Ascension of the immortal Asura

John felt a strange energy wrap around himself as he suddenly found himself floating in an empty white void. Every direction was just filled with nothingness. However, the space was lit, as if there was light coming from every direction.

Despite seemingly being in an empty void, John found himself standing on solid ground.

A strange energy washed over him again, reminding John of what Miko told him. He felt the energy scan all the parts of his body, as if it was taking a note of his strength, talent, combat skills, and much much more.

John felt the energy wash over his both his essence dantian and body dantian. It paused for a moment on his essence dantian, but skipped over his body dantian, as if it couldn't notice it.

'Even something as amazing as this trial can't detect it? Just what is this sphere's origins?'

The energy finished washing over John, as if it had completed its inspection of him. A shadowed figure suddenly began to materialize in the void, sending John into high alert. The figure was similar to what Miko had initially described, at which point Miko was forced to learn a technique from it.

Suddenly, four flashes of light appeared before John, before quickly fading. The flashes revealed four different weapons, which hung in the void directly in front of him.

The weapons were a pair of gauntlets, a large battle hammer, a large, two handed, two sided battle axe, and a saber.

John frowned as he stared at the weapons. He sent his divine sense to bring out his ancient sword, but was surprised to find that he could not do so. There seemed to be some restrictions on accessing his sword.

John stared at the sword, and the shadowed figure, who stood there silently. After some time, John came to a conclusion as to what was going on.

"I guess that energy scanned my body, and came to the conclusion that these weapons suit me the best. I suppose I'll have to pick one," John murmured out loud.

While he did not really want to learn another weapon other than his scythe, John had come to the conclusion a while ago that it was not the perfect weapon for him. The scythe focused on speed and sharpness, but not power.

While his immense essence power was able to unleash incredibly sharp and agile attacks, he was leaving half of his power behind by not utilizing the full power of his body, as scythes could not fully utilize power. Not only that, but scythes were quite hard to come by, both in weapons and techniques.

'My Divine Reaping Scythe is far too profound and powerful to stop using, but it's only good through the Core Formation Realm, at which point I'll have to find another technique, or the second part of it. I suppose having a backup weapon to fully take advantage of my powerful body isn't such a bad thing. If I can switch out between precision and power in battles that most suit that aspect, that would greatly boost my combat power.'

John had intensively studied weapon theory back in his early days, and had become comfortable with many weapons. These weapons included a battle axe and a saber, both of which he found quite easy and straightforward to use.

'I can utilize both my scythe and another weapon I suppose. My scythe when speed and sharpness is required, while another weapon when raw power is required.'

John's eyes locked once again on the weapons in front of him.

'The gauntlets are quite nice, but the power they give is not worth the range that is lost. Not only that, but my fists are basically gauntlets themselves, so its mostly a waste. The battle hammer is also nice, and would be the best for sheer power, but I don't really like its simple combat style.'

John's eyes locked onto the battle axe and the saber, both in which he had trained with as a youth. He had confidence in wielding both, as he had solid fundamentals with them. If this trial was similar to Miko's, then John would have to emulate whatever the shadow figure taught him. Doing so with a weapon most familiar to him would be the easiest way to do so.

'A saber is more powerful than a sword, but less powerful in pure attack power than a two handed battle axe. If I'm going for a weapon to maximize my attack power, then I should choose the axe.'

Not only was the axe an incredibly powerful weapon, it was also the most similar to his scythe in terms of how to wield it. Its handle length was similar, and both the scythe and the battle axe had its blade concentrated at the far end of the handle. This would make it much easier to grasp the concepts of using it than compared to gauntlets or a saber.

John's hand reached out and grabbed the two handed battle axe. The handle of the battle axe was five feet long, and had fantastic silver runes carved all along its black handle. The one side of the axe was an incredibly sharp and large crescent blade, a few feet across, also containing small runes carved into its surface. Small gold and red trimmings lined the blade, making it look quite impressive.

The other side had a smaller yet sharper protrusion, acting as a small counterbalance to the large crescent blade.

The weight of the axe quickly overwhelmed his one hand, forcing him to grab it with both hands to stabilize it.

"How heavy!"

The battle ax was almost as heavy as the ancient sword, although it was only a Core Formation grade weapon. However, it felt completely natural in his hands, as if he had found the perfect weapon. It was similar to when he first noticed and picked up a scythe, although in a different way.

He swung it out a few times, testing the power of the axe. The air rippled from the force of each blow, despite it only being a brute force attack. John's face lit up as he tested the weapon, truly appreciating its power.

'With this, I can fully unleash the true strength of my body!'

John's thoughts were interrupted as the shadowed figure finally moved. A massive two handed, two sided battle ax suddenly appeared in the shadowed figure's hands. The figure raised the battle axe, and it began to emit an incredible battle aura.

John's eyes focused on the shadow figure, and its weapon, as he prepared to tackle the first trial of the fifth arch. He felt a strange aura wrap around him, pressing down on him by the second.