Chapter 253 - The Woman Who Walked Without a Sword ( Part 3 )

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.

Jennie approached the beginning of the bridge and started studying the turtles.

The first one moved slowly, putting one enormous step after another several times a second. With every touch of its leg, the stone blocks around it darkened and sank.

The second turtle moved differently. Its shell lit up a little bit before each step. Miniature mountains on its shell shifted as some invisible power was flowing through it.

The third turtle stayed at the middle of the bridge and kept scraping the moss off the stone.

Jennie paid particular attention to the second turtle.

Its shell began to shine. It lifted its right foreleg.

Jennie could feel how the atmosphere changed. The side of the bridge under the turtle’s left side grew heavier while the other side lost its weight completely. Some stones lifted into the air.

Then it placed its foot down.

The situation changed again. The stones that were floating in the air fell back to the bridge.

Jennie’s vision became sharper.

"Your shell is redirecting the gravity..."

She watched how the creature took another step.

The same happened again. Before placing its leg, the miniature mountains on its shell began glowing and shifting the gravitational force to the other side of the bridge, making the stone slabs a little bit weightless.

It lasted for less than a second.

But it was an opening.

Jennie smiled faintly. "There you are."

She stepped onto the bridge.

As soon as she did, the stone under her boot groaned.

Jennie stopped.

A wave of pressure hit the surface of the bridge as the first turtle shifted its weight. The girl’s knees bent from the sudden change in the gravity. The air was pushed out of her lungs. For a few seconds, she thought that the bridge would break under her.

Then the pressure disappeared.

Jennie stood up.

"One step."

She started walking.

The second step was easier. The third one tried to kill her.

Suddenly, the gravity changed and she was thrown to the side. Her shoulder hit the stone and her arm burned with pain. But she managed to grab the bridge with her left hand and stopped from falling.

Below her, the clouds spread into infinity.

Some stone dropped from the bridge. It vanished without a sound.

"...Nope."

She tried to get away from the edge of the bridge.

"No looking down. Got it?"

The second turtle lifted its foreleg. The shell began to glow.

Jennie watched the light, trying to notice the intervals between each pulse.

One. Two. Three.

Its foot came down and the bridge started tilting.

Jennie moved.

She ran across three slabs of stone and then hid behind the raised stone part when the gravitational force returned and made the bridge unbearably heavy. She was shaking from the blow.

But she had moved several meters forward.

She rose slowly, panting heavily. Faint smile was on her face.

"That worked."

The turtle continued moving forward. The shell started to glow again.

Jennie moved too.

Step by step, she was crossing the bridge, trying to understand the creatures’ movements. She was advancing while their shells were redirecting the gravitational force, hiding behind the stone whenever the weight returned. Sometimes she had to wait almost for a minute. Sometimes she had to crawl.

Once, she slipped and grabbed the edge with her left hand, staying above the clouds until the gravity was shifting enough for her to pull herself up. Her injured right hand stayed useless by her side.

With each move, she remembered what she had lost. With each meter, she understood that in order to survive, she will need something more than her strength.

Halfway across, the first turtle turned.

Its amber eyes locked with the girl’s. It lowered its head and a deep rumble came from its chest.

Jennie froze.

"...Don’t tell me you have a problem with trespassers."

It opened its mouth and the golden dust emerged. It spread across the bridge and instantly made the stone slabs heavier.

Jennie’s eyes grew wide. The pressure hit her like a mountain.

She fell to one knee. Cracks started forming under her boots.

The turtle’s shell started glowing brighter. The miniature mountains started shifting as if the whole mountain range was spinning under the surface.

Jennie clenched her teeth. She couldn’t use magic. She couldn’t overpower the gravitational force. And she couldn’t stay there forever.

But she saw something.

The golden dust wasn’t spreading evenly. It was flowing towards the turtle’s shell and was being absorbed by it.

The creature was pulling the surrounding gravitational force to itself.

Its shell wasn’t just redirecting the gravity. It was collecting it.

