My hand hovered inches from the gate.
Close enough to feel it.
Cold.
Ancient.
Wrong.
The air between my palm and the black surface trembled faintly, as though invisible currents were colliding. Every instinct in my body screamed for retreat.
Danger.
Danger.
Danger.
The warning wasn't subtle anymore.
It hammered into my consciousness with brutal force, primal and absolute.
My breathing slowed.
Not from calm.
From control.
I could feel my heartbeat rising.
THUMP.
THUMP.
THUMP.
Each beat echoed through my body like war drums.
My blood moved faster.
My senses sharpened.
Every crack in the earth.
Every flicker of lightning above.
Every microscopic shift in pressure around the tower.
All of it became clear.
A pale white aura bled from my body—thin, controlled, dense.
Not power.
Preparation.
The gate stood before me like a silent executioner.
Up close, it felt less like an object and more like a boundary.
The runes carved across its surface shifted subtly whenever I focused too hard. The symbols refused to stay fixed, rearranging themselves just beyond complete understanding.
They glowed.
Then dimmed.
Like something watching me blink.
That was when realization struck.
These runes weren't decorative.
They weren't barriers.
They were restraints.
Containment.
This gate wasn't built to keep intruders out.
It was built to keep something in.
A chill ran down my spine.
I inhaled once.
Then placed my hand against the gate.
The response was instant.
ZISSSSH—!!
Black lightning erupted from the surface.
It moved like living venom.
Not random.
Not chaotic.
It targeted.
It struck my arm and spread through my body in less than a heartbeat.
BOOM—!!
Agony exploded through me.
I was thrown backward violently, crashing across the cracked battlefield.
Stone shattered beneath my body.
Pain tore through my arm.
Smoke curled upward.
I forced myself to breathe.
Slowly.
My right hand trembled.
The skin had blackened.
Charred.
Burned so deeply that white bone glimmered beneath ruined flesh.
The pain was blinding.
But something felt… wrong.
This wasn't an attack meant to kill.
It was rejection.
A warning.
I pushed myself up, jaw tight.
My regeneration activated automatically.
Energy surged from my core, stitching flesh back together in burning waves.
But healing was slower here.
Much slower.
The tower was interfering.
No.
Suppressing.
Sweat slid down my face.
I looked back at the gate—
And froze.
Blood from my burned palm remained on its surface.
It hadn't evaporated.
Hadn't burned away.
It moved.
The crimson droplets crawled across the runes like living ink, seeping into each carved line.
The symbols ignited.
Deep red.
The entire tower trembled.
The storm above roared.
Lightning struck again.
Again.
Again.
Then—
BOOOOOOM—!!
The gate moved.
Not fast.
Not violently.
But with unbearable weight.
The two black doors groaned as they parted inward, ancient mechanisms roaring like a beast awakening from eternal sleep.
The sound shook the entire trial zone.
Then the air changed.
A violent pull erupted.
Wind screamed.
Dust flew.
The earth cracked beneath my feet.
No—
It wasn't pulling outward.
It was pulling inward.
Toward the gate.
Toward the darkness inside.
I dug my feet into the ground as everything around me was dragged toward the opening.
The interior was pure black.
Not darkness.
Something worse.
Absence.
It swallowed light.
Sound.
Even intent.
My instincts screamed louder than ever before.
Retreat.
Run.
Survive.
But I didn't move.
I watched.
Waited.
Seconds passed.
Then minutes.
The black void remained.
Silent.
Hungry.
Patient.
Then—
Something changed.
The darkness receded.
Slowly.
Light began to emerge from within.
Warm.
Gentle.
Alive.
A breeze drifted outward.
Soft.
Carrying scents I hadn't experienced since entering the Trial Zone.
Grass.
Rain.
Earth.
Life.
My eyes narrowed.
Impossible.
When the darkness fully faded—
I saw it.
A vast land stretched beyond the gate.
Endless emerald fields swayed beneath a golden sky.
Ancient trees stood in the distance, their leaves glowing faintly with strange luminous energy.
A river shimmered far away like liquid silver.
Birds circled overhead.
Everything was peaceful.
Beautiful.
Too beautiful.
My instincts didn't relax.
They screamed louder.
Because this—
This was wrong.
The Trial Zone had been a wasteland of blood-red skies and black lightning.
This paradise didn't belong here.
Which meant one thing.
Illusion.
Or worse.
I stepped forward carefully.
One step.
Then another.
Every muscle remained tense.
My aura stayed active.
Every sense stretched to maximum awareness.
The moment I crossed the threshold—
The gate behind me vanished.
No sound.
No warning.
One moment it existed.
The next—
Gone.
The peaceful field remained.
Silent.
Still.
Then—
The air changed.
My entire body locked.
Every hair rose.
The wind stopped.
The birds disappeared.
The river went silent.
Everything froze.
And then—
I felt it.
A gaze.
Not from one direction.
From everywhere.
Watching me.
Judging me.
Ancient.
Monstrous.
My pupils contracted.
The peaceful field before me began to distort.
The grass darkened.
The sky twisted.
The golden light cracked.
Like shattered glass.
The illusion peeled away.
And what lay beneath—
Made my blood freeze.
The beautiful field was gone.
The land beneath it was soaked in blood.
Mountains of corpses stretched into the distance.
Beasts.
Humans.
Creatures I had never seen before.
All dead.
All torn apart.
Weapons littered the ground.
Broken.
Shattered.
Ruined.
The glowing trees?
They weren't trees.
They were giant skeletal remains.
Their branches were bones.
Their leaves were fragments of shattered souls.
The silver river?
Blood.
An endless river of blood.
And standing at the center of it all—
Was a single figure.
Still.
Silent.
Waiting.
I couldn't see its face.
Only its outline.
Humanoid.
Motionless.
Yet the pressure coming from it…
My soul trembled.
For the first time since my rebirth—
True fear entered me.
Then—
The system spoke.
> [Trial Updated]
Threshold Trial Initiated
Objective: Survive
Opponent: ???
Clearance Status: Insufficient
The figure moved.
Just one step.
And the world exploded.