Everything was surrounded by darkness, there was literally nothing to gaze at. Azazel knew that the Phoenix was about to appear soon, and he was right.
Almost instantly after, two lines of golden splendor slowly opened within the grace of the darkness, revealing narrowed eyes that glowed with a luminous light within this darkness infused space. Those eyes belonged to the Phoenix.
"Greetings, human. You are the first challenger without the phoenix bloodline to attempt this trial in these past thousand years."
The dignified voice of the Phoenix echoed within his subconscious, its voice revealing its gender as a female.
"Oh? glad to know. I do wish to commence the trial now." Azazel responded with a smile, clearly not fazed by the presence of the spirit, nor ignorant on its circumstances to warrant the need to ask questions.
The phoenix's eyes narrowed slightly. It was not within its expectations to see a human not at all awed by its presence. Generally speaking, all humans who have entered this space asked a bunch of questions in order to satiate their curiosity. This little boy was an outlier to all of this.
"As the first person to attempt this trial for the past thousand years, I do wish that you will break this drought and inherit the Phoenix's power. Now then, are you ready?"
"I suppose." Azazel closed his eyes, calming his nerves.
"Very good, the trial has three stages in total, respectively: First stage: Purgatory Flame Demon; second stage: Arrows of the Phoenix; third stage: Corruption of the Heart's Flame. If you wish to forfeit during the trial, you may shout out at any time and I'll immediately let you leave the trial grounds. You may die if you forcibly endure the trial so do place value in your life. with that, I wish you the best."
As the voice of the Phoenix faded, its golden eyes similarly disappeared within the grace of the darkness.
Within the time frame of about 5 seconds, everything cleared up, revealing the outline of where exactly the Phoenix trial is taking place.
It looked like everything was covered with red undertones. The uneven and seemingly scared ground had jagged ends that flickered with flames. The mountains that shot up to the skies were similarly covered with a fiery red, which could only symbolize the presence of heat. Stalks of ember were distributed across every direction on the fire-red colored ground. Some of the embers were only a few inches tall, while some had even shot up for over ten meters in height.
To his left and to his left, 2 pools of molten lava flowed and bubbled like boiling water, further increasing the temperature of the already scorching air.
Interestingly enough, however, the apparent temperature could do little to harm him, and this was not due to integrating the flaming evil god seed, but it was because of his innate mastery of profound energy that deterred the heat from harming his body.
The sounds of churning magma beside him, to his knowledge, was the presence of the purgatory demon. It was about to make its appearance soon, it was best to wait until then.
Azazel, currently, was floating in the skies, his feet not within proximity of the magma coated floor. Again, the ability to manipulate profound energy was a heaven-defying ability in itself, he truly had to give it up to chief and his harsh yet clearly effective teaching methods.
The sound from the magma pool to his left intensified, the cracks on the ground became ever apparent. The flowing lava exploded into the air in one motion, prompting the appearance of the fierce looking monster that hid within the shadows of the magma.
Before his very eyes stood a monster that was 30 feet, possessed a tough looking body that seemed to be carved from the pits of hell themselves. 2 savage looking eyes were planted on either side of its head, and two 10 feet horns made entirely of flames was stationed atop its fiery red forehead.
Azazel narrowed his eyes, the information apparent within the novel resurfacing within his brain once more. This giant had a cultivation at the true profound realm, yet the fire surrounding this place allowed it to dab into the strength of one who was at the spirit profound realm. Not to mention the fact that it could regenerate as well. Truly a tough opponent.
Azazel smiled to himself, it seems like he will have to enter that battle state in order to gain the edge. Not that it is truly required, however, he did not plan on using the powers of the flaming evil god seed, he wanted to test the might of his energy control combined with the needles against this monster.
The air around the boy's body churned as he closed his eyes. A luminous, scarlet needle drawing appeared on his forehead in an instantaneous fashion, making him look all the more devilish. When he opened his eyes again, it was as if he was a changed person. Incomparably calm and decisive.
The purgatory demon roared while the Flames responded to his commend, 10 fireballs made from god knows where surrounded its body, flying in a singular direction towards the little boy in the air.
Azazel merely looked at the monster with a judging glare, his eyes never showing even a flicker of emotion.
It was not until the fireballs were within proximity, literally a hair breath away from striking him, did they explode to cover the radius of about 10 feet, scorching the air even more.
