The Null trance was revered as a solitary trial—an intimate descent that laid bare the deepest layers of the human soul.
Each experience was tailored to the trancer alone, drawing from moments scattered across their lives… moments where lessons lingered, choices were avoided, and regrets quietly festered. In other words, the source of their Inner Demons.
Inside the trance, they were forced to confront those crossroads again.
This time, they could act where they once hesitated—though the trance always twisted the scenes, adding its own cruel elements, ensuring no unprepared mind could slip through untouched.
It reached into the core of their humanity, exposing fractures, amplifying truths, and pushing them to overcome the absolute worst of themselves.
But success… that was what separated Egoists from ordinary humans.
Egoists achieved the impossible: they stared into the abyss of their being, accepted it, and began the long, brutal journey of mastering it.
The parts of themselves unseen by others—yet ever-present within. Their Alter Persona.
Inner Demons was merely their raw form.
From that victory, Egoists emerged able to channel power from these Alter Personas, manifesting them through physical echoes of their Archetypes and wielding strength beyond human measure.
With such unpredictable, deeply personal trials, true preparation was a myth.
No science could map the path to success.
Academies could only offer practical training—sharpening body and mind—but even that was a luxury Luca and his community could never afford.
Some families are prepared. Most are not.
And people like Luca… were never given a chance.
With stakes that felt insurmountable, he would have to carve out his own way to survive.
His own method.
His own answer to the impossible.
*
*
*
The one who sees the depths.
The Phantom Knight spoke. A voice that boomed with the Astral Planes. Causing a vivid shockwave of power to exude from his form, while a great sword forged in his grasp.
Willing to accept the demons that rain loose within the soul.
The Spellcaster archetype spoke—a voice filled with wisdom.
His robe of darkness bloomed like flowers in the autumn breeze.
Tranquil in a way that makes you bow in reverence.
Are you prepared for the fate ahead?
Unjust and scorned. Days of suffering and pain, unattended.
The voices of the archetypes merged as one.
An ancient storm was brewing within the depths of the boy's consciousness.
Twisting into a thousand to one.
Demanding devotion of the human heart and soul… not just its body.
The world falls at your feet, but you turn a blind eye.
Forsaking the damned of the world. Peril as much as they did.
Silence settled over him, heavy and suffocating, as he watched the scene unfold.
Confusion clouded him at first, but then something sparked—an understanding blooming quietly, like sakura in spring.
'Is this my test?' He wondered.
'Null Trances are known to reveal memorable days in our lives. Days I may not expect… perhaps when my emotions revealed themselves the most.'
A deep scowl formed on his face.
'They could be days that I loved… and ones when I was filled with hate.'
Luca was vaguely aware of the concept.
Books on the history of Ostaria and its foundations hung in the library of his local school, which had intrigued him. Only if he knew how empty history could be.
The truth about the Elderion planet and the true purpose of Egoists.
The knowledge which existed within him was what he read and heard. Nothing more, nothing less.
His gaze flicked as the seven Archetypes moved once more.
Seven demons. Seven tests.
A path riddled with the thorns of flames and puddles of poison.
Will you succumb or will you arise?
We Seven shall be a testament to your fate.
A blinding light suddenly overtook the Astral Planes.
Sudden and without restraints, absorbing Luca like the ocean waves to beach sand.
Luca jerked in shock, yet unable to resist, he accepted it.
His senses were completely rendered useless… and, like a switch, they sparked back into use with imminent purpose.
With the reinstatement of his senses, the first sound that reached his ears… was the sound of crying.
'A baby?'
He furrowed his brows, intrigue gnawing at him as his body stirred awake.
He opened his eyes and blinked. Images taking form into distinct parts… forming his vision.
The intensity of the cries increased.
Luca straightened instinctively to the sound as he looked around. Assessing. Contemplating.
The world had turned around him.
No longer was he in the Astral Planes of his consciousness, but the projection of his Inner thoughts.
In other words, his test.
"Dear, we did it! You did it!"
A familiar voice suddenly accompanied the cries.
Luca flinched and turned to the side.
The images formed the tight corners of familiar wooden hallways.
Laced with doors at both ends until the corner, where a door stood half ajar.
The boy narrowed his eyes and walked towards it.
'That voice.'
"Yes, dear." A woman's voice. Heavy and tired, as if she had carried the mountain and dropped it back down, echoed in his ears.
Luca froze in recognition.
"A boy… a healthy little boy."
The joy in the voice was evident… overcoming the fatigue, easily.
And with it… a warmth erupted in his chest.
He quickened his pace as he headed for the door.
