To be fair, Ren hadn’t expected something like this when he saw the glyph glow green. Trapped on the outside of the tower, clinging to the rock wall behind him as he balances precariously on the ledge… not his ideal trial, for sure.

The wind whips around him, the coldness it brings stinging his cheeks and keeping him from opening his eyes. He can hardly see his two feet in front of him—forget trying to progress. Not to mention that the draughts drown out all sound—all he can hear is the whoosh of the gales, and the flapping of his robes against the wall.

The worst part about his predicament is that he and his teammates are separated. Again. No matter how much he shouts or calls for their names, he’s met only with the howl of the wind. From what he can tell of his location, he appears to be standing on a ledge outside the tower. They’re already pretty high up, the trees and the rivers below nothing but dots and lines.

The only way forward is by edging along the little ledge that he’s currently standing on. Perhaps if he keeps going for long enough, he’d eventually meet up with the others in the next trial.

His companions are tough—they won’t go out that easily.

Ren clenches his jaw, and he begins to move, inching along the platform. His cheeks and ears sting from the chill, and his lids are threatening to close, exhausted from squinting so much.

The wall scrapes his back through his robes, and Ren takes greater care around the narrower parts of the ledges. Once or twice, his heart skips a beat, his stomach dropping when he feels the floor sinking just a tad beneath him. However, all those turn out to be nothing more than loose rock that holds his weight just fine. Ren would breathe a sigh of relief, gather his thoughts, before carrying on.

Just as he thought he’s been climbing for an eternity, he spies a shadow, something moving through the white clouds. It looks almost like a bird, its plumage trailing behind its head, fluttering in the wind.

No way. Ren gapes. He did not just see that.

Peeking through the clouds is an eye. A giant eye blinking at him, a giant eye belonging to a ginormous creature hiding behind the misty wisps.

A ringing caw rips through the air, threatening to rupture Ren’s eardrums. The shadowy figure soars higher into the air, its enormous wingspan visible as it ascends. He has no clue where it’s going, but he hopes that they can reach the next glyph before they have to face it.

But if this is a trial, then they’re probably not getting off this lightly. He most certainly can’t fight that thing himself, not whilst balancing on this precarious ledge. He needs to find his teammates as soon as possible.

Ren continues his arduous journey, putting his focus on not missing a step. All it takes is one careless mistake, and he’d plummet to his untimely demise.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been climbing when he hears an unholy screech again. However, he needn’t worry about it as much as he should. After such a long time of waddling past ledges, edging his way to wherever he needs to go, he has made it. He stumbles through a massive doorway, the arch so high he has no fear of it hitting his head.

A giant hall awaits him, the ceiling stretching to about five times his height. The walls and the floor are sparkly, almost like constellations have been captured in them and displayed for all to see.

Other than that, the place is empty, with seemingly no way forward. No glyph in sight, nothing that even looks like runes of an alien language. How are they supposed to continue onward?

Yet, Ren does not have time to entertain that thought. No sooner did he enter the hall that he sees the silhouette of the bird. The enormous creature that circled the tower as he climbed, not at all caring about him.

At least, not till now.

Ren raises Ifrit, adopting a defensive stance as the bird draws closer. He can see the stretch of its wingspan, big enough that a single flap could send a gust of wind so strong that it’d send him hurtling off the hall and to certain doom.

As the bird approaches, he can see it in all its technicolour glory. Its body is a bright yellow, almost blending in with the pure white of the clouds, patches of white, green, and blue splattered along its belly and flank. Its head resembles that of a pterodactyl’s, the crest atop its head a shiny black, dotted with white spots, like polka dots.

The bird approaches the hall, just stopping short of crashing through its pillars. Ren can only watch as it hovers in front of him, as though watching him through the doorways, unaffected by the gales whipping his robes around him.

