One week later.
Academy Underground – Trial Annex.
Time passed not like a stream, but a chisel—carving away every soft illusion left in Kairos' soul.
The Trial Annex lay deep beneath the Academy's spires, its walls ancient and inscribed with archaic tongues that no longer belonged to the living world. Only Initiates cleared for Ascension training were allowed here. Kairos stood among them, crimson hair catching torchlight, eyes heavy with the memory of dust and ash.
Selene leaned against a dark pillar, arms crossed. Her presence wasn't required for his trial, but she had come anyway. As if guarding not his body, but the pieces of his mind left frayed after their last outing.
The instructor, a jagged man named Rael whose voice grated like sand over bone, paced before them.
"The Appointed Path isn't a right—it's a blade. Either you temper yourselves against it or break like glass."
He turned to Kairos. "Step forward."
Kairos did, walking into the center ring where the binding circle pulsed. Aether stones on the rim flickered alive, sensing his presence.
Rael scowled. "You've shown promise. Too much, some say. Let's see what the Crimson Heir bleeds when the past breathes down his neck."
The room darkened. Cold swept across his skin.
Then the Trial began.
---
The Trial Realm – Temporal Illusion Space.
The world shifted.
He stood in the ruins of the old city. Fire curled through the skies, the sun hidden beneath bruised clouds. A chorus of screams, muffled and far, hung in the distance like ghosts.
But this wasn't memory. This was distilled fear.
Shadows moved between alleyways—his regrets, his doubts, each shaped like a figure from his life. Lira, arms outstretched and burning. His father, cloaked in silence and disappointment. And Selene, standing far ahead, not turning, walking deeper into ruin.
"Kairos," she said, though her lips never moved. "Will you stay chained to the dead?"
He ran after her.
The streets warped as he moved. Illusions clawed at his mind. Doors opened to forgotten moments: his first glyph burn, his sister's last song, the Academy's gates swallowing him whole.
But the deeper he went, the clearer he became.
He reached her.
Only it wasn't Selene.
It was the Entity—wrapped in her face, cloaked in his longing.
"Would you remake the world to save one life?" it asked, voice echoing like a thousand chimes.
"I would burn it to ash," he said.
"Then step through."
A blade formed in his hand—his shard responding to purpose.
He plunged it forward.
Light cracked the realm open.
---
Trial Annex – Reality.
Kairos collapsed to one knee, sweat pouring from his brow. The binding ring flickered and dimmed. Rael's eyes widened faintly.
"You... resisted a Level Four trial construct in under six minutes."
Kairos panted. "Was that supposed to be hard?"
Selene smirked, though concern shadowed her gaze.
Rael nodded once. "You're cleared for Domain Theory. Keep walking this path, and maybe... you'll find what lies at the end of it."
---
Later that night.
Selene's quarters, East Wing.
Kairos sat beside the low hearth, staring into the embers. Selene poured two cups of fermented duskroot tea, setting one beside him.
"You didn't have to see what I did," he said.
"I saw enough. You faced it."
He shook his head. "No. I fed it. I told it I would burn the world."
"And would you?"
His gaze lifted to hers.
"I don't know anymore."
Selene reached across and rested a hand on his.
"We'll find the truth. Even if we have to carve it out of this broken world with our bare hands."
The silence that followed was not empty—it was a promise.
And far away, deep within the lower catacombs, something stirred. Watching. Waiting.
For Kairos' next step.