The Eternal Conquest Chapter IV: The Arduous Trials

Pardon me for my bad english.
The next day, I woke up and also trying to get over the fact that my life is ending. I saw them outside, holding up their weapons and materials for a nether portal when Atlas walked towards me, 'You woke up, I thought you don't wanted to go, they are about to go to the nether, to get to the bottom of this dark energy...thing, wanna come?' I nodded my head and prepared my combat gears, and a few arrows that I had built myself last night.
We constructed and ignited the portal, Bernice entered it first, when she shouted from another side in a distorted voice, 'Guys, we entered in a Bastion, but...you need to see this!'. We entered right after she finished her sentence with our swords drawn, instead of piglins, there are humans, on the other side. 'Who are you, what are you doing here!', said a guard aiming his spear at us. We dropped our weapons and claimed that we meant no harm. They took us to the stables for interrogation. We sat in front of their supreme enforcer, he introduced himself as Lord Argus.
Lord Argus: Eight of you, what do you intent?
Bernice: Its my idea, to get to the bottom of this dark energy!
Lord Argus: What dark energy?
Me: The book has said something about it, see it for yourself.
He held the book, he freezed for a moment, 'Are you Chronos' descendant?' he asked. I nodded my head and said he is my grandfather.
Lord Argus: The very last few survivors of the yellow marking obsidrions, they are here, Lord Argus stood up as him and his comrades clapped their hands in excitement. He checked the book afterwards.
Lord Argus: This 'dark energy' you are talking about actually has a name, called Eruiditisium. However, you need to pass a test called 'The Arduous Trials' to obtain Eruiditisium.
Roger: We can just get it from the nether, its in their armours, we don't need a trial, we don't have much time.
Lord Argus: I know, but those synthetic, the ones obtained is in its purest form, and its 80 times stronger, take this map, this will lead you to the trial place, and also thats where you will receive the Eruiditisium. The Celestial Bastion, I pray you good luck. Only 2 people can participate, the rest must return to the overworld. 
Roger and Ares opted out, I wanted in, so is Galadar, Lucidius, Atlas,Bernice and Zulius. Lord Argus advised me and Bernice to go, and let the rest reside in the overworld, to prepare the container for the Eruditisium.
Lord Argus: You two should go, what are your names
Me: My name is Hadion Agatarius Centaris
Bernice: Name's Bernice
Lord Argus: Both of your mental and physical condition is better prepared for this, now go, the rest of you, try to prepare the container
Atlas, Lucidius, Galadar, Roger, Zulius, Ares: We don't know how.
Lord Argus: I have been reported that school is about to resume, they might teach you the basics, here are the prototypes, keep it secret, good luck.
We parted ways, as we turned our back on each other, taking care of our quests...
We are traversing the vast nether, trying to get to the Celestial Bastion when we came across a weird structure after travelling for around 3 hours, it is the nether king's throne, but the king is not there, we continued our journey, hiding from the wither skeleton guards by climbing the steep netheracck cliffs. I almost slip and fell when Bernice held on to me with all her might, and got me back on my hands, we climbed back up to avoid falling again but the wither skeleton guards noticed us, they chased us down.
Bernice shouted 'We got full combat gears on, we should be able to defeat the swarm!' when I held her hand and quickly ran away, I towered up with a few netheracck I collected along the way. And drew out our swords I said to Bernice 'Even if its full combat gear, its just two swords, we cant do it, we can try eliminating them up here, they cant reach us that easier here!' she nodded as we kill and knock back any wither skeletons that climb up the netherrack pillar we are standing on. A ghast blew it up when we are set flying, we kept running until Bernice got a plan, she placed down lava onto the hole that she deflected the ghast projectile to, and called us to jump over it, and hope the lava can slow the wither skeletons down, the skeletons are slowed down in it, we quickly build a barrage around it, trapping them in place, and kill the two wither skeletons that came to attack us.
A bright gold structure is seen infront of us, when a Green marking Archon is standing infront of us. 'Welcome to The Celestial Bastion'. 'I have received message from Lord Argus about your arrival, here is where your trial begins, my name is Lord Aston'. He continued talking about the challenge...
'There are a total of 5 rounds, all five of them tests your different attributes, ranging from Physical, Mental condition, Loyalty, Intelligence and your Soul Energy. The first one is the bridge of doom, there will be ghasts attacking you, and the bridge steps might break and fall off. The second one is the slide of never ending agony, you guys will enter the long slide, stop at the precise moment to reach the pathway to round 3, or else you guys will hit bedrock at the bottom. The 3rd round is the slay fest, there will be a chest with 4 dirt blocks and a sand, you can only use those blocks to kill the skeletons, the skeletons will be released when you arrive, you can only use the blocks and one hit to kill them. The 4th round will be the swarm challenge, you will be facing up against 30 phantoms on that cliffside, if one of you falls off, it means failure for you both. The final challenge is called "the battle", you will face off against 5 best warriors from the nether empire, good luck.' 
