Darkness. Absolute, suffocating darkness. There was nothing — no sound, no light, no hint of the world Solen had known. Just an emptiness that pressed against him, heavy and silent.
Then… a voice.
"Synchronization complete… Parameters acknowledged…"
It was neither male nor female, neither harsh nor gentle. It resonated directly inside his mind, echoing in his head that felt both ancient and precise.
"Trial designation: pending…"
A pause. Solen felt his chest tighten. His heartbeat echoed unnaturally loud, as if the darkness and the space he was in was itself amplifying it.
"Trial chosen…"
The words cut through the void like a shard of ice. Solen's eyes, wide in confusion, could see nothing, yet his mind perceived a shiver of motion, a subtle shift in the emptiness.
"Dormant soul recognized… Solen Veynar…"
A soft pulse rippled through the darkness. Something materialized in the void before him — a translucent screen floating in nothingness. Text appeared, glowing faintly like embers:
[System Activated]
Abilities Provisioned: Soul Devouring (starter version, low efficiency, high drawback)
Feature Enabled: [Personal Insight]
Quest Objective: Survive the trial, gain understanding of historical echoes.
And then the darkness cracked.
The void stretched and shattered to bright sunlight. Solen's surroundings had shifted violently, for a second, it felt like falling and standing at the same time.
Sand beneath his boots. Feeling of intense heat on his skin. A harsh wind carrying the dry scent of the desert. Before him stretched the endless dunes of a desert.
As he looked into the sun he stumbled slightly, blinking again and again, not because the intense light from sun had temporarily blinded him but because the sun was different from his own world.
Instead of being deep dark Blue it was yellow with a reddish hue, it was just like it was supposed to be before the fall of the gods.
Solen couldn't help but swallow. He knew — somewhere deep down — that this was not the world he had known, not truly.
***
The wind scoured the dunes, carrying with it a taste of sand and the heat of a sun that felt too harsh for any living thing. Solen's boots sank into the loose grains as he tried to move forward.
'Great. Just my luck — trapped in some endless desert. Why can't things ever be normal?' Thought Solen as he gazed forward.
Somewhere, in the quiet sands of the desert, a thought pressed into his mind — the thought was strange, yet not entirely foreign.
The Pale has chosen me.
He frowned. 'Why me? I'm no one special. Just some street rat scraping by…'
But the feeling lingered, undeniable. Perhaps it had seen the spark of cunning that had kept him alive on the streets, or the stubbornness that refused to bow to hunger or misfortune. Whatever the reason, he had been marked.
All humans feared the Pale, for it was very difficult for a human to survive and complete the trial given by the pale, a shroud of mist born when the gods fell and the cycle of souls broke. Its reach had once been a rumor whispered only by the brave or desperate, yet its power was real: and now it was within his reach.
'That is, if I am able to survive the trial. Fantastic.' He thinks to himself.
He wiped the sweat from his brow. "Survive, Solen. Just survive. One step at a time. We will think about power later."
Death here meant permanent death in the real world. No second chances, no "maybe later." Just die or live.
"Good luck, Dormant Solen. Trial initialization begins."
The voice of the Pale echoed softly in his mind, cold and distant, yet impossibly alive.
Solen clenched his fists and whispered under his breath, almost to himself, "No… my trials began the moment my family died. This… this is just the next step."
The desert stretched endlessly around him, golden waves of sand shifting like a living sea, and the wind carried a faint, uneasy promise of what was to come.
"Alright… trial, then. Let's see what you've got."
The trial had begun.
***
The sun hung low over the dunes, casting long, wavering shadows across the sand. Solen's boots sank into the loose sand with every step, the heat radiating against his face, relentless and unyielding. His throat was parched, his skin slick with sweat, but still he pressed on.
Ahead, a faint glimmer rose against the horizon — the edges of a settlement, sharp against the golden desert. Solen didn't know why he was certain of it but he had for some reason, it was as if somewhere deep inside, a quiet voice guided him. He simply knew the way.
"Well, I guess it could have been worse", he muttered under his breath, brushing a hand over the sweat stinging his eyes.
The heat and the grain of deserts that were flowing into his eyes as he walked forward, were uncomfortable. But the pull that he felt towards the town never wavered — every movement, every small step in the unknown terrain, was one step of him being nearer to his goal.
The settlement slowly took shape before him. Sunbaked rooftops and crumbling stone walls rose from the dunes, their edges glowing softly in the fading light. A few metal towers caught the sun's last rays, glinting like distant beacons. Thin tendrils of smoke spiraled from chimneys, carrying the mingled scent of cooking fires and dry dust. Even at this distance, the town pulsed with life — the steady clatter of footsteps on stone streets, fragments of conversation drifting on the warm wind, and the distant creak of wooden shutters swaying in the evening breeze.
He swallowed and adjusted the strap of his lantern, the faint soul-light flickering against the shifting sands. 'Alright… just get to the gates, blend in, and survive. One step at a time.'
The closer he got, the more confident he felt. And finally, the gates of the town were in front of him, sturdy and sun-bleached, welcoming and unyielding all at once.
Solen paused a moment, taking a deep breath. The desert lay behind him, but the unknown stretched ahead. "Haah...Let's see what's waiting for me here"
And with that, he stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the settlement.