424 Ceremony of truth

Without any word of explanation, the elder appraiser that accompanied me all the way here, suddenly moved aside, opening up the way to a single pair of massive doors. Despite how everything in the area was uniformly coloured in red, this single set of doors was decorated with all the colours that I heard about before, from red, through white and yellow all the way to the violet, with a blue hue connecting all the coloured strips.

*If that won't be a problem, evolve the executioner's path for me, but for now, try to solve how the heck will this trial work.*

Communicating with Bonger for the last time before moving forward, I pressed my hands against the doors and slowly pushed them aside, as to not reveal my real, monstrous strength. The chamber inside was a perfect circle, with a circular platform hovering about five meters above the floor, with a set of chairs placed all around its curvature. On the floor, there was only a single chair, with a strangely turned rest, forcing anyone who would want to sit there, to practically gaze at the bottom of the hovering platform.

\"Welcome to the ceremony of truth!\"

As soon as my legs crossed the threshold of the chamber, a domineering voice resounded in the vincity, as if attempting to make an impression of might on me already. While I was eager to simply disregard it, I decided to go with the ruse I still held up and simply nodded my head.

\"You might sit in the chair of truth.\"

Following the orders of the voice, I continued on the floor made by red bricks or something that was infinitely close to them in shape and general look, but the closer I got to the said chair, the more familiar this place turned out to be!

Just like back in the ancient ruins of Golem's civilisation, as soon as I stepped under the hovering platform, the floor turned from a rather flat surface to a single, big set of carvings, surrounding the chair in an intricate pattern. While I lacked the knowledge to understand what did those carving means, the similar way of laying them out as compared with the tower at the ancestral's place of the islanders made me wary of them.

Nevertheless, I still followed with my steps only to sit on the chair and lay my back on the angled rest, turning my eyes at the direct centre of the platform.

At first, nothing happened. 

Only after waiting for a few minutes, I could see with the corner of my eyes how the edge of the carvings started to fill up with some shiny liquid, as the platform above me started to turn in circles.

*Bonger, what's going on?*

\"Don't worry. While I can't make any sense of it unless it will start working properly, it doesn't look like its strong enough to break through your resistances. And even if it will manage to do it somehow, I will just take over and answer the questions for you.\"

Calmed down a bit by Bogner's reassurance, I relaxed on my stone chair and waited for the events to unfold in front of my eyes.

\"What's your name?\"

As soon as the liquid completely filled the carvings on the floor and suddenly lost its shining attribute, the platform entered such a high speed at which even I had troubles with keeping up how fast it was moving around its own axis. Staring at the orb of a transparent light that appeared right in the middle of the platform above me, I heard the first question.

\"Bart. My name is Bart.\"

As soon as my words left my mouth, the entire area flashed with white light, only for it to converge back into the orb. 

\"Are you affiliated with any power?\"

Oh? So they weren't going to ask some control questions like whether I'm sitting down, whether I have hair or whether am I male… or nevermind with that last one. I guess they didn't want to develop the same kind of genderology as it appeared on earth, turning the attention of people from real problems like poverty, hunger or even the climate into some illusory problem about how to call someone if he perceives himself differently than he appears.

Even if those problems were real for a small portion of the entire humanity, without all the technology created by the people who were bothered by actual problems that required someone to tackle them, humanity in this world simply couldn't afford to be bothered with this kind of stuff!

\"No, I'm not.\"

Even if I wanted to lie here, there was simply no point. After all, I was the sole owner of my own powerbase, my stronghold and the people that lived there, so saying I was affiliated with someone else power would be completely wrong!

Once again, the runes carved in the floor flared up in white light, only for the shine to be sucked away by the ball above my head.

\"Are you willing to sacrifice the rest of your life to serve the Goose Sect and the Heavenly city as its disciple unless you would reach the height allowing you to become its elder and regain some of your autonomy, temporary giving up on your freedom in order to obtain the privileges only the disciples are privy for?\"

Right to the real problem it seems! But contrary to what those who set this ritual up could have in mind when picking the questions, once again, I didn't have to lie to hide my real intentions! After all, from how weak the elder appraiser was in my eyes despite still not investing my points in my statistics nor using any of the aspects of my upgraded system if I were to reveal my strength and dominate this place, I'm quite sure I could gain the seat of the supreme leader instead of some measly elder!

\"Yes!\"

With the ceremony of light happening once again without any mishap, the chair I was sitting at suddenly started raising, returning its back to the normal angle that any other chair would have in the first place. 

By the time I could see anything else than the bottom of the platform above, the entire chamber got lighted up by a set of strange torches giving off a slightly greenish light, with both the light of the runes and the light ball above me dissipating into the thin air, as I gazed at the same group of elders that lead me to this place a moment ago, standing on its other end and inviting me towards them in simple gestures.

\"Congratulations on completing your ceremony of truth. If you are ready,  we will take you to the trial grounds now!\"