Jennie watched the glowing peaks.

"You’re absorbing the weight..."

Its foot came up and the golden light collected on one side of its shell.

Jennie narrowed her eyes.

"And then releasing it."

The foot came down and the gravitational force shifted violently.

Jennie moved.

She pushed herself forward, using the brief reverse to run across the bridge. Her boots hit the stone repeatedly as she was racing past the huge legs of the turtle. It rumbled in surprise.

She reached the next part of the bridge just when the gravity returned.

She fell hard onto the stone. Her shoulder hit it first and pain shot through her body.

For several seconds, she couldn’t move. Then she rolled on her back and looked at the clouds.

"...I hate turtles."

The bridge started shaking under her.

Jennie immediately sat up.

"Really hate them."

She stood up. The distance that she had to cross was seeming endless, but now the pattern was clear. The turtles weren’t obstacles she needed to defeat. They were the key to crossing. Their movements were making the openings. Their shells were revealing the rhythm.

She just had to pay attention.

Jennie continued moving. She was waiting for the pulses of golden light, crossing the bridge during the brief shift and enduring the pressure when the opportunity closed.

Finally, the bridge widened and the stone under her feet became stable. The air grew lighter.

Jennie stumbled to the other side of the bridge and fell against the tall block of black stone.

She stumbled to the far side of the bridge and fell against the large block of black rock.

She sat there in silence for several moments unable to do anything but rest.

She raised her left hand and began counting the fingers.

"One, two, three, four, five."

She let her hand fall back to the ground.

"Excellent. Still alive."

She laughed, the sound seeming foreign in the deafening silence.

She made it through the test. Not because she was more powerful than anyone else. Not because she was a good swordsman. Not even because some legendary weapon chose her.

She made it because she was able to learn and adapt.

For now, that was all she needed.

Jennie pushed herself up on her elbows.

Before her stretched an endless plain under the sky filled with the pieces of long-forgotten ruins. The towers hovered in the distance and the massive stone statues half-buried in the clouds. In the middle of the field there was a circular platform.

Somewhere there was inscribed. Jennie could not understand the writing from where she stood but the shape of the sword was clearly visible.

A massive sword.

The ground began to shake.

Jennie looked behind her.

An enormous figure began rising from the clouds. At first, she thought it to be a mountain. However, its shoulders and then its arms and head appeared. There was a cracked stone helmet on its head.

This warrior was taller than any of the surrounding towers and his whole body made of the ancient stone tied by glowing golden runes. Cracks were visible on its chest revealing the light resembling the dying star.

On its right hand there was a sword. So big that its point cut the mountainside in the distance with the sound of the thunder.

Jennie looked at the figure.

"...Is that a sword?"

The warrior stepped on the platform. With that movement he made the ground shake and the clouds to burst from his feet.

He turned its featureless stone face towards her.

Then the voice fell from the heaven — deep, resounding and bearing ages-old weight.

"STATE YOUR NAME, FALLEN WARRIOR."

The words echoed through Jennie.

She swallowed.

For just a few moments the old name surfaced in her memory. Leonis KingHeart, the legendary swordsman. The king whose memories haunted her nightmares. The warrior who lived and died in other lives, in other wars, in other worlds.

The name that the archway recognized. The name that this place insisted on forcing on her.

Jennie looked at her right hand.

She remembered the smile of Rudy. The defiant eyes of Lilia. The warmth of Snow.

And the woman standing in Walden, looking at the hand that will never move like it used to.

Jennie raised her head.

"Jennie Queens."

Silence.

The enormous warrior did not move. But then the golden runes on its body lit up.

There was a deep crack on the platform under its feet.

"INCORRECT."

Jennie tightened her face.

The warrior raised its enormous sword. The blade blocked out the sun.

"YOUR TRIAL BEGINS."

The sword struck.

Jennie jumped to the side.

The blade struck the platform where she stood and the impact burst across the plain. The stone was shattering. The clouds exploded and shock wave blasted her throwing several meters away until she fell on the ground.

