"To stand in the Arena is to face not your enemy… but the truth they see in you."
— The First Accord Codex, Dragon Rune VI
🌌 The Arena Rises
The runed circle beneath Jin's feet flared white-hot.
Ash split from the stone and spiraled upward until the entire summit was suspended in a sphere of shifting elements—fire, wind, sea, and shadow swirling in layers.
The Arena of the Sealed had manifested.
A space outside time, summoned only when the Dragon Gathering demanded proof of worth.
Around the circle, the gathered sects watched from their own suspended platforms—each aligned with a dragon's rune.
The voice of the Western Dragon—Muruk'an's—rumbled through Jin's core:
"The First Trial is Flame.
Not fire as mortals wield…
but the flame of the oath you broke."
🔥 The Trial Revealed
The arena floor fractured, molten rivers spilling into the void beneath. From the cracks rose flame-forms—beasts made entirely of Jin's past sins.
A burning monk kneeling in betrayal.
A sect sister screaming as flames consumed her.
Dragons collapsing into ash under his gaze.
Lin Xue, watching from the Moonwater platform, whispered:
"They're not real… but if they touch him, they'll burn his cultivation away."
Muruk'an's voice rolled again:
"Cut them down, and you remain unbound.
Spare them… and you bind yourself to memory forever."
⚔️ Jin's Choice
The Leviathan Blade materialized, its watery aura fighting against the oppressive heat.
The first flame-beast lunged—a spectral dragon with hollow eyes. Jin's blade arced through it, but instead of dissipating, it screamed in his voice:
"You sealed us!"
Jin's grip faltered. Another flame-form rose—a woman in tide-silk armor. She reached for him, her face half-burned.
"You promised…"
The crowd of sect masters whispered.
Some smirked. Others frowned.
Jin closed his eyes.
"No. This trial isn't about winning. It's about remembering without drowning."
Instead of striking, he lowered his blade and stepped forward into the flames.
They didn't consume him.
The flame-forms froze, their shapes flickering… then shifting into their unburned selves—dragons breathing free, allies smiling, friends alive.
The molten rivers cooled.
🐉 The Western Dragon Speaks
The Western Dragon's eye gleamed with something like approval.
"You chose burden over release.
You carry the oath, instead of discarding it.
That… is a different flame."
A searing mark burned into Jin's wrist—the First Seal of Awakening.
The molten arena shifted again.
⚠ The Next Opponent
From the Northern platform, the frost-iron warrior stepped onto the arena floor.
Her eyes locked on Jin.
"If the dragons accept you, then prove you can survive the cold that kills them."
Frost spiraled around her blade, and the temperature plummeted.
Snowflakes turned to shards of ice midair.
Lin Xue's face tensed.
"The Second Trial begins… the Trial of Ice."