'No… it can't be.'
With a force he didn't mean to exert, he grabbed the door handle and flung it wide open.
The door slammed against the adjoining wall with a loud bang.
A sound… the people within didn't seem to hear.
"Congratulations, Mr Mavrik and Mrs Liora, your child is healthy and in good condition."
Luca's lips quivered as his gaze eased.
Before him, in the middle of a room, was a bed with a nurse by the side of the bed. Her hands were bloodied and worn.
A familiar woman lay on the bed. Tired and gasping for strength that refilled at a snail's pace.
Beside her was an equally familiar man.
An expression of joy wound his features in a youthful fever dream.
Luca could gawk all he wanted, but the familiar figures were in fact his mother and father.
The people he held dear the most throughout his thirteen years.
Glancing at the small child in his Mother's grasp… a sense of familiarity should have existed between them.
But it didn't.
Luca's gaze hardened as he walked into the room.
His bare feet tapped softly against the wooden boards while he observed the child.
With black eyes… and physical features that clashed against his.
'What?' He wondered.
Eyes widening in realisation as he seemed to freeze at the foot of the bed.
The room continued to play in motion.
The midwives began to clean and leave while the child was carefully wrapped in a clean sheet.
And his parents' warm expressions played fondly with the newborn child.
Everything played as it was, unaware of his presence.
'That child…' Luca thought in confusion as a midwife walked past him… seemingly phasing through his body like he was never there.
It dawned on him further as his expression contorted from shock to sadness and then an unrestrained rage.
'... isn't me.'
His pupils pulsed. The sight of the child gnawed at him— a puzzle made of meat and bone.
'Is this the test?' Confusion turned to a white-hot spark of rage.
'I do not understand what is going on!'
He gripped his fist tightly.
Visibly shivering as if the temperature had dropped to negative degrees.
His mother now caressed the alien child like it were him.
Giggling and cooing at the baby while the room hummed with his cries.
His father laughed and joked.
Their conversation was leaning toward a name for the child.
"Lucamir," Mavrik said.
"the light that reflects…" Liora smiled sheepishly. "I love it."
Luca nearly choked on his rage.
"What?!" He stated as he stamped his feet towards the happy couple.
Enragement took root in his heart.
"THAT IS NOT ME!"
He stretched his hand forward with plain animosity targeted at the baby, when his entire figure jolted in shock and froze in place. Eyes widened.
The baby stopped crying.
And like a zombie, its head twisted in his direction.
Luca's eyes bulged in their sockets as he reached for the wall.
"So this… is what you fear."
The baby spoke—no, pronounced—its voice carrying the weight of something ancient and wrong.
It was synonymous with the voices of his Archetypes. A thousand to one.
Yet, while theirs was pure Ancient wisdom, this was that of a corrupted god.
The nature of darkness itself ricocheted against the walls of the Delivery room.
Luca stood silent.
Eyes open and body tense.
Fear gripped his heart like it was a tennis ball.
"The fear of never existing…"
The baby continued.
Unbothered by the boy's shocked state.
"To be replaced without ever knowing you were meant to be."
Tension hung like a sharp knife against a bare neck.
"Your first test has been chosen."
The tension stretched on.
"Your parents' happiness or the chance to exist."
Immediately, the Nurse made a grotesque sound. One that shifted from satisfaction a moment ago to something more. Guttural and feral.
The parents looked up slowly. Shock and worry were evident in their eyes as a scene straight out of a horror movie unfolded.
The Nurse's body began to shake, sending a powerful hum to reverberate through the tiled floors.
Her limbs cracked like twigs.
Moving erratically in angles never known to man.
Then, like a seed that sprang into a tree, she extended. A thousand times faster.
Body and soul, stretching into a height that formed a looming shadow over the new family.
Skin, hair and every physical feature that revealed she was once a human were taken away from her. Replaced with something new. Something inhumane.
Reddish flesh, ridged with muscular protrusions. Limbs the length of her former body stretched from her torso, elongated far past what bone should allow, bending and flexing like living cables beneath raw skin.
The air shifted. Excitement replaced with fear.
The nurse's eyes sank into its sockets, and a gaping hole that bled took its place.
Her nose bent and dented backwards… revealing the nasal bone in all its anatomical glory.
Her lips peeled like autumn leaves.
Leaving room for her teeth to expand and sharpen. It formed a row of tear-rendering canines.
Her snarls, which were a mixture of humanity and expanding nightmare, were now a full-blown monster.
Luca blinked once. The disparity of his new situation dawned on him.
'A nullspawn?'
"Let the first Trial begin."