Two days had passed since Zane passed the test Instructor Marius had thrown at them under the Master's orders. Now, they were promised a "simple" trial, a chance to prove themselves worthy of the Master's training.
Marius had sworn it wouldn't involve fighting or scaling mountains—just a descent down stairs to retrieve a blue crystal orb. Simple, he'd said, but the word felt like a trap to Zane who stood to the right of Onilia. Nenis lingered behind them, stealing glances every now and then.
The trainees scattered across the plain like loose stones, no order or unity. Some clustered with allies they trusted to watch their backs; others hovered near those they thought they could manipulate.
A chill swept the field as Instructor Marius appeared from thin air, his form materializing like smoke given shape.
The trainees shifted their attention to the instructor, as if dread itself had settled over them.
The instructor's gaze lingered on Zane a beat too long with an expressionless face before he turned to address the group.
"With everyone here, I'll explain what you'll be doing and why this trial matters," Marius began.
"The Master's training isn't just any regimen. It's a single, refined method—honed from countless techniques, distilled into something perfect and lethal. The Master, in his generosity, offers it to anyone bold enough to seek it. But there's a cost." He paused, clasping his hands behind his back.
"You'll have to stake your life to learn it. Many have tried, and maybe more will try after you're are gone. Most died. Most gave up. Only five completed it."
Whispers rippled through the crowd at the mention of five. "He's talking about the Master's children, isn't he?" one trainee muttered, his voice barely audible. "The five Zodiacs."
"Yeah," another hissed back, excitement and fear tangled in his tone. "They're monsters. All from the same era too. Unreal right?"
Marius's voice rose again, silencing the murmurs. "The trial is your glimpse into what awaits. It's your chance to prove yourself worthy of the Master's path. You won't die today, but fail, and you'd be disqualified, no second chances." The trainees shifted. This was the moment they've all been waiting for.
"Your composure will be tested first," he continued.
"Prove you can stay calm under pressure, that is all for the first test. The second test is combat—duels to determine your ranks. You'll be assigned numbers based on your performance. The top trainee earns number one. After both tests, the last hundred trainees will be eliminated." He paused, scanning the crowd.
"Those who survive both tests will enter the initial stage of the Master's training. Complete all the steps, and you'll earn a vacation to return to your home planets. There, you'll decide if you really want to continue. Those who return to continue will be named Zodix—a rank below the Zodiacs, the Master's five children who reached the top. Only those who complete the entire path will earn a true Zodiac name."
The trainees shifted, some exchanging glances, others staring at the ground, the word 'Zodix' ringing in their minds like a promise and a threat.
"The first test, as I said, is simple: descend the stairs and retrieve a blue crystal orb. Its appearance is just the same as the orbs that illuminate your rooms in the night but slightly bigger. You shouldn't have any trouble finding one. If there are no questions, we'll begin—"
Zane raised his right hand, interrupting Marius. The instructor's eyes narrowed, a flicker of irritation breaking his stone-like composure.
"You may speak," he said, his tone clipped, like he'd already decided Zane was trouble.
Their few encounters had been enough for Marius to peg him as someone who complicated things.
Zane stepped forward, unbothered by the instructor's glare. "I'm sorry, Instructor, but I can't shake off the feeling that you're holding something back. Is there a hidden catch to this test? Traps? Some deeper purpose you're not telling us? Forgive my rudeness, but I fail to believe it's as plain as you've said." He kept his tone respectful.
"I agree with him, there has to be a hidden meaning." A trainee with scales on her face a curled horn on her forhead added.
A wiry trainee with a tail nearby shifted nervously, muttering to his friend, "He's got a point. No way it's just stairs and an orb. I don't want some loser stealing the credit if there's more to it."
'Adopting a respectful tone won't make you any less of a troublemaker, Zane.' Marius sighed as he crossed his arms.
"It's just as I said," he responded. "I have no reason to lie to you. Now, let's begin." His words did little to ease the tension. The trainees exchanged skeptical glances.
Zane's eyes narrowed, his instincts screaming that something was off, but before he could press further, Marius raised his hands, his voice booming with an incantation that shook the air.
"Left is right, worlds inverted,
Up is down, sight distorted.
I call forth a world where the great compass points to no direction,
A person and himself, all shall wander in absolute isolation,
Space Domain: No Man's Land."
The words hit like a shockwave, the alien plain twisting underfoot. The ground flipped, earth and sky trading places in a nauseating lurch. Trainees screamed or gasped, some facing upward, others downward, their bodies suspended in a warped space where left and right bled into each other.
Zane found himself upside down, the red-tinted sky now below him, the ground above. Onilia was beside him, caught in the same disorienting flip, her hair spilling toward the "ground" that was now the sky.
"Zane, be careful," she said with an alarmed voice. "I have a bad feeling about this."
'Unreal. An incantation that warps space for over eight hundred trainees? This kind of power… is this what it takes to be an instructor on Zoic?' Onilia thought, her respect for Marius grudgingly rising.
Zane's mind raced but his expression was calm. Onilia's warning echoed in his head, but he couldn't help but marvel at the sheer magnitude of the spell. Only an Apex-ranked Awakener or higher—could pull off something like this.
Marius clapped his hands, the sound exploding across the plain like thunder, sharp enough to rattle bones. "Good luck," he said, his voice tinged with amusement. The world blinked, and darkness swallowed every trainee on the field.
***
Zane's vision cleared, and he stood before a massive crimson gate with ancient carvings, looming under a sky that was no longer Zoic's. The plain was gone, the trainees vanished. He was alone.
'He split us up,' he realized, his thoughts flicking to Onilia for half a second. 'An Apex-ranked Awakener like her can handle herself. I need to worry about myself.' He glanced at the gate, its edges swallowed by darkness, no trace of light spilling through.
"In this darkness, I shouldn't be able to see anything, yet the gate is vividly clear. I'm supposed to go in there?" he muttered. "No thanks."
'It's best to wonder in the darkness for eternity than to go in there. That's what I'm feeling right now.'
He turned to walk away, not minding where he was going. His boots were silent on an unseen solid surface, but a sudden gust of wind roared behind him, fierce and unyielding. It shoved him forward, toward the gate's gaping maw.
"What the hell?" Zane growled, planting his feet, fighting the pull. His muscles strained, his hands clawing at the air, but the wind was relentless, like an invisible hand dragging him in. After a brief struggle, he stumbled through the gate as it slammed shut behind him.
Darkness swallowed him. He spun around, but the gate was gone, as if it had never existed. It was as if he'd stepped into a void cut off from the world. No walls, no sky, just endless black. Most would've suffocated in the endless dark, but Zane's pulse stayed steady. Fear wasn't in his nature.
A faint light flickered ahead, cutting through the gloom. It revealed a staircase, five meters wide, its stone steps worn and uneven, descending into a blackness so deep it seemed to eat the glow.
Zane's eyes narrowed as a timer appeared above his head, green numbers glowing in the dark: '9 years, 6 months, 12 days.' "It takes almost ten years? To go down a staircase? I knew he was hiding something." he muttered in shock. The timer's meaning was unclear, but he couldn't tell if the challenge was from Marius or the Master himself.
Zane stood at the staircase's edge, the light casting harsh shadows across his face.