My Alter Ego’s Path to Greatness - Chapter 88

#88

Trial of the Holy Sword (1)

“You can come this way.”

Heinrich followed the archbishop as his guide and continued into the depths of the Great Temple of Picaol.

Since the design centered on the seal where the holy sword was inserted, it was bound to be the deepest and most intimate place.

‘It looks like we’ve gone down to the basement quite a bit. ‘How many craters should have been dug during the fight…’

Well, it was understandable because it must have been a life-threatening struggle of the strongest men of the time.

“You may have already known this, but the trials are different for each person who takes on the challenge, so I don’t have any specific advice for you.”

When he passed through several gates and reached the stone gate with the shining prayer engraved on it, the archbishop who was guiding him spoke softly.

Because he knew this to be true, Heinrich quietly agreed.

He had already familiarized himself with all relevant records during his training period.

“As such, the time it takes to face trials is different for each person. Some came out in just a few hours, while others took about a week.”

Of course, they all failed.

He shrugged his shoulders and added, then turned to Heinrich and pointed to the door.

“The ordeal begins the moment you step through this door and enter. “Just tell me when you’re ready to take on the challenge.”

Is there any need to wait any longer after coming this far?

Heinrich took a deep breath and confidently spoke to him.

“I’ll go in right now.”

“…All right. Then I will open the door.”

The archbishop nodded quietly, then walked up to the stone gate, placed his hands on it, and quietly recited a prayer.

“…What is hidden in that box is my flesh and blood. You…”

Then the prayer engraved on the door slowly began to glow in response to his words.

The Archbishop’s divine power is constantly being sucked into the sealed door.

How long had passed? Before he knew it, thick drops of sweat were continuously flowing down his face.

‘Every time you open a door, you need enough divine power to make an archbishop-level priest sick for several days…’ It

was impossible to mobilize a large number of priests because of not only the quantity but also the quality.

He resided at the Grand Shrine of Heinrich and was accustomed to seeing him from time to time, but in fact, the archbishop was a very high-class man.

They were mainly in charge of temples located in large cities and were treated like marquises as nobles.

‘I was so used to it that I didn’t realize it, but the saint was a big woman that not even the emperor of the empire could treat lightly.’

As I hung out with her in the main shrine, the headquarters of the religious order, I lost my sense of reality a little.

Hwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas

you you you you you I you you you I was just lost in your thoughts for a moment the stone gate started to slowly shake with a strong light emitting. A stone

door

opens heavily.

However, the inside was filled with light and it was impossible to discern what was inside.

“…Then good luck.”

Heinrich stepped forward without hesitation, leaving behind the archbishop’s tired voice drenched in sweat.

And when he came fully into the light.

Suddenly— boom!

The stone door closes harshly.

The light around Heinrich suddenly disappeared, revealing an ordinary hallway.

“…oh?”

I could feel it instinctively.

This space is a separate space disconnected from the outside.

I looked back, but there was only a long hallway identical to the one in front, and I couldn’t see the stone door through which he had entered.

‘Are you sure I have to choose whether to go forward or backward?’

Heinrich shrugged his shoulders, raised his divine power and “Blessing: Strong Body” to the limit, and focused on his eyes.

In addition, let’s use the “Auterica Holy Technique” to amplify the eyesight…

“…But I still can’t see the end.”

Even when I looked behind me, it seemed like I had no choice but to just keep going.

He sighed and looked ahead again.

First of all, I was planning to break through head on.

‘Of course, I could use some convenience.’

I expanded my horizons and concentrated my mind to the limit of what I could focus my divine power on.

And right away.

Paat—

Used “Blessing: Leap” to jump through space.

However, when we arrived, we could only see endless long hallways and nothing had changed.

“Whoop!”

Quaaaang!

I tried to use my divine power to the limit and hit the wall next to me with all my might, but it didn’t make a single difference.

at that time.

〈Reach to the next gate within the time limit.〉

A will resonated in his head.

‘It’s just the beginning.’

But even after waiting, no further information was given.

There is no way to know how long the time limit is or where the destination is.

‘Is it like a trial of patience?’

I had noticed from the beginning that the flow of time here was different from outside.

If it were anyone else, it would have been difficult to figure it out right away, but isn’t he a body that has several avatars out there?

‘About 10 to 1? The time difference with Earth is 100 to 1.’

In the meantime, I was able to accept it without any problems due to the “Mind Herb” and my mental power becoming stronger, but in the beginning of this world, I would have suffered quite a bit from motion sickness.

‘It’s a burden not knowing when and how far I should reach. In the end, I have no choice but to overdo it.’

The Holy Sword’s trials were usually divided into several stages.

Perhaps this time, they wanted to check the challenger’s perseverance, mental strength, and physical strength.

As time continued to pass, there was no reason to delay any longer.

Heinrich lightly relaxed himself on the spot and immediately ran forward.

And with the help of the overwhelming physical strength that he had been training and various skills, including “super recovery,” he ran down the hallway at incredible speed.

‘I don’t know what level the trial wants, so let’s go as far as we can.’

In this space of trial, there was no need for nutrition or sleep, so there was no problem.

I only devoted my mental power resources to the extent of using “Blessing: Leap” periodically while running.

‘I think it will take some time. ‘I can’t help it.’

Heinrich ran silently through the quiet hallway alone.

I just mechanically ran, ran, ran and then used “Blessing: Leap” repeatedly.

As three days passed, the fatigue accumulating in my body began to surpass the level of “super recovery.”

The surrounding energy was providing the necessary energy, but the speed of recovery could not keep up with the load that was continuously accumulating.

1st week.

