The door closed behind, all the ten candidates now inside. It was completely dark in there.
"Why is there no light this time?" Caine asked, as he ignited a small flame over his palm to brighten the room.
Everyone was inside, some on top of each other. Others were trying to find their way. And a very specific red head was asleep while standing. Morgana didn't even tried to question how was Serelia even doing that.
"Caine. Use your blood art to lighten the room." Mara ordered him, recieving a 'tch' from him.
Caine summoned another flame on his other palm, and merges the two together. He connects his palms together, a small ignition happened that soon brightened the room like a flash.
The moment the flash faded, everyone could see their surroundings again. A whole stone covered maze.
"You awakened a Blood Art Caine?" Evelina asked, as she felt the heat of the light in the space.
"I awakened it some months before." He replied.
"Not just him, I also awakened mine. Both of us awakened it together in our duels." Mara added.
"That's nice... I also awakened mine not so long ago." Evelina replied back.
Silas raised his hand. "A question, how many here have actually awakened their Blood Arts?"
"I have the same question as my brother." Seraphine added, copying the same look and gesture as Silas.
No one else raised their hands, except for one.
"I have." Morgana answered with a confident smile, as she kept poking Serelia to wake her up. The latter instinctively attacked her but was dodged at the last second.
"Still too slow Serry~" Morgana teased, as Serelia woke up in annoyance.
"What about you Serelia?" Evelina called out. Serelia paused for a moment to look at her. She repeated the question.
"Have you awakened your Blood Art like some of us?"
"Just to let you know, I have awakened mine~" Morgana called out. Serelia's forehead twitched in annoyance. As she thought about answering the question.
Back with the Serenis family, the three Sanguiras and Lucius. The Serenis family was surprised about what they just heard from Arabella.
"You are telling me, Serelia has awakened a Blood Art as well!?" Aurelia asked in an excited tone. The three were surprised.
"Did she not told you?" Vesper asked.
"She didn't." Draven answered. He went into a deep thought. "But why would she not mention it? Even if she doesn't cares about telling her achievements, this is something she would consider important enough to tell."
"Brother. What's a Blood Art?" The young male vampire asked while looking at his elder brother. Destaris Serenis was his name. The youngest of the Serenis family. And the one he just asked was Aven Serenis, the second eldest of the Serenis family.
"Hmm?" The older vampire glanced at his younger sibling. He thought for a moment then explained it.
A Blood Art was an ability tied to a vampire's soul. A soul represented a colour, and that colour varied in the abilities that could be expressed through a Blood Art. Red represented fire and light. Blue represented water and ice. White represented lightning and gravity. There were countless colours that represented countless abilities of such.
This was of course, exclusive to a vampire only. Any other species from another world could perhaps have something similar to Blood Arts, but the overall concept was exclusive to vampires of Crisiniara only.
"Does my daughter despise me so much for sending her at the borders, that she won't even tell her father about her achievements anymore?" Draven muttered dramatically while clenching his fist.
"Father, if that was the reason. She would have told me about it at least." Aurelia interrupted.
"Oh right." Draven stopped after the realization.
"Did she told the three of you about it?" Aven asked, looking at the three. Arabella answered him.
"No. We had seen her use it once against a human at the border. Only then did she told us she had a Blood Art."
"When did you even found out about it?" He asked again.
"Four years."
"Four years!?" The entire family except Destaris yelled in shock, who just covered his years.
Aurelia turned towards Lucius who was suspiciously quiet. "Lucius... Were you aware of this?"
Lucius stayed silent for a while then sighed. "Yes I was aware, Lady Serenis."
"How long were you aware of this?"
"..."
"Lucius..."
"... Nine years."
"Nine!?" Draven yelled. "You better have a good reason why didn't you told us about it."
Lucius sighed as he started to explain. "Because the young lady would never the consider it an achievement."
"Why would she not consider it one?" Vesper asked.
Lucius glanced at him and asked a question. "Have you ever saw her use her Blood Art perfectly?"
"No but why ar-" Vesper's eyes widened as he realized the situation. "You meant to say that she can't control it?"
"Precisely."
Draven laid back against his seat as he understood everything now. "Of course... Knowing her, if she can't control her Blood Art, then she won't ever consider awakening it as an achievement."
Lucius chuckled slightly at Draven's realization. "Knowing my young lady, her answer to the question would be like this if you asked her whether she has a Blood Art or not." He imitated her.
"No."
"No." Serelia's answer left the others satisfied.
