Trials of Power: Part 2

Location: Unknown

Time: Year 17 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

"…not letting you go-…"

Hearing this, Steven furrowed his brows, momentarily forgetting about the dreadful existence behind him and contemplated what this man wanted from him. Yet before he could even think about this, he found himself somewhere in the sky. Surprised, Steven slowly turned his head to look at his surroundings, but all he could see was clouds. Finding it strange, Steven wondered why and how he was getting teleported to such odd places. Steven also noticed that he wasn't falling down. Instead, he was floating in the air as if something were preventing gravity from having an effect on Steven. Asking himself what this thing could be, Steven noticed that the man made out of pure light he had previously seen was suddenly right in front of him.

The man smiled at Steven and then proceeded to slowly open his mouth and say: " So, you're the one who ruined all of their plans, eh?" "Sorry, what?" asked Steven in confusion, not understanding what the man meant by saying that he had ruined someone's plans. "Heh, don't worry about it, kid, you will find out sooner or later about what you did." The man grinned while shaking his head in amusement. "That does not make me feel any better, just so that you know!" said Steven in a sarcastic manner, as he was feeling quite aggrieved.

For all that he can remember, Steven had always gotten the short end of the stick in the recent last few years. He was always pulled into weird situations or had things happen to him that he had no control or say over. Yet, it was always his fault for some reason, or him being different, that was important to people. This frustrated Steven immensely. As even before the world had changed, Steven always wanted to fit in and be normal. Yet now, where the world had changed, and he was literally the only "normal" person, he still didn't fit in. He was weak, and in his friends and companions eyes, he was also seen as naïve, ignorant of how the world worked. The thing, though, was that Steven fully understood; the times had changed, values, beliefs and morals had changed, the world he knew was no more. But even so, Steven was unwilling to change who he was. As for Steven, this was one of the only things that reminded him of what once was, especially as he noticed that he was losing his memories for unknown reasons. "You sure like to have deep thoughts in strange moments, don't you?" asked the man while chuckling. Hearing this, Steven's eyes widened, he couldn't believe it, that this man in front of him could read his mind! "I am going to stop you there, as I don't have much time on my hands. I need you to listen to what I am about to tell you. You understand?" asked the man with a serious tone.

Steven simply gulped and nodded his head in agreement. "Good! Now, sadly I don't have much time. In fact, the only reason why I am here is because of your decision, foolish as it may be, that decision allowed me to appear in this place." "What you need to know is that this place is far more important than you can imagine. But at this point in time, it's practically useless for you. However, for some individuals, let us just say they wouldn't mind killing entire galaxies just to get their hand on this place." "For you though, at the moment, this place will serve as a trial. You need to get to the top of that mountain you saw a while ago, and at the top of the mountain, you will have to make a decision, one that will determine how you will go forward in life. I know you have many questions. But I cannot answer them. Just know whatever you face, do not ever rely on the celestials, they prop themselves up as gods, as holy beings who rule all inferior life, but they are nothing more than greedy, power-hungry monsters. Now it seems my time is up. I hope you make the decision that is best for you. It was truly a pleasure meeting you, maybe one day we may meet again, my-…"

Before the man made out of light could finish his sentence, he faded away with the wind blowing him away, as if he were never there. However, this man had left a significant impression on Steven as he was contemplating what that man had said. Steven agreed with the notion that he shouldn't trust celestials, as his encounters with them were all extraordinary, in a way, were to his detriment. Other than that, he was confused over everything else that man had said. Yet, before he could think about such things, Steven realised he was no longer floating. Rather he was falling to his doom at a remarkable speed. "Ahhhhh!!!!!" Steven couldn't help but scream in shock and fear. Why did this always happen to him? Why was it that he would always end up in such terrible places? It was genuinely frustrating and frightening. "Calm, Steven! Calm down! Ugh! I think I am going to puke-…" Steven was extremely nauseous and disoriented and couldn't gather his thoughts to try and think of a way to get out of this predicament. "A-..alright…come on! Come on! Concentrate! You can puke later!" screamed Steven, loudly hitting his face as he forced himself to look at his surroundings once more. Steven was unprepared to deal with what he was seeing. He saw a considerable landmass that was surrounded by a seemingly unending ocean. This landmass had many different areas. One was a vast tropical forest with extremely tall trees and huge sharp boulders the size of small mountains. There were also wide hilly plains with green grass that seemed to stretch over almost 2/5ths of the entire landmass.

