Chapter 123 - The Lava Chain (1)

(Tom's PoV)

It's hot!

It's hot!

It's hot!

My eyes flew opened in shock as I gasped for breath. Sweat was covering my body, drenching my clothes and my bed. Instinctively, I held out my hand and tried to find any sign of burn there.

But, no, my skin was perfectly fine. There was no sign of any burns. As my skin was pale, it only looked flush.

Just after I finally got rid of the knives being thrown at me, I had to face this fire that appeared out of nowhere. Shouldn't the test be over by now? Why would I dream of being burned alive then?

Yes, I had figured out that the whole painful and scary dream of me being stabbed by knives was a test; Soul Endurance test, to be exact. I mean, which soul would not be shaken after experiencing that kind of dream every time?

It took me some time to understand that, but when I finally grasped the way to keep my sanity and to strengthen my mentality, spiritually and naturally, after being tortured by the knives, the test started to get harsher. Every time I closed my eyes to sleep or rest, I would be waken up harshly by knives piercing through my body.

It would be strange if one didn't go insane after having the same and more intense dream every night. But, somehow I got through it.

My last dream about knives was reminding me of an anime where the red hair woman summoned countless of swords in the sky. It happened to me, only the swords changed into knives or daggers in various shapes and sizes. The number of it made me broke in cold sweat. I even had a thought that I would die for real from the pain after being pierced like a hedgehog. I didn't know if I could protect myself from them like my previous dreams before. The number of knives and daggers was obviously ten times the amount of the knives in the previous dream!

Fortunately, I managed to stay alive somehow. I woke up with cold sweat soaking me wet and drenching my bed and I had a hard time to explain to Dr. Gwen about what had happened.

After that, I slept dreamless night. It was almost for a week and I thought I had passed the test. But, who would have thought I would dream about fire?

As I thought so, my ankles were suddenly feeling like it was scalded by hot iron. I hissed in pain and instinctively moved my feet closer to look at my ankles. Thankfully after following some physiology therapy, I could finally move my feet even though it was a bit hard for me to walk fast. But, according Dr. Gwen and the others, my recovery was considered fast, faster than any people they knew. They even called me inhuman with my ability to recover fast.

Actually, I also had no idea why I could recover fast.

I stared at my ankles with wide eyes. When the loli ghost came that day, she mentioned about chains on my feet. After I started my therapy, I had seen it. It did look as black as coal with red streaks on it, like a flow of lava from the eruption of a volcano. But, it looked transparent at that time. Now, it was starting to materialize.

Because of that, I started to feel the scalding hot around my ankles. Redness started to form around my ankles and the chains were starting to emit lava like appearance with fire in some spots.

What the hell?!

Whoever put this chain on me must be some crazy psycho!

My first reaction was angry, of course. At first, I thought as long as the chain didn't harm me, I would let it be. I didn't know where it was from, after all. But, after feeling the scalding sensation which getting harsher and harsher, I had the urge to beat the person who put the chain on me.

I tried to pull the chain but my hands got scalded by the heat, too. Being in pain made me unable to think calmly. Only after seeing the chains turned as red as fire, I gritted my teeth and pulled the chains so hard. I grunted and growled inside as I used all of my energy I could muster to pull whoever and whatever on the other end of the chain.

The heat burned my palms but I held the chain tighter, unwilling to let go. What kind of test was this? Didn't this suppose to be testing my soul? Since when did the test change?

Honestly speaking, using only this kind of brute force would not give me anything other than worsened my scalding skins. But, it must be because Heaven was being good to me that something happened.

Only, instead of pulling anything from the other side of the chain, I ended up being pulled by some stronger force from the other side. I was pulled down from the bed harshly even before I managed to let go my hands from the chains. My eyes widened as I fell then shut tight as I was expecting the pain of hitting the hard floor.

But, instead of hitting the tiles of the hard and cold floor, it seemed like I fell in the water.