Chapter 252 - The Woman Who Walked Without a Sword ( Part 2 )

The morning came in under a pale gray sky.

Jennie had hardly slept less than three hours, which was mostly broken due to the cold and her pain shoulder. But she went on with walking.

Mountain path was rising up and snow turned into spots of black rock, while the wind became strange, vibrating somehow, and Jennie felt the vibrations through her boots.

Something happened. And Jennie couldn’t say what exactly it was. It was like the atmosphere around changed and she felt like somebody was watching her every move.

It was her magic reacting first. Jennie watched how suddenly the wind circling her left hand stopped spinning.

"What is happening?" – Jennie asked.

She saw ahead the end of the mountain trail.

And there was an immense space of clouds looking like a never-ending white ocean under the cliff. The peaks were piercing through the fog and glowing in the distance under the sun rays.

And at the edge of the world, there was an arch of the stones.

It was immense.

Two ancient pillars were rising from the mountains and holding the arch made from the dark stones. There were ancient symbols written all over the arch and the stones, but they were shifting constantly, changing their order and creating an impression of living letters.

There were no guards here. No doors. No path beyond the arch.

Just empty space and the cloud ocean.

Jennie moved closer. As soon as she entered into ten paces distance from the arch, all the symbols stopped moving and turned towards her.

The deep vibration ran through the stones.

Suddenly golden lights spread through the arch and revealed the new letterings that hadn’t existed a minute ago.

Jennie stopped.

The first line appeared.

THOSE WHO SEEK POWER.

Jennie’s breath stuck in her throat.

Second line appeared below the first one.

MUST SCARFICE .

For several seconds, Jennie just stared at the lines.

And then she narrowed her golden eyes. "... Scarfice?"

All the letters became brighter. The third line was appearing, and the stones were trembling.

The clouds started parting and something big was approaching Jennie. For a moment, she could see a giant silhouette of a warrior in his ancient armor standing somewhere above the clouds.

But then, the figure disappeared.

The last inscription appeared.

LET YOU BE YOUR FIRST ENEMY.

Jennie felt the words getting into her heart somehow. Not a welcoming, not a warning. A challenge.

The arch had accepted the soul of Leonis KingHeart, but it hadn’t accepted Jennie Queens.

She looked at her useless right hand and then at the empty spaces where she should’ve had her Divine Swords.

A faint smile spread across her face. "So it is?"

She moved forward towards the arch. " I AM MY ONLY ENEMY."

The golden letterings started burning and the mountain started shaking.

And somewhere above the clouds, a deep sound of the horn was heard.

Jennie didn’t move back.

She entered into the arch with no weapon in her hand, with no assurance of winning and no guarantee that she will ever come back.

This time was the first time when Jennie had entered into the battlefield where her legend wouldn’t protect her.

And where the only thing she could take with herself was the one she had become.

The archway closed after Jennie. And the sky turned into the darkness.

The old voice was echoing over the clouds.

"LEONIS THE TRUE KING YOUR TRIAL BEGINS."

Jennie lifted her head. Her golden eyes were glowing in the darkness.

"...."

The voice was silent.

Jennie moved forward. "TRUE KING NEVER WEAVERS . TRUE KING NEVER BACK DOWN . TRUE KING ALWAYS STAND ."

And Celestial Battlefield woke up.

The sky went black.

For just an instant, Jennie Queens was transported to being at the bottom of an ocean – surrounded by the darkness that pressed against her from all directions and filled her lungs with something heavier than the air – and made her every heartbeat resonate like a drum beat in an empty cathedral.

But the world changed.

The clouds beneath her feet faded away. The ancient archway vanished behind a veil of golden light that shimmered like the last breath of a sun.

And Jennie fell.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Her silver-white hair flew upwards as she fell into the apparently endless void. There was nothing below her – no ground, no horizon, no destination. Only clouds floating above her and pieces of stones floating around her like the debris of some ruined world – broken pillars, collapsing towers, shattered statues spinning in the void like the pieces of an ancient cataclysm.

Jennie twisted in mid-air and raised her left hand instinctively.

"WIND MAGIC!"

Wind exploded from her palm.

But once the magical energy escaped her body, the invisible force grabbed her – not tenderly, but with the force of something vast and completely indifferent to her survival.

Her fall was sped up.

Not slowed down.

Speeded up.

Jennie’s eyes grew wide open.

"What?!"

The wind was gone and her body crashed onto a floating platform of stone.

CRACK!

The pain exploded in her shoulder and her ribs. She skidded on the rough surface and hit a low stone pillar. And in the next several seconds she was able to do nothing else except lying there and breathing laboriously.

