ONLINE: Blades of Eternity
Chapter 332 - 332: THE PATH OF STILL EARTH

The morning mist drifted low and thick across the damp forest floor, curling between the roots of withered trees like restless spirits. Sunlight barely pierced through the tangled canopy above, but the faint golden shafts that did manage to break through painted the Hollow with an ethereal glow.

A new day had begun in the heart of the Deadroot Forest, and with it, the awakening of trials older than any living memory.

Naena stood before the seven massive statues, each carved from stone that pulsed faintly with dormant power. Each statue represented a sacred path—each one echoing one of the primordial essences that shaped Aetheris in the Age of the Juggernauts.

And today, only one of them would open its path.

The statue of Still Earth towered over the others in solemn silence. Humanoid in form, its face was serene and impenetrable, eyes shut in endless meditation. Its arms rested upon its knees, and beneath it was the Circle of Resonance, an ancient ring carved into the stone ground with runes so old they bled faint whispers into the wind.

"It's finally time huh?" Morris said with a tense look on his face along with the others except Kaelen.

"I wish you all good luck" Kaelen said to them with a determined look on his face with they responded to with a nod.

"Not everyone will begin their training today"

But suddenly, Naena's voice cut through the quiet morning like a chime in a temple.

"Today, only one path opens. The path of Still Earth. Those chosen for this path shall begin your trial now."

She turned her gaze toward the gathered group. Her white hair flowed down like a veil, her eyes sharp with authority.

"Kaelen. Kelvin. Ethan. Step forward."

The group quickly exchanged glances in surprise but decided to not say anything.

Kaelen's brows furrowed, but he nodded. Kelvin simply exhaled, stepping forward without a word. Ethan rubbed his hands together nervously but smiled anyway.

"Since it is like this, let's get it over with," Ethan said with false bravado.

Naena continued.

"This is not a battle of strength. Nor a contest of speed. Still Earth is the path of foundation. Of endurance. Of unchanging will. It does not ask you to fight—it asks you to remain. Remain whole. Remain unbroken."

Her gaze swept across them one last time.

"It will break your spirit before it touches your body. It will draw from the fears you buried and the weights you've carried since childhood. If you run, you fail. If you fall, you fail. But if you endure—even shattered and trembling—you will rise anew."

Kaelen clenched his fists. Kelvin's lips tightened. Ethan swallowed but gave a nod.

Naena gestured toward the Circle of Resonance. "Enter."

As the trio stepped into the circle, the runes lit up beneath their feet—brown and gold hues swirling like molten earth beneath stone. The air thickened. The surroundings darkened. Even the sounds of the forest—birds, wind, the distant breath of the trees—vanished entirely.

Then, without warning, the Still Earth statue's eyes opened.

A pulse of qi surged out like a seismic wave. Each boy stiffened, his body locked in place. Their minds suddenly were no longer their own. Instead, each found himself submerged in a different world.

---

Kaelen stood in a vast desert of stone. The sky above was lifeless—no sun, no stars, no clouds. Just oppressive nothing. His limbs felt heavy. No, more than heavy—like they were filled with lead. Every breath was a battle. His knees ached. His spine screamed.

Then the whispers started.

"You will never surpass them."

"You were born to be abandoned."

"They left you because you were weak."

Every word hit like a hammer in his skull. He dropped to one knee. His fingers trembled.

Then came the image.

A silhouette of Endless, standing on the corpse of someone Kaelen couldn't see. Laughter echoed like grinding gravel.

"You failed to protect them."

Kaelen's heart screamed, but he gritted his teeth and forced himself upright.

'No.'

'I'm still here.'

'I still stand.'

---

Kelvin was buried chest-deep in cold, wet soil. Around him were the ghosts of his father, his sister, and a faceless crowd—all pointing, accusing, whispering.

"You were the curse."

"Your birth was the end of everything."

"She died because of you."

Kelvin didn't respond. His jaw was clenched, his eyes distant. But the tears were there—thin, slow lines tracing his dirt-covered cheeks.

And still… he didn't cry out.

He didn't move.

He endured.

---

Ethan stood at the foot of a mountain. A storm raged above, and each step upward made him feel like his bones were being ground down. His parents' faces hovered in the clouds—disappointed. His friends—silent. All watching.

He stumbled.

Then again.

But something in his chest flared with defiance.

"I'm not giving up. Not again."

He pushed forward.

---

Naena watched from outside the Circle. Lila, Guinevere, and Morris sat to the side, tense and restless.

The glow from the Circle of Resonance pulsed erratically. Kaelen's body twitched. Kelvin's lips were pale. Ethan's hands were bloodied from where his nails had dug into his palms.

"They're suffering," Lila muttered anxiously, eyes narrowed at Kaelen and seemed to be ready to step in if the pain looks to be too much for Kaelen.

Naena said nothing. Her arms were folded, her gaze stern.

"They are learning the cost of stillness. The price of becoming a foundation. This is the path of the earth—it does not yield. It does not comfort."

Morris frowned. "How long will it last?"

Naena replied, "Until they either break… or become something unbreakable."

---

Kaelen fell again. His legs crumpled. The whispers roared now—his parents' screams, the cries of his mentor, the cold voice of Dragonyx family heads telling him he was nothing.

But amid all the agony, a single spark remained.

A memory.

Lila, smiling as they trained.

