The darkness swallowed him whole.
Aiden stumbled forward, his hands outstretched, feeling for anything solid.
The air inside the Trial Room was colder, heavier — like it was soaked in the screams of those who had walked here before him.
Then —
A flicker.
Dim torches flared to life along the walls, casting long, distorted shadows.
He was standing in a corridor made entirely of cracked glass, shards jutting from the floor and ceiling at random angles like teeth in a beast's mouth.
Etched into the nearest wall, in blood-red script, was a simple message:
> "One path leads forward.
One leads to death.
Choose before the glass chooses for you."
Aiden gritted his teeth.
Two paths split ahead — identical, mirror images of each other.
Left or right.
No clues. No signs.
He cursed under his breath.
There was no time to hesitate — the glass walls around him had already begun to shift, groaning as if hungry.
Something sharp sliced the air behind him.
He spun just in time to dodge a razor-thin shard shooting from the wall, embedding itself into the ground where he had just stood.
The corridor was alive.
Panic rose in his chest — but he shoved it down.
Think.
Breathe.
Then he noticed it — faint scuff marks along the left path. Barely visible.
Someone had come through here before.
And if they had left marks… it meant they had survived long enough to leave them.
Without another thought, Aiden sprinted left.
The corridor screamed.
Walls collapsed inward, shards raining down around him like a bladed storm.
One sliced across his arm, blood splattering against the glass floor, but he didn't stop.
He couldn't.
He burst through the narrowing tunnel just as the walls slammed shut behind him with a deafening CRASH.
Panting, heart hammering, Aiden stumbled into the next room.
It was a circular chamber, the floor tiled with fragments of obsidian and bone.
Standing in the center — waiting for him — was a boy.
No older than nineteen.
Tall, lean, with messy black hair and cold silver eyes.
In his right hand, he held a sword made entirely of crystallized blood.
Its edge shimmered with lethal beauty.
The boy smiled without warmth.
> "New blood," he said. His voice was lazy, almost bored.
"They really are desperate."
Aiden clenched his fists.
> "Who the hell are you?"
The boy tilted his head.
> "Name's Cassian.
I'm your first opponent."
He pointed the sword lazily at Aiden.
> "Trial One: Blood and Glass.
Only one of us leaves this room alive."
Aiden's heart twisted, but he forced himself to stay still.
Cassian shrugged, almost apologetically.
> "Don't take it personally.
It's just the way the Sanctum works."
And with a sudden, brutal speed —
Cassian