"...Ow."

She gazed at the black sky above her. Darkness seemed to watch her quietly and eternally.

"I officially hate this place."

A soft golden light appeared above her.

The stone archway followed her into the void and was hanging upside-down in the sky. Its inscriptions changed slowly, arranging themselves with the meticulousness of something that had waited an eternity and could wait a bit longer.

A line formed.

FIRST LAW: POWER HAS WEIGHT.

Jennie’s eyes narrowed.

The words shone brighter and the next line was added beneath them.

EVERY FORCE YOU SUMMON SHALL BECOME A BURDEN YOU HAVE TO CARRY.

Jennie struggled up, hissing as the pain flashed in her shoulder.

"Power has weight?"

She glanced at the floating stones around her. Then she looked at her left hand, which was the only hand obeying her commands now.

There was just one way to find it out.

Jennie created a small amount of magical energy with her fingers. She deliberately kept the spell feeble – no more than the thin stream of wind barely stirring the air around her hand.

As soon as she released it, her body felt heavier.

Her knees weakened. The stone under her boots cracked making a sound of breaking bones.

Jennie gasped as the invisible pressure started to drag her down. It was as though an enormous hand gripped her shoulders and tried to press her into the ground – as though the gravity itself turned against her and became alive with the desire to destroy her.

She immediately stopped the spell.

The pressure disappeared.

Her knees almost gave way with relief.

"...Seriously?"

She glanced at the cracked stone under her feet. A thin web of cracks spread from the place she stood, each line shining softly in gold and then fading in darkness.

Jennie slowly rose.

"So the more magic I use, the heavier I get."

She looked at the dark sky above.

"That’s a stupid rule."

No reaction from the archway.

"An extremely stupid rule."

No reply.

Jennie sighed.

"Okay. I will complain after I survive."

She looked at the platform.

A narrow line of dark stones stretched ahead to a huge bridge hanging between the mountain peaks. The other end of it disappeared in the cloud-covered walls flashing with silent lightning.

There was nothing holding the bridge above. No chains. No pillars. The bridge was hanging in the endless sky as though the gravity itself made an exception here.

Jennie moved towards the edge of the bridge.

Somewhere far below something moved amidst the clouds.

A giant shadow. Then another.

A deep rumbling rolled through the void – low and thunderous, as the heartbeat of a sleeping god.

Jennie’s face changed.

"...Those aren’t stones."

Some huge creature climbed onto the bridge.

At least, it was the nearest description her mind could create.

It was covered with dark, ancient scales glittering like polished obsidian. Four pillar-like legs carried a shell so huge that miniature mountains rose from it – peaks of grey stone and valleys of black soil with tiny rivers of glowing lights flowing between them. Clouds floated in the ridges of its shell and the low rumble of thunder sounded inside it.

Another creature appeared behind it. Then a third.

Gravemantle Turtles.

Jennie heard about magical beasts capable of manipulating with gravity, but these creatures were much closer to living mountains rather than animals. Their eyes shone like molten amber and their movements carried the weight of the whole worlds.

The first turtle made a step.

The bridge groaned. Every stone slab of it lowered as if the whole structure became several times heavier. A heap of loose stones slipped towards the edge and disappeared in the clouds.

Jennie watched them falling. She waited.

Nothing happened.

Then the turtle lifted its foot.

The bridge tilted in the opposite direction.

Jennie’s eyebrows rose. "Oh."

She watched the creature making another step.

The gravity of the bridge changed again. The stone under its feet became so heavy that it cracked, while the slabs further away were almost weightless.

The turtle was not only moving across the bridge. Its steps were changing the gravity of the surrounding area.

Jennie looked at the distant end of the bridge. It was hundreds of meters long. Three huge turtles were moving across it, their steps changing the gravitational field of the bridge constantly.

And she had to cross it.

Without resorting to magic. With one arm working. And a body still recovering from having been hurled into the abyss.

She looked at the bridge for a few seconds.

Then she let out one laugh, humorless.

"Whatever made up this challenge must have professional problems."

A deep growl responded to her.

One of the turtles moved its huge head to look at her. Its aged eyes shone with liquid amber, and there was something in its eyes implying that it heard her and did not like what it had heard.

Jennie immediately stopped laughing.

"...Right. My apologies."

The turtle turned away.

Jennie breathed out.

"All right. Think."

She had no Divine Swords to keep her steady. She could not cast wind magic to get her across the bridge. A slight magical spell would make her heavier and cause the stone under her feet to break.

She would need to get across by observing only.

And she could manage that.