Beast Taming: Reincarnated With The Ultimate Bond System!-Chapter 201 - : : Trial Of Burden- The Weights That Walks With You!
Not charging.
Walking.
Their steps were slow, deliberate, sand freezing briefly beneath their feet before cracking apart.
Shadows clung to them unnaturally, stretching wrong no matter where the light fell.
One raised an arm.
The membrane unfurled.
And a blade of condensed darkness ripped outward.
"Scatter!" Arisha shouted.
The wave tore through the space they’d been standing in, slicing sand, ice, and air alike.
Vaara stumbled back. "That wasn’t physical!"
Vegia lifted her staff. "Barrier—!"
The next shadow blade slammed into her shield, rippling the mana dome violently.
Selvara clicked her tongue. "Ranged."
Serica grinned thinly. "My favorite."
She sprinted forward anyway.
The nearest Dusk Render turned its head toward her.
Its mouth split open wider.
A scream poured out—not sound, but pressure. The air itself warped.
Serica skidded to a halt, teeth gritted. "That’s cheating!"
Thristle appeared beside her in a blur. "Then stop playing fair."
She hurled a punch.
It passed through the Render’s torso like smoke.
Thristle blinked. "...The hell?"
The Render retaliated instantly,
backhanding her with a membrane-blade.
Thristle flew, skidding across the sand.
"THRISTLE!" Vaara shouted.
She slammed her hands forward. "Freeze!"
Water condensed instantly around the
Render’s legs, ice racing upward.
The creature hissed, shadows recoiling.
"It reacts!" Vaara yelled. "Elemental pressure works!"
Arisha nodded. "Then don’t let up."
Vegia raised her wand high. "Light amplification!"
A pillar of warm golden light slammed down on the frozen Render, shadows burning away in hissing steam.
Serica took the opening.
She dashed in, blade glowing faintly as her tattoo flared fully alive.
She struck not the body—
—but the shadow beneath it.
The blade bit deep.
The Render convulsed, shrieked silently, and collapsed inward, folding into itself before evaporating entirely.
Serica exhaled. "Shadow-bound core. Got it."
Selvara reappeared beside her. "Three more."
The remaining three Dusk Renders spread out, coordinating now.
One lifted both arms.
The sand beneath Arisha liquefied, dragging her leg down.
She grimaced. "They’re manipulating terrain."
Thristle was already back on her feet, shaking sand from her hair. "Rude."
She slammed her fist into the ground.
A shockwave rippled outward, breaking the sand’s grip on Arisha.
Selvara dashed past them, tekko-kagi glowing brighter. "I’ll take left."
She leapt.
Mid-air, she twisted, driving both blades into the Render’s chest—
—and this time they stuck.
The creature screamed, shadows tearing apart as Selvara wrenched the weapons outward, ripping its core free in a burst of dark mist.
"That’s two," She said calmly.
The third Render retreated, raising both arms—
Vaara cut in sharply. "No you don’t."
She raised one hand, fingers trembling.
All remaining moisture in the air rushed toward her.
A single, compressed sphere formed.
She whispered, "I want this done."
She released it.
The pressure blast slammed into the Render like a hammer, crushing its shadow inward.
Vegia followed immediately. "Seal!"
Runes wrapped the collapsing creature.
Serica finished it with a clean decapitation through the shadow plane.
After that, they finished of the last one.
Silence fell.
Ten bodies dissolved.
Sand settled again.
Auroras shimmered lazily overhead.
Thristle dropped onto her back in the sand.
"Okay. That was rude."
Serica sat beside her. "But faster."
Vaara collapsed down too, staring at the sky. "I’m done. I want him. Now."
Vegia leaned on her staff, smiling tiredly. "We’re adapting."
Arisha sheathed her sword. "And so are they. Which means the next wave—"
The system chimed again.
---
[WAVE COMPLETE]
[REWARD PROCESSING...]
---
Thristle groaned. "If it says ’next wave’ again, I swear—"
Warm light began to gather.
Vegia smiled faintly. "At least the healing part is nice."
Serica glanced toward the horizon, expression softening just a fraction. "Hurry up, Child Of Prophecy."
Vaara whispered, almost to herself. "We’re waiting."
The desert listened.
And somewhere beyond it, the dungeon adjusted—preparing something even worse.
---
The path narrowed, shadows thickening like spilled ink.
Lanterns dimmed to embers, casting long, wavering fingers across the bazaar’s fading edges.
A voice whispered from the shadows—sultry, ancient, laced with promise.
"Choose."
Aiden stopped dead, heart thudding. "Choose what?"
Three doors slid into existence from the mist, silent as ghosts.
No labels. Just symbols etched deep into ancient wood.
A chain, coiled and unforgiving.
A mirror, cracked and reflective.
An open hand, palm up, inviting.
The system chimed again, cold and impartial.
---
[TRIAL COMMENCEMENT IMMINENT.]
---
Aiden exhaled slowly, breath fogging in the cooling air. "You really don’t waste time."
