Aviana slowly opened her eyes.
For a few moments...
She couldn't move.
She simply floated within the strange space surrounding her.
The System's final words continued echoing inside her mind.
"Prepare for your Soul Sea to form..."
"...and merge with your Master."
Aviana frowned.
"My Soul Sea..."
She had heard of Soul Seas before.
Every Initiate eventually developed one.
A personal inner world.
A place where essence, consciousness, and the foundations of one's power could exist.
But she had never imagined what hers would look like.
Then—
Something changed.
The darkness around her began to tremble.
Tiny points of golden light appeared throughout the endless blackness.
One.
Ten.
Hundreds.
Thousands.
They slowly gathered overhead.
The darkness disappeared.
A sky began forming.
It wasn't an ordinary sky.
It was beautiful.
Countless golden clouds floated across an endless blue expanse while brilliant streams of light moved between them.
Then—
A shadow passed overhead.
Aviana looked up.
A gigantic dragon flew across the newly formed heavens.
Its scales shimmered beneath the golden light.
Another followed.
Then another.
Soon...
Hundreds of dragons filled the sky.
Some were enormous.
Others were smaller.
Some possessed wings.
Others moved through the air without them.
They circled endlessly above her.
Then birds appeared.
Golden birds.
Silver birds.
Black birds.
Creatures Aviana had never seen before.
They flew alongside the dragons as though they belonged to the same world.
Aviana stared upward.
Her mouth slowly opened.
"...Dragon?"
She had never seen anything like this inside a Soul Sea.
The creatures weren't real.
At least...
Not in the normal sense.
They were manifestations.
Symbols.
Fragments of something buried deep within her existence.
But why dragons?
Why birds?
Aviana didn't know.
Before she could think further—
Something began forming beneath her.
Water.
A single drop appeared.
Then another.
Then thousands.
The drops gathered together.
A vast sea slowly spread beneath the heavens.
It was perfectly transparent.
So clear that Aviana could see the golden sky reflected across its surface.
The sea continued expanding.
Farther.
Farther.
Farther.
Until it stretched beyond the horizon.
There were no waves.
No storms.
No darkness beneath it.
The water was peaceful.
Pure.
Almost impossibly clean.
Aviana slowly lowered herself toward it.
Her fingers touched the surface.
Ripples spread outward.
She stared at them.
"So this is..."
"My Soul Sea."
Yet the Soul Sea wasn't finished.
Something else was forming.
Land.
Or rather...
What appeared to be land.
Instead of solid earth, enormous clouds began gathering beneath the ocean.
White clouds.
Golden clouds.
Silver clouds.
They slowly compressed together.
Forming vast floating platforms.
Mountains of clouds appeared.
Valleys of clouds.
Plains of clouds.
It looked less like an ordinary continent...
And more like heaven itself.
Aviana slowly descended onto one of the cloud formations.
Her feet touched it.
The clouds didn't collapse.
They supported her perfectly.
She looked around.
The entire world felt peaceful.
Too peaceful.
Then—
Two enormous structures began forming in the distance.
The first was large.
Massive.
Its shape resembled a towering orb surrounded by golden light.
The second was much smaller.
Almost like a miniature version of the first.
Aviana narrowed her eyes.
She instinctively understood what they represented.
Initiate.
Awakened.
Her current foundation.
And the foundation that would come after it.
But neither was complete.
The larger structure remained incomplete.
Its edges flickered.
Golden runes appeared and disappeared.
The smaller one was even less stable.
Only a tiny portion had formed.
Aviana stared at them.
"So..."
"Even my Soul Sea knows I haven't reached the next stage yet."
She smiled faintly.
The thought was strangely comforting.
She wasn't supposed to have everything immediately.
Her Soul Sea was still growing with her.
Still developing.
Still waiting for her to become stronger.
Then—
The entire world moved.
Aviana froze.
The sky shifted.
The sea rippled.
The clouds beneath her trembled.
For one terrifying moment, she thought the Soul Sea was collapsing.
But it wasn't.
It was moving.
Slowly.
The entire Soul Sea seemed to drift through something.
Toward another presence.
Toward another world.
Aviana looked toward the distant horizon.
There.
At the very edge of her Soul Sea...
Something appeared.
Another Soul Sea.
Far away.
So far that she could barely see it.
Yet she could feel it.
A familiar presence.
A presence she had known for a long time.
Blood.
Crimson light.
Darkness.
A Soul Sea that felt completely different from hers.
Aviana's eyes widened.
"Jade..."
Her Soul Sea continued moving.
Closer.
Closer.
The distance between the two worlds gradually disappeared.
Then—
A silver trail appeared.
It stretched between them.
Like a bridge.
Like a thread.
Like a path connecting two separate existences.
The silver light slowly traveled across Aviana's Soul Sea.
Then entered Jade's.
For a moment...
Nothing happened.
Then—
BOOM.
A gentle wave passed through both worlds.
Aviana's Soul Sea touched Jade's.
But instead of merging into one identical world...
They remained separate.
Two different landscapes.
Two different existences.
Two different colors.
Jade's Soul Sea represented blood.
Crimson oceans.
Darkness.
The ancient weight of the Blood God.
Aviana's Soul Sea represented something completely different.
Sky.
Radiance.
Pure water.
Clouds.
Dragons.
Birds.
The two worlds remained distinct...
Yet connected.
As though two heavens had suddenly become part of the same greater existence.
Aviana stared in silence.
Then the System spoke.
"Soul Sea formation complete."
A pause.
Then—
"Soul Sea successfully merged."
Aviana's eyes widened.
Merged...
With Jade.
She slowly looked toward the distant crimson world.
A faint smile appeared on her face.
"So..."
"We really are connected now."
The silver trail shimmered once more.
Then the world slowly faded.
