Chapter 5 — Something Answers Back
The world didn't fade out.
It slid.
Kael felt the ground under his boots stretch, like wet clay pulled thin. Colors smeared. Shapes lost their edges. For a second he thought he was about to be torn apart, spread across whatever came next.
Then it stopped.
He stumbled forward and caught himself before falling. His hands sank into something soft and warm.
Sand.
He straightened and looked around.
He was standing in a wide plain under a red sky. Not sunset red—dull, heavy red, like old rust. Above him, a dark circle hung in the sky, eating the light around it. Not the sun. Something else. It pulsed slowly, as if breathing.
Kael squinted. "That doesn't look friendly."
The air felt thick here too, but in a different way. Less pressure. More heat. It clung to his skin and made every breath feel slow.
No text appeared.
That worried him more than the messages.
"Hello?" he called out. "Trial? System? Whatever you are?"
Nothing answered.
He took a step forward. The sand shifted under his foot and something moved beneath the surface. Not fast. Not attacking. Just… aware.
Kael stopped.
"Right," he said quietly. "We're doing this kind of place."
He picked a direction at random and started walking. Each step felt heavier than the last, like the ground was learning his weight and adjusting.
After a few minutes, he noticed something else.
Footprints.
Not his.
They were half-filled with sand, old but not ancient. Human-sized. Heading toward a cluster of black stone shapes in the distance—pillars, maybe ruins.
Kael hesitated.
Then shrugged. "Can't be worse than nothing."
As he got closer, the shapes made more sense. Broken towers. Collapsed walls. A place that had once been built on purpose.
Something shiny caught his eye near one of the stones.
He crouched and brushed sand aside.
A blade.
Short. Crooked. The metal looked burned, not rusted, and the handle was wrapped in something that might have been leather once. It felt warm when he picked it up.
Not comfortable. Not dangerous.
Familiar.
Kael frowned. "Why does this feel like I've used it before?"
The red sky darkened.
The black circle above pulsed again, stronger this time.
Then the sand behind him shifted fast.
Kael spun just as a shape pulled itself free—a thin thing, too tall, its limbs bending the wrong way. Its skin looked like dried mud stretched too tight, cracking as it moved.
It didn't roar.
It tilted its head, like it was curious.
Kael raised the blade without thinking. His grip wasn't steady, but it felt… right. Natural.
"Yeah," he said under his breath. "I was hoping you'd show up."
The thing took a step forward.
So did Kael.
The moment their feet moved, the world reacted. The sand hardened under Kael's boots. The air sharpened. The ruins behind him seemed closer than they had a second ago.
No rules. No instructions.
Just a quiet understanding settling in his chest.
This place wasn't testing strength.
It was watching what he chose to do when something finally answered back.