"Sometimes, fear itself is the very first test…
and overcoming it becomes the greatest battle."
The next morning came too quickly.
Aura woke to the sharp sound of a bell ringing across the Academy grounds—loud, insistent, echoing through every corridor and courtyard. He sat up in his bed, his body still aching from the night before, from the Gate, from the oath, from everything that had happened in the span of what felt like minutes but had actually been hours.
His hand throbbed.
He looked down at his palm. The blue mark was still there, but it had changed. It was darker now, deeper, more pronounced. The veins around it had taken on a faint black tint, like ink spreading through water.
He flexed his fingers slowly, feeling the strange, foreign power coiled beneath his skin, waiting. Always waiting.
Outside his window, sunlight scattered across the stone pavements of the Academy. The sky was clear, pale blue, almost cheerful. It felt wrong. Everything felt wrong.
Aura pushed himself out of bed, ignoring the protest from his muscles, and got dressed quickly. Black training clothes. Worn boots. His blade strapped to his side.
When he stepped outside, the courtyard was already packed.
Hundreds of students stood assembled at the Academy's main training grounds—a massive open space surrounded by tall stone walls and towering pillars. The ground was made of hard-packed dirt and stone, scarred from years of sparring and drills.
Nervous faces everywhere. Unsteady breaths. Hands fidgeting with weapons. Eyes darting around, looking for reassurance, for answers, for anything.
Aura scanned the crowd, searching.
And then he saw him.
Shoho.
Standing near the front, arms crossed, his usual mischievous grin plastered across his face like he was enjoying some private joke the rest of the world wasn't in on. His dark hair was messy, his uniform half-unbuttoned, his posture relaxed despite the tension in the air.
When he spotted Aura, his grin widened, and he raised a hand in a lazy wave.
Aura made his way over, weaving through the crowd of students. When he reached Shoho, he stopped, glancing around.
"What's going on?" Aura asked quietly, his voice still rough from sleep.
Shoho shrugged, his grin never faltering. "No idea. But judging by everyone's faces, it's not gonna be fun."
Before Aura could respond, the sound of heavy boots echoed across the training grounds.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The crowd fell silent instantly.
Everyone turned toward the source of the sound.
And then he appeared.
Teacher Bull.
Tall—easily seven feet—with a build like a mountain. His arms were thick as tree trunks, his chest broad enough to block out the sun. His face was hard, carved from stone, with a thick black beard and eyes that burned with a permanent intensity. He wore no shirt, just heavy leather armor across his torso, and strapped to his back was a massive double-bladed axe that looked like it could split a boulder in half.
He walked slowly, deliberately, each step shaking the ground slightly. His gaze swept across the assembled students like a predator surveying prey.
When he reached the center of the training grounds, he stopped.
Silence.
Complete, suffocating silence.
And then he spoke.
His voice was deep, booming, cutting through the air like thunder.
"Today marks your first trial."
He let the words hang in the air, heavy and final.
"From this moment—learning stops. Fighting begins."
A ripple of unease spread through the crowd. Students shifted nervously. Whispers started, then died just as quickly.
Aura's jaw tightened. His hand moved instinctively toward the hilt of his blade.
Beside him, Shoho's grin had dimmed slightly, but his eyes were sharp now, focused.
Bull slammed the base of his axe into the ground.
BOOM.
The earth shook.
And then—
The ground began to crack.
Four massive sections of stone split apart, rising slowly into the air like ancient monoliths awakening from slumber. They hovered ten feet off the ground, then twenty, then thirty, until they formed a suspended pathway high above the training grounds.
Each platform was different.
The first glowed faintly red, heat radiating off it in visible waves. Fire.
The second was coated in frost, icicles hanging from its edges like teeth. Ice.
The third was surrounded by swirling gusts of wind, spinning so fast the air itself seemed to distort. Wind.
And the fourth—
The fourth was shrouded in shadow, dark and formless, shifting and rippling like liquid darkness. Shadow.
Beneath the platforms, the ground had opened up—a dark, endless pit stretching down into nothingness. No bottom. Just… void.
Aura's throat went dry.
One wrong step meant death.
Bull's voice cut through the stunned silence.
"This is the Elemental Trial."
He gestured toward the floating platforms with one massive hand.
"Cross the paths of wind, fire, ice, and shadow—without falling."
His eyes narrowed, sweeping across the crowd.
"Anyone who falls… dies."
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Aura felt his heart pounding in his chest, felt the cold sweat starting to form on the back of his neck.
"Who's first?" Bull's voice boomed.
Silence.
And then—
"I'll go."
Shoho stepped forward, his grin back in full force, hands shoved casually into his pockets.
Bull's eyes locked onto him, studying him for a long moment.
Then he nodded once. "Go."
Shoho walked up to the edge of the pit, standing just inches away from the drop. He looked down into the darkness, then back up at the platforms, then over his shoulder at Aura.
He winked.
And then he jumped.
The crowd gasped.
But Shoho didn't fall.
