Nearly twenty minutes later, the group arrived at the gate of pride. Upon arrival, the immediate first thing Kaden noticed was that the gate was now deactivated.
"What happened?" Kaden questioned. "Did it reset?"
"Maybe it closes after some time." Mai hypothesized. "It hasn't been used since you used it the last time, so maybe it just closed automatically."
"Can you activate it again?" Jayson asked.
"I can try."
Kaden approached the sapphire rune that was on the left pillar of the gate and stared at it reluctantly. After just a few seconds, he placed his palm on the rune, which, as he expected, activated the gate once again. The others stepped forward as Kaden took two steps back to watch as the archway filled with pure light. Taibai, who was following from above, suddenly flew down and perched back onto Mai's shoulder.
"How do I know it won't make me do this trial over again?" Kaden questioned.
"It shouldn't." Via replied. "I don't know much about the gates, but they were briefly mentioned in a book I found in a ruin. It said that even though the seven gates are spread all over the world, they almost exist as one entity. They share information with one another, and they remember everyone who attempts the trials. So once you go through, it should just teleport you to the next gate."
"So it basically saves your progress." Aaron simplified.
"Hopefully, that's the case." Kaden said as he walked towards the light.
"Just as a precaution, if you don't come back in less than a minute, we're going to assume you're doing the trial again." Jayson stated.
"Sounds fair."
Without hesitating any further, Kaden stepped into the light. Just as Via suspected, the trial had not reset for him. After a brief moment of complete silence, Kaden emerged from the gate of greed into the cave he had met Jayson in previously.
"Good."
.....
The others rejoined Kaden after he went back through the gate and gave them the all clear.
"Now we have the opposite issue with this." Kaden stated. "How do I get this trial to start instead of it teleporting me?"
"...The rune." Mai pointed out. "The sapphire rune on this gate isn't glowing, maybe because it isn't fully active."
After making the same observation, Kaden approached the rune and placed his palm on top of it. The stone then illuminated, which was followed by all of the markings on the gate beginning to glow with light essence in ascending order.
"Yeah, that seems more right." Kaden said lightly.
The young man steeled himself by taking in a deep breath of air while standing before the second gate that awaited his entrance. Before entering, he turned to face the others, but before he could have even looked at them, Aaron had already placed his left hand on Kaden's shoulder.
"You got this, Kade. We're gonna be out here waiting for ya."
Nothing else was said between the two, just a singular head nod from Kaden confirming that he was ready. The others watched on as Kaden confidently entered the Gate of Greed.
.....
A familiar feeling of suspension held Kaden's body while the world around him appeared to be nothing but a void.
"Whatever I see inside here isn't real." Kaden reassured himself. "It's all just a projection of my mind. The worst should already be over with seeing my parents. Huh?"
In the blink of an eye, Kaden found himself in a messy and cramped bedroom that was somewhat familiar to him.
"Where am I? I feel like I've been here be-"
Before Kaden could have finished that thought, he caught sight of a standing mirror that was sat in a plastic chair facing directly towards him. His reflection in the mirror was unexpected, and it gave Kaden a better understanding of where he was for this trial. An eight year old Kaden looked back at him in the reflection, and upon further investigation, he realized that his actual body had seemingly de-aged into his eight year old self.
"This is wild. I figured this would be different from the other trial, but I didn't expect this?"
"What did you expect?"
A sudden, deep, distorted voice echoed through the room, which made Kaden notice the outline of a shadowy figure blocking the room's entrance.
"Who are you?" Kaden questioned.
Without answering, the shadow dispersed, leaving the bedroom's exit available to Kaden. He further inspected the room around him and made a definite conclusion that this was his room. An exact replica of the room in the apartment he lived in with his parents. Kaden took note of every miniscule detail in the room. Some of it he remembered as if he was just there yesterday, while the rest of it he had long forgotten about.
"This room... it was almost like a sanctuary for me. Dad moved us into this two bedroom, one bath apartment when I was two years old. Him and mom shared a room while I had this one all for myself. Even though it was cramped, I didn't care because it was my space. It was for the most part anyway. There were days when mom slept in my room because of the fights she had with dad."
Kaden continued to reminisce as he unlocked fragments of his memory with every little thing he encountered in the room.
Knock, knock, knock knock, knock.
A shiver was sent down Kaden's spine almost on reflex of hearing the knocking.
"That knock pattern... I remember that clear as day."
Kaden stared down the hall with growing suspicion before finally leaving the room. He attempted to open his parents' room before also trying to open the door to the bathroom, both of which were locked from the inside.
Knock, knock, knock knock, knock.
"For all the years we lived here, there was only one person who knocked on the door like that. He did so in the same pattern, every single time without fail."
There was no longer any fear inside of Kaden, as it was all quickly replaced with a burning anger. He walked over to the front door and wasted no time in opening it. The door swung open and revealed the same shadowy figure from before.
"Where's your father?" The distorted voice asked Kaden.
"He ain't here." Kaden grumbled.
"Even better. Where's your mom?"
A fire was lit inside of the young boy as he then attempted to tackle the shadow. Of course, he passed straight through the figure and tumbled into the dirt outside the front door.
