All of them had expressions of fear, sorrow, and confusion.

The memories and rich experiences he had never encountered before through the past dreariness were all shoved into his life with the past few days. Even the overlaying sense of ‘unable to anything against captors’ didn’t dampen this perspective. It only made him peer at everything with a greater intensity. Their attitudes and quirks were engrained in his mind.

He looked at the duo who threatened to wipe out the first place he has been to, that humankind established. His own destined fate to be powerless in the face of such familiar circumstances where he couldn’t save even himself or anyone else pressed itself upon him. His mind gradually grew blank and before he knew it he was in a different place.

……

Somewhere Unknown

Tus’s eyes peered around his surroundings and it felt like he has been here since he could remember, but there was also the feeling of never visiting this place. It was pure white with nothing existing and was boundless, but as he focused at one area, a little indistinct spot appeared in his vision. He instinctively wanted to go to it and was surprised that he moved, or rather, it moved toward him.

The thing gradually came to view and it turned out to be a yellow stoned tablet with a colorless picture of sand, towering lights, monsters, and the outline of a person standing before it all, unfazed. He recognized the person as himself, only when he first entered the Land of Oblivion.

“What is this and where am I?” Tus asked himself as he turned around.

‘You are in the Primal Setting, the Passage. I am the Trial Bearing, the lone overseer of the Lands, and the giver of rewards.’ A sound that didn’t exist from the ears echoed directly in Tus’s mind and translated itself. ‘The tablet before you is your reward for passing the first trial, simply the Trial of Passing.’

Tus accepted what it said without any lapse in understanding as the words embedded themselves deeply into his mind. “What is the reward?”

‘The reward is what you seek.’

“That isn’t very descriptive.” Tus mumbled to himself.

‘What is it that brought you to Oblivion?’ The voiced asked.

“To gain power to change the world and save those who I deem are the ones I should protect.” Tus said without control.

‘What kind of power do you want?’

Tus was silent as he remembered the lack he visited all the time, the bruises he endured, the out casting of his family, and the eventual genocide. Normally all of these would be hazy or sealed by his consciousness due to the pain they would cause, but here, everything was laid bare for him to witness without feeling anything. He only felt a type of energy approaching him.

“I want the power to heal the hearts and bodies of people and the power to fight against those who wish to oppress.” Tus said without control once again.

‘What makes you worthy of obtaining of two powers instead of one?’

“I don’t know if I’m worthy to receive two, but if I can obtain just something to liberate myself from their chains, then I’ll be happy.” Tus said with overflowing determination and excitement that streamed from his soul.

‘Your motives, thoughts, and state of being are pure and transparent. The Trial of Passing will grant you what you want. Your body was imprinted by the first trial with fate and now your body will also be changed ten times. The first time to bestow you basic power to serve both causes and act as your reward from the Trial of Passing, while the other nine times will be filled with danger. To pass the Trial of Reconstruction, you must survive during all of the changes using any means as they would render you powerless. Every time you go through a change after the first, you will gain greater proficiency in using your basic power, but the basic power won’t be increased. You’ll have to do that with your own effort. The first change will be after you leave this place while the rest will occur every full and new moon. As a reminder, the primal…’

With what was said drowned out by white noise, Tus found himself sinking from the plane into a world of darkness. He stopped sinking and a pain started pulsing through his body, originating from his left chest. The pulse was silent at first, but soon a sound similar to a heartbeat became prominent. With every ‘badump’ Tus’s body scrunched together from the pain that was from his internal organs being displaced and new veins that were like invasive roots, growing without reserve. The new veins followed the route of the first heart veins from a bubble that was similar to a cell, except it was transparent as well as the veins with nothing inside it. However, it started pulsing as well along with the pain, the cell would contract, and a clear fluid would be created, filling the veins that were spreading throughout his body.

After the cell finished filling the fully veins were finished forming, a greater pain assailed Tus’s consciousness. That cell then made borders that crisscrossed within it, appearing like a pie with three equal slices.

When the cell contracted once more, three areas filled with vibrant colored light that then spread through the veins to the three sides of the body. One side had a glaring red color that moved to the head and had the appearance and feeling of fire after it settled. Another side was occupied with a deep blue color that pushed flowed through the veins to the entire left side with the feeling and movement of cool water. The final side, the right side, was yellow that appeared like sand, and gratingly, slowly, moved through the set of veins.

Tus felt like his head and shoulders were in an inferno with his head being roasted. His right side had the feeling of sand paper tearing his insides out. The only part of him that he found solace in was his left side that had the sensation of relief and relaxation.

‘Thank you Trial Bearing for giving me hope.’ Even though the pain was intense, Tus’s mind wasn’t disrupted, and he expressed his thanks with great gratification.

………

Country of Confine, Capital City of Froir, Central Plaza, 3 Minutes Before.

Velfor smiled, the tight skin around his face making it look stiff and horrifying, “My colleague here wants to do this. He’s my superior so I can’t say anything and he does make a point of not doing anything like this for a long time. So could you give him a break? It’s not like you are going to suffer.”

While he spoke, no one noticed that Tus’s eyes became grey and they gradually closed. The social atmosphere remained as it was before while Drel continued to supply the gaseous metal to the sky. Everyone who were down below and flying in the sky were angered and scared of their impending doom.

It was at this time that a profane and resounding voice boomed, “You motherfuckers! If you touch a single hair on my delicious meal, I’ll cook your entire families!”