After Aston finished, we went to the first round, we ran as fast as we can, when the bridge broke and the ghast fireball hit the bridge, Bernice got an idea. She wanted us to crouch down when holding on an intact bridge plank, when the bridge broke apart, we climbed it like ladders, suddenly her piece broke and I managed catch her with my soul dash, we climbed the cliffs up to the 2nd round. 
Bernice slid down first when I followed behind, after some time, we can see a pathway, but we need to slow down and stop in order to reach there, Bernice tried to stop it by putting her hand on the slide, stopping it with friction, but to no avail, her hand is hurt, I got an idea, I told her to prone with her chest facing the slide, and use her weapon to slow her down by impaling it onto the slide, I did the same, we are slowing down, however our weapons started to deteriorate very quickly. We eventually stopped halfways, without reaching the pathway, Bernice wanted me to take my weapon out from the slide, and drop on her, she will descend slowly, seeing that her shirt's friction can slow us down further, I dropped, she slowly descended us to the pathway, we got to the path, exhausted. 
We arrived at the chest without hesitation, and took out the blocks, I struggled on how to deal with the skeletons, 'Bernice, they are coming!' I shouted. 'Wait up, I am thinking of a plan!' she replied. Bernice threw her staff to block the path horizontally, and I held them back, Bernice then blocked the skeletons off with the four dirt blocks. She wanted me to break the netherrack behind them, creating a gap, I got down and broke the netherrack from below, then proceeded to get back to the path. I asked her what is the hole for, she took her iron greatsword and knocked all of them into the hole, and into the lava ocean beneath. 'Wow, that is a very smart plan' I exclaimed. Bernice looked back at me and said 'I am the former champion of the 2016 Gladiator championship at my school.' While winking at me. 
We arrived at the cliffside, where the fourth round takes place. Just like how we slowed ourselves down at the slides, we impaled our weapons onto the cliff and hold on to it, we drew out our swords, the phantoms are charging right at as I used all my abilities to take down a few of them. 'Just attack, don't defend if there are swarms!' I sliced and stabbed through tens of them, five of them are plummeting down from the skies, 'Get up there and deal with them, I will finish the ones down here!' said Bernice. I climbed up onto solid netherrack ground to fend them off. She climbed up, when she gets attacked from behind, I killed the phantom but one is about to attack her from the front, I pushed her aside and it knocked me off the ground, and falling into the lava ocean. I held on to the phantom 'Jump, reach my staff!', Bernice shouted when reaching her staff out, I jumped from the phantom at full force, then used soul dash to grab onto her staff, she pulled me up with all her might. I thanked her for saving me when she hugged me tightly 'Please don't do that next time, remember the rules? Also...I cant lose you again.'. We walked towards the 5th round would take place. 
It is a massive battle arena, and a "X" at the middle, we stood in the middle when 5 heavily armoured wither skeletons emerged from the 5 surrounding gates, we drew our weapons, I stood back to back with Bernice 'Lets whoop them greatly, together!' she said, when holding both her weapons tightly even if her hands are hurt, with a stoic face. 
The enemies charged, she threw her staff at them but they sucessfully blocked it, with cautious movements and presistent hits one one of the wither skeletons, I took it down. Bernice got knocked back and landed beside me, there are 4 of them left. One jumped at me with a battleaxe, i tried to block it but ended up laying on the ground upon impact, Bernice managed to throw her iron greatsword at its head, killing it. I am too tired to get up because I used up all my physical energy during former challenges, as I saw her running to get the iron greatsword, she got knocked out by another wither skeleton, she could not fight back because she threw all her weapons, she held the battleaxe on its blade, resulting in Bernice hurting her palm even more. I stood up and stabbed one wither skeleton from behind. Its now 2v2.
She quickly grabbed her battlestaff and took her iron greatsword into battle, slaying one of them, the last wither skeleton used its netherite sword and broke her staff, I killed the wither skeleton from behind. The wither skeletons revived from the dead and walked towards a door, they opened it.
We are greeted by Lord Aston behind the door, 'You passed the test, the Eruditisium portion is yours.' we received the packet as the wither skeletons walked back to the gates. We exited the celestial bastion and quickly run to the nether portal in the bastion we found earlier, the blood is seeping through her wounds on her palms, we rushed through as the troops cheered for us. 'Go, we will do the rest for now' said Lord Argus as he closes the portal.
"EACH AND EVERY ACCOMPLISHMENT STARTS WITH A DECISION TO TRY, A DETERMINATION TO LAST, AND A GRATITUTE OF THE REWARD THAT COMES AFTER"
-Hadion Agatarius Centaris
Chapter 5 soon >:)
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