Trial by fire

Two more days passed in the blink of an eye, and finally, Atlas felt like he had made a breakthrough in permanently increasing his hearing.

Each time he failed, he adjusted his Aether manipulation slightly—pain and suffering being his best teachers. The real connection happened when he directed the Aether into his cochlea, letting it ride along the inner walls, almost mimicking its shape. This allowed his body to naturally sense the Aether, tricking it into becoming a part of himself.

The moment the Aether settled and flowed without his input, he knew he had succeeded. Everything felt intense. Each step he took was like a shockwave, while loud noises, though dampened, were still audible—similar to wearing protective ear pieces that the military used.

This setup would prevent someone from disarming him simply by shouting. Atlas allowed himself a brief moment to relax and savor his progress.

Unfortunately, Ivan cut the moment short.

He stomped over to Atlas angrily. "You've wasted too much of our time. By the gods!"

It was clear he was upset with how long Atlas had taken.

"You'll have no time to enhance your vision; in fact, we barely have any time left at all."

Atlas could understand Ivan's frustration. They only had four days before they had to depart, at the latest. Ivan seemed to be thinking the same thing.

After pacing back and forth, Ivan suddenly clicked his tongue. "The gods have just told me that we must leave. Now."

He hurried off into his kitchen.

Atlas was surprised but still readied himself to set off.

When he joined Ivan, there was a simple map laid out on the table. It was clearly of the jungle. On the left was the white temple, along with the waterfall he could clearly see. Farther behind the temple, a cave was marked in a gray area. To the right, a place was marked red with a question mark. Other simple features were on the map, like a river that Atlas had only seen at the base of the waterfall, but it apparently spread out like a vine.

This was the first map of a trial he'd seen, and it was obvious Ivan had made it himself. The implications that the map gave was insane: a map like this must have taken a long time—likely months, if not years.

This raised many questions for Atlas about how a Door Trial worked. Was there some form of time manipulation involved? He definitely hadn't arrived at the same time as Ivan, suggesting this was an ongoing event. If that was the case, didn't the people who arrived first have a massive advantage?

In fact, were these people even real in the "land of the living," or were they conjured up specifically for the trial?

Atlas had a lot more to think about.

Studying the map further, he picked it up and stuffed it into a bag Ivan had prepared.

Both mentally and physically prepared, they left the stone structure. They once again took the path to the Aether barrier, which Ivan touched, allowing them an exit. Atlas followed Ivan, who led him along a different path. Being on a cliff face, they had to descend it luckly not by climbing down but rather walking down the mountain, which felt almost impossible due to the sheer height. It was far larger than anything Atlas had seen before.

Ivan, however, strolled through the jungle without a care in the world.

"Blessed is the day by the gods! We've pleased them by setting off now. If you didn't know, my vessel, the gods are very impatient and displeased when made to wait."

Atlas took a mental note of this.

"But don't get too comfortable; the heavens have revealed that our path to salvation lies with you. In fact, it lies in you getting stronger. From here on out, every enemy we encounter will be yours to fight—yours alone."

Atlas suddenly paused.

. What was Ivan thinking? Just because the heavens had told him something didn't mean he could leave Atlas out to dry.

 What if he died? It wasn't like Ivan had another vessel ready to replace him.

Still, since he knew he could never convince the madman to defy the will of his supposed gods, he decided it was best to keep his mouth shut and deal with the situation.

The jungle grew louder the deeper they went. Shadows moved at the edges of his vision, and he occasionally noticed scratches or blood on the ground. After about an hour without encountering anything, their luck finally ran out.

Around thirty meters ahead was a large creature. It stood over three meters tall, slender, with a black, slimy body. It was immediately clear this was not a natural creature.

Its body had no fur; instead, it appeared slick and slimy. The most interesting part was that it was bipedal, almost human-like. However, where a head should be, there was only a leech-like structure. It had two arms, each ending in large, clawed fingers.

It looked like a grotesque fusion of human, leech, and salamander.

It didn't immediately notice them, so they both took cover.

Atlas held his breath, remaining silent. The creature wandered aimlessly, though unfortunately in their direction. It must have weighed hundreds of pounds; its steps shook the ground. It kept coming closer to the tree Ivan and Atlas were behind. Atlas could hear every breath it took. It was strange that he hadn't noticed the creature earlier, despite his enhanced hearing. Perhaps the creature or its surroundings were throwing off his senses.

The creature paused just before they were within its line of sight. It extended a long tongue from the top of its head, flicking it around before slowly moving away.

Atlas exhaled in relief, thankful he wouldn't have to fight it now.

Suddenly

As the creature was about twenty meters away, Ivan stepped out into the open, staring directly at it.

He started to yell, "YOU FOUL CREATURE! THE GODS HAVE GIVEN ME A NEW TASK, AND THAT IS TO KILL YOU!"

His hands were once again raised to the sky.

Then, he turned to Atlas and smiled. "Oh, and by 'me,' the gods actually meant you."

With that, Ivan vanished from view, dust swirling around where he'd stood, indicating he'd imbued himself with Aether and dashed away.

Atlas could only stare in shock at the turn of events.

Immediately afterward, the creature turned, dropping from an upright stance to all fours.

It looked built for speed, its powerful legs propelling it straight toward Atlas's position.