The sentinel swung again, the glaive slicing toward him in a wide arc. But this time, Aric didn't dodge. He stepped forward, his hand reaching out as if to meet the blade head-on. As the glaive neared, his fingers moved in a precise motion, tracing a sigil in the air. He felt the pulse of mana resonate with the chamber, and for a brief moment, time seemed to slow.
The glaive struck the sigil, and the impact sent a shockwave through the room, but Aric stood firm. The sigil held, redirecting the force of the blow. The sentinel staggered, its balance lost, and in that split second, Aric saw his opening.
He moved like lightning, his body a blur as he leapt into the air. Twisting mid-flight, he brought his leg down in a powerful axe kick aimed directly at the sentinel's head. Stone met flesh in a resounding crack, the sentinel's head snapping back as fractures spread across its face. The guardian's eyes flickered, its movements slowing, but it wasn't finished yet.
The runes flared again, brighter this time, as the sentinel roared in defiance. It raised its glaive high, the blade crackling with dark energy, ready to unleash a devastating final strike. But Aric was already moving. He dropped low, his hand slamming into the ground as he traced another sigil, this one larger and more intricate. The air around him hummed with power as the sigil activated, creating a barrier between him and the sentinel.
The glaive descended with a force that shook the chamber, its dark energy crackling as it aimed to split Aric in two. He raised his arms defensively, a barrier of mana snapping into place just in time. The glaive struck, and though the impact sent shockwaves through his body, the barrier held firm. Dark energy dispersed around him in an eerie light, but the sentinel gave no respite.
His heart pounded, muscles screaming from the relentless onslaught. Aric could feel the dwindling reserves of his mana—he couldn't sustain this much longer. There wasn't enough time to properly absorb more mana from his surroundings; the sentinel was too fast, too aggressive. Desperation gnawed at him, pushing his mind into overdrive.
And then, a memory resurfaced—an attempt he had made long ago. Connecting mana directly to the heart. A dangerous technique that he had tried and failed, one that could allow mana to circulate with his blood, strengthening his entire body at once. The risk was immense: an uncontrolled flow could rupture his veins, or worse, stop his heart entirely. But this sentinel was relentless—he had no other option.
With a sharp inhale, Aric steeled his resolve. He focused inward, drawing a single, delicate thread of mana from the Veil itself, feeling its raw, otherworldly power. It trembled in his grasp, wild and volatile. Slowly, carefully, he guided the thread toward his heart, sensing the pulse of his life force, the rhythmic thrum that kept him tethered to this realm.
In one swift motion, he connected the mana thread to his heart. A surge of energy burst through his chest like a tidal wave, his veins alight with power. His muscles rippled, strengthening as the mana flowed with his blood, fusing with every fiber of his being. His body hummed with newfound strength, but the strain was immediate—a constant fight to maintain control over the volatile connection. Any lapse in concentration and the mana would ravage his body from the inside.
There was no time to adjust. The sentinel advanced again, its glaive a blur of dark energy.
Aric's eyes sharpened, his body moving with speed beyond his previous limits. He could feel the mana thrumming through him, amplifying his reflexes. His feet danced across the stone floor, faster, lighter, as the sentinel's glaive missed him by a hair's breadth. He wasn't just dodging—he was accelerating.
Tapping into his newfound strength, Aric wove a spatial thread around himself, an instinct born from his connection to the Veil. The space around him bent subtly, warping as he blinked forward in a burst of speed. The sentinel's glaive swung through empty air, and in the blink of an eye, Aric was behind it.
Now.
With a final surge of power, Aric channeled the concentrated mana into his fist, his hand glowing with raw energy. He aimed directly for the sentinel's chest, where the glowing runes pulsed with life. His fist struck true, shattering through stone and magic alike, driving straight into the heart of the runes.
The impact was immediate, explosive.
The sentinel's body convulsed, the runes flickering violently as they destabilized. Cracks spiderwebbed across its torso, splintering outward until the entire figure collapsed into dust, the glaive clattering to the floor in pieces.
Aric landed in a crouch, breath ragged, his heart racing from the intense strain. Sweat poured down his face, but his senses were sharper than ever, the mana still coursing through his veins. His eyes flicked to the remains of the guardian, a satisfied grin creeping onto his face.
"HAHAHAH! How do you like that?!"
Aric rose slowly, his body aching from the strain, but the surge of heart-bound mana kept him upright, infusing him with a raw strength that felt almost alien. His thoughts were sharper now, more focused. Each battle had pushed him past his limits, forcing him to adapt and evolve faster than he'd ever imagined. He hadn't just survived this trial—he'd conquered it.
"Finally... I'm breaking through," he muttered to himself. "It feels like the chains that held me back are gone. But this... this rate of growth—it's almost terrifying. Is the trial doing this?" He paused, shaking his head slightly. "Doesn't matter. It's working in my favor."
The "Mana Heart," a technique he'd barely managed to pull off. It had brought him immense power but at a cost—a heavy pressure on his heart that he couldn't sustain for long. "It drains me fast... can't keep it up forever."