They watch each other, Ren meeting its gaze questioningly. It’s a monster, isn’t it? Why isn’t it attacking hi—

The creature’s glare sharpens, and Ren senses a sudden awakening, like the creature has released all its inhibitions. Well, if the burst of a viridian aura around it meant anything. The winds pick up, stronger than ever. If Ren falters now, he’d lose his footing and find himself tossed off Pandora’s Citadel with no way back up.

Not without landing into the hands of Gravelle’s guards, anyway. Or on one of Gaia’s stalagmites. Wow, that would be a painful way to go.

The creature roars, before diving and swooping below the hall. Ren glances around, the fact that he’s unable to see it frightening. It’s too big to fit through the doorways, so how would it…

He hears the zing before he even feels it. Instinctively, Ren ducks, just barely able to avoid the whirling blades of wind cutting through the air, shaving off a couple of locks of his hair. Where they appeared from is where the creature flies. It hovers now on the other end of the circular hall. Not moving, merely watching.

Ren concentrates all his magic power into Ifrit, threads of energy glowing a bright red as it fills Ifrit with its ruby shine. He waves the staff, sending a blast of fire towards the creature.

The bird dodges the flames easily, taking to the skies with a mighty flame of its wings. The resulting wind knocks Ren clean off his feet. He lands on his behind with a grunt, his hair tousled and getting into his eyes. He staggers to his feet, nearly unable to see anything, forced to squint in the gales.

Where did the bird go? Where—

The whoosh of wind catches him off guard, and Ren drops to his knees. Something whizzes by, slicing his arm, and he grunts in pain. He brings a hand up to touch it, and it comes away wet and red.

Gridel isn’t here with one of her life-saving tonics or herbs. He’s got to just deal with the pain himself. Ren turns in the direction where the blades came from, only to come face to face with more of them spinning in place like green, floating chakrams where the bird is now hovering.

Without giving him any time for reprieve, the bird launches its attack. Ren grits his teeth, summoning his strength to conjure a barrier of flames…

“Master Ren!”

The sudden shout from behind him rings out over the howl of the wind. Before Ren can throw up his fire wall, the stone floor rises, deflecting the incoming blades and sending them whirling to the ground, carving deep scars in the floor, then fizzling away.

The bird caws, long and drawn-out this time, but there’s a note of frustration in that noise. Ren glances behind him, to find Vane running up to him, his hair all messy, his cheeks rosy from the cold.

“Are you all right?” Vane asks. He plunges Claymore into the cracked floor, and the earthen wall sinks back into the ground. Where it rose is now surrounded by shards of shattered marble.

“I’m fine. Thanks,” Ren says. If Vane hadn’t showed up, he’s not sure he could have made that barrier in time. He could have gotten his head lopped clean off. “Did you see Penny and Gridel?”

“No, I haven’t. Master Ren, your arm…”

“That can’t wait. I think we have a bigger problem on our hands for now.” Ren turns his back to Vane, their weapons held out in front of them. The wound on his arm is throbbing, and he can feel the blood soaking through his clothes, the fabric clinging insistently to his arm. He’s not sure how long he can last if the flow doesn’t stop.

They’re both going to die if they don’t get rid of the bird that’s currently doing nosedives and swooping up into the sky around them. What is it waiting for? Is it biding its time?

Ren feels the blast of the wind sweeping in from behind him. Vane reacts faster, driving his sword into the ground to draw up another stone wall. It barely manages to stand in the face of the wind blades, crumbling to dust as soon as the onslaught is over. By that point, the bird has disappeared, returned to cruising around the sky.

“We need some kind of plan,” Ren says. They need to know where it’s coming from, so they can aim and shoot before it attacks them, so—

“I… do have a plan,” Vane says. “But this will need precise timing.”

When the bird comes for them again, they’re ready for it. Instead of Vane defending them this time, it’s Ren who plunges his staff down into the cracked tiles, and he creates another flaming wall.

The fire roars, crackling flames enough to deflect the wind coming at it. Vane holds Claymore up, and the ground trembles under their feet. Ren watches as spears of earth float into the air around him. They’re wobbly, since Vane’s magic power isn’t as strong, but as long as they pass through the fire…

The stalactites are launched through the sizzling screen, the scorching barrage hurtled towards the bird. Ren dismisses the flames, smouldering cinders and ashes showering the chamber.