"Oh, what is this am I hearing?" Morgana called out. "Seems like, I am ahead of you once again Serry."
Smack! The slap finally landed at Morgana's left cheek, sending her crashing into the wall. "Ow." She groaned in pain.
Serelia rubbed her hands together to dust them. "Don't resent me for that, there was a very big fly on your face."
Morgana annoyed, yelled from the rubble. "Liar, you just wanted to hit me for bothering you!"
"And if you knew it, why did you kept bothering me!?" Serelia yelled back.
"It's fine if I do that because I am better than you!"
"How does that make any sense!?"
The two continued arguing, as Aeloria turned to go forward. The others followed behind. The two ladies also stopped when they realized they were left behind and ran towards them. "Wait for us!" Morgana yelled, while Serelia ran at full speed.
"How come Sir Lucius knows about this and not us?" Aven mentioned, as all seven of turned towards the silver haired guard standing beside them.
Lucius didn't even acknowledged their gaze, and answered without breaking his focus from the hologram in front of them.
"No one would allow themselves to have a personal servant if they can't trust them, can they?"
All seven were heartbroken at the word 'trust' as they all dramatically cried internally.
My daughter/friend/sister trusts her guard more than myself? All of them individually thought.
Lucius laughed slightly at their expression. The hologram finally started to show the candidates inside as well. "Seems like they finally started moving."
His gaze landed on a silver haired vampire walking alongside Serelia. "Ah, Lady Morgana."
"Hmm? Ah, of course the two are together." Aurelia mentioned when she saw the two.
"Who is she?" Arabella asked. Aven answered her.
"Morgana Olivine, our noble neighbour from a street ahead."
"Why are her and Serelia walking together?"
"Don't get the wrong idea, our sister is doing that purely out of spite."
"Excuse me?"
Aurelia laughed quietly when she saw Arabella's reaction. "Surprised, aren't you? Morgana and Serelia always had a rivalry since they were young, the only reason Serelia and her are walking together is because neither of the two would allow the other to get past them. And trying to outrun the other will waste their energy for later."
"Who could have thought there was another person who could get on her nerves?" Desdemona muttered.
"Huh? What do you mean by 'Another person'?" Aurelia asked.
"You see, among the humans we fight at the border. There is one who always manages to get on her nerves." Arabella answered.
"That's a surprise, the only one who could get on her nerves would be someone who can rival her." Aurelia replied. "This human must be an intresting individual."
Arabella and Desdemona remembered Shadow's edgelord quotes and thought the same thing. He is intresting but not in the way you would like.
Arabella felt something poking her arm, as she looked down. It was Destaris looking at her. "You need something?" She asked in confusion. Destaris pointed behind her and Desdemona, towards Vesper.
"Why is he so shocked?"
The two turned towards Vesper, who just like Destaris said, was staring at the hologram in shock.
"Vesper. Are you alright?" Aurelia also noticed his expression and asked, the others noticed as well.
Vesper's gaze remained fixed then he slowly looked down. "Aurelia, you remember my full name right?"
"Hmm? Yes, it was Vesper Noctu-" Aurelia's eyes widened slightly at the realization. "Ah I see."
She turned towards the hologram as well, looking at charming red head on it. "By any chance... Is Evelina Nocturne, your elder sister?"
Vesper's gaze hardened at the question.
...
Crack! The wall cracked, and then broke down, a flame going through to light that room as well. Everyone went through that broken wall.
"You are relying too much on your Blood Art, Caine." Mara commented.
"I do not wish to hear that from you." He replied.
"Your loss, just worried for a friend."
"You and worried for someone? Make a better joke next time."
The others watched as the two Mordrathians continued arguing.
"Something is weird." Serelia mentioned, the others stopped and turned towards her in confusion. She rarely said such things.
"And that is?" Morgana asked.
"Shouldn't something for the trial of courage must have appeared already by now? We still haven't encountered anything unlike the last five years."
Everyone realized that after she mentioned it. It was true, in the last five years, something for the trial would have already occurred by now, then why has nothing happened yet?
"Perhaps, the timings have changed." Leoric muttered.
"What do you mean?" Evelina asked.
"Maybe her majesty made changes in the trial because she might have expected us to be aware of the trial's traps and timings now?"
Meanwhile Theresa who was watching with a small hologram over her palm chuckled quietly after hearing that. "Leoric has gotten smarter eh?" His guess was correct.
"That might be the case." Serelia replied to Leoric.
"Let's just continue mo-" Mara was about to finish, but the floor beneath her shut open, as she fell down.
