17 The Valley Of A-Thousand-Death I

The Ivory dominion.

This was one of the free dominions controlled by the laws of creation and supervised by the Utmost judges. It contained many summoning valley and one of them was the valley of A-Thousand-Death. A deadly closed-valley with an appearance that proved true to its frightening name. Located at the centre of three enormous ash mountains that co-joined together to form a terrible arc, this was one of the summoning valleys for soul weapons that were created by the Cosmic Eternal Soulsmiths.

The large entrance to the valley was divided into five smaller entrances, with each entrance leading to a seal-demarcated section of the valley, allowing five deities to summon at the same time. Right from these entrances were the exploding death shards that were rotaing over the craters of poisonous bubbling ash-coloured liquid. However, the most dangerous were the phantoms lining the sides of the valley. These dangerous entities were placed there in the event of any young deity that failed to come for summoning within three days after the awakening.

Once inside, there was no other way of escaping the valley apart from the entrance, since there was only one way in and out of the death valley.

Here on this day, at the outskirt of the valley's entrance, were many young deities waiting for their turns, including Ethera who came earlier along with her parents. Despite her coming very early, she still met quite a number of young deities at the valley. She waited in total apprehension as she continued to watch them going went into the valley, one after the other. Since she had arrived, all the young deities had been completing their trials with no greater difficulties. And when she saw some of the weapons they brought out, she couldn't help but sighed inwardly.

There were seven types of weapons in all of the universe. They were — generic, imperial, legendary, epic, mythical, astral and cosmic weapons. And during summoning, lightning was the universal indicator of the nature of the weapon coming to the summoner. White lightning was an indication for the generic weapons[basic weapons], blue lightning for imperial weapons, yellow lightning represented legendary weapons, red lightning for epic weapons, mythical weapons by green lightning, astral weapons was heralded by orange lightning, and the cosmic weapons through the violet lightning.

Six times, she witnessed the blue lightning summoning which meant an imperial weapon. Four times, the yellow lightning struck, indicating legendary weapons, while epic weapons were summoned three times through the red lightning. And once, she saw the green lightning which greatly increased her anxiety. Although she had been preparing for today for a long time, being here now, was totally unnerving.

When her turn finally came, she looked at her parents who gave her a confirmatory nod, before she slowly but steadily made her way to the entrance and entered the valley. As she walked on, she noticed that with each foot she placed on the ground, there was a loud thudding inside her soul that made her head banged achingly.

Reaching the centre of the valley, she stood in front of the giant monolith and recited the words written on it, just as she was instructed. After the recital, the air of the valley began to form a raging wind while the ground started to vibrate uncontrollably. She quickly took out the summoning scroll she received from the judges of Darkfall, and threw it into the air which slowly calmed things down. Once a young deity performed the awakening rituals, the deity's soul would be linked to a summoning scroll to be used in a summoning valley.

As she watched, the scroll suddenly let out a wailing scream before busting into flames, sealing off the entrance to her section. She rapidly check her armoured robe and planted her feet firmer on the ground. She had learned before-hand how the events would happen up to this stage, there would be a thunder to indicate the beginning of the summoning, but she had no idea of what would come next.

Just as expected, there was a thunderous sound as a gigantic white lightning descended on her section of the valley making her shield her eyes with her hands. Seconds later, after the lightning had vanished, Ethera saw a bronze coloured glaive floating in front of her. Ah, her soul weapon. Her own weapon. Her heart was beating faster as she kept on looking at the weapon. This was the moment. Ethera moved closer and grabbed the weapon with her extended hand.

The moment she lay her hand on the glaive, a strong energy wave was released from the core of the glaive that travelled straight into her soul. She gasped for air and her body shook slightly, as her soul made the connection with the weapon, opening the long awaited Soul-Space. With a wide and easy smile, she looked at her soul weapon again. Despite being a generic weapon, she was happy with it. As long as it belonged to her.

And now, she would have to undergo trial battles to prove her worthiness of her soul space. This was the moment she had been preparing for. All her effort and training would be put under a difficult but important trials now. Holding the glaive tightly, she adjusted her stance as she waited for the summoned entities.

But all of a sudden, as darkness descended on the whole valley, stranding the young deities but also blocking the valley off, from scrying eyes. Then, there was another thunderous sound followed by a colossal violet lightning which quickly sent a vibration throughout the underworld, drawing the attention of all powerful deities and waking up the slumbering deadly entites. Another Cosmic weapon had been born.

Ethera was left stunned at the sight of the darkness and the sound of another thunder. What was this all about? This couldn't be right since there was no telling her about any darkness. And the thunder couldn't be for her since she already had her own soul weapon. When she recollected that there were other four young deities who were undergoing their summoning, she relaxed her mind and waited for the darkness to clear, probably.

Few minutes later, the darkness dissipated to the utter shock and fright of Ethera. Floating in front of her, was an obsidian black pole that appeared to be a glaive, but with its two blades missing.

Huh? Her? A cosmic weapons? Another soul wespon?

Eternal flame.