As Hagan was walking back to his crumbled abode, he was overwhelmed. He rested on the side of the road and closed his eyes.
Suddenly, the air felt… different. It was more pleasant to inhale and there was no murky smell permeating the air. Although, Hagan was too preoccupied to notice the changes, all he knew was that he wasn't as cold, the air was sublime, and the ground he was sitting on wasn't concrete anymore. Hagan inhaled a deep breath of fresh air and realized something.
'…'
'Huh?'
Hagan finally noticed these not so slight changes and opened his eyes, only he no longer say the dark skies of the city, the ruined building, or any trash littering concrete as there was no trash or concrete.
He was in a forest, sitting on a tree that'd fallen over. Hagan had realized something was amiss and only when he noticed the sun and moon were now rapidly swapping places did he realize what.
"Promised! You have entered the Second Trial!"
The Speaker instantly filled Hagan with dread.
'How am I here? I never fell asleep, I only sat down to think! HOW!?'
Hagan somehow entered the Second Trial and was not only unprepared, he had no idea why. Then he remembered, "Promised! The Trials call out your name!", now it some some semblance of sense as to how he was here.
"The Gods tell you a truth. You cannot lie because you have inherited them."
The female voice was not expected, especially with it delivering what seemed to be such unneeded knowledge.
'Curse you Gods!'
"Prepare, Promised, you are being preyed upon. You need to purify your pursuers."
Tie female voice resounded again and this time instead of filling Hagan with rage, he was frozen by fear. He was now being "preyed upon" and had to "purify his pursuers", he had no idea how to purify anything. Well… except for water thanks to Professor Lane.
'This is no time for jokes! I need to get ready to fight.'
Hagan summoned his [Goft of War] and [Dragons Fang] as he was more confident wielding the dragons grafted fang rather than the sword forged from light. He did his best to clear his mind of unnecessary thoughts and focused solely on his surrounding, he noticed that there were three moving shadows to his left, right, and behind him. He turned towards the closest one and advanced slowly, careful not to make too much noise of sudden movements. One the shadow was in view, he was immediately struck with fear, the beast had four legs, white hide with black and red streaks, red eyes, and was staring right back into Hagan's eyes.
As quickly as Hahn could brandish his sword, the beast was already closing the distance with astonishing speed. He'd desperately tried to focus solely on the beast and nothing more.
Remembering the basics, as the beast was in striking distance, Hagan side stepped as the beast leaped at him, raised the sword and thrusted it into the beasts path. The fang had easily sliced open the underbelly on the beast and severed its front paw which was nearly as large as Hagan's head.
The beast continued its path, landing a few meters behind Hagan and simultaneously, the female voice filled his ears.
"You have purified the land. You have slain a Tier 3 Basic Demon Spawn."
Hagan barely had any time to celebrate his triumph as another beast approaching him.