"Look, one of them opened his eyes!"
"Don't tell me he passed the Sixth Circle!"
A commotion struck the eye in Clan Stands; they were restless since Alis came to his senses. The Sheikh, slipping away from among beautiful women next to him, scanned the young man whose lips were wet with blood.
"Treat my man immediately!"
Atractivo didn't utter a single word neither to congratulate nor to console; the biggest share in this was Alis's anger-filled looks. Alis hadn't put down his weapons yet; the gnashing of his teeth was heard by those near him.
A few breaths later, the square groaned with a cry. The white-haired young man, as if wanting to burst his lungs, turned his head to the sky and roared. His voice was full of sorrow, anger, helplessness, and delusion; all the public's hair stood on end.
Then the young boy sent back the officials coming next to him; judging by his state, he didn't want to leave the circle. When supervisors made eye contact with the Third Elder, the Holy Blood Sect Sheikh spoke once more.
"Let it be however he wants!"
Alis, ensuring gloom settled on the test area, turned his face to his two friends and started waiting; this was the best he could do.
Unlike him, Bloody Moon representatives were taking their steps into the second stage; judging by them taking a fighting stance, they were quite serious. They were expecting a struggle, but the second stage came to them with a surprise. Nora found the old man sitting under a tree on whose branches birds were chirping.
"Orc warrior Nafız, won't you come in?"
When the old man called out to the young girl with an old and ancient tone of voice, he made it obvious he could see her real state. Nora didn't let on; coming next to the man she encountered during registration before, she sat across him.
When a leaf gliding from the tree fell to the ground, the old man sighed deeply and started speaking.
"How much of Mora's consciousness were you able to protect?"
The old man started speaking without beating around the bush without hesitating at all; his dried eyes inside their sockets were looking at the ground.
"Almost none, maybe she won't even be able to fulfill her last wish!"
Since nothing remained hidden, Nora in Nora disguise answered without feeling the need to change her voice; in these moments, her appearance inside the formation turned into the Orc warrior too.
Birds perched on the tree took off screaming; the old man watched them for a while.
"What is your aim in coming here?"
Although the old man directed questions continuously, the Blood God didn't get angry; she was feeling an energy flowing from the man towards her.
"Why do you ask questions whose answers you know?"
Then Nora closed her eyes; she started talking with the old man not with words but with feelings. Fleeing birds came back; perching on the duo, they started chirping.
Inside another formation, Count Jashua entered the plain where grasses on the ground were sharp like thorns. Blood-stained grasses were aching with pain at every step as if.
"Who are you?"
The old man showed himself inside this formation too; leaning on the wide grip part of his short cane with his two hands, he was looking at Young Count Jashua standing like a mountain across him.
"My name is Jashua, I am the Count of Bloody Moon Fiefdom!"
"I didn't ask you your title or name, who are you?"
The young boy frowned; he wasn't sensing a threat from the old man but an energy disturbing his inside was wandering in the environment.
"I am me!"
The old man smiled; extending his hand, he blew into his palm he opened slowly. A breath later, the duo found themselves sitting on a giant lotus leaf in a stagnant lake.
The water was so clear that Count Jashua could see everything from rocks at its bottom to colorful fish swimming inside it.
"What do you see?"
The old man directed one more question to the surprised young man; this time Count Jashua answered rapidly.
"Moss-covered rocks, fish, and a stagnant lake."
The old man raised his hand once more; this time everything inside the lake disappeared.
"Now?"
"Only the lake remained!"
Reaching out, Count Jashua took a handful of water from the lake; after wetting his hair and face, he let himself into the waters.
"What is essential is water; everything else is shaped and exists with it. Jashua, who are you?"
The Young Count sank to the bottom slowly; stripped of clothes on him, he had returned to the state at the moment he took his first breath.
Although hours passed midnight outside the formation, the crowd hadn't dispersed; on the contrary, it had increased a little more with every passing hour. In this, the share of those coming to watch the test from surrounding clans and fiefdoms was big; news had reached all power centers in the Holy Blood Sect lands.
"They are really trying to pass the Death Pit trial!"
When someone who just arrived at the area spoke with a voice containing astonishment, someone from within the sect's public would speak puffing out their chest.
"What did you think, a completely different acceptance test is being experienced this year. Three people reached the Sixth Circle and two of them are still in the trial!"
These young people were the Sect's Disciples now; since people living under its protection united themselves with the formation, it was as if their power increased too. They were showing off and boasting to those coming from outside the settlement; they had longed for this so much that their excitement was striking the eye in their every movement.
As for Sheikh Atractivo, he had returned to his old mode; with women in his bosom and goblet in his hand, he was in a state closed to the crowd's feelings. The Third Elder was laughing as if wanting to pop out his non-existent cheekbones in the face of this state of his.
After obtaining a gain he couldn't even see in his dreams while the end of the day starting like a nightmare was coming, this state of his should be welcomed as normal. If we consider the Sheikh's never-ending seclusions, he had actually become the most authorized name of the Holy Blood Sect.
He leaned back with comfortable movements like the Sheikh too; his inside wasn't tightening anymore while looking at the three people in the Sixth Circle.
There was spring weather inside the formation too; with birds taking off, the duo sitting cross-legged across each other opened their eyes. The old man, putting his hand inside his outfit resembling a bathrobe, took out a yellow paper; he extended the paper in the shape of a thin long strip to Nora.
"Thank you for enabling me to talk with Nora, the turn came to the last stage!"
The old man started walking getting up from his place slowly; while going, his words were following him.
"Drip your blood onto the talisman, your greatest opponent will be waiting for you!"
When the image of the moving away old man blurred, the environment started changing too. The woodland area was turning into a temple with a high ceiling supported by wide and long marble columns. Warrior statues standing in niches on walls had taken a war stance as if they would come to life any moment; this place without glass was illuminated with thousands of candles in floor candelabras.
Nora dived into examining the environment; her eye was on the dome processed with ornaments looking like artwork until a voice familiar to her came to her ear.
"Are you my opponent today?"
The owner of the words continued after scanning her from head to toe.
"I will fight with an orc for the first time; I hope you don't waste my time!"
A girl with red freckles on her face was talking putting her hands on her waist. While her blood-red hair extended to her shoulders, two daggers she grasped were striking the eye. While the color of blood flower embossments on the daggers was changing slowly, Nora took two steps back.
"Mora?"
"In the flesh, what is your name?"
The young girl's back straightened like a cat; inside the war armor made of black leather on her, she looked like a panther waiting to leap on its prey.
Nora just looked for a while, then the last words the old man said while leaving came to her mind.
"Your greatest opponent will be waiting for you!"
The old man wasn't unjustified; Mora, the owner of the legacy saving her from the claws of helplessness, was at the same time the biggest obstacle Nora had to pass.
If she wanted to stop being an imitation and stand on her own feet, she had to be a horn overcoming the ear, and today it seemed she would try her chance for the first time.