---
Somewhere within the Trial Land...
Sarah stood silently among a long line of girls.
Dozens of them.
Perhaps hundreds.
All were waiting.
Each wore simple clothing.
None possessed weapons.
None possessed armor.
They had all spent the previous two months as slaves.
Now...
They had finally been granted the opportunity to cultivate.
A strange privilege.
Sarah looked toward the table positioned before them.
On it rested dozens of black gemstones.
Each girl would receive one.
Then they would begin cultivating.
Only through cultivation would they discover what grade their gemstone possessed.
Sarah quietly stared at the stones.
She still didn't understand this Trial.
Unlike Jade's Trial...
Unlike Aviana's Trial...
She hadn't been given a clear objective.
There was no obvious enemy.
No final boss.
No treasure.
No explanation.
The only information she had received was one strange message.
She might need to...
Ascend the Dark Abyss.
Sarah still didn't understand what that meant.
What was the Dark Abyss?
Why did she need to ascend it?
And what waited at the top?
She had asked several of the girls.
Most didn't know either.
But one group had told her something interesting.
"If you ascend the Abyss..."
"You'll be blessed by the Shadow God."
Sarah had frowned when she heard that.
"The Shadow God is dead."
The girls had nodded.
"We know."
"But the blessing remains."
Apparently, even after the death of a god, certain divine inheritances could continue existing.
The thought made Sarah uncomfortable.
If the Shadow God truly was dead...
Then what exactly would bless her?
Sarah didn't know.
There was another problem.
There was no day.
No night.
No sun.
No moon.
No way to measure time.
She had completely lost track of how long she had been inside.
A week?
A month?
A year?
It felt like two years.
At least...
That's how long it felt to her.
Sarah looked toward the black gemstones again.
Perhaps this was the beginning.
Maybe once she started cultivating...
She would finally understand the purpose of her Trial.
She clenched her fists.
"I just hope I don't have to stay here for years."
The girl in front of her stepped forward.
Then another.
Soon...
It was Sarah's turn.
She approached the table.
Hundreds of black gemstones remained.
Sarah reached toward one.
The instant her fingers touched it—
A strange sensation entered her body.
Cold.
Dark.
Yet strangely familiar.
Sarah's expression changed.
She looked at the gemstone.
"What are you...?"
She didn't receive an answer.
Only darkness.
---
Back in the Spiritual Realm...
Jade stepped out of the abandoned citadel.
The ancient structure stood silently behind him.
Everything about the place made him uncomfortable.
Especially the skeleton.
They weren't ordinary remains.
They still possessed traces of life force.
That fact alone was enough to convince Jade that leaving was the correct decision.
He walked several hundred meters away from the citadel.
Then finally stopped.
"I'll stay here for now."
He gathered some dry branches.
Created a small campfire.
Then sat beside it.
The night around him was quiet.
Too quiet.
Jade stared toward the abandoned citadel.
For some reason...
He couldn't stop thinking about what he had discovered inside.
The ancient inscription.
Everything seemed connected.
But he didn't have enough information yet.
He slowly closed his eyes.
Then—
Something moved inside his soul.
Jade's eyes opened immediately.
"...What?"
A strange sensation appeared deep within him.
It wasn't pain.
It wasn't danger.
It felt...
Familiar.
His consciousness slowly entered his Soul Sea.
The crimson ocean appeared before him.
The dark sky stretched endlessly above.
The blood-colored world remained peaceful.
But now...
Something was different.
Jade looked toward the distance.
His eyes widened.
There.
Far beyond the crimson horizon...
Was another Soul Sea.
It was extremely far away.
So far that Jade knew it would take an enormous amount of time before he could physically reach it.
Yet he could see it.
A world of golden light.
Clouds.
Transparent water.
Dragons.
Birds.
Sky.
Jade stared.
Then he smiled.
"Aviana..."
He immediately understood.
She had completed her Trial.
Good.
At least she was safe.
Jade sat back down.
He had no idea what her Trial had been like.
He didn't know what she had experienced.
But if her Soul Sea had formed...
Then she had survived.
That was enough.
Jade looked toward the distant world.
"Good job."
A faint smile remained on his face.
Then another thought appeared.
"My own Awakened Trial..."
His expression became serious.
He had already told Henry that he wanted to challenge his next Trial after forming his new Shadow.
But Henry had told him something unexpected.
He was already beginning to form his Gate.
That meant Jade didn't necessarily need to wait for the same advancement.
If he wanted to challenge his Trial...
He could.
Henry had also shown him the location of his Citadel on the map.
Jade slowly reached into his storage space and pulled out the map.
He opened it beside the fire.
His eyes moved across the markings.
There.
Henry's Citadel.
Jade stared at it.
Then smiled.
"Maybe it's time."
He had another thought.
Aaron.
If Aaron was willing to join them...
The three of them could challenge their second Trials together.
Jade immediately looked toward Henry's location again.
Henry had already told him that he knew where Aaron was.
That changed everything.
Jade didn't want to enter another Trial alone.
Not if he had a choice.
Three people would be safer.
More importantly...
They understood one another.
They had survived the previous Trial together.
They had fought side by side.
They had trusted each other when everything else had collapsed.
Jade folded the map.
He looked toward the distant crimson horizon.
Then toward Aviana's Soul Sea.
Then back toward the direction of Henry's Citadel.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
"Henry."
"Find Aaron."
"We'll challenge the Trial together."
The campfire crackled quietly.
Above him, the Spiritual Realm remained endless.
Somewhere far away...
Sarah had just begun cultivating.
Aviana had completed her Trial.
And Jade was preparing to enter another one.
Three separate paths.
Three separate challenges.
Yet somehow...
They were all moving toward the same future.
And Jade knew one thing.
His next Trial...
Would not be easy.