pulsating with life.
Some glowed with different shades of blue, one serene, others cold. A few shimmered with a bright green, an Aspect of forests perhaps. It kept on going, a kaleidoscope of colors, each blending seamlessly into the next, forming a mesmerizing piece of art.
It was beautiful.
So beautiful that his senses were almost overwhelmed by its grandeur. All made worse by the golden light that followed his movements. A light that seemed to emanate from a tear in the very fabric of the world, a light that bathed him and this realm in a warm, relaxing glow.
But, even then, that wasn’t all.
With each step on the weirdly crystalline ground beneath, a soft, melodic hum resounded.
It was almost as if the ground itself sang in harmony with his presence, celebrating his arrival, welcoming him deeper into the realm.
Malik found himself momentarily stunned.
He was unable to comprehend the beauty before his eyes.
But, just as quickly, he snapped back to reality and continued to walk.
Every minute brought him closer to his destination, where the brighter Wells lay, likely indicating the heavier Divine Essences, the more complicated ones with tougher Paths.
Even the darker, ink-black Wells emanated a brighter hue than those he had passed earlier.
It was scientifically impossible, but that was what his eyes saw; he could not deny it...
An unknown time later, he finally neared the end of the realm.
It was where a gigantic fountain of liquidated Aether spurted out, branching down into multiple Wells, each for a different contrasting element.
One stood out, a bright light, golden, holy.
It was the same light that followed him.
Opposite that Well was his destination.
It wasn’t the fiery red he expected.
Definitely not the same gold as his flames.
No, it was a lot darker, a lot more... Corrupted.
This fire... it was blood.
Indeed, his path was that of fire and blood.
The Well before him was the literal representation of that.
But it was also a representation of something else.
He wasn’t blind.
It wasn’t lost on him how this looked.
A golden holy light opposite a dark, flaming red.
Heaven and Hell.
Malik, he...
He was to take a bath in Hell.
He was to take a bath in Jahannam.
