the despairing trial.

(I am gonna begin referring to pather in 3rd person pov.)

Slowly walking through the chamber hall, zephyrix arrives near the orb, He extends his hand and touches it before the orb begins flickering like a overloaded bulb. The orb dispersed in a dazzling light.

The entire hall changed. where once were stone walls with plants growing in the cracks are now murals of a war between multiple races, the floor has become marble and looks like a chessboard, in front of zephyrix where once was a floating orb now stands a giant with one eye 'a cyclops' with it's arms being cuffed and attached to broken chains, it is grey skinned just like zephyrix's hair with a small rhino like horn on its forehead.

Cyclops: FINALLY *takes a deep breath* A challenger in this cursed hall.

Zephyrix retreats backwards raises his spikes to fight.

Pather: Calm down kiddo. He has no hostile thoughts through he is quite amused at your vigilance.

Zephyrix: *reassured by my words* Who are You?

Tails: I am talis... the fragment born from the soul of talisran the great collector.

Zephyrix: *confused* Collector of what?

Talis: Aspects of faith. Throughout my life when I was alive,*raises his hands, arms spread wide and palms towards the sky* I was a harbringer of god of trades, walking through the lands i traded everything. Completing wishes in return for their blessings. Nothing i didn't do, from saving people to killing them, creating cities and artifacts to destroying bloodlines and legacies. I took all I could and turned them into faith. Now I have enough faith to do something even the high angels won't but are you worthy of it?

Zephyrix: *smirks* Tell me your trial, the great collector.

Talis: Pride and ambition despite your weakness.. I like it... You will have to fight, choose your opponent and i-

Zephyrix: Tell me the highest difficulty.

Talis: Amusing hahahaha. Then so be it, the highest level will have you fight something almost impossible to win against with your strength but the rewards will be worth the risk. *Jumps and a lands on a raised platform* Win and you can choose your blessing, even the blessings from the gods themselves, you can choose to be either an angel or a devil.

Pather: Now this is good plot. What will be your choice brat.

Zephyrix: hahaha, if I am gonna risk it let's risk it all....tell me collector can I challenge even beyond unbelievable?

Talis: Hoo? Now that's a spirit worth investing in. *Sits down* To have the will to go against almost non-existent odds. I have one difficulty. Beyond unbelievable, almost despairing.

Talis claps his hands and two giant beings blur into existence beside talis. A red fiery tiger with a burning male and obsidian black claws and three tails with a giant horn and a white fox with a halo on its head, blue fire coming of its mouth and having five white tails.

Talis: Fight them both,I have lowered their speed to make it so you don't die instantly. Take a weapon of your choice and it will be unbreakable during the fight, win and you can become a hybrid of your choice, My whole treasury of faith and aspects will be yours to choose from. I bet myself on you boy, show me your worthiness. Come in the circle when you're ready.

A circle appears between zephyrix and talis.

Pather: You are either the most idiotic person or the smartest one. I give my support brat, win and give me a story worth writing.

Zephyrix stretchs his body and slowly walks towards the circle, a inferno burning in his heart.

Zephyrix: A chain.. give me a unbreakable chain.

A black chain, 4 meters tall, falls in front of zephyrix. He picks it up and begins binding it around his right hand.

Zephyrix stands in the circle his eyes determined and his face excited.

Talis: Let it begin.

The beasts charge at zephyrix who runs towards them, the lion makes a sweep with its claws while the fox spews fire.

Zephyrix ducks under the claw before jumping back, pather's words still ringing in his head.

Pather: those beasts have no mental connection, they have a motive to kill you and they will do anything for it.

The flamethrower from fox burns away at the lion's paws as zephyrix hides behind them. He runs towards the fox from the side, the fox goes in for a bite but zephyrix slides underneath it barely dodging by a hair's width. The lion follows up ramming into the fox before knocking it to side with a smack, claw marks appear on the tox's face.

The lion carries on with its chase, it lunges at zephyrix who jump at a wall and using it as foothold kicked himself above the lion. The lion hits the chamber wall, it's horn piercing it. Zephyrix lands on the lion and as it was pulling out it's horn, he stabbed the gem claws straight into it's eyes.

Zephyrix: No matter the being, unprotected eyes are a weakness.

The lion roars in pain before sweeping over it with its burned claw. zephyrix jumps to the side, a blue ball of fire hits the lion as he jumps away. The lion's fury reaches its limit, it's body begins burning like flames themselves.

Talis: either that was lucky or pure intelligence, he is avoiding at the right timing and using their strength against each other.

The fox again charges another fire blast, zephyrix runs towards it with full strength, the chain dragging behind him.

Pather: It's a fient, it's gonna attack with its claws.

Zephyrix inwardly nods before coming at a sudden stop, the claw passes in front of him. He lunges and binds the fox's mouth shut. The fire gathered explodes in the mouth and the fox gets momentarily stunned.

Pather: the lion is charging.

Zephyrix raises his head to see the lion charging blindly towards the sound of chains.

Zephyrix: OVER HERE YOU CAT.

The lion charges and hits the stunned fox, the horn impaling it's head but zephyrix underestimated the strength, the mere shockwave sends him flying to the other side of the hall before crashing in the wall.

The lion pulls the horn out of the dead fox and tries hearing for it's target.

Zephyrix endures the pain and stops himself from groaning or coughing. He silently drags his body up as he stares at the lion.

Pather: It is injured and blind but we no longer have anyway to harm it. I have a plan but it is risky.

Zephyrix:'then spit it out already'

Pather tells his plan while zephyrix nods,Talis looks at the boy and is amazed.

Talis: The number of possible actions are near endless and he only choice the correct options. Amusing, How very amusing.

Zephyrix: COME AT ME YOU BASTARD

Zephyrix runs towards the lion, the lion also begins charging over, it's body glowing in fire. Zephyrix sidesteps leaps to the side before leaping again back towards where he took the first leap from.

The lion targets where he landed during the first leap and misses, while zephyrix continues running, he turns towards Tails's extended platform the lion right behind him.

Talis: Is he gonna do that? Quite a inspiring thinking.

Zephyrix arrives at the lifted platform, leaps and uses it as foot hold, the lion crashes but it's horn unable to break through the unbreakable pillar. The horns bends and breaks halfway. Zephyrix grabs the horn ,twists it midair,aims it towards the blinding eye sockets.

Zephyrix: I used to practice kicking rocks to train my legs, HAVE A TASTE OF IT.

Zephyrix stabs the broken horn in the eye and using the platform as a support, kicks the horn inside the lion's soft brain. The lion's body begins overheating before zephyrix gets blasted away in a explosion. He rolls on the ground multiple times before sliding and finally comes to a stop. He raises his head slowly to look at the bits of flesh of lion before it begins fading away like it came.

Talis: Marvelous. *Leaps off the platform and begins walking towards zephyrix* Even I don't remember seeing a unfavoured like you during my lifetime. Brave and reckless but smart and calculative. *Crouches down in front of the boy* What would you have done if the pillar was not unbreakable boy?

The cyclops raises his hand and uses it's power to heal zephyrix to a somewhat better state.

Zephyrix: I would have grabbed it's horn and used my leg coughs blood to push the claw deeper in its head.

Talis: Do it was indeed not just luck. You win boy *claps*.

The entire hall changed again, now zephyrix is standing in a circular room, the room looks like a warning cresent moon and has bunch of orbs placed on pedestals with a description underneath. A part of room is broken and some water is constantly falling down into it.