He looked at the doors, weighing them.
"Let me guess," He muttered under his breath. "Each one costs something. Everything always does."
The whisper answered, closer now, brushing against his ear like warm silk. "Everything costs something."
"Choose wisely... or don’t," She purred.
He glanced back at the bazaar one last time—at the endless stalls hawking forbidden desires, the trapped smiles of merchants eternally bargaining, the bottled moments of ecstasy and agony glowing in glass vials.
"...Yeah," He said quietly, voice rough.
His eyes settled on the open hand.
Aiden stepped forward, resolve hardening.
His palm pressed into the symbol carved into the door.
It was warm. Not comforting—alive, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The bazaar vanished in a blink.
No sound.
No lanterns.
No stalls.
Only stillness, absolute and oppressive.
Then—
The world fell away, plummeting into void.
He stood on cracked black earth stretching endlessly in all directions. No horizon. No sky to break the monotony.
Above him hung a dim, colossal light—like a sun long past dying, suspended in place, flickering faintly with the last gasps of life.
The air was heavy. Not thick—burdened, as if the void itself carried regrets.
Fluffynugget fluttered once in panic, tiny wings beating frantically, then settled onto his shoulder, unusually quiet, trembling slightly.
The blue-skinned woman was still there, but... different now.
Her teasing smile gone, replaced by something solemn, almost reverent.
Aiden exhaled slowly, rolling his neck. "So this is it."
The system spoke—not cold this time.
Measured.
Almost... respectful.
---
[TRIAL OF BURDENS INITIATED]
[ONLY THOSE WHO WALK FOR OTHERS MAY PROCEED]
[STRENGTH IS IRRELEVANT]
---
Aiden rolled his shoulders, feeling the first stirrings of weight. "Figures. Not about power. About what you carry."
The ground shifted beneath his boots, rumbling like a distant quake.
Cracks widened into fissures, glowing faintly.
Chains burst upward from the depths.
Not metal—ethereal, transparent, shimmering like light shaped into restraint, heavy with unspoken meaning.
One wrapped around his wrist, cool at first, then warming.
Another around his ankle, tugging gently.
Then his torso, coiling across his chest, pressing against his ribs.
They didn’t bite or cut.
They pressed. Inward. Into the soul.
Aiden took one step forward.
His boot sank slightly into the cracked earth, as if the ground resisted.
"...Heavier," He muttered, grunting.
The woman glanced at him, her bare breasts rising with a deep breath, eyes locked on his straining form. "It will get worse. Much worse."
"Good," Aiden replied through gritted teeth, a faint smirk.
Stone plinths rose from the ground ahead of him, ancient and weathered.
Four of them, arranged in a solemn arc.
Each carried something floating above it—ethereal orbs pulsing with light.
Not objects.
Concepts made manifest, heavy as worlds.
The first shimmered crimson, dripping illusory blood.
---
BURDEN I — FEAR OF LOSS
---
The weight pulsed, slamming into him like a wave.
And the world broke open.
Visions assaulted him—vivid, painful.
Leona laughed joyfully, her wings fluttering clumsily as she ran toward him across a sunlit field.
Behind her, Liri followed, holding a bouquet of wildflowers in both hands, smiling too wide, eyes sparkling.
Noir stood a little apart, hesitant at first... then smiled warmly when she saw him, running to join.
Then—
Ash. Flames. Screams echoing in silence.
All three froze mid-motion.
Cracked like fragile porcelain.
Fell apart like burned paper, scattering into the void.
The weight trembled through the chains, vibrating into his bones.
A voice whispered—not the system.
Something closer, intimate, cruel.
"You’re afraid. Terrified."
Aiden swallowed hard, throat dry.
"You fight because you fear losing them. Every battle, every risk—driven by that coward’s fear."
The chains tugged gently, offering slack—as if inviting release.
"Drop this."
"Fear weakens resolve. It makes you hesitate."
The plinth cracked slightly, the orb dimming, tempting.
Aiden clenched his fists until knuckles whitened.
"...Yeah," He said quietly, voice steady despite the ache. "I’m afraid. Every damn day."
The woman beside him watched carefully.
He stepped forward despite the pull.
The chains pulled harder, digging in.
---
Parallel Baazar
The moment their’s fingers brushed the silk curtain of the stall, the world folded.
Not collapsed.
Not shattered.
Folded—like fabric being drawn inward.
The lantern light dimmed, stretched thin, then snapped.
All of them felt it.
The bond tugged—not painful, but wrong, like a thread pulled too far.
"Wait—!" Nyxion started to say.
The stall door closed.
And the bazaar vanished.
---
Moonlight.
Cold. Blue. Endless.
Luna stood there, alone.
No bazaar. No lanterns. No incense.
Just a vast forest of silver-barked trees stretching forever beneath a full moon that hung too low in the sky, as if watching her.
---
END OF Chapter : TRIAL OF BURDEN- THE WEIGHTS THAT WALKS WITH YOU!
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