Tyranny of Steel

Berengar stood in the chamber of the next trial. He stared in disbelief at what he was seeing. In the dimly lit corridor was a bridge. However, the middle section was broken, leaving a giant gap between the two sides.

Within this gap was a darkness. However, it was not like the dark miasma which sought to consume him upon entering the tomb, instead; it was filled with starlight. As if the cosmos themselves would devour him should he fail to pass the obstacle.

Berengar gazed upon his surroundings, looking for some way to pass through the gap. However, the more he inspected the bridge, the more he knew it was a physical impossibility for him to jump over the gap. Nor were there any other obstacles or resources for him to utilize so that he reach the other side.

The voice of Anubis cackled in the distance, as the god of death watched the man attempt to overcome the obstacle.

"Go ahead and silently observe your surroundings. You have all the time in the universe. Either way, you will never guess the answer to this bridge. As Berengar inspected the broken path, he quickly noticed a discernable pattern in the stars.

As if they were foreign constellations, unobservable from Earth. Upon closer inspection of these constellations, Berengar realized one of them was within leaping distance. He took a deep breath before silently muttering his thoughts.

"You only live once..."

After saying this, he jumped towards the first constellation, narrowly missing it with his feet. As he almost fell into the dark abyss of the cosmos, he reached up and grabbed onto the edge of the constellation, which quickly turned into a glowing platform.

Despite the tens of pounds of equipment on his body, Berengar used all the strength in his body to pull himself up on top of the illuminated platform. Where he heard the voice of Anubis call out to him once more.

"Well well.. consider me impressed. I did not think Odin's champion would know the ancient constellations of my people."

Berengar merely smirked before jumping about five feet into the air and grabbing onto the next constellation, which turned into a monkey bar, rather than a platform. As he gripped onto the glowing bar, he began to swing in circles like a gymnast, gaining enough force to launch himself onto the next constellation.

The constellation turned onto another platform. However; it did not give him much time to think as it quickly began to fade away beneath his feet. Berengar had played enough platformer video games in his past life to know that this constellation beneath his feet was one of the three second platforms, and thus he quickly jumped into the air once more, and landed on a constellation that was moving horizontally across the section of the bridge's gap.

From here, it was a matter of waiting until the constellation lined up with the other side of the bridge, which he timed perfectly before stepping onto the sandstone flooring with a confident smirk on his face.

"Is that all you've got?"

Berengar could hear the bestial snarls of the jackal headed god as he forcibly opened the doorway to the chamber of the next trial. This only caused the Kaiser to laugh as he proceeded down the path and into a large clearing.

If the first trial was one that judged his character, and the second trial was one that judged both his agility and perception, then the third trial was a judgement of his intellect. Lying in a small room between Berengar and the next entrance was a living Sphinx.

The creature had the face and upper body of a woman, the lower body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. It gazed at the Emperor of Germany curiously before communicating telepathically with the man.

"It has been over four millennia since I have last had a proper meal. However, I am bound by the rules of the gods, and can only eat the flesh from your bones if you fail my riddle. Answer it correctly, and I will allow you to safely pass to the next trial."

Berengar could only smile and nod his head in agreement with these questions. In his past life, he had commonly posed and answered riddles with Mizuno Ai as a way to compete against one another at lunch. He was already accustomed to the majority of difficult riddles, and knew their answers by heart. Thus, he fiercely gazed upon the sphinx before giving her an answer.

"Go ahead and ask your riddle. I am not afraid..."

In response to this, the Sphinx's expression fouled, and it raised to its feet, before approaching Berengar and sniffing him. She could immediately tell there was a supernatural presence around his body, and thus greatly desired to dine upon his flesh. After thinking about it for some time, she posed the question to him.

"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?"

Berengar thought about the riddle for the briefest of seconds before answering the Sphinx with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"An Echo..."

The creature's expression immediately became grave. It was Furious that the man had solved its riddle without even thinking about it. The fierce beast was about to bite Berengar's head off when the familiar voice belonging to the god of death called out to it.

"That is enough, Shani. He has solved your riddle. Let him pass!"

The Sphinx could only cower under the might of Anubis, and quickly allowed Berengar to pass through its chamber and into the final trial. Upon gaining entry into the next room, Berengar gazed around him with a sense of wonder. The final trial was held within a large treasury, filled to the brim with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and any number of luxuries from the ancient world.

