Red stared at the undead vulture with caution. “What do you want?”

“What I want?” the creature flapped its wings in indignation. “You came here to negotiate, right?”

The boy frowned. “I had no intention of meeting you when I stumbled on this place.”

The vulture squawked at him. “It matters not! Matter not! Now that you here, we can make deal, correct?”

Red hesitated. He didn’t feel like making a deal at all with this necromancer, but right now, he didn’t feel like he was in a position to deny them.

“Is this about the entrance to the underground?” Red asked.

“Yes, yes!” the vulture flapped its wings with glee. “You saw it too, right? Big scorpions with green eyes!”

The boy nodded. He saw the creature back at the canyon, but he didn’t have time to examine it, and he couldn’t be completely confident that it was a monster from the Moonstone Mines. Right now, though, the necromancer seemed to be giving confirmation to him.

“This place, this man… He knows! He knows way in!” the vulture said. “It’s how he brought that thing! Yes, yes!”

Red frowned. This revelation came as a surprise to him, but there was something else confusing the boy.

“Earlier you said you wanted me to take you to the entrance of the underground I exited from.” Red said. “When did your intentions change?”

“It didn’t change!” the vulture squawked in anger. “I searched entire forest already! Found way you came from! Imperials got to it first! Blocked it, closed it! Bastards! Unforgivable!”

“So what you said earlier was a lie?”

“Not all!” the bird shook its head. “Still need your help! Need you to win trial, get information, then lead me to entrance! In exchange, I help you with curse!”

Red was skeptical. “Why me then? If you don’t need my information or my crystal, couldn’t you have made this deal with anyone else? Or better yet, can’t you just win the trial yourself?”

The vulture got angry at these words. “Not allowed! Stupid bird won’t let me! Besides… There’s something else.”

“This is quite enough.” A voice echoed through the platform out of nowhere. “I won’t allow you to interfere with this trial any longer, necromancer.”

Red looked towards the source of the voice. There, out of thin air, a figure seemed to emerge. Its body was translucent, and yet the outlines of the being’s shape formed a familiar image to Red.

It was the hawk spirit, floating in the air.

“You!” the vulture pointed at the hawk with one of its decrepit wings. “What now?! Come to spoil plans again?!”

“We had a deal, necromancer.” the hawk said in its impassive tone. “I would allow your minion to roam free on these grounds as long as you didn’t interfere with the trials. Yet, not only have you killed two competitors, but you wish to influence another one.”

“Hypocrite!” the vulture threw insults at the spirit. “Could have stopped me any time, but didn’t! Gave silent approval! Now try to blame me?! Bastard! Liar!”

“As you said, I gave you my approval to kill these individuals, but that is as far as your interference goes.” the hawk pointed one of its wings at Red. “If this child wishes to beat this trial, then he must do it on his own. Likewise, I won’t allow you to reveal sensitive information or influence his decisions in case he was to win.”

The vulture continued to insult the spirit. “Bastard! You used me! Couldn’t kill them yourself, so let me do it! Let me finish job at least! Still one cheater left!”

“I will not.” the small hawk shook its bird head. “Although that person cheated, he is still worthy of winning this trial, unlike the others.”

Red, who was watching this interaction from the side, could only assume they were talking about Rickard.

“You insane! Stupid!” the vulture flapped its wings in anger. “He still working with imperials! What difference it makes?!”

“I am under no obligation to explain my decisions to you, necromancer.” the hawk said. “The mere fact I am wasting time explaining this much to you is due to the help you provided. Must I remind you of the situation you find yourself in?”

The vulture fell silent, but even with its animal and half-rotten features, Red could tell that it was quite angry.

It stared at the hawk. “What about after? Can I speak with child?”

“Whatever he does after the trial is none of my concern.” the hawk said.

The vulture seemed happy to hear this. It looked over at Red. “Quick! Go! Run! Don’t let cheater win before you!”

The zombie army of vultures surrounding the boy all stepped back, opening up a straight path towards the stairs Rickard had ascended to.

Red, however, hesitated. He looked over at the hawk, who seemed to have shown itself to be more than an impartial judge. This entire situation and conversation was too much for the boy to process in such a short amount of time, and he couldn’t help but feel as if he was being used as a pawn in a game on which stakes he didn’t even know about.

It made him suspicious.

The hawk seemed to notice his hesitation. “If you have made it to this place, through whatever adversity, you may see yourself as judged and found worthy of winning this trial. You must only walk the last step before your competitor… And I can promise you that whatever awaits the victor ahead will only benefit them.”

