Pathway to Eternity 12 Rite of Judgemen

Reena had been on the training ground since early morning practicing the beasts inferno technique with her parents. Since they all practiced the same fire technique though with different beast manifestations, it was much easier for them to practice together. Except for Haider, who was not fire affiliated, but still watched their training. They had been engaging in mock combats for two years.

It was already two years ago they had the visit of the titan lord. He had told Reena during the visit about her true nature. Reena knew she was already Asura because she has reached the demigod stage, she had formed her nascent soul. But, she wasn't expecting what the tittan lord told her, she recalled clearly.

"Lady Reena, it's true we met not long ago. But i see you as someone i know for ages, that's why it seems i'm taking you as a long lost relative, if you don't mind."

"Well, i don't have many relative in the first place. So, it's welcomed by me and besides, who will turn down being a relative of a titan lord. Totally good by me." She had replied.

She could feel trustworthiness and honesty in him. And since saving their lives, he deserved the trust in him.

"Mhm. That's settled then. Now, let me ask you this, what do you know about yourself?"

"What about myself, lord Primus?"

"Just call me uncle Primus, Reena."

"What do you know about yourself becoming a demigod? Anything you know?"

"I know demigod is a stage one reach after forming a nascent soul before ascension. Isn't it, uncle Primus? And i formed my nascent soul some ten years ago."

"Indeed. And i'm very proud of you. Your divine powers, did they manifest before you became a demigod?"

"Yes. Since i was in evanesce core stage."

"Please allow me to do a little confirmation."

"What confirmation, uncle Primus?"

"I will tell you in a moment, be patient, Reena."

He had taken out a small talisman and after activating it, had burst out golden light.

"Mhm. As i thought. Your nimbus light is gold. You were born a demigod and yes, you were already a demigod when you started cultivation. Even without cultivating, you would have still become a demigod. Cultivation simply made it faster. But you didn't know all this. That's a bit strange but not impossible. It doesn't really matter anyway, but being a born demigod, there is something important for you to do."

He had looked at her with a trace of pity. "Do you know about the rite of judgement?"

"The rite for the true demigods, yes i do know of it."

"It's a rite you need to undergo. Every true demigod will awaken their divine self after passing the rite of jugement. As you are aware there's no harm in the rite for a demigod, just a little test which you can stop at anytime. It's a creation's trial to see if a demigod truly deserves the divine powers of becoming a deity. If you pass the trials, you will have divine awakening, your divine powers will truly come to fore. But if you fail, you will never have true divine powers when you become a god. You will only keep the level of divine powers you have. trial here's no harm in it. But, its better to do it before ascension. If you ascend before awakening your divine self, your godhood divinity foundation will be shaky. Think about it, will you?"

"I will, uncle Primus. Thank you."

She had immediately discussed it with her family. At first they had expressed concern about the whole rite thing but they eventually concluded that if Reena was fine with it, they were too. It was her decision to make. But since there was no harm in doing it, it was manageably agreeable by them. She had finally decided to pass through the rite.

If uncle Primus believed it was important for her, she would trust him on it. But she was not in a rush yet.

Snapping back to the present. Reena nodded to herself. She would be taking the rite in a month's time. She had been preparing for it for the past two years, she would be ready for it by then. She looked at her parents and her son, who was training on his own by the side, and she wondered about her ascension that was still far away.

What if she ascended sooner than she anticipated? Who will take care of her family? And if she refuse ascension, she would not be able to ascend to the heavenly realm in the future. For her family, she wouldn't mind staying in a mortal world, but what if her family members ascended, especially her son. She won't be able to follow to the heavenly realm, that would be heart-wrenching.

She would decide when the time comes.

For now, she had to give everything to truly be stronger to be able to protect her family.

She went into the cultivation chamber to meditate, inner peace was needed.

Two months later, Reena was ready for the rite of judgement.

She either be stronger or weaker and she chose to be stronger.

She could directly communicate with titan lord Primus through the communication stones. Her family members had followed her also to give encouragement.

After meeting lord Primus

"Reena, as i said before, since you are a fire element affiliate, your rite of judgement would be at the valley of gods. There are three phases to the rite. Who you are in this universe [Manifestation], where you are in the universe [Discovery] and why you are here in this universe [Existence]. They will test your strength, metality and spirituality. But, you are much more stronger than you look. Look inside yourself, you have much strength in there."

"Thank you uncle Primus."

Lord Primus activated the portal to the valley of gods. He went with Reena leaving Haider with his grandparents waiting patiently in the cave.

This was the first time Reena had left her home world and journeyed to a different place entirely. She had never even used a portal before. The sensation of using a portal was a bit intimidating at first but she instantly grew into it, it was just like taking a step with a blast of warm air to the face.

They exited to a place of true magical and landscape masterpiece. There were magic colors everywhere from white to gold to rainbow colors. Statuesque formations sculpted from Lucid whitestone from the Primordial era, billions of years ago lined the valley. The whitestone was carved into the unique statues of gods holding different weapons, giant monoliths and mighty pinnacles. And at the center was the massive whitestone hallway.

The valley of gods.

"We are here, Reena. Behold! The valley of the gods."

Reena was lost for words. The scenery was truly a beauty to behold. And for a moment she forgot about her up-coming rite. She continued to take the whole place in without any disturbance from lord Primus who only continued smiling.

After some time has passed, lord Primus pointed to the long building of whitestone at the middle.

"Tha's the judgement hallway. You will enter at the front and exit at the back. I will be at the back waiting for you."

Reena after regaining herself, proceeded towards the hallway. Halfway forward, she glanced back at the titan lord.