Even slowing down for a moment in between to allow my body to recover was reaching its limit.

I could feel my whole body creaking, but I didn’t care because this was normal during training.

2nd week.

Perhaps because it was an ordeal, simply moving was not the end.

While he was running, a whisper that stimulated his mind stimulated him.

Energy that stimulated feelings of giving up, resignation, loneliness, etc. continued to invade his mind, but to him who was already lost in thoughtlessness, it was only a meaningless interruption.

3rd week.

I still couldn’t slow down my pace because I didn’t know how much time was left and how far I had to go.

I periodically took short breaks, ignored the pain I felt in my body, and started running again.

For him who had the “Mind Herb,” this wasn’t an ordeal or anything.

It’s just a simple repetitive task.

Under these conditions… he could keep going for days or months.

Time continued to pass by.

When 4 days had passed in outside time and about 40 days in inside time…

Heinrich was still running.

***

“Tomorrow.”

“Hehehe… I see. Tomorrow will be the day that I and this continent will be destroyed together. “Pahat!”

In an underground hideout in the southern part of the continent, a large man and a short old man were having a conversation.

“Once you start the ritual, you will no longer be able to avoid the eyes of the church. There is only one chance. “We have to finish everything before they get here.”

“Ah—I know, I know. do not worry. Because you will never fail. “How long have I been waiting for this day?”

The eyes of the old man, who was laughing heartily, were already filled with madness.

The man looked at the old man quietly, then turned his head slightly and a bitter sneer appeared on his lips.

The Archmage, who was once called the best on the continent and was sure to become the next leader after achieving success in the Magic Tower Alliance, would fall like this…

‘Well, it’s a good thing for this side. ‘I guess it doesn’t matter.’

I didn’t care what kind of unfair story he had and how bitter he was, so much so that he tried to destroy the world.

We just give and receive help because our intentions are aligned with each other.

After all, there wasn’t a single sane person among them.

‘Pfft… If you had a normal mind, you wouldn’t have done something like this.’

He took a look at the interior, which was filled with all kinds of bizarre magic, and then turned to the outside.

There was only one day left.

***

A change was sensed in Heinrich, who was just running without paying attention.

‘…is that?’

As my mind slowly returned, I saw the ‘end’ blocking my path on the other side of the endless hallway.

And as he continued to run, he finally came across an ordinary wooden door at the end of the hallway.

“Is this the destination? “How long did it take?”

Since it was a little over four days… in this time, I had been running for well over a month.

‘I’m not in very good shape. Well, I can say that I benefited from the characteristics of this space, but it was a bit too much.’

In fact, the expression was also greatly purified.

If the pain hadn’t been filtered out by “Mind Herb,” I would never have been able to express my impressions so calmly.

The monster-like body strengthened with skills and divine power was damaged to a point where it was tattered, so I could see how much I had overexerted myself.

‘Even with ‘super recovery’ at this level, I think I need a few days of rest to fully recover.’

Although it was impossible to continue the trial, he had some faith in it after receiving a lot of information in advance.

The moment when Heinrich proudly placed his hand on the door of the next gateway.

Hwaaaak—

The surrounding energy was sucked into his body.

Thanks to the power of energy injected from the outside, the body that had been overworked for a month began to recover rapidly.

“Hmm…”

My muscles were constantly writhing and heat was radiating from my entire body.

“Super Recovery,” which was unable to exert its full power due to physical overload, reacted violently by greedily absorbing the surrounding energy.

In addition, “Blessing: Strong Body” was added to reorganize his body to be stronger, tougher, and more durable than before.

“Haa…”

And when the whole process was over, his body was one level more advanced than before he took on the ordeal.

〈The first trial is over. Go to the next step through the gate.〉 The

will came into his head again, but Heinrich was busy quietly contemplating himself and checking his physical condition.

‘…Is this okay?’

Come to think of it, this was the perfect place for training!

A miraculous space where you can focus solely on strengthening yourself without eating or sleeping.

He folded his arms in agony on the spot.

‘The flow of time is different here anyway, so is there a need to immediately move on to the next trial?’

After completing the ordeal, the time limit disappeared, and even just one day of training here had the same effect as ten days outside.

Since the holy sword is not running away, it would be okay for a short period of time.

‘Let’s stay just a little longer and then leave. Okay, just one more day.’

Heinrich, a training addict, turned around and squatted down with his back to the door.

And then he began to quickly run down the hallway in a bunny hop.

It must have been about an hour since we moved like that.

“Whoa… whoo… huh?”

While I was immersed in my training, I noticed that at the end of the direction I was going was the door I had encountered a little while ago.

Crossing the hallway and reaching the door again, Heinrich frowned and looked at the door.

It was definitely the door we faced in the opposite direction.

‘Why is this here?…I think I know something.’

Since it was a place created for trials in the first place, it was not impossible to understand that the space was randomly mixed up.

He frowned slightly and turned back…

“……!”

When I saw the brown door that suddenly appeared in front of me, I was startled and took a step back.

I quickly looked back, but before I knew it, the long hallway was nowhere to be found and the front and back were blocked by the same door.

‘Does this mean we should stop wasting time and quickly move on to the next ordeal?’

Seeing it come this far, I felt like I wouldn’t have time to train any further.

‘There is also a way to do bare-handed exercises in place, but…’

I didn’t want to make the will who was in charge of the ordeal look even more hateful by going that far.

Above all, there was no heavy-duty exercise equipment here that was perfect for him.

Heinrich quenched his appetite with regret, opened the door in front of him, and went inside.

When the bright light that surrounded his whole body disappeared like when he first entered the ordeal…

he was left standing alone in the middle of the huge chapel.