Red nodded. He was already on a path with no return - what was one more step into the abyss?

The vulture continued to urge him on. “Go, go! You already behind!”

The boy obliged the necromancer. He ran towards the steps, hoping to catch up to Rickard before it was over.

Red could feel the gazes of two strange and incredibly powerful beings boring into his back, each one carrying their own expectation in what they hoped the boy could accomplish.

…

Red walked up the steps of the spiral staircase. These stairs were carved alongside the peak of the mountain, leading up to hundreds of meters above. The steps were very narrow too, and there was no rail to speak of, meaning that if the boy slipped he would fall kilometers below to his own death.

Yet, when Red looked down, he didn’t see the ground of the desert. Instead, he only saw endless fog in whatever direction he looked at through which the upper half of the mountain rose through. It blocked his view of the ground below.

Above him, the sight wasn’t any more comforting. There was only endless darkness, no signs of stars or Moon, and the boy felt even more afraid of looking up than he was of looking down.

Once more, Red’s spatial sense was distorted as he ascended the stairs for far too long while the peak of the mountain still was ever so distant from him. He saw no signs of Rickard, either.

Thankfully, however, the steps eventually seemed to have an end as the boy saw the top of the mountain approaching. With a few more rounds up the spire, Red finally crested over the peak.

The top of the mountain was surprisingly even, which allowed the boy to walk on without having to worry about stumbling and falling down. The entire area was only a few dozen meters of rather narrow rocky terrain, and Red still saw no signs of Rickard.

The only thing the boy saw at the peak was a stone archway standing right at the edge of the peak. He approached it and examined the gateway.

It had no markings, and it seemed on the verge of falling apart. Red looked through it, but there was only the endless fog and the inevitable fall to those that tried to step through the archway.

However, how could the prospect of death scare Red at this point? Since this was the only thing at the top of the mountain, it was the only thing the boy could interact with.

Red took a deep breath and stepped through the stone archway, with his eyes wide open the entire time. He felt his feet stepping on nothing but air, and for a split moment, the boy was worried he was truly going to fall to his death. He didn’t hesitate, though, and followed through with his stride, crossing through the archway in one go.

Then, he blinked his eyes, and at the next moment, everything around him had changed. The first thing Red felt, though, was dozens of water droplets striking against his skin.

Then, in the next moment, a deluge of rain and strong wind fell onto the boy. He heard the thunder rumbling from above as he protected his face against the sudden assault of his senses, and his body seemed on the verge of being taken away by the winds if he so much as stumbled.

‘Where am I?’

Red collected himself and tried to observe his surroundings. He saw nothing but dark grey fog and the endless flashes of thunder from above. His eyes shifted to the ground, where he found he couldn’t even see his own feet. Even his hands were only visible if the boy put them right up to his eyes.

With the storm bearing down on him and his senses completely useless, Red decided to take a step ahead. He almost stumbled as his feet came down onto a raised platform.

‘A step?’

Red tried to confirm this by feeling with his feet forward. Another hard surface blocked his way. The boy then tried to take a few steps forward, and sure enough, he started to ascend yet another set of stairs.

This time, however, Red couldn’t see anything in his way, so he took a more cautious and slow approach. He ascended a dozen steps in this manner until he felt the sounds of the storm become more muffled and distant.

‘Is it subsiding?’

Red didn’t know, but he still felt the winds and heavy rain peppering his body. Eventually, once he had gotten up another few steps, the noise of the storm continued to become lower and more distant. It was at that point that Red felt something was wrong.

He brought his right hand to his ear, snapping his fingers to create some noise. He barely heard anything, and the noise that came through felt as if it had been made from underwater. The boy felt his heart sink.

‘I’m going deaf.’

Red composed himself after the shocking realization. He assumed this was part of the trial, so he didn’t panic. Even if he was deaf, there was nothing to fear. All he needed to do was to keep walking, right?

Unfortunately for Red, he soon noticed things weren’t as simple as he thought.

Another handful of steps up, and the boy felt his entire world become silent. The worst was yet to come, though, as Red noticed another anomaly.

After he took a few more steps up, his field of vision narrowed, and even though the boy saw nothing but fog in his surroundings, he was quick to notice the abnormality. He was also losing his vision.

Red frowned. He tried to confirm his suspicions and found even more strange things happening. The smell of rain seemed to have faded. He couldn’t feel the cold wind and rain against his skin. The pain and strain of his body started to fade away.

It was then that the boy knew.

With every step he took, he was losing more and more of his senses.