The air held its breath.
Not a whisper moved through the mist — only the faint, rhythmic drop of water breaking the stillness. Tik… tik… tik…
Somewhere in that weightless fog, Yue Yin's lips parted. Her voice barely stirred the air.
> "Zeravon…"
The name slipped away before it could reach him, vanishing into the white void.
A soft tremor ran through her lashes. Her eyes opened to a blur of light and color — her chest ached, breath shallow, ribs burning where internal wounds still lingered. She pressed a trembling hand against the cold ground and pushed herself upright.
Ahead, bathed in pale radiance, Zeravon sat in silence.
Golden light rippled from his body, swirling in calm motion around him; even the air seemed to bend in rhythm with his breath.
Yue Yin's gaze softened.
That moment — the explosion, her body moving on instinct, shielding him without thought — flashed before her eyes again.
A feeling she didn't understand tightened in her chest.
> "I don't know why…" she whispered to the mist. "But if something had happened to him… I could never have forgiven myself."
The words carried a tremor she had never allowed before.
A princess. A cultivator. A being trained to rise above emotion — yet her pulse refused to obey.
When she looked again, Zeravon's wounds were gone. The serenity on his face was unshakable, his aura steady and golden.
> "Impossible…" she murmured.
The ground glittered beneath her feet — blue-white crystal veined with light — but the air had changed.
The dense spiritual energy now carried an undertone, metallic and sharp, the faint scent of blood.
Her divine sense bloomed outward, invisible and fluid. The wave spread, brushing across the realm. For a heartbeat, nothing answered — and then the earth shivered, as if something deep below had heard her.
> "So much life force," she breathed. "And yet… it smells like death."
The reply came quietly from behind her.
> "Senior Sister… are your injuries better?"
She turned. Zeravon was standing now, his expression calm, eyes reflecting a faint trace of concern.
> "Better," Yue Yin said softly. "And you?"
He smiled, almost imperceptibly.
> "Fine. This place seems to favor my recovery."
The quiet stretched a moment too long. Then his tone dropped lower.
> "Don't you think something is wrong here?"
Her gaze met his, sharp again.
> "It feels controlled. As if the realm itself is… watching us."
The mist thickened between them, heavy as breath.
They walked forward. Yue Yin's eyes lifted toward him.
> "By the way… what should I call you?"
He hesitated. A flicker of confusion crossed his face — as though memory had brushed him, then slipped away.
> "Zeravon," he said finally.
Yue Yin repeated it under her breath.
> "Zeravon…"
Silence pressed between them.
Then the ground vibrated — faint, like a heartbeat deep within the stone.
The fog parted.
An altar emerged from the haze, carved from crystal and bound with runes that pulsed faintly with blue light.
At its center hovered a sphere — translucent, alive, turning slowly on its axis.
With every rotation, the air trembled, a low thump echoing through the realm.
They approached. Yue Yin raised a hand suddenly.
> "Stop. Something inside it… it's alive."
Zeravon froze. A spark of golden light slipped from his aura — a single flicker that brushed the altar's core.
The moment it touched, the world erupted.
Blue light exploded outward. Both shielded their eyes as a metallic voice bled through the radiance, ancient and fractured.
> "You… have entered the Domain of the Forgotten Seal…"
The altar split.
The sphere cracked open, leaking streams of white and crimson mist that twisted and coiled, shaping themselves into the outline of a being not yet born.
Zeravon stepped forward, arm raised.
> "Behind me."
Yue Yin's sword flared into being — divine light wrapping around its edge. The two stood side by side, golden and blue energy intertwining around them.
The mist pulsed. A voice, both close and infinite, filled the air.
> "Those who disturb the seal… must face the Trial of Existence."
The earth broke apart.
Crystal spires burst upward, spinning into a storm of energy. Wind howled through the realm.
Zeravon's hands glowed, light gathering like molten gold. Yue Yin's blade blazed brighter.
A single glance between them said everything — no words needed.
The entity roared. The sound cracked the sky.
> "Trial… of the Sealed One… begins."
The world dissolved into blinding white.
---
Silence.
A silence so deep it felt alive — heavy enough to crush sound itself.
When Yue Yin's eyes opened again, she stood in another world.
The ground was made of black stone, runes etched across its surface glowing with a faint, pulsing light — like dying hearts still struggling to beat.
Each pulse carried an echo, a cry, a memory.
Transparent orbs drifted through the air, some clear, some crimson. Within them, images flickered — lovers' final words, warriors' rage, gods' dying breath.
> "Zeravon…"
Her voice vanished into the mist. Only her own echo returned.
When she tried to expand her divine sense, something devoured it — a pressure that felt like invisible hands crushing her from within.
> "My… sense… it's gone…"
The whisper shook. Her fingers trembled. Fear — real fear — crawled into her chest.
Then a voice descended — vast and ancient, vibrating through the bones of the realm.
> "The trial begins… with separation. The bond between courage and fear must shatter."
A fissure opened at her feet. From it stepped a reflection — her.
Same face. Same body. But eyes black as the void, blood dripping from a faint smile.
> "You… are me?"
The reflection tilted her head.
> "I am what you buried. Your fear… your truth."
The runes flared red.
Without warning, the shadow lunged.
Impact.
Light vanished.
---
Somewhere else — within the same white void.
Zeravon's eyes opened.
Endless nothing stretched around him — a mirror of reflection with no surface to stand on. Every direction was both above and below.
> "Where am I…"
He reached outward with his spirit, but space swallowed it whole.
A voice rose — neither male nor female, neither near nor far.
> "Welcome, forgotten soul. The Trial of Existence awaits you."
The air quivered.
A shape began to coalesce ahead — shifting, half-formed, flickering as if made of broken fragments of reality itself.
The being extended a hand toward him; light-thread tendrils reached his chest, sinking inside.
> "Analyzing… source consciousness… memory trace…"
The form stuttered.
Zeravon's reflection flickered — and behind it, something watched.
A single eye.
Red. Endless.
The entity faltered.
> "What… what is this resonance?"
Space froze.
Even light forgot how to move.
A heartbeat sounded — deep and ancient.
THUMP.
A crimson eye opened — not in the world, not in his body, but through everything.
Its gaze didn't move — it simply existed.
The entity convulsed, reality tearing around it.
> "No… this frequency… it's rewriting my core laws!"
It screamed — not in pain, but in awe.
> "This gaze… it's not mortal… not divine… not within existence! Who—what are you?!"
A whisper replied, soft as thought.
> "You were never meant to remember me."
Everything stopped.
The void forgot to breathe. The entity trembled, its form fracturing into silence.
> "Such power… beyond Heaven's fabric… beyond Law itself… how can this dwell in a mortal shell?"
Blue sparks rippled through its body — collapse, not death.
> "For the first time… I feel fear…"
And it dissolved, without sound, into mist.
Zeravon stood alone, the silence vibrating around him.
> "What… was that?"
His hand brushed his chest — unchanged.
Yet a faint pulse remained in the air, a heartbeat that didn't belong to time.
Within that tremor, a line surfaced — soft, ancient, eternal:
> "The trial fears what it cannot test."
The light closed in again.
And everything — the void, the sound, the breath — faded to white.
To Be Continued....