Lind felt severely disoriented. He had never felt such from a teleportation even as a Soul Realm.
Random noise and lights blurred the world for him until a honk from a car snapped him awake. He looked around as he stood on a sidewalk next to an intersection of a city.
Skyscrapers of steel and glass made tears form as cars blew down the streets far above the speed limit but he did not care. He recognized it all!
He was ho! Earth! He was back on Earth!
He would know it anywhere but he was not in his old body. His deeply tanned skin, long erald hair, and reptilian eyes were normal. Yet, no one seed to mind.
What was going on?
He also saw flying objects that were closer to artifacts than planes or so kind of car.
So were big enough to be a sedan while others were little more than flying pods. The incongruity of his own mories and what he saw left him questioning if he really was on Earth but any doubt was dashed as he saw so teenagers whizzing by.
They had on tee shirts and baggy shorts with well known logos of both apparel and sports teams he knew very well. Had the trial based itself on his mories? It was hard to tell due to Divine grade anything could feel indistinguishable from reality if it really put its all into it.
He was about to see who he could talk to when he slowed down again. He really looked at the buildings and sothing bothered him. It took awhile but he realized that while he was definitely in a city, it was none he could recall ever being in.
The odds of it all being an illusion increased until a floating panel appeared in front of his eyes.
{Divine Lord Candidate Trial duration currently 13 years, 5 months, and 3 days.}
{Candidates progression: Stalled at 13%}
{Trial of Dying World}
{Divine Lord Candidates must investigate the cause of the planet Earth's dwindling vitality and fortune. If current trends continue, all life will be extinguished in less than 200 years.}
{Once cause found, Candidates must resolve at least one facet without disrupting the current fate of the residents of the planet Earth.}
{Civilization: Post collapse of previous leading powers. Wars ravaged most of the planet and half the population was wiped out by battles, famine, and disease.}
That made Lind freeze. In his mories, that was all too possible a future of his old ho. It made him worried about George, his mother, and a few others that still flitted through his mind when he rembered those tis.
He looked around and understood. The itch of familiar and unfamiliar resolved. The illusion used his mory as–
His thoughts froze as he scrolled back up to the top. Running for 13 years?! It was already going before he arrived and others were there! They had to be!
"Another reincarnator? I an I know a lot ca from Earth but what are the odds they could beco a True Lord as well?" Lind spoke aloud as he recalled the rather extre conditions to be t to go from a human to a beast let alone beco a True Lord.
Dragons were harsh enough but the other races were not much kinder to the process.
There was a little more to the panel so he chose to finish it off.
{Cooperation is not prohibited but evaluation may drop if one mber contributes more than others.}
Lind smiled at that as clearly Older Twin knew the nature of so to rely on others to get the hard work done and swoop in to take credit as a group.
{Trial deadline: 157 years - July 27th, 2195}
Lind felt his limbs go numb. Quick math told him that made the current year 2038! He was not even dead a full 3 decades! His mom could be alive!
He tried to fly only to nearly stumble as gravity did not even budge. Transformation and other abilities were also sealed away. Yet, it was not so much a matter of being restricted as a complete and total lack of Qi he could use.
He could faintly feel a trace of diluted mortal Qi but that was all.
Could he access his ring? Lind went to glance at his hand and froze again. The ring was gone!
It had been on his right hand for so long, even in the Radiant Tier, it had still felt like it was there. Now, however, it was truly gone. He felt no connection to Haro and it bothered him imnsely.
He looked around at the unfamiliar city and sighed. He knew he had so context now so he first had to find out where he was and see if they still used money or so other form of currency to get around.
It was possible he would need to eat and sleep for the trial duration.
He was about to cross the street when a familiar scene ca to him. A woman with a small toddler was distracted as a man easily snatched her purse away. She hadn't even noticed but others had.
He could almost read their minds as they debated calling out but others quickly looked away. Ti had advanced but humans stayed the sa.
Lind was about to act when a teenager whipped around the corner of the intersection on a bicycle and was heading right for the kneeling woman.
The cliche made his teeth ache but while his more fantastical abilities might be sealed away, his body was still the honed machine he had made it.
The sidewalk cent cracked slightly as Lind put maybe 10% of his strength and speed into his movent. The purse vanished from the robber's grasp while the man himself only felt a pinch at the back of neck before the world went dark.
The teenager's blue eyes beca clear as they turned saucer shaped. He could not brake in ti nor swerve without hitting soone, yet the world slowed for him.
His black back pack seed to keep moving forward but the teenager and bike did not. They had co to a complete stop without endangering anyone.
Just as confusion spread on his freckled face, Lind slowed down enough to be seen again. The boy flinched but nothing else. Lind found that reaction odd.
"There is a clear bike lane on the street. Use it." His words were short and to the point. The boy quickly nodded and went on his way. The woman looked up in surprise before her toddler pointed at Lind and smiled.
"Beast man!" His mother paled and now the crowd finally reacted to him yet it was odd. They were not afraid of him before but they were now.
He calmly glanced around before slowly walking to the woman. She was shivering but he smiled and held out her purse.
"I understand toddlers can be a handful but be mindful of your surroundings. The world is not a kind place." She looked at the gray leather purse in his hands and at his reptilian eyes. The distraction let her child grasp Lind's robes and laugh as he pointed up at him.
"Beast man!" Lind smiled and patted the small head of dark brown hair and nodded.
"Indeed, you are partly right. I am a beast but I was also a man. Have you t others like ?" The boy smiled and shook his head. Lind felt the silence from the crowd was a bit heavy. "Would it help if I said I would never harm the child?"
He looked at the adults and they all flinched. Clearly it would not.
He sighed before gently picking up the boy and putting both the boy and purse in the woman's hands.
"May I at least know if I am in the USA or Canada?" Given the use of English, he placed odds on either one. The nas made the crowd mood shift suddenly again. Instead of fear, there was now true confusion.
"Um–ah–How do you know those nas?" A young woman, maybe mid-twenties at best with dirty blonde hair stepped forward. She had on blue jeans with a dark gray blouse and black tube top. Her slim body belied the well muscled power he could feel.
She moved smoothly, as if used to combat and Lind knew it was real combat. Her ability to speak to him spoke volus with the dead silence of everyone else.
"It might sound absurd but a long ti ago I was born, lived, and died as an Arican." He went with blunt truth. He wanted to see how they would react.
He was not disappointed. The woman looked at him as if he was insane. So, Lind chose to list off every sports team he had ever followed as well as George's favorite ani, manga, and however many other fandoms the man had tried to get him to enjoy.
While popular things might be easy to recognize, more than half of what he said clearly went over her head, but another in the crowd reacted.
"You know about mobile suits?!" An older man with a lot of white in his hair ca forward. His face placed him in the early to mid fifties but his shirt said his soul was forever young. A mobile suit face plate was faded but clear on his dark shirt.
Lind smiled and pointed at the shirt.
"That should be from Unicorn, right?" Lind had not ntioned that one before and the man nodded before the expected geek out occurred. George was extre but he was far from alone.
The interaction actually cald the crowd and Lind finally felt the tension fade. He even laughed as he could not keep up with the older man.
There were also a few more fans of other ani or manga that joined in and he finally felt convinced. He was not in an illusion. He was on Earth. He had sohow co ho!
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