The mountain was no longer the mountain participants had entered. The ground rippled as though breathing, drinking and absorbing the lives of the fallen.
Paths formed twisting and changing as one follows it, a huge alter made of human bones appeared at the top of the mountain, as though inviting them up. Streams turned to blood, water droplets flowing like riverlets up the mountain to the altar.
Alistair could only assume it was the blood of the fallen, the unlucky who had been swallowed by the mountain.
During his observation he had learnt of the rules of the lamp.
They fed on fear and greed.
It had a guardian protecting it.
They drift towards blood and massacre. A lamp was the hangbringer of death.
The mist thinkened bringing with it the disgusting smell of rot. Whispers could be heard from all directions, bewitching and grating at the same it. It sank into everything contestants mind increasing their bloodlust.
Shapes moved within the fog, silent hunting contestants one by one Those who fell joined the hunters while the survivors grew stronger with each kill.
The shapes in the fog were Specters born from those who had been unable to reach the summit swallowed by the mountain. Their souls trapped filled with vengeance unable to reincarnate bound by the lamps hunger .
They would move around the mountain like broken wolves aroused by the first lantern searching for an sign of life. They fed on the life essence of the living. The dead would then be bound their memories forgotten following the very same cycle their killers started.
Then Alistair flame flickered they came running. Alistair could see the dark Silvery light that rotated around their near translucent dark bodies.
The first one lunged at him, their long nails stretched, eyeless eyes wide open, jaws stretched too wide. Alistair slashed using the broken rusted blade he had picked up, Left behind by the corpse.
It severed it's head. The small luminous ball floated out.
Ding
( Detected corrupted soul- risk of absorption may lead to insanity)
Alistair still took the soul and stored it in his storage space. He did not have time to explore. More than ten had already lunged at him. The blade glowed golden as it absorbed the creatures remains. He could feel the flames delight .
Alistair kicked one of the specter on it stomach, sending it knocking on the trees. Another one moved holding onto his legs.
Alistair though inexperienced slashed the one nearest to him but failed to notice one that had crept to his blindside.
It slashed towards his face narrowly missing it. Alistair turned to the side to avoid it but the creature still managed to would him on his back. Leaving a long gashing wound across his back.
Alistair did not so much as blink, he turned and slashed the specter's head off. He stabbed the one holding his leg on the head instantly destroying it.
Alistair looked at the nine pulsing dark souls hanging out, the system had been biping with every kill notifying him of the souls. He kept them in his storage space.
This had been an unexpected harvest. He looked at the flame which seemed to have grown stronger with each kill. He guess that the only way to keep the flames from going off was to keep killing.
The blade in his hands vibrated, loosing a piece of it's rust. It drank on the dead's remaining. Growing stronger.
…...N
Alistair looked up at the sky wondering how much time had passed
Then it happened.
A chilling sensation passed through his bones.
This heartbeat stopped for a bit.
The flame in his body trembled as if blown by a strong wind.
He looked east , where ha had been , the place where that boy had died. His instincts screaming at him.
The mist around him thickened almost becoming foggy. The whispers started again more harsh than tempting as though angered by something.
Then from the depths of the mountain a voice came low and deep , vibrating through the marrows if those who heard it.
One has been claimed
The words weren't spoken aloud , they manifested inside their minds .
Blood dripped from Alistair's nose his mortal body unable to withstand the assault. Other contestants screamed while some died from the inability to withstand the voice.
Then came the sign.
The air above the mountain tore open as though it was ripped apart by unseen hands.
From the tear flowed blood , black at first then it gradually turned crimson as it continued pouring out.
Everyone had their hearts in their throats as they looked up at the phenomenal.
The blood didn't touch the ground, it hang mid air . It started to moved as though it was boiling . It formed a giant sigil that was visible to all in the mountain even through the dark fog.
The sigils twisted, reshaping itself into a circle of a hundred lines that looked like burning flames.one of the lines snapped and turned to ash. Disappearing into the fog.
