The stone door groaned as it slid open, revealing a dimly lit corridor stretching into the unknown. The air was damp, thick with the scent of moss and something old—something forgotten. Jaxon, Kade, Elias, and Reed stepped forward, their footsteps echoing against the cavernous walls. The Trial of Strength had tested their bodies, but this next challenge...
It would test their hearts.
A whisper, not quite a voice, slithered through the chamber.
"Loyalty is a chain. Will yours hold, or will it break?"
The floor trembled.
Suddenly, the world around them split apart.
The Choice
Jaxon blinked—and found himself alone.
No Kade. No Elias. No Reed.
Just him.
The chamber had changed. The vast cavern was gone, replaced by something… familiar. Too familiar.
Blackthorn.
He stood in the ruins of his home, where the fires had once burned, where the streets had been painted red with the blood of the people he couldn't save. His chest tightened.
"No." He wasn't here. This wasn't real.
A flicker of movement caught his eye. At the far end of the ruined street stood a figure—a boy, no older than twelve, clutching his side as blood seeped through his fingers.
Jaxon knew that face.
Silas.
A child who had once followed him through the backstreets of Blackthorn, looking up to him like an older brother. A child who had died because Jaxon hadn't been fast enough.
"Jaxon…" Silas's voice trembled. "You can still save me, can't you?"
Jaxon took a step forward—then froze.
Behind him, another voice. Weak. Pained. Reed.
Jaxon turned.
Reed was there, kneeling, blood pouring from a deep wound in his chest. His golden eyes flickered, breath ragged.
Two dying people.
The temple's whisper came again.
"One will live. One will die. Choose."
Kade's Trial
Kade stood in an endless void, his surroundings shifting like liquid shadows. Chains coiled around his arms, heavier than they had ever been before.
At the center of the abyss, two figures hung in midair, bound by spectral bindings—Elias and Jaxon.
Both struggling. Both choking.
A single scythe hovered before Kade, its edge gleaming with an eerie, unnatural glow. A voice whispered from the darkness.
"A reaper must make choices. The chains of fate are not kind. To free one, the other must fall."
His fingers twitched.
His mind screamed.
How was this loyalty?
The moment stretched endlessly.
Kade's silver eyes burned. He refused to choose.
Elias's Trial
Elias found himself standing in a grand hall, lined with towering bookshelves. At the far end, a single table was illuminated by flickering candlelight.
Two decks of cards lay before him.
One glowing gold. One burning black.
A figure stood across from him—an old man with hollow eyes, his skin paper-thin, veins pulsing with something dark.
"A game," the man rasped. "One deck leads your allies to safety. The other destroys them. You may only draw from one."
Elias narrowed his eyes.
There was a trick here.
His fingers hovered over the golden deck. Safe. Obvious. But was it too obvious?
The temple's voice whispered.
"A loyal gambler does not simply trust the game. He reshapes it."
Elias smirked. He never played fair.
Reed's Trial
Reed was trapped in a storm.
Lightning split the sky, the wind howling like a living beast. He stood on a crumbling bridge of stone, suspended over an endless abyss.
And on either side—two people clung to the edge.
A young girl, barely breathing, her grip failing. And Kade, struggling against the wind.
The stone cracked beneath them.
There was no time.
"One hand," the storm whispered. "Only one."
Reed gritted his teeth, his body trembling. His heart screamed.
He was a healer. He was supposed to save everyone.
But in this trial… he couldn't.
Breaking the Trial
Jaxon moved first.
His symbiote split, defying the temple's rules. One part wrapped around Reed, stopping his bleeding. The other lashed toward Silas—but the boy's form flickered and shattered into dust.
A lie. A trick.
Kade's chains whipped outward, ignoring the choice he was given. Instead of releasing one, he bound them both—Elias and Jaxon—and ripped them free.
The shadows trembled. The void cracked.
Elias? He didn't play the game. He rewrote the rules. Instead of drawing a single card, he burned the entire deck.
The temple screamed.
And Reed—he let go of himself. He reached for both hands, even as the bridge collapsed beneath him.
Loyalty is Not a Choice
The illusions shattered.
The temple groaned as the stone walls pulsed with golden light, acknowledging what had just happened.
They had refused to choose.
And they had won.
A doorway appeared, revealing a single pedestal. Upon it lay four relics—each shaped like a fragment of a shattered emblem.
As Jaxon, Kade, Elias, and Reed stepped forward, the voice of the temple whispered one last time.
"Loyalty is not in words, nor in the easy choices. You have broken the trial. You are worthy."
Each of them reached forward, grasping their relic.
The moment they did—
The temple doors opened.
And the next trial awaited.