Stood with his mouth agape, Theodore stared intently at a structure that defied all reason before him. On the horizon, a castle even larger than the walls surrounding his city stood in all its glory with piers and walls that seemed to stretch endlessly into the sky.
"What the actual fuck!" were the only words he could muster to comment on the ridiculous scene.
He looked off to the sides and saw nothing but an expanse of gray desert sands, then felt the heat of the never-ending onslaught of the sun, then looked up at the ever-present sun and broken moon hanging in the air, and thought to himself.
'I know this is a different world.... but how could all this actually be real?'
Stunned, confused, exhausted, and bereft of words, Theodore strode forward towards the structure. If standing there was going to yield no results, he had to move, and move he did.
***
Another few hours passed, and Theodore was on the verge of collapse. He struggled to breathe, let alone take a step forward, yet he refused to let death catch up with him and went as far as to crawl forward. But no matter how far he travelled, the castle remained out of reach.
Theodore's eyes burned in the heat as he stared at the castle, trying to wrap his head around the sheer scale and impossibility of the situation. It was as if the world around him was denying his access to the building. Soon his vision began shifting, like the very fabric of his reality was being pulled apart at its seams, until suddenly, everything faded to black.
***
The sound of rushing water filled his ears, and a wave of cold water once again washed over him. Immediately shooting to his feet, he scanned his surroundings in a hurry and stared in utter disbelief as his eyes widened. Theodore's heart pounded against his ribs, his body froze in place, and a disorienting flush spread across his face. Turning back, he saw the same expanse of black waters ebbing and flowing in random directions.
He once again tried to shake off his grogginess and looked up to the sky again, a black orb surrounded by a stream of rubble, and behind that was another that radiated a white illuminating light.
"This can't be fucking real!"
Theodore's voice trembled as he spoke. Desperate for this to be a bad dream, he rubbed his eyes aggressively, but nothing changed. Rubbing between his brows, he took a hesitant step forward.
"Get a grip, Theodore," he muttered under his breath.
He turned his gaze back to the water, its surface reflecting the bizarre sky above.
"Am I going crazy? I could have sworn I already went through his. Haven't I?"
A strange sensation slithered around Theodore's feet, and strangely, the viscous sea of black at his feet looked to recede.
'Weird! That didn't happen last time.'
Through the black sea, the strange outline of something seemed to be moving at his feet. Theo squinted his eyes, trying to make out what it was.
'Is that seaweed or something?'
But seaweed doesn't move, right? Before he could think to do anything, a bulbous head emerged from the depths and crashed into him, sending him tumbling into the water. He quickly tried to get back to his feet, but was sent back into the water and felt something tighten around his neck. He struggled and fought against whatever it was that constricted him, trying desperately to get a good view of whatever it was, but the dark sea obscured his vision, and the water invading his body burned his lungs.
'Get off me you piece of shit!'
Thrashing and suffering under the pressure, he tried summoning the power he had somehow manifested previously, focusing on the burning sensation it brought, but nothing materialised.
Soon, whatever it was that had a grip on his neck began slithering around his whole body, putting him in an even tighter hold and pushing him down even harder. Once more, his vision blurred, and everything began fading. His hands and feet began going numb, and his mind felt freed as if a burden had been lifted. And in that moment of clarity, a single, disturbing thought filled his mind.
'Is this real?'
His heart slowed to a crawl, and his breath grew shallow; the numbness in his hands and feet spread.
'Is this how I die?'
His thoughts drifted in slow motion as that thought lingered. And with his eyes now barely open, he caught a quick glimpse of the celestial bodies hanging in the sky above. Only moments later, his breathing ceased, and the world around him faded to black.
***
Again, the sound of water crashing into him stirred Theodore, and he sprang to his feet. He quickly looked round and rushed to the shore, falling to his knees and gasping for air.
"I'm alive! I didn't fucking die!"
He grabbed his chest and took in deep breaths, trying to calm himself.
'But how? Is this some twisted incarnation of the trials task?'