She pushed herself up, coughing blood.

The warrior was raising its sword.

"Okay—"

Jennie dodged.

The second blow created a deep trench on the platform shattering the stone like paper. The debris was falling around her as she ran over the cracked ground.

The warrior turned its head and followed her moves with the patience of the god.

"YOU CARRY A NAME THAT IS NOT YOURS."

Jennie skidded behind the broken pillar.

"I don’t want it!"

"YET YOU BEAR ITS WEIGHT."

The sword fell.

Jennie dived.

The pillar behind her exploded into dust and fragments.

She pushed herself up, gasping, and skidded forward on her left hand and knees.

"THE SOUL OF THE KING LINGERS WITHIN YOU. THE BATTLEFIELD RECOGNIZES IT."

The voice of the warrior thundered on the plain.

"BUT RECOGNITION IS NOT ACCEPTANCE."

Jennie pushed herself up.

"Then what do you want from me?!"

The warrior raised its sword.

"PROVE THAT YOU ARE MORE THAN HIS SHADOW."

The sword fell.

Jennie did not dodge.

She stood still.

The sword stopped not because the warrior wanted to stop it but because something got it.

Golden chains appeared out of the platform under Jennie’s feet, wrapping the blade and binding it in place. Those were not her magic. Those were not her powers.

Those were the part of the trial.

Jennie looked at the chains.

Then she looked at the warrior.

"What is this?"

The featureless stone face did not change.

"THE SECOND LAW."

The chains brightened.

"A NAME HAS WEIGHT."

Jennie felt the words sink into her like stones.

The chains tightened around the blade.

"YOU MAY BEAR THE KING’S NAME. YOU MAY CARRY HIS MEMORIES. YOU MAY EVEN WIELD HIS SWORDS."

The golden light became more intense.

"BUT YOU ARE NOT HIM."

The chains broke.

The sword struck.

Jennie raised her head.

And did not flinch.

"I know."

The blade stopped inches from her face.

Wind ceased. The golden runes on the warrior’s body dimmed.

Jennie looked into the featureless stone face.

"I am not the shadow everyone expects me to be..."

Her voice was calm and steady.

"But I am not nothing."

The warrior did not move.

Jennie took a step forward.

" I am Leonis KingHeart who died a thousand years ago. Who saved the world and the world lived on without him. Who was remembered as the hero, but heroes are just stories people tell to make themselves brave."

Another step.

"I am not here to repeat him again . I am here to finish what the gods started. I am here to redeem my legacy or carry my burden."

She stopped before the blade.

"I am here to be worthy of this destiny."

The sword of the warrior began to shake.

She raised her left hand and pressed it against the cold stone of the blade.

"My name is Jennie Queens. I was born in Seraiya, one who blessed by Goddess of Creation Miasa and the one who lost everything."

Her voice was trembling, yet she continued.

"But I’m still standing. Not because I am a legend. Not because I am chosen. But because I choose to keep going."

She looked at the face of the warrior.

"That is the only name that matters."

Silence.

The sword of the warrior lowered.

The golden runes covering its blade started to fade like ashes carried away by the wind.

Then the colossal figure spoke, but there was no judgement in his voice.

"THEN RISE, JENNIE QUEENS."

The stone blade transformed into golden light.

"YOUR FIRST TRIAL IS COMPLETE."

The platform under her feet split open and revealed the staircase going down into darkness.

Jennie gazed at it.

And then she looked at the warrior.

"What is at the bottom?"

The voice of the warrior was whispering.

"THE SECOND TRIAL."

The golden light disappeared.

"AND THE BEGINNING OF YOUR PATH."

The colossal figure was crumbling, breaking into pieces of stone and being carried away by the wind.

Jennie was standing alone on the platform, looking at the stairs.

For a while, she didn’t move.

But then she touched the silver thread on her wrist inside the cloak.

Roxy’s charm.

And closed her eyes.

"I am still coming."

And went down the stairs.