UNLIMITED SPEED

Exhaling in relief, Noah remained seated while thinking back to what happened in the illusion. 'Was that even an illusion,' Noah thought feeling his heart skip a beat at the memory of the death of the blurry figure. Nothing about that scene was familiar to him, yet it felt real enough to momentarily break him.

In truth the whole event felt outrageous, how would the death of someone he didn't even know hurt you bad enough to place him in depression.

'It was supposed to show me my greatest fear and I was supposed to overcome it. But I didn't overcome it alone. Neither did I know it for it to be my greatest fear,' Noah thought, thoroughly confused. He had never felt so lost in his entire life.

The death of the blurry figure felt familiar yet unknown at the same time. Not to begin with the first visions he saw before it, and lastly the mysterious man within the darkness. They all felt real enough to force Noah in second-guessing his existence. Especially the man. Yet none of the events connected to give him any clues of what exactly was going on.

'Who was that even,' Noah thought, The person looked to have a personality of their own, even power. Such didn't seem possible to be generated by an illusion.

'He said I should look for him,' Noah recalled unsure of what to do with that favor. 'Why didn't he come out himself,' he continued to ponder, but there were many questions but no answers.

A sigh of deep helplessness exited Noah's at his growing frustration. Placing his focus on his red environment, Noah struggled to not feel safe at its sight. Years or even decades seemed to have passed in his illusions, an extremely long time, however, it was a situation he had begun to get familiar with.

Many of the individuals in the tier 3 category were nowhere to be found, but Noah understood why. In honesty he felt his test; if it even was, had been easy. He did not experience any crushing pressure, and the real situation that could jeopardize his entry into that guild was vanquished by the masked man's orders.

'My luck is incredible.' Noah giggled inwardly while scanning the room for anyone with blonde hair. He found a few individuals that fit the hair color description of Ariana, but whether or not they were her, remained unknown to Noah.

Lady Edna seemed to give them a minute to rest since she simply floated above them with the remaining two. They seemed to be in a discussion. A weird sight since Noah knew that show wasn't necessary, their mental waves would be enough.

"You can arise," Lady Edna eventually announced, "If you can," she added, her tone that of uncertainty.

'What does she mean by that....' Noah thought getting up. However, his thoughts were cut short by the incredible wave of dizziness that slammed into his consciousness. Noah saw and felt his world spin on him, and the last thing he remembered was the sound of his body hitting the ground, then everything went dark.

*

*

*

Snapping his eyes open, Noah sat up, awake. Unfortunately, intense pain filled his mind at that simple action.

Grabbing his head in pain, Noah felt his head ache so badly he thought it had been split in two. His environment turned blurry every once in a while, forcing the closing of his eyes while gritting his teeth.

Quickly sending his consciousness into his soul realm to understand the issue, Noah found that he arrived inside a storm!

Lightning bolts crackled everywhere, as a strange wind blew within that place, and the environment looked to experience extreme cold.

This of course were signs of his elemental affinities acting up, but he had never experienced anything like what he stepped into.

With his soul core at the center of the storm, Noah could immediately understand why he felt that much pain on the outside. Or so he thought,

'How do I get there,' Noah wondered, but that simple thought process caused him pain, lots of it.

Feeling his consciousness flicker dangerously, Noah had to keep his peace to retain his focus on that unique environment. Taking a step forward, he felt his island try to fight against his will. However, Noah enforced his authority over it, momentarily calming the storm.

This action, however, caused enough pain to allow him black out.

Slowly reopening his eyes, Noah felt his mind buzz upon his awakening, memories of what he experienced rushed into his eyes, and he couldn't help but panic.

Slowly sitting up, he scanned his environment and felt shocked to find only four other persons in that room. However, he pushed the matter to the back of his mind, since emotions currently hurt him.

Returning to his soul realm. Noah found an even bigger storm. Notwithstanding, he remained calm, and took a step forward.

His island fought against his movement, but he remained calm. Surprisingly, he found that although the world as it would seem, tried to repel his movements, it literally couldn't touch him.

A few more steps forward while remaining calm, was all Noah needed to confirm his thoughts, after which he dashed forward, but blacked out again.

Groaning awake, Noah sat up again. No thoughts flowed in his mind due to how chaotic it was, so his face remained emotionless. Or he tried to.

A frown appeared on his face at his situation, but he quickly returned to his soul realm.

Immediately arriving inside his special environment, Noah found that his view of the world before him was blocked by the immense tornado ravaging his island, yet leaving it unscathed.

"So no running," he muttered experiencing pain at his words.

Taking a large step forward, Noah began his slow walk towards his core. His instincts assured him that the solution to his problem lay there.

What felt like an hour or two passed, but Noah understood that lesser time than what he experienced had passed. His soul realm ran on his speed essence, allowing for a different flow of time.

During his journey towards his soul core, Noah tried utilizing Speed Essence in fixing that issue, but rather than doing anything, the mass of liquid-like Energy simply hovered above his undamaged island.

With his only viable option to quickly fix that issue out the window, Noah had to settle for walking to his core.

Eventually arriving in front of his black core, Noah felt all the ideas he had painfully developed go down his mental drain.

"What the actual fuck...." Noah muttered wide-eyed; when he lay eyes on his soul core. Its spherical structure had been split into two perfect halves.