Fallen Fate Online

Chapter 240 The Dilemma

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Chaos had always been a more mysterious entity to Zayne than Fate, for the further he progressed in his journey, the more he realized how complex Chaos was.

In the case of Fate, even with its dark side, everything made sense, but in the case of Chaos, not at all. Each time something new was revealed, and to Zayne's surprise, his feelings changed as well.

Zayne was absolutely certain that his feelings were not being manipulated, for although the two entities did not exist in his homeworld, everything worked as if they did, but did not show themselves.

In Zayne's world, there was another force that was equal in all worlds - it was luck. In front of luck, everyone was simultaneously equal and not, as it could look at anyone. It was the true Chaos and Fate of his world. 

Luck could not be controlled, but in this world, the effects of Fate's influence could be fixed. However, Fate helped those who were already lucky, and Chaos could restore hope even to those whom luck had forgotten. 

So, now Zayne had reached the next stage in his journey. He had seen Chaos Flame many times and fought against its creatures, but this was the first time he had seen something come straight out of the flames.

"What the hell...?" Zayne muttered in disbelief, looking at the tall, dark silhouette.

A fog was thickened around the silhouette, hiding body parts, but, in fact, it wasn't necessary. The silhouette had no eyes, no mouth, and no ears, it was completely faceless.

Whooooooooooooooooooosh.

In a heartbeat, the flame went out as the silhouette stopped in front of Zayne. Then, he noticed something strange.

"Agh...?" Zayne looked at the silhouette's hands in surprise, they were closed as if it was holding something in them.

The silhouette nodded slightly, slowly realizing its hands up and leisurely opening its palms.

On the palms were two emblems, one was triangular and the other was round. The triangular one had a jaw mark with bloody teeth and the triangular one had three emblems at once: a sword, a shield, and a split heart.

"Well, now I have to make a choice, don't I?" Zayne muttered as he glanced at the silhouette, but it didn't react to him in any way.

Zayne wasn't the only one who was puzzled, it was surprising for the others to see it too. They didn't take part in the Chaos Trial, but, they could see everything since they were spectators.

"Damn, it looks like his chances of success might change drastically now." Edvin muttered with a slight frown.

"Hm? What are you talking about?" Kota asked with a curious expression as well as Toruf. He had never seen such a thing before either.

"Agh..." Edvin sighed, "It means that right now something is happening in the world that requires an important choice. In fact, right now, the chances of his success depend on which emblem he takes."

Kota looked carefully at Zayne, who with a complicated look pondered over the choice.

"In that case... What should he take?" Kota asked.

Edvin shrugged, "The left emblem with the jaw mark. I've read about similar Chaos Trials and in each such case, the emblem with multiple sigils was much more difficult since the Trial was divided into several stages."

Toruf gulped. There was no way he could advise Zayne, no one could guide him or point him to the right choice. All Toruf could do was hope that Zayne wouldn't make a mistake.

Zayne's hand headed for the right jaw emblem. For some reason, he felt it was what he needed, however, at the very last moment he stopped.

'Wait... If I want to learn more about Chaos, I need to see things from different angles... Three different emblems, a sword, a shield, and a split heart... That should be a lot more interesting than some monster with jaws shouldn't it?' Zayne pondered for a moment before taking the left emblem.

"Oh... Looks like luck isn't on his side today..." Edvin muttered with a dark face, ''However, he has no one to blame but himself. He was the only one responsible for this."

Whoooooooooooooooooosh.

As soon as Zayne's hand touched the emblem, it glowed brightly and the silhouette erupted in scarlet flames. The second emblem melted as well as the silhouette, disappearing into the void. Zayne was left alone, on the last platform of a bone bridge in the middle of a huge lake. 

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Then, the ground shook and ripples rippled across the lake. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the Chaos Trial to begin. It was a rare event, especially when the participants had a choice. No creature near Dark Mist Forest at that moment could miss something so significant.

...

"Commander! Can we take another break...?" Fosca asked, breathing heavily but following Marcus, who was completely calm.

"Hm? Didn't I say the previous break would be an afterthought? You should work on your stamina more." Marcus coldly replied.

"Marcus... Please." Sara asked, "There's no point if we get there faster, but we can't even take one step."

Marcus remained silent, then he nodded, "Fine, but I won't make any more exceptions."

They stopped abruptly, next to the rocks, in the middle of Dark Mist Forest. This forest was huge, so even though Zayne was technically in Dark Mist Forest too, there was a distance of tens of kilometers between them.

Fosca and Sara breathed a sigh of relief while Marcus looked around. He was wary and scrutinized every movement that happened near them.

"Damn, how did Zayne Fellen get here? I mean, I understand all that, but that's pretty far out. If it wasn't for a personal request from one of the Crusaders, we never would have traveled here." Fosca said unhappily.

"It doesn't matter!" Sara said sternly, "Our task is to save him, that's all for now. After a short break, we will continue our journey. We don't have much time left, we're already in Dark Mist Forest."

Marcus didn't say anything, he just glanced at the girls and looked away.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

At the same moment, the ground shook like a powerful earthquake. Then, on the northern side of the Dark Mist Forest, a pillar of scarlet flame erupted, huge, quickly reaching the heavens.

"What the hell is this...?" Fosca whispered as goosebumps went down her body. She was a Fate Knight, so even from this distance she easily realized that it was Chaos Flame.

However, they had never seen anything like it in their lives, and neither had Sara. Their eyes were wide open and a chill ran down their backs.

"Is it really some kind of monster? No way... Such power is impossible to possess!" Sara muttered in a disbelief.

"Calm down." Marcus commanded with a wave of his hand, then he frowned, "It seems just now the difficulty of our mission has increased significantly."

"What are you talking about?" Fosca asked in a worried way, pressing her palm to her chest. 

"It's a Chaos Trial, I'm sure of it. It can't be anything else, even Apostles, are incapable of releasing that much energy in one moment. Though... either way it's crazy..." Marcus sighed heavily, looking at the endless streams of fire striving up the pillar.

Marcus stated with a serious face, "So here goes. If we find Zayne Fellen near Chaos Trial, we'll try to rescue him no matter what. However, if he is somehow involved in Chaos Trial, then we go straight back. Things have become much more dangerous now, and you should realize that!"

Sara and Fosca exchanged glances and nodded while saying, "Sure! We will do whatever is necessary to accomplish our mission!"

Marcus nodded and rushed forward. Fosca and Sara immediately followed him. 

...

At the center of the pillar of flames was only one person - Zayne. As before, the flames did not harm him, however, it made the sword mark on his emblem shine brightly as the first stage of his Trial began.

Whoooooooooooooooooosh.

In a heartbeat, the flames dissipated, descending towards the water in the lake and changing it.

"Hmm?" Zayne tilted his head in a confusion.

The dark, crystal clear water, suddenly became quite murky and its color changed to crimson as if instead of water, the lake now had thick blood in it.

"Well... Given the circumstances, it could have been a lot worse, right?" Zayne muttered with a puzzled look.

Whooooooooooooooooooosh.

Then, above the center of the lake, a massive pillar of black stone appeared. Inside was an empty rod that flared red fire.

Zayne shook his head, hung the emblem on his belt, and prepared for battle. He realized that now he would most likely have to fight given the sword emblem, but he didn't know how it was supposed to work yet.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

The surface of the lake rippled, as from beneath it, stone platforms appeared, connecting to each other and covering part of the lake in random paths.

Then, the last part of the bone bridge beneath Zayne collapsed, dropping him down.

As soon as his feet touched the stone platform, it shone brightly, and splashes appeared in the water nearby, as if someone was there and they were quickly approaching right towards Zayne.