"Don't worry Reena. Everything is all good."

Reena gave a confirmation nod and continued forward. When she reached the entrance, Reena felt a tinge of apprehension. She looked at the massive white entrance, took a deep breath and entered the hallway.

The moment she entered the hallway, the whole place turned eerie.

"We know who you are, Reena Amynthas." A loud voice boomed in the hallway, a deafening sound. A pause before the voice continued.

"But do you?"

The god's statues in the hallway started to come to life. The statues had their strength reduced to that of an early stage demigod but with the fighting skills of a late stage demigod. The statues holding different weapons were staring at Reena with bright golden eyes.

"Reena Amynthas, please step forward. All you have to do is to pass through this passage to the exit at the other end. And of course, if you depleted that you can't carry on, just say 'demigod' and everything will stop and return back to normal. No harm done. Please proceed."

Reena sorrounded herself with pillars of fire. She took out her sword made from the tail feather of a primordial phoenix and prepared the third level of the phoenix inferno, the phoenix vortex. She launched the attack immediately she stepped over the line. Huge spiraling vortex of flaming phoenixes expanded in high speed towards the watching gods. The moment the attack was launched, all the gods launched their own defensive techniques. Pillars of fire. The attack nocked them back a few steps but relatively no harm done.

Fire element gods.

They came at her like a blur causing her to be blocking so fast she became a blur too. So many of them, she had recieved many cuts from their attack but she had managed to ward them off. They raised their weapons which started to glow bright blue and pointed them at her. A massive fire attack in the shape of Chimera attacked Reena. The size of the fire beasts was like a hill, three heads emitting blue fire. Reena quickly responded with fire wave emission. When the Chimera collided with the wave emission, the impact was so powerful that Reena was knocked flying.

Then they came at her again before launching the Chimera attack.

So many gods

Everytime she advanced towards they would push her back to the starting line. She tried to use light step to reach the exit but she was quickly cut off, same with her evasive steps.

She had to go all out.

She switched to her nascent soul, the avatar of a true demigod soul. Her avatar was in her white phoenix feathered armor with two large flaming wings on her back. Swinging her flaming sword in a circle, she propelled the heavenly fire emission attack. This was the fifth level of the beasts inferno technique. She hadn't mastered it yet, to be precise, she was at the midstage, but it was her most powerful technique.

The gods were just statues, how could they manifest soul avatars. They initiated their defensive moves but were sent flying several yards in different directions from the collision.

"I am a true demigod."

And with one step using the divine evasive technique, she was out of the passage but found herself in another section.

"Reena Amynthas, yes, a true demigod. We know of you, how you are who you are. We know of your becoming. Do you?" The voice boomed out again.

Heaviness descended on Reena the moment she entered the hallway. Everywhere around her turned dark except a spot at her front and she saw a replica of herself on the spot. The white armor, fiery wings and blazing sword. Quickly, she put her sword away.

"Reena Amynthas. We show you something about yourself and you will tell us what you see."

Her image fast backwarded to a cluster of billions of bright stars connected by pulsating threads. A single ray of white light entered the clusters of stars and fell upon a particular star. The star started to shine brighter than the rest, broke away from the cluster and entered a place where the stars were not just bright but blazing. The blazing stars completely ignored the dim star. It left that place and came to another where the stars were massive with blazing light. Here also, it was put aside. The star was taken from there to a place, from there it couldn't see the clusters of stars, couldn't see the light from the second set of stars and could only see specks of light from the third set of stars. The star looked up and billions of star clusters bigger and brighter than the last set of stars it came across.

The star became dejected and went back the way it came. It was there for a long time staying on its own when a single ray of white light entered the cluster again. But the star was not interested in the light entering the cluster but in the direction where the ray of light came from. It left on a journey to find out the source of the light. It travelled days without end, but kept travelling. It passed the beautiful pond of yellow light, but kept going. It came to the amazing river of green light and kept going. Next it passed the mesmerizing sea of red light but didn't stop. Going, it came across the ravaging ocean of blue light but didn't give up.

And one day, it came to a place where it met a tiny little star. It told the tiny little star that it was looking for a place where a single ray of light was coming from. The tiny little star told the curious star that it was its job to send out the light. But the curious star was not convinced that the tiny little star could do such a thing. Then the tiny little star showed its true might and its size covered half of the heavens. The curious star was frightened but the mighty little star told it that itself still had many stars bigger and brighter than it.

At that point, the curious star asked itself where it really was among the stars. When the mighty little star saw the curious little star's dejection, it said.

"I was once like you, i had to come here to find out like yourself. For you to be here, you are deserve to be a heavenly star. Why don't you enter and see where you can truly be."

The star entered a mortal womb where it became a true star shining brighter than ever. The image reverted back to Reena.

"Reena Amynthas, where are you in the universe?"

"I am here with you." Reena with eyes full of tears, answered.

"Hahaha. Clever, very clever. Where the universe put you yet more with us. You may proceed."

Reena exited the place only to find herself outside at the entrance to the valley of gods.

The voice then asked her.

"Reena Amynthas. Why are you here in the valley of the gods?"

"I want to be a heavenly demigod."

"Your wish is in the hand of the universe, Reena Amynthas.

A light of thousand colors descended on Reena.

"This is the light of manifestation. The universe gift to you, Reena Amynthas. You may leave now."

Reena found herself back in the hallway and left through the last exit. Lord Primus was waiting.

Lord Primus was really proud of her. He was beaming with smiles, sometimes grinning or laughing.

"Let's go home Reena, let's go home."

Chapter end