Every survivor understood what it meant instantly, each line breaking meant a flame had gone off. An hour had already passed .when all the lines burnt off it meant the trial has ended and the mountain has had a feast.
This became very real to the survivors. Their survival depended on the flames burning.
Some screamed in terror.
Others laughed,a harsh desperate laugh born from madness.
But in the heart of all a single truth burnt brighter than all.
They were being watched
….
After the omen, the mountain changed.
The air grew heavier with the smell of death.
In a distance the sound of beasts, creatures that should be asleep, rose from the darkness. It was a though the death of one flame had aroused the appetite of the mountain itself.
Alistair felt it, the pull of the lamps grew stronger, more intoxicated. He could feel their rhythm match his pulse calling him forward, up the mountain.
But beneath the pull something colder a voice whispering at under his skin.
Feed us or be fed to us.
It clang like a mantra .
He looked up at the burning sigil one more time, the glowing ash from the destroyed lines still falling into the mist disappearing.
He tightened the grip on his sword a sense of agency emerging.
He looked at the ten dark souls hanging in his storage space and took them out.
( Warning: absorbing corrupted souls will lead to insanity)
The system warned him again . He ignored it.
He threw the souls into his mouth.
A scream tore from his mouth as pain he had never felt before assaulted him. He clamped his teeth as he saw his skin tearing off his body, as though shading. He looked on as his muscles spasmed from the continuous reconstructing . A new skin started to form over his muscles.
Appealing from nowhere his, clothes already fallen off during the first phrase. This pain went on for a while before it ended. Alistair stood there naked looking at his body.
His muscles had become firmer his body toned but not bulky .
Ding
( Complete the first merging with corrupted souls reward spare clothes ,200 hundred spirit stones , food tablets and 5% increase in cultivation speed)
He took the clothes and put them on , it was black trousers and white t shirt just like the ones the wore previously.
He could not use the spirit stones since he didn't have a dantian yet. He took a food tablet and ate it, it made him instantly full.
Alistair looked up again then moved forward into the mist.
...…
In the hour that had passed , survivors were no longer as naïve . They had all turned into predators, hunters drawn by blood and the lamps.
Groups began to form , each one of them convinced their methods would work the best for survival. Some stood out from the rest.
A group the iron brothers formed even before the trial. A group five men raised from the same orphanage, bound by blood vows and crudely done tattoos.
They moved as a pack. To them killing meant the the survival of all of them. Killing meant for them to reduce their competition, or so they claimed . They were just a group of like minded psychopaths.
By the first hour, they had killed ten contestants. Strangled and hung their bodies on different tries , an offering to the lamps.
The second infamous group was the silent killers. A group of children from hidden aristocrat families. Trained from childhood on the art of killing. They were only fifteen in numbers. Hunted contestants like a pack of wolves.
They coated the tongues of contestants with poison to silence their screams and tore their bodies to pieces . They seemed to find joy in torture.
The third group was the first group. A group of six body builders banded together. They were infamous for breaking the spines of the contestants leaving them to be killed by the specter's .
The last most infamous group was ash group. It had only two people. Cristina and Edward. They were famous for not loosing a fight and extremely cruel to those who attacked them. Most had no body intact.
Each group had heard the call of the first lamp and headed searching for Alistair whose flames burnt first.
....
Alistair could feel them drawing closer. His new senses a gift from the lantern fell their presence in the air through the mist. The mountain itself fed him visions, shadows running, hearts beating , blades glinting from the fog. He would hear screams of help on occasion.
He had walked for more than less than thirty minutes , when he came across a narrow gorge where rocks rose like teeth. The air was thick with the smell of rot and rusted iron.
He crouched down beside a pool of black water and looked at his reflection. He was surprised by the changes that had occurred . His red eyes seemed to be glowing, with black veins crisscrossed around his eyes for a moment. His hair had turned a shade of white on five strands . Distributed around his head . For a moment he didn't recognized himself.
Then the sound came footsteps though light he could still sense them.
Too light to be beasts and too confident for those running away.
He concealed the flame with a though, something he discovered accidentally. The surrounding became dark.
Only his heartbeat remained.