Despite the temptation, Berengar did not grasp hold of a single object, and instead made his way to the center of the vault, where a small golden chest lay in the center. Berengar closely inspected the container and noticed that there was no latch to open it, only a spherical slot designed to contain something. Though he did not know what. Before he could ascertain what would open it, the familiar voice of Anubis called out to him.

"You have passed the Trial of Judgement, the Trial of Perception, and the Trial of Logic. Now all that remains is the trial of Sacrifice. To gain the power of the eye of Horus, one must first blind themselves by carving out one of their eyes and placing it within the designated slot. Only then will the chest open to reveal your prize. So tell me Champion of Odin, do you have the determination it takes to gain that which you seek?"

Berengar immediately noticed two objects near the chest. One was a small dagger with a golden hilt, and the other was a hand mirror. Upon realizing what these things were for, he broke out into a fit of laughter. This deeply confused the God of death, who immediately asked why the man was laughing.

"What is so funny? Do you not know the severity of this trial? One wrong move, and you will end your life with your own hand!"

Upon hearing this, Berengar finally calmed down before asking a question of his own.

"Tell me this Anubis, if I were to replace my missing eye with the eye of Horus, would I regain the ability to see?"

This question confused Anubis, who did not even think why such a thing would matter compared to the power that was gained from the divine artifact. He simply responded in a natural tone to the Kaiser's question.

"Of course! Though you will gain a very powerful ability on top of that!"

Berengar unfastened his belt and placed it into his mouth as he gritted his teeth, while bracing for the upcoming pain. Without a second of hesitation he unsheathed the nearby dagger without, and began to dig the blade into his right eye socket, slowly, but precisely carving out his already blinded eye, that he had lost the use of in a battle with his brother over a decade ago.

It was an incredibly painful process, and Berengar thought more than once that he would black out, but in the end, he perfectly severed his eye from its socket. Where he carefully placed it into the lock of the golden chest, which caused the container began to glow.

Even Anubis was amazed at how recklessly Berengar had completed the trial and called out to him with a hint of surprise in his voice, trying to understand the madness that compelled Berengar to take such a dangerous action.

"Without a second thought, you would carve out your own eye in pursuit of power? Perhaps you are truly worthy of this divine artifact, after all.

Berengar stood over the glowing chest, which grew brighter with each second that passed before mocking the god of death for his ignorance.

"I did not hesitate because I have had to endure blindness in my right eye for the last ten years. The simple fact that this divine artifact will allow me to recover my sense of sight is enough for me to maim myself!"

Blood poured from Berengar's empty eye socket as the chest burst open to reveal a small crystal sphere whose color was gold. This sphere was the size of a human eye, and Berengar could tell with a single glance that it was inspecting him. Without any further hesitation, Berengar reached into the container and pulled out the golden sphere before placing it into his mutilated eye socket.

The moment he did so, he felt a searing pain, as if the eye of Horus was burning his brain with its divine light. Berengar struggled to contain the urge to scream as the holy artifact fused with flesh, before forming into a proper eye.

Once the pain had subsided, Berengar fell to his knees in exhaustion. It took him a few moments to recover from the physical and mental anguish he had just endured. However, immediately upon opening his eyes, he could see that his vision had returned to him.

Berengar immediately grabbed hold of the nearby mirror and gazed upon his own reflection. The Kaiser noticed that his right eye looked like any other human eye except for that fact that it had a golden iris, and that the scar from his previous battle remained upon his eyelids.

Berengar gazed over towards Anubis, about to ask the man just what had happened, when he saw that there was a golden aura around the god of death, as well as a smirk on his face. The confusion on the Kaiser's face gave away his thoughts, causing the jackal to laugh at him for his ignorance.

"What you are currently seeing is my divine aura. The more radiant a deity's aura, the more powerful they are. It works on humans as well. The color of a human's aura depends on their feelings towards you.

Thus, you will always be able to tell how someone really feels towards you despite what they might say. A word of caution: if you ever see a black aura, you should run. It symbolizes murderous intent."

Anubis spent the next thirty minutes explaining to Berengar the properties of the Eye of Horus. Afterward, he would live up to his promise to answer Berengar's questions revolving the gods of this world, and their supernatural abilities.