Chapter 14 – The Rising Storm: Dominion Trials
Scene One: After the Match
The skies over Aflety darkened not with clouds, but with the heaviness of rumors.
The draw between Aflety and Silvaris Academy was the only match that hadn't ended with a decisive winner—yet it was the one everyone was talking about. Not because of who won or lost, but because of what had awakened in the arena that day.
Spirit Resonance.
A sacred state of unity between Tamer and Beast. A state only theorized to appear in battlefields, in life-or-death situations. The fact that a student, a first-year, had achieved it with a still-growing Divine Beast?
It shook the very foundations of noble tradition.
And it terrified them.
Scene Two: A Letter Made Public
In the Rochel estate within the capital, a group of powerful nobles surrounded an aged parchment, recently displayed in the Empire's monthly political digest. It was stamped with the Imperial Seal, bearing the signature of the Emperor himself:
"Let it be known across the Four Realms, that Evan Rochel, son of the Rochel family, bearer of a Divine Beast, and possessor of extraordinary potential, is hereby recognized as the candidate heir to the position of Commander of the Imperial Beast Guard."
The words were like a blade drawn in court.
Duke Farengar Valmont, head of a rising faction opposing the Emperor, stood slowly, his expression unreadable.
"We cannot allow a boy—no matter how talented—to rise unchecked," he said coldly. "Especially one with bloodline ties to the Forbidden Lineage."
"The Basilisk?" another noble asked.
"No," Farengar replied. "The one who controls it."
Scene Three: The Calm Before the Next Trial
Back at Aflety Academy, Evan sat beneath the same willow tree where he had first bonded with Nex. The serpent lay curled beside him, eyes closed, basking in the moonlight.
Silva, Gareth, and Lilith joined him one by one. None of them spoke for a while. The weight of the Emperor's declaration still loomed large.
Silva was the first to break the silence. "You've changed. Since the last battle."
"I didn't mean to," Evan said softly. "It just… happened."
"That was Spirit Resonance, Evan," Lilith said. "A bond so rare, even among royal tamers, that some scholars believed it to be a myth. You awakened it without a life-threatening trigger."
Gareth grunted. "And now everyone either wants you as an ally… or a corpse."
Evan didn't flinch. "Let them try."
Lilith hesitated before speaking again. "The Emperor's letter. Did you accept it?"
"…No," Evan said. "Not yet."
"But you will," she said quietly.
Evan nodded. "When the time is right."
Scene Four: The Black Nest Moves
Deep beneath the academy, in caverns lost to most maps, a group of cloaked figures gathered around an ancient altar. A blue flame hovered above them, pulsing with necrotic energy.
At its center stood a tall man, clad in black and silver. A white porcelain mask concealed his face.
Shade Cardinal.
"The resonance has begun," he said. "The Basilisk awakens faster than expected. The Fourth Spark is more than a spark—he's a wildfire."
One of the cloaked figures kneeled. "Should we intervene during the Dominion Trials?"
"No," Shade Cardinal said. "Let the children fight. Let the Empire grow drunk on their talent. And when the world looks away…"
He turned toward the flame.
"We'll cut off its heart."
Scene Five: Announcing the Dominion Trials
At the academy's central tower, Grandmaster Gawain summoned the students with urgency. Trumpets rang, magic orbs flashed, and students filled the open courtyard beneath the ancient Tree of Aether.
Gawain stood tall, his beast—Titanus, the Divine Ironhide Lion—looming beside him.
"The time has come," he began. "The final phase of this friendly tournament will begin in one week's time. You shall enter the Dominion Trials—a set of challenges forged by the Twelve Elemental Lords, hidden within the underground labyrinths of the Ancients."
An audible gasp moved through the crowd.
"Only the strongest will emerge. And this time… alliances may be formed. Or broken."
He looked directly at Evan.
"In this place, there are no rules. Only survival."
Perfect. Here is:
Chapter 14 – The Rising Storm: Dominion Trials
Part 2 – Into the Elemental Labyrinth
Scene One: Descent Into the Unknown
One week later, the moon hovered full and cold over Aflety Academy.
At the southern end of the campus, past the Beast Sanctum and beneath the Hall of Twelve Sigils, lay a sealed gate of obsidian—ancient, rune-etched, and thrumming with magic so old even the professors treated it with reverence.
