Tested - Chapter 15

Scion was fighting with Rade in the courtyard while Gunter looked on. The two were intent on each other, and had focused the rest of the courtyard out of their consciousness. Rade was helping Scion prepare to break the stick. Scion was ready, Gunter thought to himself.. as ready as any Guardian was.. He found himself questioning his own judgement.. what if he let one of them through who was not ready.. what bloody mess would be on his hands when they died due to his training not being sufficient. He started to turn away when he felt more than saw the man in black again. There was a peculiar scent in the air when he was around.. gunter had noticed it a few times before he had met the man in black.. and then put it together as the man in black had interrupted their taining session. He noticed the scent now and figured out his position before he moved. slightly behind him, and on his sword side. The perfect position to approach someone that may draw on you. Gunter decided not to give him what he wanted.

"I asked you before, and I ask you now.. who are you.. or what are you.. and what do you want."

The man in black stepped forward and to Gunter's left leaning in slightly to speak with him. " I come only because you need me... and only because you care... You may not like what I do, but you need it done... they need it done.." gesturing to the practice yard filled with young students, accomplished swordsmen, and a few masters.

"There are men out there that could cut your head from your neck with a viper's strike." Gunter replied to him, turning slightly toward him to read his reaction of that.. The man seemed to consider them objectively.. and spoke again"Perhaps one or two have the aptitude to face me eventually.. but the problem is not in skill Gunter.. and you know that."

The man strolled away from gunter a bit at that.. and admired one of the statues that Gunter had repaired when they reopened the temple. The statue had a strange inscription on the base. It was a full size man weilding a sword looking off in the distance. For the first time Gunter noticed the mans face held an expression of concern in his eyes. "I will give you a gift Gunter of the Cherubim Knights.. I will test your young pupil there, and if he passes my test, I shall reveal to you the meaning of this statue.. perhaps it will help guide you in your training.. perhaps it will save you." The man looked oddly amused at that.. as if it was an absurd thought..and then his amusement changed to distaste as he mentally followed that thought to it's conclusion.

"You need not accept.. I have already decided on the test." He twirled around with his cape giving a grand flourish. At that Gunter found that he was frozen and could not move.

Scion was looking around, finding the entire courtyard, including his opponent Rade, frozen in time, like statues. "What have you done!" He yelled at the man in black, who smiled mischeviously as he explained. "I have made a wager young man.. one that you will decide. Take up your sword.. you are going to need it." At that, the man seemed to fade out.. getting more and more blurry until he was simply gone from site. His voice was still there though.. and it spoke loud and clear.. "Defend yourself, and your temple as best you know how."

Scion reached for his practice sword, then thought better of it.. grabbing a strong steel blade from the practice swords that he was not yet allowed to use. It was balanced perfectly, and seemed to move effortlessly in his hands. Before he could locate a tactically better position to defend.. they were upon him. They came from no where and everywhere. They appeared from the air, reached up from the ground, and fell from the sky on top of him. Each one tasting his blade as fast as he could slide it through them.. each one vanishing into a puff of smoke. He killed and killed, the smoke was growing thick as he killed more and more of them, but still they came. Unrelenting. The numbers were growing ever so slowly as the smoke seemed to multiply them into more and more..

Scion slashed in great circles around himself, slicing into them by the tens, each one falling into smoke and eventually reforming into another different enemy. The voice of the man in black was clear and unworried.. he asked a simple question. "Do you wish to stop defending the temple?" It was such an innocent question, one so easily answered from exhaustion, or from fear, or from frustration at the reappearing ghosts..but none of these were the motivation of Scions answer.. he rasped his answer as he struggled to talk and fight at the same time. "No" was all he could muster.. The voice replied chuckling as it spoke " exhaustion is but one aspect in a fight.."

The ghosts seemed to stop and focus on him again, they began moving in towards him.. three of them bearing swords that glowed like the light of day.. as they struck, the glowing swords passed through his steel and struck his flesh..searing it with excruciating pain. Again and again they struck him down.. until he lay there on the ground.. covered in wounds, flesh still searing as the swords were still striking him.. on the brink of consciousness, the voice asked again.. "Do you wish to stop defending the temple?"

The reply could not have been heard.. there was no strength to make a sound left in Scion.. the swords continued to rack his body with pain. He simply thought his reply.. and it was enough.. he thought the word "no"

The voice seemed different now.. almost as if it was distracted.. it spoke to the wounded near death body lying on the ground. "You shall be healed, and all of this will take place again. All of this will repeat until you break.. and YOU WILL break.. the question is this.. you are here alone.. no one will ever know how many times you survived this cycle before you went insane and started to speak unrecognizeably.. here all alone for eternity? Will you stand alone for all of time? is that your intention?

Scion felt the strength come to him.. it came to him from the light that shone still in his heart. He lifted himself from the ground .. and half hunched over.. lifted his sword to fight.
he found the energy to speak .. and with the one breath he had.. he spoke these words:

"I am not alone."



The pain vanished for a second.. until time seemed to jerk back into motion.. his wooden practice sword being slapped from his hand by Rade's riposte.. The sword dropped to the ground. Scion looked at it, stunned at what had just happened.. no one around him seemed to know what he had just seen.

Gunter reached down and picked up the sword.. "Don't worry young Guardian.. that happens some times with these wooden swords.. they are unreliable in balance. I believe you are ready to be done with them. "

Scion wasn't sure what gunter was saying to him.. until Gunter handed it back to him. "Draw your sword and attack!" Gunter commanded. It was a command Scion was used to hearing.. and responded reflexively attacking with the wooden sword with all of his strength.. The wood shattered as it impacted gunter's own blade of steel.

Gunter saluted, and spoke again "You have broken the stick Scion.. let us replace it with steel, that you will use to defend the heavenly realm."

He handed Scion a long steel broadsword.

Gunter turned to walk away and noticed something had changed.. he swore a few minutes before he had been contemplating what could have been written on those statues.. and now this one was legible.. The inscription was short. "You cannot teach Heart".


~A record of the Cherubim Knights
Scion breaking the stick

Seems like I've, er, Scion's grown a lot since being a crying ninny. Solid work, James!

aye, indeed he has.. indeed he has.

Porphyry