The General was always very strict with his rules, "No soldiers gets their swords until I see their soul. This road is too harsh, too rough for the immature self to travel. There must be robustness to the way they love, a strong buffer against the sickly calls of cruelty. Only when these tests are passed does the training continue. Soldiers join our armies to become heroes the same way the legends of the old did. They are born to rescue, to enter hell, and conquer on behalf of the light. Otherwise what we build would not be warriors, but demons in masks. A master only creates what can be kept." — Great General Wymor, of the Rimor Kingdom.

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A warm pleasant feeling encompassed my entire body, a strange wisp of foreign energy sprouted from my heart, it flowed like a gentle stream throughout my entire body nourishing it as it passed.

The agonizing pain dulled as it slowly turned into something of the past, the comfortable energy breathed life into my limbs making me feel better than I ever had. Although I was still in the embrace of the abyssal darkness, I could nonetheless still sense my injuries healing as the wounds I sustained in my previous battle recovered.

The sensation of floating in the endless black realm, with the energy flowing through my body was oddly serene and pleasant, to say the least. A part of me even wished I could remain like this forever, perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

It was then that a large pair of Golden eyes suddenly appeared in the darkness seemingly glowing as they coldly stared down at me.

Large did not do the eyes justice, they were enormous as they bore down on me taking up my entire field of vision. The cold stare was oppressive as a tyrannical aura pushed me down.

I tried to avert my eyes from the overwhelming gaze, yet whenever I turned the Golden eyes would follow. First, there were two, then four, then six, then eight, it did not take long before the previously dark space was lit up with a myriad of snake-like eyes of various colors, all staring down at me.

I felt like I was standing naked in front of an army of bloodthirsty soldiers, the eyes bore down at me with an intensity that almost made me go mad. 'It's a dream! Nothing but a dream! I'm dreaming, this is not real! Not real!' I tried to convince myself, all the while willing my body to awake from its slumber.

That, however, proved to be futile, for the eyes did not disappear no matter how hard I tried, nor did I suddenly sprung awake from this dreaded nightmare. The eyes simply continued to watch me unblinkingly.

At first, I was unable to meet any of them with my gaze, yet as time passed, I would slowly but surely force myself to face some of them. My mind tried to rationalize what I was seeing, that all of this was not real, that I was in no real danger, and that everything was in my head.

And so I avoided the overbearing Golden eyes, I will leave those to the end. I brought my gaze to a small pair of purple draconic eyes at the edge of the dreaded realm.

'It's nothing but a dream! What the hell is there to fear from a pair of eyes anyways?!' I mentally berated myself, as I found the courage to face the small beady eyes. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Our gazes interlocked as I felt something tug at my consciousness. My vision swam for a second, the dreaded nightmarish realm twisted out of existence as I was transported into somewhere else, somewhere entirely different.

I was suddenly soaring through the skies, the strong winds crashed against my wings felt incredible, the landscape changed with each flap as my body sailed in the air, I was free, and I felt more alive than ever!

'Wait, my body?' My eyes glanced down at my clawed limbs, they were of green color, unlike my bright blue ones.

At that revelation, my vision began to swim once more, the sky seemed to collapse into countless shards like a broken mirror, and I soon found myself sent back into that dreaded realm.

The experience of my body cutting through the wind as I soared through the skies freely, without care was so vivid that I was momentarily confused at the sudden shift. It took me a few seconds before my eyes regained their clarity.

I peeked at the previous corner where those small beady purple eyes had been, only to find...nothing. They were gone and in their place was the familiar darkness.

I did not quite comprehend what was the purpose of that encounter, nor did I understand what I had gained from it, the only difference I could feel was the strange yet comfortable energy swirling in my body, it felt stronger albeit only by a little.

'Is that the purpose of this place?' I thought, enlightened. My gaze turned to face the giant Golden eyes with renewed courage. Yet as that cold oppressive aura bore down on me, I hastily found myself turning away in fright.

'Maybe leave that one for last.' I thought as I unconsciously gulped down.

'One step at a time, no need to rush.' I reminded myself.

This time I turned my attention to another set of ocean eyes, a bit bigger than the previous purple ones. Our gazes interlocked once more, as the familiar tug at my consciousness reappeared, pulling away from the nightmarish realm.

This time, I was a mighty white dragon. I awoke on top of what appeared to be a giant open shrine inside an underground cave. Countless majestic sculptures of various other Dragons that came in all sizes and shapes decorated the shrine.

I observed my surroundings with interest, I did not know how long I had before I was pulled back and so I did my best to observe everything. As I was engrossed with the extremely life-like sculptures, my body...no, the body I inhabited suddenly turned to face the entrance of the shrine.

I no longer had any control over my limbs and was reduced to a mere spectator. The sound of somebody walking echoed throughout the large underground cave, soon the figure of a knight in literal shining armor appeared. He held a giant bastard sword in both hands as he brandished it while glaring at me menacingly.

'A human?' I thought, surprised at my first encounter with one of them. I felt no sense of kinship from the man, quite the opposite. As I glanced down at his pitifully small figure, my eyes flashed with disdain.

'How dare he trespass on my home!' My blood boiled with anger as I glared at the intruder.