It was said that beneath this gate was the Elemental Labyrinth, a trial zone created by the combined powers of the ancient founders of Aflety—twelve Archlords who had each mastered an elemental path and fused their legacies into a shifting maze.
Tonight, it would open again.
Hundreds of students gathered, teams already formed. Banners of various academies fluttered in the wind. Faculty members from the other schools stood as witnesses. Floating magical cameras hovered above the platform to broadcast the Dominion Trials to noble courts and guild halls across the Empire.
Evan stood at the edge of the descending platform. Silva stood to his left, her longbow etched with wind runes freshly carved. Gareth cracked his knuckles beside her, his fiery aura restrained but palpable.
And then Lilith appeared, dressed in ceremonial black and crimson—House Laistrygones' colors. Her crimson eyes shimmered with a quiet resolve.
"I'm going in with a different team this time," she said softly. "They want me to guide Prince Orivian from the Highland Academy."
Evan nodded. "Then stay sharp."
Lilith hesitated before reaching out, touching his sleeve. "And you… stay alive. You're not allowed to die before giving me an answer."
He blinked. But before he could speak, the platform beneath them began to descend.
Scene Two: The Trial of Nature and Metal
The first level of the labyrinth opened into a vast jungle made of living bronze. Trees shimmered with metallic leaves. Vines moved like snakes. Elemental creatures formed from ore and vine crept between trunks. The air was thick with mana.
A voice echoed through the air, disembodied but ancient:
"Trial One: The Grove of Gears."
"To proceed, your beasts must adapt. Your minds must solve. Survive. Or be consumed."
Silva drew her bow, scanning the terrain. "The trees are moving. This place is alive."
"No," Gareth muttered. "It's forged. Someone made this."
Evan's gaze sharpened. "This is the Trial of Nature and Metal—two opposing elements forced to coexist. The key here isn't destruction. It's balance."
From the shadows emerged their first enemies—Gilded Reavers, bronze-clad manticores with razor tails and obsidian fangs.
"Form up!" Evan ordered.
Nex surged forward, body low to the ground, his scales shifting shades in the labyrinth light. With a flick of his tail, a wave of dark water burst forward, drenching the first reaver in corrosive shadows.
Silva fired—wind-charged arrows sliced the creature's wings mid-leap.
Gareth met the second head-on, fists glowing like molten rock, punching the beast backward into a pile of bronze foliage that melted around it.
More emerged—ten, then fifteen. The grove became a battlefield.
Scene Three: Deeper Bonds, Subtle Changes
In the midst of battle, Nex suddenly stopped. He stared at one of the moving trees. His body coiled, protective. Defensive.
"Evan…" Silva shouted. "Behind you!"
But Evan didn't move. His eyes were locked with Nex's. A moment passed—and then Evan stepped forward.
A blade of bronze shot out of the tree toward him.
Nex lunged, wrapping his body around Evan, deflecting the strike with his armored tail.
I felt it, Evan thought. He was warning me… before it happened.
Not a command. Not even a shared instinct.
A preemptive reaction. A deeper bond than even Spirit Resonance.
He's evolving again, Evan realized. Even without fully changing forms… Nex is learning. Growing. Remembering?
Scene Four: Trial Completed, But Watched
With the Gilded Reavers destroyed and the shifting jungle calmed, the grove began to retract into itself. A glowing gate of green and silver appeared before the trio.
They had passed the first trial.
Before entering, Evan turned to Silva and Gareth. "Rest once we're inside the gate. The next zone won't be easier."
"You think anyone else made it through yet?" Gareth asked, wiping blood from his chin.
Silva shook her head. "Some will. The strong ones. Cassia. Veyon. Maybe even Lilith's team."
Evan stared back toward the jungle one last time. Deep in its shadowed edges, he'd sensed something watching. Not a beast. Not part of the trial.
Something else.
Scene Five: Shade Cardinal's Pawn
Elsewhere in the labyrinth, within a twisted zone where the elements of Time and Darkness bent the world into looping corridors and endless shadows, a figure in a dark student uniform walked alone.
His eyes glowed faintly red, but they did not blink.
Behind him trailed a mist. Inside it, barely visible, a serpentine shape coiled—something older than the trial, not a beast, not a god.
Above him, in a conjured mirror, Shade Cardinal watched from a hidden room.
