Chapter 9: A Scared Mans Trial
The Captain did not allow Kenji time to process the ultimatum. Within the hour, Kenji was led deep into the fortress's hidden lower levels. The air here was damp and tasted of ozone, a stark contrast to the clean, dry air of the upper facility.
He stood outside a reinforced pressure chamber. Unlike Reiyo's chamber, this one was made of bare, rough-hewn metal and glass, like a volatile machine meant to contain an explosion.
"This is the Kinetic Containment Chamber," the Captain explained, standing beside the doorway. "Your life-and-death trial is one of Endurance and Escape. You must survive the chamber for fifty minutes. It will bombard you with unpredictable, focused bursts of kinetic energy, steam, and compressed pressure."
"I... I can't survive that," Kenji said, his voice shaking uncontrollably. "I'll be flattened!"
"That is the point," Silas interjected, watching from the viewing portal. "You have no supernatural defenses. If the Tree finds you worthy, its power will intercept the death blow. If it does not, you will be vaporized. This is purely a test of your will to live."
Kenji looked through the thick glass. The chamber was empty but lined with vents, pistons, and pressure gauges, all of which looked ready to tear a man apart. He looked back at Reiyo's discarded knife, locked safely away in the guards' station.
"Why me?" Kenji asked, his voice cracking. "Why not just leave me alone?"
"You stood by your friend and followed him into the face of the Authority. That kind of loyalty is rarer than any power," the Captain said, opening the door. "Go. Your time starts when the door seals."
Kenji took a final, ragged breath, remembering the look of the sorrow in Reiyo's eyes. He had to survive, if only to anchor the terrified genius he now served. He stepped through the heavy steel door.
The door hissed shut behind him.
The Captain hit the activation rune.
The chamber instantly plunged into darkness, and the floor began to vibrate. From the vents, high-pressure steam erupted, blinding Kenji. He stumbled, covering his face.
The first blow was not steam. It was a perfectly focused shot of kinetic energy—an invisible, compressed punch—that slammed into the wall inches from his head, leaving a smoking dent in the thick metal.
The voice of the Captain resonated through the chamber's intercom. "Fourty minutes and fifty seconds. Survive this trial, or become dust."
Kenji was alone, terrified, and facing inevitable death, with only his desperation to catch the attention of the Syqnix Tree.