🔥 Scene 1: The Frost Gauntlet
> Snowstorm. Midnight. Rudra — 13 years old — is shirtless, barefoot, wrists shackled by iron weights, standing in knee-deep snow on a frozen cliff.
Alex (coldly):
"This is the Frost Gauntlet. You last six hours, or I drag your corpse down myself."
Rudra: (shivering, teeth chattering)
"I-I can't feel… my legs…"
Alex:
"Then freeze and die. Only corpses make excuses."
> Rudra screams into the wind. His skin cracks. He's not just cold — he's dying.
> Somewhere in the storm, a faint blue glow pulses in his chest. A whisper... or a memory?
> He stands. Screaming. Bleeding. Alive.
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🔥 Scene 2: Trial by Fire
> Noon. A ring of burning oil. The "Trial of Ash" — a tradition of Division 7 for candidates without noble blood.
Alex (watching from a tower):
"You want to fight in shadows? Then bleed in fire."
> Rudra runs barefoot across burning coals, carrying a 50-kg iron sword. He stumbles. Falls. Hands blister. Flesh sizzles.
> He vomits, wipes his mouth with a scorched hand, and keeps going.
> On the third lap, his legs collapse. Alex turns away. "Too weak."
> Rudra crawls the last stretch. He screams until his throat tears. He passes out just past the finish line.
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🔥 Scene 3: Death Match – Wooden Sword Duel
> Night. Training arena lit by torches. Rudra's eyes are sunken. No food. No rest. His opponent? Alex. Again.
Alex (bored):
"Attack. Or I'll break your legs and say you slipped."
> Rudra lunges. Alex sidesteps, slams the hilt into his spine. Again. Again. Again. Blood from the nose. Fractured rib.
> But Rudra doesn't stop. Even crawling, he fights.
Alex (finally showing a flicker of respect):
"…You're still standing."
Rudra (half-conscious):
"…Not standing… but I'm not down."
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🔥 Scene 4: The Near-Death Awakening
> Collapsed under the waterfall of Thrakal Gorge — a legendary trial where even adult Shadow Soldiers died.
> Rudra's body was broken. Vision blurred. Every breath was blood.
> Then — something inside him ignited.
> Not rage. Not fear. A presence. Like thunder in his bones, a third eye opening in silence.
> The water split for a moment. The cliff cracked beneath him.
> Alex, watching from above, narrowed his eyes:
Alex (to Elden):
"…That boy… there's something different in him.