"Was that called for?" The shadow questioned.
"Relax, Kaden, he isn't real." He thought to himself. "You can't fail this test. C'mon breathe and relax."
"Kaden!" A woman's voice called out.
"Mom?"
Kaden's mother appeared in the hallway and slowly stepped forward into the living room.
"Ms. Anderson, it's the first of the month." The shadow stated.
"I know, but he's been gone ever since last night, and he didn't -"
"So you're saying you're going to be late. Again."
"Well -"
"I think I've been fairly lenient with you two over the years, haven't I? Yet no matter how understanding I try to be, it feels like you just take advantage, time and time again. First, these late payments, then only half payments. I'm a busy man, you know, Ms. Anderson. I need my money on time so I can ensure that my other business is dealt with. Now, do you think this is fair to me?"
"... No, it isn't." Kaden's mom replied.
"Once you understand how I came to this conclusion. Expect an eviction notice letter on your door by tomorrow morning."
"Wait! Mr. Smith, please!"
"You want me to wait even longer?" Mr. Smith questioned.
"...I-I'll make it worth your time."
There was a brief moment of silence as Kaden's mom averted her eyes away out of nervousness. The shadow turned to look back at Kaden, who was still angrily glaring back at him.
"Go and play for a while, kid." Mr. Smith said. "The grown-ups are going to be talking for a while."
The shadow stepped inside, followed by the apartment door slowly closing on its own, leaving young Kaden on his knees with a furious anger building inside of him.
"This was the first time he had sex with her, but it wasn't the last." Kaden thought to himself. "Just because I was young didn't mean I wasn't aware of what was happening. This became a practice once almost every month that passed without fail, and it wasn't just with my mom. The lady that lived above us was a single mother of three, and she worked two jobs just to barely get by. Of course, whenever she fell behind with rent or needed some kind of repair in the apartment, he would manipulate her into giving him exactly what he wanted. 'Words can be a dangerous weapon.' Mom told me that after she found out her sister was spreading malicious rumors about her. That phrase fits that guy perfectly."
Vroom!
The revving of a powerful engine quickly took Kaden's attention, which made him look over his shoulder to inspect where the sudden noise came from. A bright red supercar was occupying the side of the street in front of the apartment complex. Young Kaden got up and slowly approached the car.
"Carlo Smith. If there was ever a man that I despised more than my father, it would be him. He's an affluent, arrogant, selfish, manipulative, self-indulgent narcissist. To put it simply... he's greedy. He built these apartments in low income neighborhoods to target struggling families that he could easily extort and take advantage of. At the same time, he's a successful businessman who would still be more than well off without any of these complexes. He doesn't care about any of his tenants. The guy pulls up to collect rent in a supercar. I hate him."
As Kaden approached the car, the window rolled down, revealing the shadow sitting comfortably in the front seat.
"Got something to say, kid?" The shadow asked.
"What am I supposed to do with you?" Kaden questioned in his head. "Does the trial want me to forgive him or understand him? Even if I do, what does that have to do with me?"
"It has everything to do with you." The shadow stated aloud.
Young Kaden flinched as he realized that his mind had just been read. Before he could have given a proper reaction, the shadow began to flow out of the car window as if it were a cloud of smoke. It passed by both sides of Kaden's head, prompting him to turn around, but when he did, all he saw was the shadow dispersing into nothing.
"Make it quick, I don't have all day." A male voice stated from the car.
The distortion on the voice cleared away and unveiled a voice that was all too familiar to Kaden. He quickly turned back to the car and found an older version of himself sitting in the driver's seat.
"Me?" A stunned and confused Kaden questioned. "There's no way that's..."
It was then that Kaden began to reminisce about his previous life and all of the tendencies he had developed later on in his years. Many of them can be compared to the traits of the man Kaden hates the most.
"No... that's not me. I'm not him." Kaden stated while stepping backward.
The world around him started to become foggy, and items in the area began to glitch.
"This guy... I could barely put into words how much I hate him. His actions, his demeanor, his immoral way of doing things... Don't compare me to him!"
The shadow cloud appeared once again and slowly began to cover young Kaden. He naturally couldn't help but reject what the trial was insinuating. However, before the cloud could have engulfed him, he took one last glance up to his older self, who was staring back at him with a gaze full of judgment.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Kaden thought to himself. "... Oh... I get it now. You're not me. You're the future me. If I didn't die that day, you're who I would've become. The man I hated most in my childhood. It makes sense since I hated myself more than anyone in my few adult years. Growing up, Carlo Smith was the embodiment of greed in my eyes, but he was also the only person I knew that I associated with success. So when I finally got a piece of success for myself, I never wanted to let go of it. So I unknowingly started to mimic the only man I ever associated with success. I even went and bought a red supercar soon after getting that money."
As Kaden made this realization, the cloud receded from his body once more, and the area started to revert back to what it was. In the blink of an eye, older Kaden appeared directly in front of him and looked down at the boy with a blank expression.
"I was wrong." Young Kaden stated in a dejected tone. "You are me... but I won't become you. I'd trade everything I have in exchange for not becoming you."
With those words, the world around the two Kadens became engulfed in a bright white light.