Who you are

Tristan gazed at the eye which looked back at him. The eye squinted, and Tristan was once again in a new world. This time, he was in the sky. He looked down and saw clouds below him.

As he continued to drift in the air, he felt free and powerful. He heard a loud roar. The roar shattered the void and a huge shadow covered Tristan's line of sight.

Tristan then saw what it was that was approaching him. It was a huge flying reptilian beast with powerful muscles, grey scales and smoke coming out of its nostrils. Its eyes, Tristan realized, were similar to the eyes which was putting him through the various illusions. Dragon! This was the word which emerged in Tristan's mind.

Then Tristan also realized that he was not weak either. He turned in the air and collided with that Dragon. Anger coursed through his veins as he looked on ferociously at the incoming enemy. The two collided and suddenly began using extremely powerful magic to hit each other. However, Tristan stopped again. He wanted to be powerful like this, but this was still not him.

The image shattered and he was back in front of the eye. "Are you a dragon?" Tristan asked it, but all he got was a snort. The snort was enough to blast him away and he felt like his soul would leave his body.

Then a voice spoke within Tristan's mind. "Why did you attempt this trial?"

'What do you mean?" Tristan thought in response. "I thought this trial was an opportunity."

"Opportunity it might be for others. But not for you. This trial allows younglings like you to find the beast closest to them and obtain their instinct. You reject every beast, this trial is not for you."

Then the eye blinked again. This time when the eyelid opened, Tristan saw that it was a different eye. The pupil had red concentric circles and a hypnotic look.

Then a voice sounded in Tristan's head. "Who are you?"

Tristan suddenly found himself falling. During his fall he saw thousands of animals surround him, but none of them connected with him. Tristan fell faster and faster, and he couldn't stop his downward descent.

Many beasts looked towards him, but there were none that could reach him. Once again, the voice boomed in his mind. "Who are you?"

He suddenly saw himself falling into an inky black well. The darkness began engulfing his body and the world around him became darker and darker. As Tristan fell deeper and deeper into the well, he felt more and more hopeless.

"Who am I?" He wondered. "Am I not real? What does it mean... to be me?"

When he eye saw that Tristan fell deep into the well and disappeared, the eye also had a tinge of surprise and disappointment. "Strong mentality, but such a strong sense of identity that he cannot integrate a Beast Instinct." Once again, a voice boomed in the air.

"Who are you?"

Then the eye noticed a twinkle within the well, infinitely far away. An extremely faint voice could be heard from the depths of the well.

"Who am I? A beast doesn't define me."

"I am the person of the past with simple dreams of wanting stability." Tristan's voice continued to echo. "I am the person of the present who goes through all lengths to become stronger."

"I will be the person of the future, who only wants a peaceful life of security." Tristan's voice roared and reverberated through the inky black well.

The eye squinted and its pupil dilated. "I am the me of the past, I am the me of the present and I will be the me of the future. I am not a beast. I am me."

Slowly the eye noticed a hand come out of the inky black pool. The hand was dyed a terrifying black, but the hand pulled on the sides of the well and Tristan's completely drenched in the inky black climbed out of the well.

At that moment, an object suddenly appeared from Tristan's storage and its appearance shattered the illusion, leaving Tristan inside the cave he had entered. Beside him other individuals were also standing, but they were in a daze.

Tristan looked at the object that had suddenly appeared in front of his eyes, involuntarily being pulled out of the storage. It was a metallic ball that was rotating at high speed, and from within an ethereal fluid was pulsating purple. Tristan recollected this item which he had put on the back of his mind long after he had received it from Forever Shadow, the mysterious individual in the government.

[Destiny's Truth]

[I am the past, I am the future, I am the present. My name is Destiny]

The metal ball rotated at an incredulous speed, and from its center a purple laser like ray pierced Tristan's chest and landed on his Plate.

The purple laser, on hitting the plate, turned into a purple ink that slowly diffused over the black gold plate, slowly being absorbed like a sponge.

Tristan felt like a powerful energy swirled within his body, before mixing with his blood and subsiding. Tristan felt a host of alerts from the system.

[Absorbing Traces of Destinity's Truth]

[Progress +30%]

The object that had suddenly appeared from the storage had once again become dormant amd returned to where it was once stored.

Tristan looked around in shock. He realized that his primary evolution progress had jumped to 50%. But what really flabbergasted him was something else.

He had hundreds of questions in his mind. "Why could he suddenly absorb some energy that belonged to destiny? His final realization during the Beast Illusion Array trial was somewhat similar to the description of the Destiny's Truth." Tristan thought with intense bafflement.

Tristan wondered if he was somehow related to destiny? Why had Forever Shadow given him this object and what was it doing with Forever Shadow? Tristan felt like he had some talking to do with Forever Shadow in the future.