Kain didn’t move.

He clutched the coin in his palm, fingers curled tight around the small, sun-marked disc like it might vanish if he blinked. The Aruvan woman still sat beneath the willow, smiling serenely as if she already knew the outcome.

But Kain walked away without a word, deciding to follow the path that was peeking through the violet-tipped green grass.

She didn’t follow. Didn’t shout. Didn’t give another strange riddle to try and entice him further. Only watched as he walked deeper into the forest of crystalline trees, light bending in strange, prismatic flares as it met the reflective trunks and leaves.

He lost track of time.

The trial didn’t seem to operate on any kind of logic—As Kain followed the seemingly straight path, it seemed to loop and give the illusion of walking in circles. Landmarks reappeared where they shouldn’t. And marks he’d intentionally left behind were met again, but he kept moving forward anyway.

At one point, he stumbled into a grove filled with mirrors growing out of the ground like flowers. In another, he walked through a pond where fish with disproportionately large human-like lips whispered riddles in a language resembling elvish, that he almost, but couldn’t quite, understand.

Always, there was someone waiting. Another Aruvan. Always with a different offer.

The third trader offered him a single vial of a greenish-silver glowing liquid.

“Give me the coin, and your dragon will wake.

No injuries will remain, not even an ache.”

Kain faltered.

He saw Vauleth’s crushed wings again in his mind’s eye. That twisted tail. Those shuttered golden eyes.

Even with Queen’s best efforts, it was unlikely that he’d be restored to fighting condition during this trial, and also unlikely that he be fully healed by the time the re-ranking starts.

But…

He didn’t trade.

Kain gradually got into the rhythm of not even looking and rejecting everything that tried to tempt him. He was more and more certain that this coin was his ticket to completing this trial.

Although the offers got more and more tempting, he still easily turned everything down.

That was until the next offer…

The eighth trader offered a vision—a golden disc suspended in water. When he leaned closer, he saw a glimpse of a large and familiar figure—Bridge. He was lying in a pool of blood in the middle of a battlefield, surrounded by dead bodies. Based on his closed eyes and lack of movement, his life and death remained unknown.

“Take this disc and change that fate.

You can trade the coin, or be too late.”

Kain stared at the golden disk that seemed to have frozen at that specific scene and would likely not continue showing the situation prior to or after this outcome unless Kain traded for it.

Kain hesitated.

‘Is passing this trial even worth it? What if preventing a disaster from coming to Bridge is the best I could hope for?’ After all, Kain would give up objects far more precious than this coin if it meant protecting his family.

But…

‘The Aruvan are also known to be masters of deception and actually revel in people meeting their demise due to their misleading words. What if this was another such case?’ Although usually presented as fairy tales, there were plenty of stories where the Aruvan showed a misleading vision that led to the absolute worst outcome because of the actions someone took trying to prevent it. And many ‘fairy tales’ had a fragment of truth mixed in. Especially in a world like this one where magical abilities are very much real.

This could be another such instance like in those ‘tales’, and Kain should refuse the disc but… But Kain really didn’t want to take any chances when it came to Bridge’s safety.

Therefore, although his spiritual power was non-existent, having spent most of it in the last trial, as well as using up all of his means of instantly refilling it. Kain still strained to use his most elusive spiritual skill—Threads of Destiny…

And walked away.

The Aruvan smiling smugly seemed to freeze in confusion, certain that she was going to be the one to get Kain to switch, only for him to walk away from her too.

Had she (and the relic who controlled her) misjudged him? Perhaps he didn’t care about this ‘brother Bridge’? Otherwise, how could he witness the demise of a close relative and not make any efforts to prevent it?

Naturally, that was not the case. Rather, Kain walked away from the temptation because of the ominous black thread emitted from the golden plate and reaching toward him that he saw once he activated his spiritual skill.

As a result, Kain managed to barely resist the temptation. Although he couldn’t deny that the horrifying scene of Bridge lying in a pool of blood still lingered in his mind.

Eventually, he found the path narrowing to a canyon of crystal spires. At the end stood a radiant arch—carved of mirror-like crystal that refracted the light into a rainbow. Beneath the arch was a massive stone gate with a small opening carved into it. A final figure stood beside it. Aruvan again. Tall, expressionless.

“Your journey ends, brave child of man.

To pass, fulfill the final plan.

Insert the coin and unseal the gate—

Your task fulfilled. A happy fate.”

Kain hesitated.

The arch pulsed, beckoning.

It was too clean. Too easy.

“‘The clever lose when judgment ends…'”

Kain stepped back. Could this be what that line spoken by the first Aruvan he met, meant? This was the first time Kain was not presented with having to make a judgement on whether or not to trade the coin?

“No.”

The gate flickered—then shattered into ash.

And then…

Nothing.

The man disappeared, and there was no other path or exit revealed, and the path that Kain was following stopped here…

‘Did I make the wrong decision?’

Thankfully, soon enough the ground where the gate had been located, split open and revealed a hidden path behind it, winding downward into a chasm lit from below by a flickering blue glow.

Kain breathed a sigh of relief, and thought back to the riddle provided by the first Aruvan again:

‘The clever lose when judgment ends.

So take the coin, or let it be—

The path hides more than what you see.’

Obviously, the trial wasn’t done.

“…You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kain muttered.