Before he could dwell on it further, the ground trembled again, and the air around him buzzed with a familiar energy. Aric's eyes snapped forward, narrowing as another figure emerged from the shadows. This one was smaller, more lithe, and moved with an unsettling fluidity. No weapon in sight, but the arcane energy coiling around its fists spoke volumes.
This sentinel wasn't about brute force.
This one was speed incarnate.
Aric's muscles tensed as the smaller sentinel rushed forward, its stone fists glowing with ethereal light. Faster. It closed the distance between them in an instant, its first punch already aimed directly at his chest. Aric barely had time to react, twisting his body just as the strike grazed past his shoulder, its sheer speed forcing him to drop low.
The sentinel didn't stop, its movements a blur as it launched into a relentless barrage of punches, each glowing fist leaving streaks of light in the air. Aric dodged and wove between them, his body barely keeping up. He could feel the pressure mounting—this thing was faster than anything he'd ever faced.
But he wasn't without his own tricks.
Aric's connection to the Veil pulsed within him, and with a thought, he tapped into spatial magic once more. His form blurred, the space around him shifting as he accelerated, dodging faster than the sentinel could react. With a twist, he reappeared to its side, delivering a sharp kick to its midsection. The sentinel staggered but regained its balance instantly, fists glowing brighter.
"Not bad," Aric muttered, grinning despite the intensity of the moment.
With his heart still connected to the flow of mana, he surged forward again, spatial magic propelling him like a bullet. He was faster now, more precise, and the sentinel couldn't keep up. Every time it attacked, Aric vanished, blinking through the warped space around him, always one step ahead.
This ends now.
He reappeared directly in front of the sentinel, his fist already glowing with condensed mana. The sentinel's glowing fists raised to block, but Aric's speed was too much. His punch connected with its chest, shattering through stone and magic alike, a surge of spatial energy rupturing its core.
The sentinel's body froze, then shattered into countless fragments, dissolving into nothingness.
Aric stood amidst the swirling debris, his breath ragged, chest heaving as the last vestiges of his battle focus ebbed away. His heart thumped, and the thin thread of mana still tethered to it continued to hum—a risk that had paid off, but one that left a dangerous strain on his body. The sheer exertion of linking mana directly to his heart to bypass his normal reserves was exhilarating, but it came at a cost. The feeling was akin to holding fire within, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it contained.
He had won, but the thrill of victory was already fading. He could feel the exhaustion creeping in. The fight had pushed him further than any before, yet he had emerged triumphant—barely. His hand instinctively reached for his chest, feeling the frantic heartbeat beneath his ribcage. His body was on edge, his veins pulsing with the flow of mana. But he was still standing. And that had to count for something.
He wasn't just mimicking anymore. Every movement, every strike, had become an extension of himself, as fluid and natural as breathing. The power of the sigils, once foreign and elusive, now danced at his fingertips, responding to his will with an eerie familiarity.
But the chamber wasn't done with him.
The ground beneath him shuddered, and the walls trembled as another door slid open at the far end of the room. A deep, red glow spilled out, bathing the corridor in an ominous light. From within, Aric could see a massive figure stirring, far larger than anything he had faced so far.
He wiped the sweat from his brow, his body aching from the exertion. His limbs felt heavy, leaden with fatigue, but there was no turning back now. He was too far in. This was it—the final test, or at least, the next one. It seemed as though every trial in this forsaken place pushed him closer to the edge.
"How many more of these things...?" Aric muttered to himself, his voice low and strained. He rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the tension that had settled in his muscles, but it was futile.
The corridor stretched out before him, a dark, foreboding path leading to what would undoubtedly be the most difficult fight yet. His heart raced, not just from fatigue but from the anticipation of what was waiting for him at the other end. He could feel it—a presence far greater than any sentinel. Something ancient, something powerful.
Taking a deep breath, Aric stepped forward. His footsteps echoed against the stone floor as he walked, his eyes fixed on the shadowy figure at the end of the hallway. The closer he got, the heavier the air around him became. He could feel the weight of the mana pressing down on him, suffocating, oppressive.
The light at the end of the corridor grew brighter, and the ground beneath his feet began to tremble again. From the shadows, something stirred.
A titan.
The massive figure stepped into the light, towering above him. Nearly twice the size of any sentinel he had faced before, its body was covered in jagged, glowing runes that pulsed with raw, chaotic energy. In its hand, it held a massive double-bladed axe, the edges burning with a deep red light that seemed to warp the air around it.
This wasn't just a guardian. This was a force of destruction.
Aric's eyes widened, and his heart skipped a beat. The sheer size of the titan was overwhelming, its presence filling the room like a living storm. He could feel the air around him ripple with the raw power that emanated from the creature. Every instinct screamed at him to retreat, to run, but he forced himself to stay rooted in place.
"No backing down now..." he muttered to himself, clenching his fists. His body screamed in protest, but he pushed the pain aside. He had made it this far, and he wasn't going to turn back.
The titan's glowing eyes locked onto Aric, and with a low, guttural growl, it raised its massive axe. The red glow intensified, and the ground beneath Aric's feet began to crack and splinter as the creature's power surged through the room.
The titan swung its axe in a wide arc, the sheer speed and force of the attack catching Aric off guard. He barely had time to react, instinctively activating his spatial magic. In a blink, he vanished.
...