The bird shrieks, flapping its wings frantically as it tries to remain airborne. Some of the stalactites punctured its wings, some stabbing it in its breast. Golden ichor flows from its wounds as the bird struggles to remove them.

“Where is it going?” Vane squints at the bird as it takes to the skies once more, soaring over their chamber. Ren narrows his eyes. With the degree of its injuries, it’d make no sense to continue its attack. Is it trying to find someplace to roost?

Ren then hears a sharp caw coming from above them. He sees the bird blasted away from the roof of the structure, his jaw dropping at the massive arrow formed of water and wind, green and blue swirling together in a tightly-wound caduceus shape, drilling into the bird’s chest.

“Are they up top?” Ren wonders.

“I think so, yes,” Vane breathes.

The bird just manages to recover. It throws its head back, energy gathering in its beak. The winds are stronger now, so strong that Ren feels that he may be thrown off his feet at any moment. He holds his arms up in a paltry defence against the might of the gales, knees bent, and heels dug into the cracked stone.

The bird unleashes its attack, viridian energy shooting forth and meeting another lance of wind and water. The two spouts of power crash into each other, sparks flying as though they are two blades locked in combat. Neither side seems to be winning.

“Vane,” Ren calls, already lifting his staff, Ifrit’s ruby gleaming ever so brightly with swirling flames. Vane seems to have the same idea, lifting Claymore, holding the blade high over the ground, the tip pointed straight at the floor.

As soon as Ren sends a fireball aimed at the avian creature, Vane plunges his sword into the stone, bits and pieces of pointed rocks peeling away from the ground and stabbing through the air towards the bird.

The projectiles smash into the bird’s body, pushing it back. It drops its guard for just a single second, but it’s enough for the blade of wind and water to push through. The bird flaps valiantly against the stormy gales, but with injured wings, and cuts and gashes all over, it stands no chance, its strength already squandered and wasted away.

The bird falls, spiralling to the ground, cawing and screeching pathetically as it descends beneath the clouds. Ren watches as it goes, staring off into the clouds below even as the bird’s shadow can no longer be seen from their vantage point.

“Master Ren, it seems that we can proceed.”

Ren turns back towards his companion, eyes widening when he sees a familiar glyph appear in the centre of the floor. That’s their cue to continue onwards to the next level. If his instincts are right, then they should meet up with the girls soon.

“All right,” Ren says, letting out a breath. There’s no time to relax when they’re saving the world from an apocalypse. “Let’s go.”

He and Vane step onto the glyph, and Ren shuts his eyes as his body is gripped with a familiar weightlessness. The glyph below their feet glows yellow, just before the magic whisks them away to their next task.

*

“Ren! Vane!” Penny calls to them as soon as they arrive. They appear to have landed in what appears to be a dark, cubical room, lit only by blazing torches. The walls are made of sandstone, powdery and flaky to the touch, almost like those featured in pyramids. “Glad to see that you guys made it.”

“Same here. I saw what you did, by the way,” Ren says. “We were in the hall below you.”

“And it was your final blow that helped our blade cut through the Garuda in the end.” Gridel beams.

“We can recount our battle exploits later,” Vane says, his gaze squarely on a single doorway leading away from the room. It seems to be their only way forward in this otherwise-featureless room. “We should focus on proceeding.”

“Are we supposed to get through that?” Penny asks, her hands on her hips, her head tilted.

“Seems that way,” Gridel says.

However, the corridor is so utterly pitch-black that Ren can hardly see two feet in front of him. Are they supposed to navigate that? Is it like some sort of maze?

“It’s difficult to see up ahead,” Vane remarks. He glances at the torches on the wall. “Can we detach those and use them?”