Theo thought hard about everything he'd learnt about the trials. Well, they are called trials, but are simply the stages an individual is put in and tasked with escaping every time they reach a certain stage of their evolution as a gifted. And right now, he was at the very first stage, a candidate going through the first trial after awakening.
But something was wrong with his trial. From what he knew, once you die during the trial, there are no do-overs and your soul is forever lost.
'But for some inexplicable reason, I've died not once, but twice, and am still alive?'
It was more than strange, it was bizarre, but he couldn't afford to care about that now. He needed to find a way to escape this place, or else, he could strangely become the first person forced to relive their first trial over and over and over again.
And to do that, he needed strength, which reminded him.
'Now that I'm a candidate, that means I've unlocked my trait.'
Thinking hard about what it could be, his mind was drawn to the moment he fought back against that monster in his first turn.
'Was that burst of power I got during my first run my trait manifesting? Then how do I use the damn thing?'
With nowhere to use as shelter and his legs getting tired from all the standing, Theodore sat in the scorching sun. It was uncomfortable, but still better than the alternative. He took a deep breath, and the musk of the strange black sea filled his nostrils. He thought back to the beast he went up against in his first turn, from the chance encounter to the moment he crushed its neck with his bare hands.
A rhy smile appeared on his face as he chuckled. The realization that, whether it be a fluke or anything else, he had somehow managed to slay a spawn was, at the same time, encouraging, terrifying, and exhilarating. Though it wasn't something he wanted to do again anytime soon.
'But my desire on the matter is inconsequential.'
After all, he was now in the territory of monsters, and while there, he had no choice but to fend for himself.
'To do that, I need power!'
And that power came in the shape of traits. Abilities granted to those who become awakened. These powers range from simple things like creating small gusts of wind to the ability to create raging storms. Ranked from weakest to strongest, with the weakest being 1.0 and the strongest recorded being 7.5, these powers are a singular concentration and true manifestations of a person's natural affinities and innate nature, which make up their specialization. Though a child of a trait wielder will tend to awaken the ability passed down from their parent.
With all that in mind, Theodore, as an orphan with no clue who his birth parents were, had absolutely no idea how to use his trait.
'Yet another disadvantage of being unwanted, I guess.'
Again, he closed his eyes and focused on that sensation from before, but felt nothing and soon smacked his thigh in frustration.
'What the hell is wrong with me? Am I doing something wrong here?'
His frustration with using his trait was a bit excessive, but generally warranted as a trait is practically an extension of an individual, after unlocking it, using it should come as naturally as breathing to a person. But for some reason, despite already using his before, given it was in a different run, he should have been able to scrape by with the memory of that encounter.
Yet nothing was happening for him.
This now begged the question.
'Am I looking at this the wrong way?'
As he saw it, the power he had awakened was an augmenting type, a strength enhancer which was the only thing he could think of as what granted him such strength. But if he is unable to manifest such a simple ability, that would mean that his hunch was wrong.
'But if my hunch is wrong, what kind of ability do I have then?'
That train of thought got him thinking, and his mind flashed back to the moment the spawn pounced on him. He remembered the beast stood above him, raining strike after strike on him. And in those moments, he felt something well up, and with every strike, that sensation only grew stronger
'Hmm. So, the more I get hit, the stronger I become? No! That doesn't make sense. There has to be more to this power than that.'
Focusing even more on the memory, he thought over what had happened to his body. Then, he realized something strange. The beast rained strikes, after strike, after strike upon him, but apart from fractured bones and bruised skin, he was largely fine, and could even muster the strength to move after that.
'So, does my body just have some sort of immunity to attacks?'
No, if that were the case, his body would not have taken any form of damage. What happened to him seemed more like he was somehow lessening the creature's strike force and using that as a form of power to strengthen himself.
'How could they do that?'
Focusing on any possibilities, he remembered one of his physics classes that explained the concept of motion and the energy that facilitated a form of it.
'Kinetic energy?'