*Auren Valemir*
The door closed behind him with a soft thud. The sound echoed like a cage sealing shut.
He didn't flinch. At first, the room felt… empty, to say the least, like a gentle wave. But then came the shift, like water creeping up his legs—cold, invisible, inescapable.
He blinked, and the world changed. Now he was watching. From the outside.
A child—no older than seven—was wandering down a crooked path, half-buried under red mist and knotted roots. His hair was lighter back then, and his expression was far more open. Curious. Stupid.
Auren recognized it immediately. The Forbidden Glen. A cursed section of the Valemir family woods, marked off by old runes that bordered the unkept lands. He hadn't known what it was back then. He'd just been bored.
He watched the boy walk—watched himself—step across a twisted vine, pause, then kneel to poke at a glowing fungus like it was some rare flower. The child didn't notice the shift in the air. The slight color change.
But he did. The older Auren, the one viewing, tensed. And then they appeared.
Three robed figures, faces obscured, hovering just above the moss. They circled the boy until one of them spoke. Their voices were soft and clinical.
"A rare-blood." Then another
"Already resonating. Early maturation…", and another
"Harvest soon, before it stabilizes."
The boy turned, confused.
"...Huh?"
Auren didn't move. He couldn't. He wanted to scream at the kid to run. To move. But the boy didn't hear him. Couldn't.
One of the figures knelt, pulling out a vial. Another unrolled a scroll etched in rust-colored sigils. The third moved closest, raising a curved, needle-like blade.
Auren felt it then. A sharpness. Not physical. Deeper.
A tear inthe presence. The boy screamed—but it was muted. Not real. The older Auren watched, frozen. Still third person. Still disconnected. But then something cracked.
It wasn't the illusion. It was him.
His fingers twitched. His breath hitched.
And he realized—
—he wasn't just watching.
He was there.
And the child on the ground… was still him.
"No—no. No. I'm not that kid anymore. I'm not—"
But the pain bled in anyway. The blade had already touched skin. They were speaking words he didn't understand—but felt. Like commands carved into his spine.
Auren staggered back.
The third-person view was shattered.
He was in the memory now.
Seven years old. Terrified. Powerless.
And then—
A flash of something cold.
His hand burned. Black-red threads flickered up his arm. And a voice—not his—growled:
"You are Auren. Not an ingredient."
He gasped. The illusion cracked again.
The figures dissolved like smoke.
The trees melted into white.
The air returned.
Auren was standing in the test room again. His knees were still shaking from the fear and fright, but he was different now. His eyes glowed red. He was focused. Luckily, he had not lost too much of himself in the illusion.
He exhaled slowly, steadily.
"Still mine," he whispered. "This body… this blood. It's still mine." And in the corner of the room, for just a second, some spilled blood from his skin escaped and curled into a smile.
*Third-Person POV*
"I'll go next, sir."
"Then after him I'll..."
Voices started going up one after the other, and the number of passing people started to increase, little by little, until...
"I'll go next, Sir."
"I'll go next, Sir."
Two voices spoke in perfect sync, Shiriah and Piera had said the same line at the exact same time.
*Shiriah's POV*
{Pipe down and let him take this chance if you don't want the future to slip out of your hands. Pre} Fu said, her voice laced with uncertainty and confusion
{This moment just now never happened.}
"I'll pass, sir, he can go."
{Thank Goodness you did not do anything stupid.}
*Third-Person POV*
Piera opened the door, not knowing what that door would lead him to, or what it would remind him.
Whoosh
Piera was transported through time, as he found himself sitting around his brother's birthday cake with my sister and parents. He blinked, and then suddenly there blood all over, as his house was transformed to rubble, and he remembered... The one that made him the way he was- Hao Jun.
After Piera's trial of will, the remaining turns took around 3 hours. Soon after, the exam was over, and then Fiel Dunmann disappeared, and to the surprise of the students there was someone else behind him.
"My name is Kaelyra Mondrel, and I'll be managing the next exam. Nice to meet you all." She said with a huge smile on her face.