Ascension of the immortal Asura

Chapter 21: Sinister Gate

A sinister aura washed over him with an intensity that threatened to make him go insane. If the aura outside the door could be described as a stream, then inside was a river.

John fell to the ground and clutched his head. Non-stop murmurs echoed in his mind. The murmurs encouraged him to murder, pillage, defile, destroy. The murmurs echoed endlessly, almost driving John insane. Only after struggling for a long time was John able to calm himself slightly and gather his wits.

Although John still felt as if he was in an endless pit of hell, he was now able to manage, if not with great struggle.

After spending a long time adjusting himself to the horrifying environment, John finally stood up and steadied himself. Although this place was the most terrifying place that John had ever been in, he could also feel his will being tempered and strengthened. The constant resistance of the corrupting energy in this place was like a whet stone, constantly sharpening his will.

“Maybe this hellish environment can actually be used to my benefit” thought John.

John composed himself before venturing further into the darkness. A dim reddish glow illuminated the hallway in front of him. Several minutes later, the hallway ended and a massive room appeared.

The room was basked in a dark red hue, and was designed the exact same as the massive room he had just come from. Large black pillars dotted the interior, and John could just barely make out a large pitch black gate on the opposite end of the room, similar to the large white gate in the room prior.

Breathing out heavily, John stared at the scene in front of him. He composed himself once more before walking forward towards the massive black gate. After walking for several minutes, John arrived in front of the gate. The gate was thousands of feet high and wide, and was covered by ten massive pitch black chains. Each chain link was dozens of feet thick. The sinister aura seemed to flow out of the gate.

“The sinister aura seems to be coming from behind this gate” thought John as he stared at it.

“What could possibly be giving off such an aura?” thought John as he stared intently at the gate. Being this close to the gate, John could barely keep his wits about him. Even with the help of the holy blood, John constantly struggled to keep his sanity.

Unlike the previous room, there was no translucent orb high in the air in front of the gate. John stared at the gate for quite some time before walking up directly in front of it. The ten massive chains snaked all about the gate, but all of them were embedded on one end at the base of the gate. Walking up to the chains, John reached out and touched one.

“Clang!”

A metallic sound rang out and filled the hall. Startled, John hastily retreated as he stared at the gate. To his surprise, the chain he had just touched started to shatter into millions of pieces before eventually falling apart, the metallic dust scattering outwards.

“What did I just do?” thought John as he saw the massive chain in front of him shatter. Right as the chain shattered, the sinister aura radiating from the gate intensified tenfold.

“AHHHH!”

John screamed out once more as he clutched his head. The murmurs from before reappeared in his mind, filling it with all sorts of sinister thoughts. Once again, John thought he was about to go insane. He felt as if ten thousand needles were stabbing into his skull.

As if sensing the impending doom John faced, the holy blood radiated its power, smothering and calming the sinister thoughts rampaging through John’s mind. Although it was much worse than before the chain crumpled, John was barely able to hang on mentally and stabilize himself. He still felt like needles were stabbing into his brain however.

John breathed in and out heavily. Looking up at the gate in horror, John hastily retreated.

“Fuck this. I’m out of here” shouted John.

As he was rushing towards the exit of the room, John spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

“What’s that?”

On one side of the room stood a single lone altar. It was pitch black, and was raised on a small platform. It was about a thousand feet from the exit. Gritting his teeth, John composed himself once more and walked over to the altar.

“My curiosity is really going to get me killed one day” thought John.

After stepping on the raised platform and walking around to face the altar, John was shocked to find a book lying on top of it. The book was bound in a pitch black cover. On the cover were words carved into it, but it was in a language that John didn’t understand. Although John didn’t understand the language, for some reason he felt it was familiar.

“What is this?” thought John. After his previous experience with the chains, John was hesitant to touch anything. He stared at the book for some time, but couldn’t understand anything written on the cover. The lingering aura of the room was threatening to drive John insane, and he knew he couldn’t stay there much longer.

“Fuck it, I’ve been completely stupid up to this point, I might as well continue that trend” thought John as he reached out to grab the book. As soon as his hand came in contact with the book, pain wracked John’s brain as he felt a flood of information fill it. John clutched his head while the pain continued. Unlike before however, this was just regular pain and not pain that threatened to kill him.

After a few seconds of intense pain, the information stopped transmitting and John once more returned to normal.

“What just happened?” thought John as he tried to make sense of what just occurred. He felt as if he was learning something, but when he tried to recall what he learned, he drew blanks.

Looking back down at the book, John was shocked to find that he could actually understand the front page.

“Immortal Asura Body” read the front cover.

“What a domineering sounding name” thought John as he stared at the book. Although he was curious about the contents, John could hardly withstand the lingering sinister aura that threatened to drive him insane.

Making a quick decision, John grabbed the book and started running towards the exit. A little bit later, John ran out of the doorway that he had previously entered and collapsed on the ground.

“Phew!”

John was panting heavenly as he slowly managed to recover. After nearly an hour of stabilizing himself, John was finally able to wash the vile lingering murmurs out of his head.

“Just what was that place” thought John as he shivered. The sinister aura inside of there was unlike anything he thought could exist. It was as if every evil thought that ever existed was present in that place.

John looked at the book in his hands. “I’ll read this book after I leave this place. For now, I just want to get out of here.”

John was just about to send his divine sense out of this place like last time to leave it when he stopped.

“The previous room was an exact mirror of this room. If that room had an altar and a book, I wonder if this room has something as well” thought John. Turning to the side that would house the altar, John managed to spot another small altar about a thousand feet away.

John walked up to the altar, which was an exact copy of the previous one except it was pure white. On top of the altar sat another book. Its cover was a mix of blue, purple, and white.

“Celestial Lightning Script” read the cover.

Another domineering name thought John. John grabbed this book as well. After looking around the rest of the massive room, John found nothing. He then turned towards the massive white gate.

Based on his experience with the previous room, John figured that he might as well touch one of the chains in this room as well. While the gate in the other room gave off a vile, sinister aura, the gate in this room radiates nothing but holiness.

“I highly doubt that something this holy would be something bad” thought John as he walked up to one of the chains. He paused for a second before reaching out and touching it.

“Clang!”

Another metallic sound rang out as the chain started to crumple, eventually shattering into nothingness. The holy aura radiating from behind the door intensified. John felt like his soul was being cleansed as the holy aura washed over him.

“I can actually feel my soul being cleansed and strengthened slightly” John exclaimed in shock. From what he knew, strengthening the soul very hard. Besides some incredible rare medicinal ingredients, one could only increase the soul by increasing their cultivation level. John had never heard of something as simple as an aura strengthening the soul.

“This place keeps getting more and more mysterious. If nothing else, these two rooms will be immensely beneficial for tempering my will and strengthening my soul” thought John.

After basking in the holy aura for some time, John reached out and touched another chain.

“Huh? Nothing?”

Although John had touched the chain, nothing had happened this time. John proceeded to touch all of the other chains, but nothing happened.

“Strange” thought John as he stared at the massive gate.

John stepped away from the massive gate and explored the rest of the massive room, but was unable to find anything else of interest.

“Time to leave I suppose” thought John as he sent his divine sense outwards.

The dark cave appeared in front of John once more as he returned to the real world.