He woke before dawn.
The old man was already outside, tracing strange patterns in the dirt with his finger. Symbols that pulsed faintly with blue light.
"Come," he said without looking up.
The boy followed, stretching sore muscles.
"What's this?"
"A boundary array. To keep things out. And to test your focus."
The boy stood inside the circle. The old man clapped his hands once—and pain exploded in the boy's head. Not physical. Mental.
The world spun. Visions—of beasts, of fire, of people he'd never met—all stormed through his mind. He dropped to his knees.
"This is a spiritual trial?" he gasped.
"Good. You're learning."
The ground fell away beneath him. He was no longer in the forest. Instead, he stood in a gray desert. No sky, no sound. Just sand, and something moving beneath it.
Then it rose.
A serpent, black as ink, with dozens of jagged teeth and burning red eyes. It hissed, and the air warped.
He reached for void energy—but it slipped from his grasp. Here, inside this vision, his powers were dull.
> "You must learn to call your strength even without the gift," a voice whispered in his head. "You must make it part of you."
He clenched his fists. He couldn't teleport. He couldn't bend space. But he could move.
The serpent lunged. He dodged left, then rolled under its belly, grabbing a shard of bone buried in the sand. As the beast turned, he jammed it into one of its eyes.
It shrieked—but didn't die.
Instead, it split. Into three.
"This is stupid!" he shouted.
But deep down, he knew—this was a test of will. Not skill.
So he stood tall. He faced the three serpents. And with nothing but instinct, willpower, and that single shard, he fought.
For minutes. Hours. Or maybe days. Time meant nothing here.
When the final serpent dissolved into dust, he collapsed.
Then he woke.
Back in the hut. The old man sat beside him, nodding.
"You didn't run," he said.
"I wanted to."
"Still. You didn't."
The old man handed him a dried root. "Chew this. For spirit fatigue."
He obeyed. It was bitter, but the clarity it gave made his head feel whole again.
"You've passed the first trial," the old man said. "Now comes the second."
"Let me guess… it's worse?"
"No," the man
said, smiling faintly. "This time, you'll get to kill something real."