SSS Demon King System: The Rise of a Dying Extra-Chapter 43: Opening the Temple.

The old planks of the temple creaked with each step.

Both sisters advanced holding hands, while approaching their destination.

Sköll could notice Hati’s hand trembled a bit, it was rare for her sister to show fear, though that made Sköll feel even more determined.

"Are we really going to give them what they want?" Hati asked in a low voice. She preferred to die before her mother’s assassins got their way. "Besides, will we even be able to do it?"

The girl lowered her gaze.

Just a moment ago, Sköll had convinced the Assassin Guild members that they couldn’t pass with them.

The blonde had said something about "Ki contamination," but it sounded like a made-up story.

Hati knew when her sister was lying.

However, she also knew when Sköll was happy or excited; and right now she seemed to be.

She wagged her tail happily and her ears were raised.

That made Hati feel more secure.

But how was that possible in that situation?

Did Sköll have a plan?

"You trust me, those fools will get what they deserve," Sköll said with a proud smile.

Hati didn’t know what to believe, but she wasn’t going to argue. If there was hope, she would take it firmly without hesitation.

"Alright, this is the place," Sköll said.

In front of the girls was a large stone door, which had grooves carved with the symbol of a sun being covered by the moon.

An eclipse.

There were also two totems.

They were two small stone columns that held a sculpture: one of a sun, and the other held a moon.

Sköll extended her arms toward the sun.

"Alright, Hati, you must concentrate and shut off your senses to be able to feel your internal energy. When you do, you must move that energy through your body and expel it toward the column," Sköll recited, more than advice, they seemed like instructions recited from memory.

Which was true since those were the instructions Lloyd had given Sköll.

Lloyd had taught her to move her energy.

Though the fact of having to expel her Ki toward the totem was something she deduced.

Sköll’s tail moved with joy while she internally reveled in her own intelligence.

"Alright," Hati said with conviction.

She would trust her sister.

She began the process.

Ki is very similar to mixing two chemical substances.

Prana is an enhancer, while spiritual energy serves to dilute prana, too energetic and unstable to be used in its natural state.

That’s how Ki is born.

To absorb prana, someone must learn to use celestial breathing: the ability to absorb prana through breathing.

This is something that takes many years, but priestesses learn to do it from birth.

Both girls had Ki. Hati only had to learn to expel it, something that should also take time.

She did it in nine minutes.

Ki began to be absorbed by the statues, being channeled toward the center.

There, it would collide.

Unlike spiritual energy, it’s not possible to mix the Ki of two different people.

That’s because each person will have a determined amount of prana and spiritual energy according to certain factors.

Mixing them would alter the perfect balance between Ki and spiritual energy that the individual had achieved.

However, Hati and Sköll don’t have that problem.

They were born the same day, so they have a similar amount of prana.

And they are sisters, so their spiritual engine, while of opposite nature, generates energy similarly.

Moreover, performing that ritual was their destiny, so it was normal that in their case it would work.

They had compatible Ki, which allowed fusing Yin Yang natures into one.

The energy that filtered into the door’s symbol, which began to turn red, with black details; it was ecliptic Ki.

The doors began to tremble, moving little by little, it was working.

Sköll and Hati noticed how their energy was drained with increasing force.

Soon, their legs weakened until they could barely hold them up, their vision became blurry... But they didn’t give up. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

They expelled their energy, more and more, until practically nothing remained.

The two girls fell unconscious, while the half-open door began to close again.

But it never closed, ominous hands of darkness held the heavy stones.

The door couldn’t close, not yet.

"Good work," a voice said in the temple.

From Sköll’s shadow a hooded subject had emerged, whose eyes glowed an intense green upon seeing the temple was open.

[New Mission: Complete Siegfried’s trial]

[Reward: primordial fire embers - 25,000 V.P - Gleipnir.]

[Penalty: eternal suffering]

Lloyd stroked his chin.

Siegfried didn’t just belong to Norse mythology, he was also a character in the story that preceded Tales of Avalon.

"I should hurry," the boy said.

The door was about to close.

The young man advanced quickly, however, looking at Hati, he raised his hand.

The gluttony mud enveloped her for an instant, he had just devoured her curse.

"Alright, now yes, let’s go in," the boy approached the door, passing sideways through the small gap there was.

Good thing he was thin.

When Lloyd was inside, the hands gave way, letting the doors close violently.

"Most surely a quite large amount of Ki is needed to keep them open," Lloyd commented to himself.

However, that wasn’t bad. The girls would be safe even if the Assassin Guild entered.

They would reach the same conclusion as him, so they wouldn’t kill them.

"Well, it’s time to start the trial, I wonder what it will be."

The boy began to walk. He had entered what seemed like a rocky corridor, however, he couldn’t see very far, since a thick fog blocked the view.

The boy continued straight for a few minutes, noticing how it began to get colder and colder.

Soon he came out of the fog, encountering an unexpected landscape.

It was a large snowy prairie, strong gales lashed his body and made his cloak wave.

The boy felt how the cold grew more and more.

But something caught his attention.

A silhouette blurred by the strong snowy weather, like the shadow of armor.

This figure fixed on him, with a penetrating gaze.

Lloyd activated the eye of envy...

A small "splat" sounded then.

Where Lloyd had been, now lay a puddle of blood and flesh.

The small member of the Kaitos family didn’t even realize he had died.