"He's inside now," whispered a Black Nest agent. "The pawn is awakening."
Shade Cardinal folded his hands. "Then let the boy shine brighter. Let him draw every gaze. While our blade carves through the shadows."
Scene One: Second Trial – The Frostfire Dissonance
The glowing gate of green and silver faded behind Evan's group as they stepped into the next zone.
Instantly, a wave of biting cold clashed with searing heat, and the air itself cracked with imbalance.
The ground was split into two distinct halves:
One half blazed with rivers of molten fire and craggy obsidian ridges.
The other shimmered in icy plains, where frigid winds howled through glacial spires.
At the center of it all was a fractured elemental core, pulsing erratically—one half aflame, the other frozen.
"Trial Two: The Frostfire Dissonance," the ancient voice echoed.
"Balance the Core. Or perish within its chaos."
Silva immediately conjured wind wards to buffer the heat, while Gareth's body adapted instinctively to the fire. Evan stared at the elemental core, eyes narrowing.
"This isn't just about defense," he said. "We have to harmonize the imbalance."
"Easier said than done," Gareth growled. "The second we move, we'll be roasted or frozen."
Evan stepped forward. Nex followed. The Divine Basilisk let out a strange, low hiss—and then, with a flick of his tail, he divided his body, one half coiling through the fire, the other slithering over the ice.
Dual element adaptation, Evan realized. He's changing again.
Scene Two: Lilith's Team – The Hidden Knife
Elsewhere in the labyrinth's second zone, Lilith guided her new team—Prince Orivian, his two elite guards, and a beast mage from the Highland Academy—across an icy ridge.
The group functioned with clinical efficiency. Prince Orivian's beast, a regal white lion with sapphire eyes, exhaled freezing breath to create walkways across frozen pits.
But Lilith's instincts screamed something was wrong.
Too smooth. Too silent.
"Stop," she said suddenly.
The beast mage behind her halted—but only for a second.
Then he moved.
A dagger flashed from his cloak. His beast—an obsidian wolf—snarled and lunged, heading not for her, but for Orivian.
"Traitor!" shouted one of the prince's guards.
Lilith reacted in a blur. With a blast of shadowflame, she twisted her body mid-air, intercepting the wolf with a chain of magic. Her fingers bled from the force, but her spell held.
The assassin sneered. "The Black Nest greets you, highborn."
Scene Three: Clash Beneath Twin Skies
Back in the Frostfire Dissonance zone, Evan and his team worked in synchronized harmony.
Nex extended twin elemental breaths—frost and flame, expertly braided. Silva used wind magic to bridge their power across the battlefield, while Gareth, half-encased in fire, stabilized the crumbling obsidian ledge supporting the core.
Evan stepped into the center and reached out to the fractured heart.
Let me in, he whispered—not with words, but with intention.
The core pulsed.
It was wild. Unstable. But… familiar.
Like him.
Two selves. Two pasts. Two elements. Trying to find balance.
He closed his eyes. A memory surged—of Earth, of a world without magic. Of a hospital bed and a sister he'd never save.
Then he remembered Nex's eyes that night. The Divine Beast had chosen him not because of strength… but because of the pain he'd hidden.
"I am both flame and frost," Evan whispered. "And I do not break."
The core stilled.
A brilliant wave of silver-blue and ember-red light burst out, bathing the trial in harmony.
Scene Four: Eyes in the Dark
Far above the labyrinth, the professors and nobles watched through floating scrying mirrors.
Gasps echoed as Evan's team completed the second trial faster than any other on record.
Professor Nyros whispered, "That boy… he's syncing with the very essence of the trials."
A tall man in the shadows—one not registered on the academy's faculty—smiled faintly.
His eyes were golden. His voice, ancient.
"Not syncing," he murmured. "He's waking it up."
Another observer, cloaked in green and silver, turned. "Shall I inform the Emperor?"
The golden-eyed man shook his head. "No. Let the world catch up on its own."
Scene Five: Fallout and Fractures
Lilith's team stumbled through the exit gate, scorched and bloody.
Prince Orivian clutched his side, bleeding from a deep wound. The traitor had been slain, but the message was clear.
Even inside Aflety's sacred trials, The Black Nest had infiltrated.
Lilith helped Orivian to a healer's station. As his guards stabilized him, he whispered, "They wanted to kill a prince… and frame you."