The monster's posture relaxed after witnessing what looked like a direct collision between its attack and the enemy. It was about to dive back into the pool of lava until it heard a frighteningly calm voice from behind its back.
"is that all?"
The explosion died down, exposing Azazel's frame which was still in the same spot, having not moved even a single meter in any direction. A scarlet, physical energy that was almost liquidy covered his body, only exposing his deadpan face.
The monster roared in anger, its eyes glowing a dark shade of red. It looked intimidating for sure, however, it was wishful thinking to believe that this was enough to scare the otherworldly youth floating in midair.
Azazel shook his head, clearly looking disappointed as he realized that he has overestimated the enemy way too much. This was not even a battle for god sake.
His hand glowed with a fiery scarlet light, the docile energy wrapping around his palm and increasing his attack power by an exponential degree.
Azazel released a breath of air, its over.
The monster did not even see him move for he turned into a scarlet blur as he flew forward, energy coated hand forward in a stabbing motion. The penetration power from his attack proved to be too much for the beast to handle, Azazel literally pierced through the purgatory demon's body, creating a hole wide enough for his whole body to fly through. It did not end there however. With his back now facing the monster, the boy simply pointed his thumb backward, energy concentrating at the tip of his nails as a beam of scarlet light flew from its socket with unmeasurable velocity, turning the purgatory demon into ashes. It simply did not have the time to regenerate. The attacks came in succession. Credit goes to the beast if it even knew what happened.
And at this time, the scenery before him suddenly distorted. In the midst of the distortion, it spun in a blur. Upon everything coming to a full stop, the volcanoes, molten lava, and fiery red ground vanished. What replaced it was a field filled with nothingness, a vast array of land that was extremely flat. There was not a single sign of unevenness on the ground.
"Second stage of the trial: Arrows of the Phoenix."
The second trial of the Phoenix huh. Azazel indifferently looked at the skies, and there were the incoming red dots that colored the originally black skies with a tinge of red. A cry of a phoenix could be heard reverberating around the area, scorching the air and inducing the ground to tremble slightly.
The silhouette of a phoenix could be seen approaching his precise location, generating momentum along the way.
Azazel extended an energy coated hand forward, calmly waiting for its arrival.
The Phoenix did not brace its descent as it harshly collided with the boy's little body, intending on penetrating him completely.
However, the second its mouth touched Azazel's outstretched palm, the phoenix's movements came into a complete halt, no matter how hard it tried it simply could not move forward at all.
Azazel narrowed his eyes as his hand glowed with a scarlet splendor, prompting the release of a powerful energy blast that enveloped the entirety of the phoenix's body, effectively effacing its existence from this space.....
This was pure power, and it was his. There was nothing to fear, absolutely nothing.
He did not even bat an eye after the immediate arrival of more phoenixes, 100 in total. Their figures littered the skies and shrouded it completely. It was a ridiculous amount, much much greater than the number of phoenixes that spawned during Yun che's trial. It was a testament to his power, which was at an obviously greater league than the previous main character.
The cries of the phoenix overlapped with each other, brimming with enough power to pierce themselves. Each individual phoenix released some form of fire spell, whether in the form of arrows, Humongous balls of flames to similarly huge spears of fire.
Azazel, surprisingly, was still unfazed.
He clasped his two hands together to formulate a handsign of some sort, causing the instant appearance of a large wall of scarlet energy that shrouded his small body completely. It was game on. Will the power of the congregated force from the phoenixes win or will his individual shield of defense prevail?
Flames burned the skies, scorched the air, and collided heavily with the seemingly pitiful scarlet wall of energy hindering its path.
In this sea of red, continuous explosions could be heard. Countless screeches that could probably rupture the eardrums of the average man plagued the area.
Everything calmed down after about 2 minutes of continuous bombardment, and the outcome of the collision of forces was revealed.
The phoenixes were gone, and the scarlet wall of energy was broken as well, revealing the faint outline of a little boy... who, from the looks of it, was completely unfazed.
Azazel dusted himself off, looking extremely nonchalant as if the battle from before was merely a run to the park.
The second trial of the Phoenix was over.
The scene from before his eyes changed again, this time looking extremely obscure and subtle.
"now that was a surprise. To actually made it this far in such a short period of time, and most of all you did not even sustain any injuries..." a pair of golden eyes materialized as the voice of the Phoenix resounded within his mind.
Azazel closed his and responded indifferently. " I was lucky."
.....