Additionally, he saw many other types of forests and ecosystems, which all had extremely unique features that he had never seen before. What amazed Steven the most was that at the centre of this landmass was an extremely large mountain surrounded by a few smaller mountains. The unique thing about the most enormous mountain was that there were some very ancient and large ruins at the top of the mountain from what Steven could see. Steven was getting extremely close to the surface of the landmass. This made Steven panic as he didn't know how to survive in this situation. The previous calmness he had, disappeared and was now replaced by shrieking and panicking emotions which he could not control. Although, yet again before Steven could do anything, he noticed something. Something extremely large and relatively quick was heading over to him. From what Steven could see, the creature was a huge primal looking eagle. This eagle had its sights on Steven, and it didn't look like it wanted to be his friend. Steven sighed to himself, having somehow calmed himself down, thinking that this was his fate, somehow, somewhere, there would always be some ugly creature that wanted to feast on him.

Steven, now having a calmer and more rational mind, knew the moment he came in contact with that huge eagle, he would most likely be dead or heavily injured, which was essentially the same as dead, as the eagle definitely was not flying to him to help him. Steven had to come up with a plan, and he had to come up with one very quickly. To his unfortunate surprise, the large eagle was not the only large bird that wanted to have a light snack. Steven saw that many other birds were racing towards him with saliva dripping from their mouths. "You got to be kidding me!" said Steven, almost wanting to cry in exasperation. Although, to Stevens delight, the birds weren't exactly friendly with each other. As they started to clash with each other, not wanting to allow any other bird from eating Steven. When Steven saw this, he got an idea, a very crazy one at that. He didn't know if it would work, and even if it did, it would most probably leave him injured, but he had no other choice. "Alright, Steven! Let`s do this!" he shouted in an attempt to summon his courage. Steven positioned his body in a diving position towards where the birds were, accelerating his speed in the process.

Steven smiled crazily, most probably due to him being filled with adrenaline. He also laughed like a maniac as he dived towards the giant birds. Steven knew he only had one chance to pull off his crazy plan, but he knew it was the only option. He could die trying, or he could just wait for his death. Taking a deep breath, Steven prepared himself as he was almost at where the birds were clashing with each other. The birds hadn't expected that Steven would head directly to them. Usually, their prey would cower in fear, accepting that they would die. Yet this prey of theirs did none of that. This weird prey laughed and smiled at them as if it did not care that it would die. This infuriated the large birds, but it did not stop them from clawing at each other. Instead, it made them even more aggressive as each one of them now had an even stronger urge to devour Steven. Seeing this, Steven grinned, applauding to himself in his head that his plan was working. Now though, came the difficult part of his plan, the part he was not so confident about. Steven grimaced when thinking of it, but he knew there was no turning back. Taking a deep breath, Steven readied himself. He was less than a minute away from where the birds were.

"Alright then, time to do something reckless! And if I survive, you bloody bet we will meet again, you stupid shiny man! I`m going to make you pay for leaving and putting me in such a situation!" as he said this, Steven finally reached his destination. The moment of truth had arrived. Would this be a tale for the world to marvel at, or would this be a light snack for some hungry birds? Steven`s fate was never meant to be easy; it would always be hard. But that was Steven`s fate. It would be unpredictable, uncontrollable, only lying in the hands of a boy named Steven, who would struggle against those who would otherwise want to control his destiny.