Guinevere, cracking a sarcastic joke after a duel.

Morris punching his shoulder and calling him "brother."

Kelvin, saying "not until this dumb journey."

'They believe in me.'

Kaelen's hands planted into the stone. He pushed, muscles tearing.

'I'm not going to let Endless win.'

He screamed—not in pain, but in rage.

And the earth… shook.

A tremor. A quake.

Outside the Circle, Naena's eyes snapped wide.

"He's resonating… already?"

The statue of Still Earth flared brightly for a moment. Not just Kaelen—but Kelvin and Ethan too—shaking, twitching, but still standing within the spiritual hell crafted for them.

Naena's lips curled into a rare, proud smile.

Let them suffer, she thought.

Let them break… because the ones who rise from that will shake the world itself.

The silence in the Deadroot Hollow was heavy.

Not the natural, peaceful silence of a forest—but a charged, suffocating stillness that made even the birds and wind dare not stir.

The Circle of Resonance still glowed with a fading earthy hue, its ancient runes dimming now like the embers of a dying flame. The towering Still Earth statue, which had remained unmoving for what felt like hours, slowly closed its eyes once more—its trial complete.

And then—

A deep, groaning rumble echoed from within the center of the circle.

Lila stood up at once, eyes narrowed. Guinevere's breath hitched. Even Morris instinctively laid a hand on the hilt of his weapon. The energy in the air shifted—dense, grounded, immovable.

Then… they saw it.

From the center of the circle, where the very soil had cracked and formed jagged patterns, Kaelen, Kelvin, and Ethan rose.

They emerged not like young boys stumbling from exhaustion—but like pillars of stone, steady, slow, and impossibly calm.

Their eyes no longer burned with fire or fear—but glinted with an earthen stillness, as though their very souls had touched the core of Aetheris and refused to look away.

Kaelen stepped forward first, his once-vibrant stride now replaced by a weighty grace. Each movement of his limbs felt… anchored, as if the ground listened to his presence.

His clothes were ragged, his skin caked in dried sweat and blood, yet his back was straight and his eyes—those deep, light-blue eyes—held a calm that was not there before.

Kelvin followed, silent, expression unreadable. His fists were clenched, but not in tension—more like he was holding something within. The air around him felt heavier, denser. His breath didn't mist, didn't stir, didn't break. He simply was—and that presence pressed down on everything near him.

Ethan came last. Unlike the others, he stumbled slightly… but caught himself with a deep breath. His goofy grin was gone. In its place was a firm, tempered expression—not joyless, but focused.

Even the ground beneath their feet trembled slightly with each step they took outside the Circle.

Naena took one long, measuring look at them.

"You endured it."

She didn't say it as praise. She said it like an ancient judge acknowledging a rite fulfilled. Her sharp silver eyes narrowed.

"You didn't just survive… You resonated. You merged."

Lila stepped closer, her light brown eyes glued to Kaelen.

"What happened in there…?"

Kaelen didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked down at his palm and slowly closed it into a fist.

"I sank," he said quietly.

"I fell through myself. Into every doubt. Every memory. And the deeper I sank, the heavier it became… until I reached a place where nothing moved. Not pain. Not time. Just silence."

Kelvin, arms folded, added in his usual monotone.

"The earth doesn't care who you are. It doesn't judge. But if you try to escape its weight… it breaks you."

Ethan let out a breath. "It was hell," he admitted, rubbing his shoulder. "But it taught me something. The mountain doesn't move for you. You move with it."

Morris muttered under his breath, "They're different."

And he wasn't wrong.

Even the way Kaelen blinked now seemed… slower, more grounded. Kelvin's usual restrained fury had cooled into something deeper. Ethan, often the one to joke, now stood quiet, a flicker of humility on his face that hadn't been there before.

Naena walked up to them, the hem of her robe dragging softly across the mossy floor. She circled them slowly, feeling with her spiritual sense, the raw weight of their internal changes.

"Your spiritual roots have thickened," she said.

"Your Qi has stabilized into a sedimentary flow—compressed, layered, slow to rouse… but impossible to sway once active."

She touched Kaelen's chest briefly with her finger. A dull thrum echoed in response, like knocking on buried stone.

"Your foundations are now steeped in the will of Earth. It is no longer just a path you follow. It is part of you now."

She turned to the rest of the group—Guinevere, Lila, Morris, and the others watching with tense curiosity.

"This is why the Sacred Paths are trained one at a time. The resonance must be given space to settle... otherwise, the soul fractures."

She looked back to Kaelen, Kelvin, and Ethan.

"You three will not train again for a while. Your spirits must rest, like the earth after a landslide. Meditate, integrate. And listen. The earth speaks slowly—but it never lies."

Later that morning, as the others prepared to continue their own routines, Kaelen sat quietly beneath a dying tree. Its branches were twisted and frail, but its roots ran deep.

He placed his hand upon the soil. It vibrated faintly.

He could feel it.

The land.

The weight of time.

The memories of battles and peace alike, etched deep in the dirt like ancient scars.

Kelvin sat not far from him, cross-legged, eyes shut.

Ethan rested with his back to a boulder, his breathing synced with the wind, silent and calm.

The Path of Still Earth had left a mark on them—but more than that… it had given them a new center. A new foundation. Something unshakable.

And from here on… they will use this foundation to reach lengths they hadn't thought was possible for them.