He moved like he was weightless—like gravity was just a suggestion he chose to ignore. He twisted mid-air, his body rotating smoothly, and landed on the first platform with perfect balance.
The fire platform.
Flames erupted around him, shooting up in walls of heat. But Shoho just laughed, leaping forward again before they could touch him.
He landed on the ice platform next, his feet sliding slightly, but he used the momentum, spinning gracefully and launching himself toward the wind platform.
The gusts tore at his clothes, his hair, but he cut through them like a knife, landing lightly, barely even pausing before jumping again.
The shadow platform.
The darkness rippled around him, reaching out like hands, but Shoho danced past them, moving so fast he was almost a blur.
And then—
He landed on the final platform.
Safe.
Solid ground.
The entire training ground erupted in applause.
Shoho turned, bowed dramatically, and shot another wink at Aura.
Even Bull, through his stern, unshaken expression, gave the faintest nod of approval.
"S-Class movement," he muttered, just loud enough for the students nearby to hear.
Aura's breathing grew heavier.
Bull's gaze turned toward him.
"Next."
Aura's legs felt like they were made of stone.
Every muscle in his body screamed at him to stop, to turn back, to run.
But he forced himself to move.
One step. Then another.
The crowd parted around him, creating a path toward the edge of the pit.
As he walked, a voice echoed in his mind—soft, distant, familiar.
His mother's voice.
"If you ever wish to protect someone… you must first lift your sword."
Aura's jaw tightened.
He reached the edge, staring down into the endless darkness below.
His heart pounded.
His hands trembled.
And then—
He stepped forward.
The instant his foot touched the first platform, everything went wrong.
A massive ball of fire erupted from the center of the platform, shooting straight toward him.
Aura's eyes went wide. He threw himself backward, barely avoiding the flames, but his foot slipped on the edge.
He staggered, arms windmilling, desperately trying to regain balance.
The crowd gasped.
Shoho's voice cut through the noise. "Aura!"
But Aura was already falling—
No.
Not falling.
Slipping.
His foot found purchase on the ice platform below, but it was too sudden, too fast. His leg buckled. He hit the ice hard, his knee slamming into the frozen surface.
Pain shot up his leg.
He cried out, gasping, trying to push himself up, but the ice was slick, unforgiving.
Bull's voice boomed across the training grounds, filled with fury.
"Is this a joke?! Boy, if you fall—you die!"
Aura's breath came in short, sharp bursts. His vision blurred. His hands shook.
He could feel it—the pull of the void beneath him, calling, waiting.
And then—
Shoho's voice. Steady. Strong.
"Aura! Focus! Remember your strength!"
Aura shut his eyes.
His hand—the marked one—began to burn.
Not painfully. Just… intensely.
And then—
He appeared.
Standing right in front of him, inside his mind, inside his soul—
Dark Aura.
The shadow version of himself, the one he'd fought, the one he'd made a pact with.
It smiled.
"If you don't want to fall…" it whispered, its voice cold and smooth.
"Then set me free."
Aura's eyes snapped open.
They weren't blue anymore.
One was still electric blue.
But the other—
Pitch black.
A wave of black energy exploded from his hand, spreading outward like liquid shadow. It wrapped around his body, lifting him effortlessly off the ice.
His body turned weightless.
Fire, ice, wind—none of it could touch him.
He moved like a ghost, like something not quite real, cutting through every obstacle in his path. The flames parted around him. The ice cracked beneath him but held. The wind tried to push him back, but he slipped through it like smoke.
And then—
He landed on the final platform.
Solid. Safe.
Silence.
Complete, suffocating silence.
And then—
Whispers.
"What… what was that?"
"That was Shadow Walk! A beginner shouldn't be able to do that!"
"How did he—"
Bull's eyes glimmered with something—surprise, maybe, or recognition—but his lips stayed cold, hard.
"Next," he said flatly.
In the crowd, hidden among the students, a masked figure stood perfectly still.
His lips moved silently, whispering words no one else could hear.
A dark incantation.
"Aura has revealed his power," the spy whispered into the void. "Master… he's awakening."
Far away, in a chamber swallowed by darkness, a figure opened his eyes.
The masked villain.
A faint, sinister smile curved across his lips.
"The stronger he grows…" he whispered to the empty room.
"The closer he comes to his own ruin."
That evening, as the sun set and the training grounds emptied, Shoho and Aura sat beneath a large tree near the edge of the Academy.
Aura's face was pale, exhausted, his body still aching.
Shoho studied him for a long moment, then spoke.
"What you did out there… that was Shadow Walk. No beginner could pull that off."
Aura didn't respond immediately. He just stared at his hands.
"I don't know," he finally whispered. "It just… happened."
Shoho placed a hand on his shoulder, his usual grin replaced by something more serious.
"Seems like something far bigger is hiding inside you, my friend."
From a distance, standing in the shadow of the Academy's tallest tower, Uno watched.
His face carried a shadow of concern.
"He's not ready yet," Uno muttered to himself.
"But time… time is running out."
To be continued…