Sounds like a plan, even though there are only three torches. Well, Ren can always conjure a flame on his finger to illuminate the place, so he doesn’t need one. Yet, he must admit that even with that light source, travelling through a narrow hallway isn’t all that appealing. If something lurks in there, they wouldn’t be able to dodge any attack fast enough.

It’s not like they have a choice. Going back means certain death, so they have to continue heading forward.

“All right, I’ll lead,” Gridel says. “Vane, you take up the rear.”

Vane agrees, moving to stand behind Ren. Gridel positions herself by the entrance of the tunnel, her crossbow loaded and drawn back. Ren furrows his brows, wondering what she’s waiting for. Then—

Gridel points her crossbow at the tunnel, and she lets the bolt fly. It zips through the air, swiftly lodging itself on the other end of the tunnel. For a brief moment, nothing happens.

Then, stalactites fall.

Ren stares, wide-eyed, as the jagged rock lands with a deafening crack, shattering into a million pieces.

“What the hell’s that?” Penny’s jaw goes slack, not once taking her gaze off the mess on the ground.

“That was a trap, just as I suspected.” Gridel peers up at the ceiling. “It looks like the coast is clear now. We have to be careful as we proceed, though.”

Ren swallows uncomfortably. If anyone else had led, and they’d stepped through the entrance and quite possibly have been skewered instantly. The person who fell victim to that trap could have very easily been him.

“Right, then.” Gridel squares her shoulders. “Let’s go.”

Cautiously, she edges into the tunnel, shuffling along the tiled floor, sometimes prodding it with an arrow. Thankfully, none of the tiles trigger any traps. They soon get to the end of the passageway, before needing to round a corner and finding themselves stumbling into a chamber of sorts.

The chamber is dusty and somewhat cramped. Mounds of sand pile up in the corners, yellow sandstone bricks uneven and rough. In the middle of it is what lies a familiar platform. Upon it, a glyph glows weakly. So weak that Ren can hardly even make it out its shape.

“Wait, that’s it?” Penny asks. “Can we just step on it and—”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Ren says. “Remember all those traps earlier?”

Gridel hurls an arrow at the glyph, the implement clattering to the ground. The glow of the glyph continues to pulse, but it does not seem to have triggered anything. Penny steps onto the platform, her hands on her hips, frowning.

“Nothing’s happening,” she says. “Is this the wrong one?”

“Perhaps it might have something to do with this.” Vane taps his foot at the base of a brazier in a corner of the platform. Three other identical ones stand at the other corners, all of them unlit.

“Go on, Ren,” Penny says, pointing at the charcoal scattered in the black pot. “Light that baby up.”

Ren doesn’t need telling twice. He conjures a flame on the tip of his finger, and he flicks it into the brazier. The tiny fireball falls into the pit, and it vanishes. Gone poof, like a magician’s trick.

“Well, we tried,” Penny says with a shrug.

“Could there be a mechanism around here that could activate the braziers?” Gridel wonders. “Just like how we found those orbs in the library below?”

Ren nods. “We could search for those.”

Branching out from this larger hall are several corridors similar to the one that they had travelled down. Clearly, this place is more expansive than Ren thought, and hiding down one of these tunnels is probably their ticket forward. However, he can’t help but feel just a tad apprehensive about the deadly traps that are no doubt hidden away in the walls, the floors, and the ceiling.

They have to be extra cautious when exploring, lest they forfeit their life to these concealed assailants.

“There are four braziers, and four new corridors,” Penny says. “So, uh… let’s go, I guess.”

“Shall we split up?” Ren asks. “I mean, we’d clear it a lot faster, and—”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Gridel interrupts. “It’s dark, and the only person who has any semblance of light is you.”

Ren frowns. He can only hope that if Gaia’s soldiers are still pursuing them, then they won’t catch up as quickly. They have probably turned back by now, but he’d rather not take any chances if they can help it.

“Okay.” He snaps his fingers, and fire burns strongly in Ifrit’s ruby gem, reflecting off the dull walls of the chamber. “Let’s make this quick.”