Darkness closed in like a tide. The marble courtyard, the runes, the guardians watching from their silver hoods, all dissolved into a weightless void. Ren stood on nothing, yet felt the pressure of ground beneath his feet. The air was cold but thick, as though it remembered things he did not.
Nyxa's voice stirred in his thoughts. "So it begins. Alone, as it was meant to be. That battlefield was gone without any trial. Maybe it's a warning for weaker."
Ren's eyes narrowed into the dark. "You sound pleased."
A soft laugh rippled through him, like water disturbed by a stone. "Should I not be? You have stepped where others fall before they begin. Most who face these trials break long before the circle even closes."
Ren took a step forward. The ground appeared beneath him, pale stone stretching outward like a bridge suspended in the void. "And what of those who succeed?"
"Few succeed," she said. "Those who do are never the same."