Lilith's eyes darkened. "They wanted to sow chaos between academies."
And then she looked at the glowing scry-mirrors.
Evan's name sat at the top of the leaderboard—again.
"Good," she whispered. "Let them all look at him. Because they're not watching me."
..,
Scene One: Third Trial – The Heart of the Labyrinth
The final gate opened with no flourish, no grand proclamation.
Instead, Evan, Silva, and Gareth stepped into a chamber so vast it made the earlier trials seem like antechambers. The space bent perception—a void lit by drifting orbs of elemental light and strands of floating stone bridges that led to a central platform, where a massive structure pulsed like a living heart.
"Trial Three: The Nexus Core."
"Your bond will be tested. Your beast's soul will be revealed."
"Only unity shall survive."
Nex's eyes gleamed as they met the pulsing Core.
And then the storm began.
Winds from every direction roared. Waves of elemental magic surged—flames, frost, lightning, earth, and void energy all clashing like a tempest caught mid-battle. The floating bridges crumbled and reformed at will, and on them, echoes began to form.
Not enemies.
Not monsters.
But themselves.
Evan blinked. Across the platform stood a mirror version of him, cloaked in regal armor, with Nex beside him—except this Nex was larger, darker, his eyes glowing violet with a twisted divine aura.
"A mirror trial?" Silva whispered.
"No," Evan muttered. "A convergence trial."
Scene Two: Battle of Self
The Mirror-Evan raised his hand—and the battle began.
Nex launched forward, splitting into two heads mid-air, his scales darkening to a shimmering black-blue. He collided with his counterpart in an explosion of magic. Water met shadow. Flame met frost. Divinity clashed with Divinity.
Silva and Gareth faced mirrored versions of themselves too—but warped, exaggerated. Gareth's reflection roared with unrestrained rage, lava pouring from his fists. Silva's mirror form moved like a wraith, every arrow aimed at a weak point before it even appeared.
Evan could feel his team struggling.
And he realized—this wasn't just a fight against power. It was a trial of emotion.
Of control. Of purpose.
"I'm not that boy anymore," Evan whispered. "Not the one who ran from pain. Not the one who waited for a miracle."
He stepped forward—and his aura erupted.
Not red. Not gold. But a silver-black shimmer, lined with stardust.
Behind him, Nex let out a sound that was not a hiss, not a roar—but something ancient.
A memory from before gods.
The false Evan staggered. The illusion cracked.
And with one final surge, Evan and Nex fused their wills, delivering a strike that split the entire platform in two.
Scene Three: Awakening
The storm ceased.
The Nexus Core pulsed once—twice—and then collapsed inward. In its place, a ring of crystal light formed. From it, a single scale floated into the air. It was not Nex's—but somehow… connected.
Evan reached out, and the scale landed on his palm.
"You are not the first to awaken here," a voice echoed—not spoken aloud, but carved into the air.
"But you are the first in a thousand years to leave it changed."
Silva and Gareth stood, battered but victorious. Nex slithered forward, wrapping around Evan protectively. His body now shimmered faintly—not just a Divine Beast, but something shifting… ascending.
Scene Four: The Other Side of the Storm
Above the labyrinth, the results were displayed.
Evan Rochel – Rank 1
Gareth Duran – Rank 2
Silva Wren – Rank 3
The crowd erupted—some in celebration, others in shock.
But among the nobles, chaos brewed.
Lord Fenric of House Aschard leaned forward. "That boy… he's more than a student."
Lady Meravain of the Elven Courts narrowed her eyes. "He's a threat to balance."
The Emperor's envoy—hooded and silent—stood without moving.
And in the shadows, the golden-eyed professor turned away from the screen. His cloak shifted into smoke as he vanished.
"They'll come for him soon," he murmured.
Scene Five: Black Nest's Countermove
In a chamber deep beneath the city, Shade Cardinal received the update in silence.
A cloaked figure knelt before him. "Evan Rochel passed the Dominion Trials. His beast showed signs of higher resonance."
Shade Cardinal's eyes glittered. "Then the boy is on course."
He turned to a circular device—a table carved with runes older than the Empire.
"Activate Phase Three. Send the dream serpent. Let him see."
The figure shivered. "That might awaken more than you intend."
"Good," Shade Cardinal said. "Let the storm rise early."
[End of Chapter 14]