Luke P.O.V

Luke half stumbled through the portal. He managed to turn his head and catch a glimpse of Jill encouraging him with a thumbs up. Despite that, he could’ve rejected the trial and just entered the dungeon normally. Although, he didn’t do that. This trial was meant for him, and he was ready for it. Even if he did need an encouraging shove to get started. His heartbeat still increased, and he felt his breath leaving him as he plunged into the portal.

The world slid out of focus for a moment as he traveled through space, blurring like when Jill teleported him somewhere. When his vision finally returned, he was left in an empty dead land. It was a grassland after a fire had turned the grass to ash. Some remnants and patches of grass remained, but they were blackened by burns. Nothing dared to blemish the barren land. Not even a cloud to blemish the starless sky. It was night too, and the land would’ve been pitch black but for the souls.

Souls, just souls, illuminated the space around them. They were chained to this world but had no bodies or minds. There was maybe only 50 or 60 total, but they were spread out around him. Some hovered in the air, while others were half-buried in the ground. Few moved, those that did traveled slower than a snail. Those that could move, drifted toward him on a phantom wind. The world was devoid of even a breeze.

It took Luke a moment to realize what that meant. There was no air in here. He could breathe, and his lungs and body strained at the realization. Instinctively, he tried to suck in what air he could, only to grasp at nothing. In a place devoid of air, he couldn’t even cough properly, and his attempt at breathing came out wrong and broken. His mouth opened and closed as he grew more desperate. Fire. Within the first few minutes, it felt like the insides of his throat and lungs were burning. Then he healed. He pushed what magic he could inward, and found it lacking.

His body healed, and he could move despite the lack of air, but it didn’t stop the burning pain. To put it simply, his healing couldn’t provide his body with the oxygen it needed. It could keep him alive without it, but it didn’t stop everything. He had never considered a tactic like this, but he understood now how devastating a power like this would be.

At some point, he had fallen to his knees. He couldn’t stay on the ground though. His magic would eventually run out, and he would die choking on nothing. He stared at the souls in front of him. They shone with subdued blue-gold light. A gentle blue aura radiated from them, but a sliver of gold ran through their hearts or the location where their hearts would be. He stared at the beautiful disturbing sight. No place or force should be able to trap souls. They were meant to pass on to a better place. As he stared at the souls, he thought he understood what the trial wanted. He remembered another time when he had devoured souls for power. For survival.

The longer he stayed here, the more desperate he would become. His healing was draining his mana, and the cost would only increase as his body failed. Only these souls could provide him with the mana he needed. Was he set on the path of the necromancer? The question bounced inside his head.

“No.”

The word didn’t escape his lips. He had tried to speak, but there was nothing for the sound to carry. Thus it came out silently and only rang inside his head. It mattered though. He would die before succumbing to that fate. There was nothing in any world that could force him into that. The rejection felt so right, so true that he did nothing.

Time passed slowly, the pain grew worse and worse. He clenched his fists weakly, as his muscles lost their strength. He hadn’t known that a lack of air would weaken his muscles. It was a strange thing to realize as he died, but he focused on it. Let the thought distract him from the burning pain in his chest. Shift his desperate mind away from the souls floating toward him. The reservoirs of power that he could touch. He curled around his knees tightly, wrapping himself in a ball. The black ash-stained ground colored his clothes and body grey. His ears, which he normally kept as still as possible, flattened against his head. He was dying. Alone, unable to even reach out to his friends.

Then he felt something move. It was a subtle movement along his arm, and his eyes barely cracked open to see it. Priscilla moved up to his head, and even without air, she managed to speak. Her voice echoed in his mind.

[This place is killing this body. It has but moments to live, and I do not know the cause. Consume my soul. It should provide you with more than enough power to live for hours yet. Perhaps enough time for Jill to save you.]

Luke stared at Priscilla stunned to hear her voice. He forgot that she was even here, and he was even more confused by her words. Her body was dying? How? Why? Was that why she had been silent until now?

[Why?]

He asked as he stared at Priscilla’s beak slowly dipping toward his shoulder. She was barely even able to hold her head up.

[I do not need air, but this place drains more than that. My mana is nearly spent, I had not wanted to use it for this. I was trying to create air, but I do not have enough time. I could find a solution, and with Mash’s domain I could certainly break through the effect, but this lone body is not enough. So, consume it, live until you can be saved.]

The explanation filled him with a tiny hope. He smiled weakly, and even with barely any mana himself, he healed her. She was a living creature even if her souls were copies of one another. He would not devour it like any of the others. Instead, he would save her, and bet on her ability and talent.

[I do not know how much time I can offer you. You must break through and create air. I will not consume your soul.]

He didn’t get an answer to his thought. No protesting voice questioning his decision. Instead, he watched her focus shift. Even without a domain, he thought he could see her magic challenge the world around her. She was small, barely managing to wrap around his shoulder. Her small black beak was no longer curved like a vulture, but straight and sharp like a sparrow. Her scales shimmered like a rainbow, and he knew she was fighting.

Some time passed in silence, and he eventually lost the fight to keep his eyes open. Darkness filled the world as his eyes drifted shut. He vaguely felt Priscilla squirm on his arm, but she did not message him. Either she was still trying desperately, or her energy was gone. He didn’t know which, but he continued to heal them both. He would keep doing it until he died. With Priscilla here, at least he wouldn’t die alone.

Through it all, he could feel the tempting power of the nearby souls. They had come ever closer, and one was now within his reach. Even devoid of all strength, he could reach out and touch it. Drain it for power and life. He wouldn’t. His friends and family might beg him to choose otherwise. To forsake his beliefs for survival. He refused. He had made that decision once before, and it haunted him even now.

His class had changed. It had granted him the ability of salvation, yet this trial had revealed its weakness immediately. It granted him to power in the form of attributes and abilities, but it did not heal his body or restore his mana. That had only happened when he destroyed it. When he twisted and consumed souls like Mash. That sight still horrified him. Mash had only done it once to a living being, and even then it had been a monster. It was still disgusting. It was that sight that stopped him from doing the same. Mash couldn’t see what he did, but Luke had, and it was wrong.

“Live. You are better than us.”

He heard a voice. A single ray of hope in the darkness. A golden light somehow filled his vision despite his closed eyes. The voice echoed through his very being. A warm power ran from his shoulder and spread into his body, encircled his heart, and rushed through his veins alongside his blood. It wasn’t the painful burning that scratched at his throat and bit at his lungs, but a healing warmth that dulled the pains. It was more comfortable than any blanket, and his mind slowly drifted to slumber. Luke found no air, but the power filled his lungs and led him gently into the slumber.