When the ashes of my dark reflection vanished into the air, I fell to my knees, still clutching the sword. My heart was racing, my soul burning—yet suddenly the glow in the blade dimmed, and its voice echoed in my mind, cold as death:
"You have passed the second trial… but the most important remains. Now… prepare for the final test. The Trial of the Soul."
I couldn't even breathe before the ground beneath me split apart. I was dragged down into a chasm of twisted light, a river of fire. I screamed, but my voice dissolved into nothingness.
When my eyes opened, I stood in a place that was neither earth nor sky. A void of pure white energy, stars slowly drifting all around me. It felt as if I had stepped into the heart of the universe itself.
Before me, a blazing circle of fire appeared. Inside it, a gate of light cracked open, and from within emerged a figure unlike anything I had ever seen.
A towering being. Eyes like burning suns. A body formed of glowing runes and living words.
When it spoke, its voice split the heavens like thunder:
"I am the third trial. I am the truth that cannot be escaped. Here you will not face death, nor your shadow… but your very soul. If you are worthy of the sword… prove that your light can overcome your eternal darkness."
I froze. For the first time, I felt I wasn't standing before an enemy, nor a reflection. No… I was standing before my own soul, in its purest, harshest form.
The aura around it crushed my chest. I could hardly breathe.
I reached for my sword—my hand trembled. The blade slipped from my grip and vanished into the void.
The giant voice boomed:
"The sword will not help you here. Either you forge power from within… or you are nothing."
The ground beneath me shattered. Stars collapsed. Nothingness devoured everything.
And then I understood.
The trial wasn't about the blade or the strikes.
It was about facing myself—the fear, the doubt, the wounds I had never healed.
My eyes shut. Memories flooded me all at once: my grandfather's death… the laughter of those who called me weak… the moments I felt I was living without meaning.
I roared from the depths of my chest:
"Enough! I won't live as a slave to the past. Pain will not break me… pain will forge me!"
Suddenly, my body ignited. From my heart burst a crimson energy—not ordinary fire, but the spark of life itself.
The titan staggered back, its sun-eyes flickering.
I raised my hands into the void… and shaped that power into a new blade. It was unlike any weapon I had ever seen—transparent, forged of light and blood together.
The giant roared:
"Show me you are worthy!"
It charged. Its hand came down like a falling mountain.
I screamed, lifting my radiant sword, and split the strike in two. Sparks erupted, the void itself exploding around us.
The battle raged like it lasted years. Every strike from him was a collapsing world. Every scream from me birthed a new star. I wasn't fighting just to survive—I was fighting to prove I had become a complete soul.
And then—the moment of truth.
He raised his hand to crush me once and for all. But I drove my blade of light into his chest.
The universe itself shuddered. His voice thundered as his body dissolved into pure brilliance:
"At last… the true warrior is born. Your soul has awakened."
In a blink, I was back in the cave.
But it was no longer the same cave.
The walls glowed with ancient runes. The floor hummed with power. In my hand was the new sword—black on the outside, its veins glowing red, alive like a beating heart.
The voice spoke one final time, calm but strong:
"The trials are over. Now you are master, and I am blade. Together… we will shatter fate itself."
I stepped out of the cave. Cold wind struck my face, and the stars above seemed to bow. Before me stretched the long road to the First Kingdom… a path that would change the world forever.
I raised the sword, smiling through the exhaustion.
"I'm ready… let's begin with the Kingdom of a Thousand."