The moment he stepped through the portal, the scenery changed completely.
Gone were the stone ground and the broken statues. In their place was a vast, subterranean world under heavy, suffocating clouds.
The Reaper stood at the edge of the precipice, it’s black cloak remaining motionless against the howling wind.
"This is the threshold of the Nether," it’s voice reverberated through the air. "The place where the trial to determine if you are fit for the bloodline begins."
"Here?" Virgil looked around. "I thought there would be more."
It felt eerily similar to the barren wasteland they had just left.
He walked edge to the precipice and looked down.
It was then he saw it.
Below was a sprawling sea of towering, ash-black trees that stretched endlessly beneath the gloom.
"This is but your first of three trials. In this place, where brute force will fail you, you not only lack a death affinity but your soul is being corrupted as we speak. You should not be worried on how far this forest extends."
The Reaper leaned closer, resting a hand over Virgil’s shoulder. An overwhelming, suffocating cold collapsed onto his body, pinning him in place.
"And understand this, Son of Death, you are stepping on a path that was never laid for you alone. Even if you survive the trials and claim the bloodline, the one it was forged for will not let a thief hold his crown for long."
Virgil frowned, fighting the weight on his shoulder to look up.
"What?"
"Good luck."
The Reaper shoved him over the edge.
His body plummeted towards the forest below, the wind tearing at his clothes as the cliff face blurred past him.
His hand shot out, reaching for anything he could grab.
His fingers caught a branch, the brutal inertia nearly tore his shoulder off his body, but he managed to hold on.
Virgil swung wildly in the air before managing to pull himself up.
"Did he expect me to survive that?"
If he had hit the ground from that height, he’d be nothing but a pulp of messy flesh on the ground.
’Or can I really die from physical impact in a place like this?’
He looked up, only to realize that he couldn’t see anything above the tree’s canopy.
Suddenly, a razor-sharp shockwave of agony exploded in the center of his chest.
He pressed his hand on his chest.
"...Fuck."
The pain was brief, disappearing as if it never happened in the first place, but sharp enough to make his breathing stop for a moment.
"The curse?"
He hadn’t felt anything like that before.
’From exertion?’
For a goddess, that was quite petty.
He wiped the sweat off his forehead and peered into the sea of black trees.
The forest was even more imposing when he was in it.
Dense, purple mist coiled around the base of the trunks. High above, the trees canopy made it almost impossible for any light to get through.
’What am I supposed to do?’
The forest was big, if a simple fall was enough to trigger the curse, navigating miles of this terrain while his soul was being corrupted would be impossible.
The Reaper had mentioned that brute force would fail him, which made him believe the trials would be some sort of mental test.
There had to be something there.
Some sort of trap he had to overcome or an object of some kind.
"Ah."
If he just walked, wasn’t something bound to show itself eventually?
Minutes passed.
Then even more.
He went deeper into the dark, before finally stopping to rest his weight against a tree.
’Is there something I’m missing?’
A sudden chill prickled the back of his neck.
The silence in the forest felt heavier now, almost expectant.
A branch snapped in the distance.
And the moment he turned to the sound, the air whistled with terrifying speed. New chapters come out on g.com first.
---BANG
Something heavy and blindingly fast slammed directly into his side, hurling him off the feet like a ragdoll and launching him skidding across the dirt.
He slammed into the base of a trunk, the collision knocking every drop of air from his lungs.
The impact didn’t just rattle his bones, it sent a jolt straight to his chest, forcing the goddess’s curse to activate.
Virgil clutched his side, gasping for breath as he dragged himself up onto his feet.
He forced his gaze towards the shadows to where he had been struck.
The purple mist parted, revealing a massive black wolf.
’Night Crawler?’
His eyes widened.
It was a monster he recognized instantly.
A low-rank, nocturnal wolf beast known for its strength, slow speed and its tendency to only move in areas where light was sparse.
It had the lean, muscular build of a wolf, but its fur was thick, and its pale, yellow eyes lacked pupils entirely.
To any trained awakened, Night Crawlers were barely a threat. They were low-tier beasts that could easily be outsped and killed, or struck down while they tried to close the distance.
’Why is this one so fast?’
The purple mist coiled tightly around its limbs.
Instinctively, he reached for his sword.
Only to remember that he had left it against the wall in his room.
"...Fuck."
He quickly increased the distance between them, channeling mana into his core to cast a spell.
Lightning sparked at his fingertips, refusing to form anything useful. The magic simply wouldn’t flow fast enough due to his partial affinity.
And that time cost him.
His instincts kicked in a fraction of a second before the monster reached him.
He abandoned the spell, instead throwing his body violently to the side.
The Night Crawler lunged through the air where his neck had been a millisecond prior, its jaw snapping shut with a bone-crunching crack.
However, before he could recover his footing, four massive, thorned roots erupted from the soil, wrapping violently around his limbs.
In a single second, the forest hoisted him into the air, locking his limbs out wide into a completely helpless cross position.