Caine saw her and immediately rushed inside as well. "Mara!?"
The others noticed, the floor was about to shut close, as everyone lunged inside as well.
All of them continued falling down in the darkness, none of them could see anything around except for the light that came from beneath as they got closer to the ground.
Thud! Mara landed on a pile of hay beneath her, preventing her fall. She tried to get up bu-
Thud! Caine fell directly on top of her, crushing her beneath him. "Ugh." Both of them groaned, as they tried to get up, but the others started falling on top of them.
Just as all of them were about to get off, Morgana and Serelia fell directly on them, the piled up vampire fell down of the hay from that.
"That hurt a lot." Aeloria muttered, rubbing her head after hitting the ground.
"I should be the one complaining! I was crushed by everyone's weight!" Mara yelled complaining. Caine laughed quietly at her annoyance.
"We have a gate here." Darius interrupted, everyone stopped and looked towards where he was pointing.
It was a giant gate, a gate that looked like something straight from hell. It was completely dark, and had skulls around it like it's frames. But one tiny detail made a contrast to everything else about it.
On top of the gate was a shiny floating text, that looked like a disco. The text said this.
Welcome to the Gate of Memories.
Everyone stared at the text, they all could guess who made this. Theresa Morveth, only she would make such childish details for fun.
As if hearing their thoughts, a hologram with Theresa on it appeared between them and the door. "How did all of you found my surprise to be like?" She asked teasingly while waving.
No one said anything, they did not wanted to mess with her during the trial. But a certain red head had no fear about her life.
"The greetings looks childish." Serelia complained, everyone flinched because they could expect what was about to happen.
Theresa stopped waving, her gentle smile still on her face but she didn't said anything. In the next moment, a small cloud formed above Serelia, as she got struck by lightning.
Smoke came from Serelia, her clothes burnt from the heat of the current, her face covered in dust as well, and her hair were sharp and hard now. "I do not regret saying that."
"Well, that was expected from you, young Serenis." Theresa replied, as she focused back on what she was about to say.
"Well, this door is the Gate of Memories, as you already saw in the greetings. Each of you have to go inside individually and come back out. No one can see anything about who is inside though however."
Darius raised his hand. "My apologise for interrupting, but if no one can see what's happening inside, how will we know who passed the trial and who didn't?"
"I agree with Darius's question." Aeloria added.
Theresa answered them without blinking. "The trial of courage, unlike the last five times will be passed by all."
That left everyone off guard for a moment, but Theresa's next words caused them to understood why she said that. "While all of you can pass the trial, whether you will be able to bring yourself up to face the second trial will depend on you. The Gate of Memories uses your memories to test you. You can either stay fine for the second trial, or give up because of the Gate's aftermath. That is what we will count as the true pass and fail this time. If you give up, you fail. If you don't, you pass."
"Basically, we may survive and continue, or it may break us and we give up?" Serelia mentioned, as she finished dusting herself.
"Correct, but something important to mention... The Gate of Memories have two phases, your luck will decide which phase you may recieve... The second phase is far more dangerous."
Everyone felt tensed after hearing that, contrasted with Theresa's cheerful goodbye. "Anyways, have fun all of you!" The hologram disappeared, leaving everyone alone with the gate now.
"So... This time, luck will also decide whether we pass or not if we get the second phase." Leoric muttered, as he gulped slightly.
None of them were as confident as before, the first phase could be something they could endure, but after Theresa's warning. They could not imagine what the second phase may show them.
"So who will go first?" Caine asked, Mara was surprised by his question, not expecting him to behave like that too.
Everyone hesitated about it, but Aeloria decided to go first. "I will go first."
"Be alright, Ael." Evelina called out, Aeloria gaves a thumbs up without turning back. She approached the gate, then placed her hand on it. Pushing with all her might to open it.
The gate opened inwards, Aeloria saw an endless darkness inside, gulping slightly she entered. The gate shut close behind her by itself.
Aeloria was inside now in the dark room that stretched endlessly. She couldn't even see anything within the darkness, but her instincts told her to continue moving.
"Ael!" Aelora stopped in surprise as she looked behind her at the familiar voice. She saw a familiar figure running towards her.
"Huh?" Aeloria was surprised, as she saw a young female vampire running.
"Well run quick then!" Another yell came from front. Aerolia recognised the figure instantly, then she realized what was happening.
Ah I see.. She thought. As the darkness replaced with light, followed by a grassy environment. A playground to be exact.
It's the day when me and Eve last smiled together...