After the brutal training I endured, I realized I was merely scratching the surface.Lapobo wasn't just teaching me how to survive… he was rebuilding me from within.
The Fourth Training: The Silent Death
He led me to a vast room, its walls smooth like stone, but each movement echoed with a piercing sound.Lapobo said in a cold voice:
– "In here, there is no sound, no movement.Only silence… but it will crush you until you burn."
As soon as I stepped in, the door slammed shut behind me.I heard nothing.But the silence was louder than anything I had ever experienced.It pressed on my chest like a suffocating hand, threatening to dissolve me from the inside.
Each second felt like a year.
When I finally stumbled out, I gasped for air as if I had never breathed before.
The Fifth Training: The Shadow Within
He took me to a valley cloaked in total darkness. I couldn't see my own hand.Lapobo whispered:
– "Now you'll face your true self. Not just your fears… but every part of you you've tried to bury."
Then it appeared.
A colossal shadow, constantly shifting.It wore my face, but twisted with pain, shame, failure… and rage.
It spoke with my voice—accusing, blaming, laughing.
Fighting it wasn't physical… it was spiritual, emotional, intimate.Every punch I landed, I felt in my own gut.But I endured.
I screamed, fell, rose again, and faced it until it vanished into smoke.
After the Training: Truth and Terror
I collapsed beside a strange glowing lake.Lapobo sat beside me silently.
Then, in a serious tone, he said:
– "Adam, you've survived what would've killed others.But now… it's time you learned the truth."
His eyes narrowed.
– "Your grandmother wasn't just a guardian.She was the last of the Gatekeepers—protectors of the threshold between Earth and Nimura.But she didn't die of old age…She was hunted down."
I turned my head sharply.
– "Hunted? By what?"
Lapobo paused.His fur bristled.
– "By a creature unlike any you've seen.It's called The Embodied Shadow.A being that cannot be killed by sword or flame.It walks through mirrors and bleeds through silence.Even your grandmother—stronger than you can imagine—couldn't defeat it."
My hands began to shake.
– "Then… what happened to her?"
– "She fought it.And it didn't just kill her…It sealed her inside the Black Mirror.She's not dead in the way you think.And now… it's searching for you."
A Final Warning
Lapobo stood on a high rock and stared at me with piercing eyes:
– "Don't let your early victories fool you.You've faced nothing yet.The monster that's coming…cannot be defeated."
Pain. Fear. Truth.And in the middle of it all… I was just a weak young man, shaking, questioning everything.
Lapobo came close, and with rare softness, he said:
– "But maybe… just maybe… you'll become strong enough.If you live that long."