Vampire's Slice of Life



Click!

A door opened below the six people's feet, dropping them all down.

The six went through a dark tunnel and eventually found themselves in a dark ancient hall, in the positions they were previously standing in the grand hall above.

In front of the six lay crystal balls on a raised platform and in the middle of the hall were highly tangled chains. 

There lay magic inscriptions on the ground below each person that went towards the chains and connected the platforms where the magic crystals lay.

Mr. Carrot was back in the next instant and nibbling on some carrots, he said, "these chains are of the divine. If you manage to untangle it, your providence will be boosted and an ancient spirit living inside this will be yours."

"However…" Mr. Carrot smiled evilly. "If you fail to untangle, you'll be absorbed within the providence, never to reincarnate, never to live. Kekeke, good luck. All you have to do is use your mastery in elemental energies while working in unison."

"In front of the six of you is a crystal ball where you have to channel everything you know about the two elements assigned to you."

Mr. Carrot didn't say anything else and disappeared, leaving the six confused and flabbergasted.

Lith, for the first time, had a thought: 'Is my life at risk now?'

He had never been in a life threatening situation before and this seemed to be the first.

This time, things depended not only on him, but the other five in this room as well. If they messed up, Lith was sure to die.

This task here was all or none types — either all of you will pass or all of you will die.

Lith had full faith in himself, but he didn't have faith in others. He didn't know whether they'll be able to perform properly or not.

Just like what was going in his mind, the same were the thoughts running inside the rest of the people.

Sebastian looked at everyone and then diverted his attention back to the crystal ball. 

Everyone else did the same too.

Nobody in here were rookies or beginners. They were the best of the best in the entire universe.

They believed in talking less and doing more.

What ran inside Sebastian and everyone else's mind after looking at each other was:

'I am gonna do my best, everything else is totally on luck.'

They believed in luck more than they believed in the others.

It was simple; if their destiny was to die here, they would. If it wasn't, they wouldn't. 

They didn't focus on what wasn't in their hands, rather, what was in their control and worked on it.

Lith touched the crystal ball and felt the small energies inside it.

From the looks of it, there was Light and Dark in there, two opposing elements.

Dark wasn't an issue since his proficiency in it was considerably high. Light, however, was.

Lith hadn't gotten much time after waking up to cultivate his Light element and increase its proficiency. Whatever he knew right now were things he had learnt before he went to sleep.

Although he didn't have a mastery in the element, his understanding of it was far greater than anyone in the same Saint Rank realm.

Taking a deep breath, Lith focused on the elements in the crystal ball.

He peered into the ball while injecting it with some elemental energy, but his energies repelled back, making him understand that he could only work with what was inside the ball.

It was kind of like bending what little amount of energy was inside the crystal and not bring any external ones.

Lith had to establish a connection with the two elements inside and that was the biggest hurdle. 

He felt it was close yet so far away at the same time.

The situation was tricky but he tried his best.

The rest of the five had a difficult time as well. 

Everyone was given something that gave them a tough time. 

Despite that, none of them showed any fluctuating emotions on their faces and kept a calm and neutral look. Even the cheerful one, Tsuki, was quiet and working.

The air of tension breezed in this dark hall with no signs of the chains loosening up whatsoever.

The six were sweating and having a hard time just trying to establish a connection, however, since everyone was in the same condition, things were fine for now.

As long as the six didn't break the rhythm and were in sync, they would be fine.

Half a day passed with the six struggling.

Lith successfully established a connection with the two strands of Light and Dark in the crystal, gaining the ability to move them slightly.

The runes on the ground glowed golden and black as Lith was successful.

The other five were surprised by this, but eventually got motivated to work harder as they realized at least someone among them was slightly reliable.

Time continued to pass and one by one, the runes on the ground glowed with the colors of their respective elemental energies.

The dark hall was getting brighter as the six formed a proper connection with the elements.

Once everyone could control the two strands of elements in their respective crystals, they tried mending them in ways that would make the chains in the middle show some movement.

Lith tried to coil the Light and the Dark strand together. It was difficult as they both opposed each other, but once a braid started appearing, he could hear some clanks from the chains, getting a signal that what he was doing was indeed working.

Lith channelled all his knowledge of Light into that one strand and tried to cast spells with its help. 

The first spell Lith cast was something related to creating a trap.

In this trap, Lith made the Dark element dissolve.

It was unsuccessful and Lith felt his connection weaken with the two strands.

The glow of the runes below shunned and Lith faced a backlash.

The Light and the Dark elemental energies within his body started wreaking havoc and hurt him.

Lith faced pressure from both sides, the weaking connection and the chaotic energies within him.

Any mishap on any end would result in him as well as the rest of the five dying completely in this place.

A drop of sweat trickled down Lith's face as the moment he was in turned heated.

Among the rest, except Iki, Ariel, and Anne, Sebastian and Tsuki were having as much of a hard time as Lith.

Around Tsuki, there were chaotic winds and lightning while around Sebastian, void cracks had appeared that were not only pulling him inside, but spouting out cold storms that gave him a frost bite in many different regions of his body.

It was evident that things were becoming a mess.

"Focus on the flow of Water and let the Space expand."

Iki, the quiet samurai guy, finally said something. 

His eyes were closed and his focus was completely on the crystal in front of him. Yet, his words reached the person he was saying it to.

Sebastian took a deep breath and said, "thanks, mate."

He focused on the advice and got to doing his thing.

In a matter of few seconds, the storms started disappearing and the cracks in space were filling up.

Although Sebastian's body wasn't healing, he was getting the situation under control.

"Let the Light be your guide and pave a path in the everlasting darkness." Ariel, the quiet one like Iki, spoke.

Lith was taken aback for a second as he didn't expect someone to help him, but eventually started heeding her advice because why not?

"Light and Dark aren't unrelated. They're the two sides of the same coin." Ariel said calmly once again.

Lith suddenly had an epiphany as he heard that and the once weak connection successfully became strong again.

Lith gripped the two elemental strands and instead of braiding them together, he wove them in a mesh-like structure and created a sphere, wherein he trapped the remaining energies of the two elements.

KLLINGGGGG!

The chains clinked together loudly and untangled slightly, creating the most movement till now.

Ariel flashed a small smile while the rest heaved a sigh of relief.

Lith got himself some room to breathe and fixed the energies wrecking havoc within his body.

Eventually, looking at Tsuki struggle with Lightning and Wind, he adviced,

"There's no storm without a loud thunder, and there's no chaos… without a great storm."

The rest had no idea what the hell Lith just said, but the runes below Tsuki shined a bright purple and green, making them understand that whatever Lith said, made sense and helped Tsuki.

The chains untangled greatly once again due to Lith's advice and the six learnt that they would need to help each other if they wanted to clear this trial.

Thus, they finally began talking and helping, and the room was eventually filled with the clanging sounds of the chains, untangling itself little by little.

…..

A/N: We are 700 chapters in, half the journey is completed.

In 700-800 more chapters, that is, one more year, and I'll probably finish vsol. Maybe. :)