But when three hours were up, sothing strange happened. Everything around them seed to bend, and they had barely a mont to react before they found themselves teleported to a different location.
They were standing in the middle of an endless desert. The sky was unnaturally red, and the ground beneath their feet was hot and dry, with endless dunes in every direction.
"What the hell?" Yuna mumbled, pointing above.
YuWon followed her gaze and looked at the sky to find three moons over their head.
"Where are we?" YuWon mumbled.
Before anyone could respond, a bright light appeared above them, and from it, an angel descended, the sa one who had granted YuWon his wishes last ti around.
"Welco to your first trial," she said, fluttering her wings, before looking at YuWon. "Tell , mortal, have you been using your gifts well?"
"When I need to," YuWon shrugged.
While everyone feared the angel, given their experience, YuWon showed no sign of it.
"That's what I expected," she mumbled.
Without another word, she snapped her fingers, and the sea of sand parted, revealing a set of stepping stones. The stones ford seven rough paths leading toward a distant finish line and YuWon instantly knew what they had to do.
"The rules are simple," the angel announced. "You must make it to the finish line by jumping from platform to platform. But be careful. The path isn't as straightforward as you think."
People raised their hands, expecting the angel to answer their questions. However, she ignored everyone and disappeared in a flash. As she did, a series of annoying notifications popped up before YuWon.
[Auto-saving the Awakener's progress.]
[A new checkpoint has been created.]
[All previous checkpoints have been erased.]
...I'm not even surprised.
For a mont, everything was silent. No one said anything, as if they were waiting for soone else to speak first. They were looking at each other, but none dared to step forward.
"So… what now?" soone finally asked.
"I'm not going first!" another person shouted, stepping back.
Here we go again...
YuWon shook his head as everyone began arguing.
"You go first!"
"No, you go! I'm not risking it!"
"They're just platforms! Just jump! It's not that hard!"
Soon, more people joined in, pushing and shoving each other towards the steps. If no one stepped forward, soon there'll be an all-out war and they'll die even before they have ti to step on the stones.
"Freaking morons," YuWon mumbled, crossing his arms. "I guess it's ti to take matters into my own hands."
[Skill: Soul Bind has been activated.]
He scanned the group and settled on one of the older n standing off to the side. The guy was too weak to do anything, so sacrificing soone like him wouldn't matter.
The soul quickly possessed the old man and, under YuWon's order, the old man stepped towards the first platform of stones. Everyone suddenly turned quiet as they watched the old man jump on the leftmost stone platform.
Everyone held their breath, but nothing happened. The old man was safe and so was the platform.
anwhile, YuWon instructed the man to jump again, this ti to the left platform. Once again, nothing happened and the old man was safe.
"That looks easy!" soone muttered from the crowd.
"We were fighting for no reason!"
"Watch go!"
Just then, a young man in his late teens jumped the gun. He wanted to receive bonus rewards for completing the trial before anyone. Blinded by greed, jumped onto the first platform following the old man's path.
But just as his feet touched the stone, the platform beneath him crumbled, disappearing into the sand below. He scread as he fell and the sand shifted beneath him.
Suddenly, tiny worm-like creatures burst forth from the sand. The worms bit into the man's leg, biting a massive chunk of flesh one after another.
"Help ! HELP !"
The man roared in pain and thrashed around. But the more he struggled, the more worms appeared, biting and tearing into his flesh. Eventually, he got pulled down by them, disappearing into the sand, never to be seen again.
While everyone was stunned by fear, YuWon shook his head in annoyance.
I was a fool to think it would be this easy.
Gina looked at him and asked what was happening. Everyone had the sa question, and no one had the answer. Even YuWon was clueless, but he had so theories he could test.
"The platform disappeared when that guy jumped on it, but the old man is still safe." He mumbled, talking to himself. "That ans there are two possibilities: either the platforms only support one person at a ti, or they get randomized after each use."
"So now what?" Yeji asked.
"Now we need another volunteer," YuWon mumbled, looking around the crowd.
Using another soul, he took control of another man in the crowd, instructing him to follow the sa path as the first man. The guy jumped onto the sa platform the old man had used, and to everyone's surprise, the guy was safe.
"That sucks," YuWon clicked his tongue. "The platforms randomize after being used. It's not a pattern—it's utter chaos. Every ti soone uses a platform, the entire pattern changes."
"...how do we solve it, then?"
YuWon shrugged. He had hoped it was anything but randomized platforms. To make things worse, he only had thirteen souls left. Which ant he had thirteen chances to find the right path.
That's not even the worst of it.
Since the platforms got randomized after each use, even his [Respawn] ability was useless.
As much as it annoyed him, YuWon knew he had to be smart about this. He couldn't waste all the souls trying to brute-force his way through the trial.
"Well, no point standing around," YuWon mumbled. "So who's ready to jump next—?"
As soon as he said that, soone shoved him into the sand. Before YuWon could react, the sand around him moved. A mont later, the worms appeared, their sharp teeth sinking into his skin.
"ARGH!" YuWon scread, trying to push them off.
But more worms sward him, ripping at his flesh. The pain was unbearable. He felt them tearing his skin off, gnawing down to the bone. He could hear people shrieking around him, but just then a worm lunged at his face.
YuWon tried to shake it off, but it was too late. He could only scream in pain as the worm bit into his eye.
Then everything went dark.
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