The clearing erupted in chaos.
Wolves surged like a tide, their jaws snapping, eyes glowing faintly with corruption. Malrik charged straight into them, his sword cutting through the dark shapes with heavy, brutal swings. Every strike carried weight and purpose, and for a moment he looked like a warrior born for this stage.
Beside him, Isolde's voice rang out—calm, cold, commanding. Symbols spun at her fingertips, glowing frost-blue before bursting outward into sharp lances of ice. Wolves froze mid-leap, their bodies shattering like brittle glass. She didn't waste a motion. She didn't even look rattled.
Elric fired arrows into the chaos, hands shaking. Myra whispered prayers, trying to steady her nerves. They were just noise. Background.
I moved slower than the rest. Measured. Hands loose, expression blank, every step deliberate.
One of the wolves lunged at me, teeth bared. I reached with thought.
[Disintegrate]
Its body unraveled into dust mid-leap, scattering on the air.
[Integrate]
[
[
[
Strength rippled under my skin, subtle and unseen. My heartbeat steadied. My vision sharpened. Their instincts—the wolves' instincts—were mine now.
Malrik shouted, thinking his voice commanded the battlefield. "Push forward! Don't let them surround us!"
I allowed myself a thin smile. Surrounded? That was exactly what I wanted.
The pack pressed harder, driven by the crystal's corruption. Their howls shook the trees, their movements erratic yet still bound by the pull of instinct. But those instincts weren't theirs anymore. They belonged to me.
A few wolves stumbled into each other, snarling. Their formation broke apart. Malrik thought his blade had forced the gap. Isolde's sharp eyes caught more than his. She glanced once at me, suspicion flickering.
I looked away, as though I hadn't noticed.
At the center of the clearing pulsed the shard—dark, corrupted, bleeding black light into the ground. It made the wolves restless. It made the air heavy.
Malrik saw it and roared, charging. "The crystal! Destroy it, and this ends here"
Yes. That's what the test demanded. That's what the System expected.
But I wasn't here to destroy.
I stepped forward, calm, steady. My hand stretched toward the shard, Codex thrumming inside me.
[Disintegrate]
The crystal screamed as it cracked. Its corruption unraveled, not into the void, but into me. Black threads of power sank through my chest like molten iron, burning and twisting.
[
[
The System jolted against my mind.
[
[
[
Then silence.
The crystal dimmed. The corruption's glow vanished.
The wolves dropped where they stood, collapsing into lifeless husks. The air cleared, silence stretching long and uneasy.
Malrik stood heaving, sweat shining on his forehead. He drove his sword into the dirt beside the fallen crystal. "It's over."
The instructors at the edge of the field nodded in satisfaction, their runes fading. To them, the trial was finished. The corruption destroyed.
But it wasn't destroyed. It lived inside me.
Isolde's gaze lingered too long. Her lips parted, a question forming—but she pressed it back down. She had seen something. Not enough to accuse me. Just enough to wonder.
Malrik glanced my way, suspicion softening into grudging approval. "You fight… strangely. But effective."
I lowered my eyes, hiding the smile threatening to break across my face. "Just lucky."
Inside, the Codex whispered its quiet truth.
[
[
A prize no one else could see.