Haruno woke up to cold. Her lungs felt like shards of ice scraping down her throat as she gasped. When her eyes opened, all she saw was white. Snow whipped around her like knives. The wind howled and the ground was buried so deep in snow she couldn't tell where the land ended and the sky began.
She was also in the middle of a blizzard.
She sat up slowly, her fingers trembling. Her breath came out in shallow clouds, already freezing in midair. Her body shivered uncontrollably. For a few seconds, she didn't even remember where she was.
Then it hit her. She was in the Trial of the Blood Odachi.
But there were no monsters, no puzzles or bosses. Just… this blizzard.
Haruno slowly got to her feet. The wind slammed against her like a wall, nearly pushing her back down. The cold sank into her bones so deep it hurt to breathe. She looked around, squinting through the blinding snow. She saw nothing. There was no mountain, no forest, no path. It was just endless whiteness that stretched to infinity.
"Alright. So… walk, I guess."
That was all she could think to do.
So she walked.
At first, she thought she was fine. She was used to rough training. She had fought Fluviums, bled in the rain and slept in the streets. This was just weather. She could handle this.
But the blizzard didn't stop. The cold got worse. Her hands were turning pale. Her teeth began to chatter. Her nose stung. Every step felt heavier than the last.
Walk.
There was nothing else. One single thought kept echoing in her mind.
Walk.
She didn't even notice when her mind started to fade.
The blizzard never changed, as though it were trapped in a single frozen heartbeat. She could have been walking for an hour, or for days. She didn't know anymore. Her lips cracked. She stopped feeling her fingers. Her outfit was coated in frost. The teal glow around her sword had dimmed to a faint shimmer.
Walk.
Somewhere in her head, her rational voice screamed at her.
'Stop. Rest. You're going to die.'
But it didn't matter. Her body didn't listen.
Her legs moved on their own, dragging her forward through knee-deep snow. She tripped once and fell face-first into the freezing powder. Her cheek burned, then went numb. She pushed herself up, swaying.
Walk.
The thought didn't even sound like her own anymore. It was hollow, like someone—or something—was whispering it inside her mind.
Walk.
Walk.
Walk.
Her legs trembled. The cold was inside her now. Her joints felt stiff. Every blink was slow. The edges of her vision were frosting white. She was dying.
Walk.
Her head tilted forward. Her body kept moving like a puppet on frozen strings. Her mouth hung slightly open as if she was running low on oxygen. When she tripped again, her knee cracked against the ice. She fell hard this time. The world spun. The snow burned against her face like acid, and yet it was cold. She couldn't move her fingers. Her sword slipped from her grasp, vanishing into the snow like it had never existed.
And yet, her body rose. Her arms hung limply at her sides as she staggered forward. Her eyes were unfocused. Her skin had turned almost grey. Her movements weren't her own anymore.
Her consciousness screamed at her mindless self.
'Stop. Please stop...'
But her legs didn't stop.
Walk.
She could barely see. Her eyelids fluttered. Her vision clouding with tears that froze instantly on her cheeks.
Every breath felt like swallowing needles.
Walk.
There was a faint sound now behind the storm. It was a masculine voice. Maybe it was her name. She didn't know. She didn't care. The only thing that existed was the storm, and the endless white path ahead.
Walk.
The voice whispered louder now, wrapping around her skull. It wasn't her own. It wasn't human. It was deep and hollow, like something buried beneath centuries of ice.
"To claim blood… you must lose warmth."
Her vision flickered. Her steps slowed down.
"To claim power… you must lose self."
Her knees buckled.
"To claim the blade… you must walk until only the blade remains."
She fell forward again, face-first into the snow. And this time, she didn't get up. But her body did.
It jerked upright like a marionette being pulled by unseen strings. Her head lolled slightly to one side, her breath shallow and uneven. The storm howled louder, wrapping her in a cocoon of frost.
Walk.
The voice purred again.
"Now… walk."
And so she did.
Her body moved through the blizzard. Her eyes were blank. Her limbs were stiff. She was but a wandering ghost in a frozen wasteland, marching toward something she couldn't see, chasing a purpose she couldn't remember. A single trail of footprints disappeared behind her as the snow buried them instantly.
Through the storm, she saw a distortion in the pale horizon.
At first, it looked like a hill of snow. But as she continued walking, the "hill" began to move. A ripple passed across its surface. The snow slid down its sides, revealing a pale, glistening flesh beneath. It was a worm but it wasn't natural.
It was massive. Its body stretched endlessly across the frozen plain. Translucent patches along its side pulsed faintly, revealing veins that glowed with a sickly crimson colour.
Then, it opened its mouth.
A wet, grinding sound echoed through the blizzard. Its mouth was a vertical gash splitting its head open, lined with concentric rings of teeth that looked like frozen bone. Inside was darkness.
And then she heard it not with her ears but in her mind.
Walk.
Her body jolted like a puppet yanked by strings.
Walk.
Her feet moved forward. Her breath rattled. Her tears froze before they could fall. She wanted to scream, but her lips wouldn't move. The only sound she made was the crunch of her boots pressing deeper into the snow.
"Stop…"
Hee body ignored her. Her hand twitched. Her fingers were frozen stiff but her arm refused to obey.
Walk.
Each step brought her closer to the creature's gaping mouth. The smell of iron filled the air like old blood and frostbite. Her vision blurred. She didn't know why she was crying anymore. Maybe her body remembered something her mind had already forgotten. Fear, sadness, or the simple instinct to live, but she couldn't.
She couldn't even feel her own heartbeat.
Her body began to shake uncontrollably as she fought against the compulsion. The monster's breath rolled over her. She dropped to her knees, forcing her head down, trying to stop herself from looking up at that mouth.
"I don't… want to…"
Her arms convulsed. Her body rose again mechanically, as though the strings of her soul were pulled by something that ruled over her existence.
Walk.
Her mind screamed but her body obeyed.
She stumbled forward, half-dead, half-alive. Her consciousness now just a dim flame flickering in a frozen skull. The worm's mouth loomed larger and larger, the darkness swallowing the horizon until it was all she could see.
She tried to run. For a moment, her body faltered but the control tightened like a noose. Her muscles seized. Her spine arched backward unnaturally before snapping forward again, forcing her into motion.
She collapsed face-first into the snow, but her body rose once more. Her tears fell again as frozen streaks down her face.
She knew she was done.
The worm's mouth stretched open, trembling with hunger. And Haruno, a lifeless shell wrapped in ice and despair, stepped into the darkness.
The blizzard swallowed the last of her form and the snow fell silent. Only the faint echo of her final breath remained before the storm devoured even that.