The ground beneath them trembled.
The moment the bridge colpsed into the abyss behind them, the world shifted.
No sound. No transition. One second, they stood on solid ground—the next, walls had risen around them.
Monolithic, obsidian-bck walls loomed high, stretching endlessly in all directions. But they weren't still. They moved—shifting, breathing, pulsing like the heartbeat of some colossal, unseen beast.
Zoren's instincts screamed.
This was no ordinary maze. It was alive.
Then, Ryan's voice returned, smooth and unreadable.
"Trial Three: The Labyrinth of Shifting Walls."
"Find the exit—if you can."
And just like that, the byrinth responded.
BOOM.
The walls convulsed. With a deep, grinding roar, they twisted apart—corridors splitting, paths stretching, entire sections shifting in impossible ways.
In mere seconds, the world had rearranged itself.
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "It's designed to split us up."
Aiden clicked his tongue. "Then we don't let it."
They started forward—quickly, cautiously.
But the byrinth had no rules.
Not even three steps in, the first strike came.
A blur of movement.
Zoren turned just in time to see the wall to his right swallow Ivar whole.
No scream. No struggle.
One second, Ivar was there—the next, he was simply gone.
"Shit," Franklin muttered. "It's taking us one by—"
Then the walls lunged again.
This time, Zoren felt it.
A force—pulling him away.
He reached for his sword—too te.
The wall smmed shut between him and the others.
Darkness. Silence.
He was alone.
Zoren's Trial
A deep breath. His hands clenched into fists.
He kept moving.
The byrinth twisted ahead of him, corridors stretching, shifting as he walked. Sometimes the walls loomed close, suffocatingly tight—sometimes they opened into vast, impossible halls filled with eerie white light.
It felt like a dream. A nightmare.
Then, the whispers began.
"You left them behind."
"You will fail them."
"You are alone."
Zoren's fingers twitched.
The voices weren't coming from nowhere.
He looked down.
The shadows beneath him had faces.
Twisted reflections of himself—grinning, mocking, smirking with empty eyes.
One of them spoke.
"You think they need you?"
It lunged.
Zoren moved on instinct—a blur of motion. His sword fshed—the shadow shattered.
But the whispers did not stop.
More figures formed in the darkness.
Aiden.
Elizabeth.
Elyria.
Not them. Distorted versions.
"You will fall."
"They will leave you behind."
"You are not worthy."
Zoren exhaled sharply.
"I've heard worse."
He walked straight through them.
The illusions vanished.
Aiden sprinted through the maze, his instincts screaming.
The air burned.
Not normal heat—his fire.
Fmes licked at the walls, but they didn't consume. They waited.
Then, ahead—a figure stepped forward.
Not an enemy.
Not a stranger.
His father.
Burned. Scarred. Twisted with anger.
"You still hesitate."
Aiden's jaw clenched.
"Still weak."
The fmes surged, roaring to life.
Aiden walked straight through them.
The illusion shattered.
Elizabeth's Trial
She did not freeze.
She did not hesitate.
But her mind faltered.
The byrinth had shifted into something she knew.
Not walls.
A battlefield.
Bodies littered the ground.
Not just any bodies—Veilborn bodies.
And at the center—
Herself.
Younger. Covered in their blood.
The whispers rose.
"You killed them."
"You never hesitated."
"Do you even regret it?"
Elizabeth exhaled sharply.
She reached out.
Her fingers touched the illusion.
It crumbled.
"Try harder."
---
One by one, they endured.
One by one, they reached the light ahead.
And as they stepped forward—
The byrinth colpsed.
The walls vanished.
And they stood once again—together.
Ryan's voice returned, pleased.
"Trial Three—complete."
No time to breathe. No time to rest.
Because the ground beneath them vanished.
The next trial had begun.
---
A sudden drop.
The air tore past them. Weightlessness. Silence.
Then—impact.
Zoren hit the ground hard, rolling into a crouch, his instincts screaming. Around him, the others nded—Aiden,Ivar, Elyria, Franklin—all winded but alive.
A deep rumble filled the space.
They weren't in the byrinth anymore.
They had fallen into something else.
---
The chamber was massive. A cavern stretching into eternity, divided into four colossal sections, each one alive with an elemental force.
Fire. Ice. Earth. Lightning.
Four worlds within a single space.
To the far left—a bzing inferno. Lava rivers churned, fmes rose high, and the air itself burned, searing even from a distance.
To the right—a frozen wastend. Ice stretched endlessly, bitter winds howling, the temperature dropping so low that breath turned to frost in an instant.
Ahead—a nd of upheaval. Towering cliffs and jagged stone, the earth shaking violently, cracks forming and closing within seconds.
And above—the storm. A sky filled with roaring thunder, bolts of lightning striking randomly, illuminating the void with electric rage.
A trial for the body. A trial for the mind.
And a trial for the soul.
---
Most of the candidates were breathing hard. The byrinth had drained them, not just physically but mentally.
But one person stood tall.
Elizabeth.
No exhaustion. No hesitation.
She gazed across the chamber with a crity that the others did not have.
It was Franklin who noticed first.
"She's not tired," he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. "How the hell—"
Then it hit him.
The reward.
Elizabeth had been the first to clear the Trial of Truth. And her prize?
Crity.
The reward wasn't just knowledge. It was awareness. Mental fortitude. Absolute perception.
Where they saw chaos, she saw patterns.
Where they struggled to focus, she remained sharp.
Elizabeth turned to them, eyes unreadable. "We don't have time to rest."
She was already analyzing.
---
Before anyone could respond, the chamber shook.
A deep, inhuman voice rumbled through the space.
Not Ryan's.
Something older.
Something waiting.
"Four elements. Four trials."
"Survive—and earn the right to face me."
Lightning fshed.
The guardians had awakened.
---
From each section, something moved.
The Fire Titan rose from the va, its body a living inferno, molten veins pulsing with heat that warped the air around it.
The Ice Titan emerged from the frozen wastend, sculpted from frost and gcier, its eyes glowing with an unnatural cold.
The Earth Titan broke through the stone, a towering mass of living rock, each step shaking the chamber like a quake.
And from the storm—
The Lightning Titan descended.
A being of pure electricity, its body shifting between form and formlessness, its presence alone causing the air to hum with power.
Each one radiated immense strength.
And they were not merciful.
---
Elizabeth took a step forward.
"The chamber is designed to divide us."
She gestured—at the shifting terrain, at the elemental barriers forming between the sections.
"If we separate, we'll be isoted, forced to fight on the terms of the Titans."
Aiden cracked his knuckles, eyes on the Fire Titan. "Then we don't separate."
"Easier said than done." Franklin frowned. "Look at the ground."
They did.
And immediately, the trial began.
The nd beneath them moved.
---
One step too far—and the world flipped.
Zoren felt it before he understood it—his body being pulled sideways.
The chamber's gravity shifted randomly.
The Fire section suddenly tilted upward, becoming a vertical wall of fme.
The Ice section stretched sideways, a frozen cliff.
The Earth section rolled like an ocean wave, terrain twisting, warping.
And the Lightning section?
It broke apart. Floating isnds of storm and thunder, each one moving independently.
This wasn't just a battlefield.
It was a puzzle.
---
The Titans didn't wait.
The Fire Titan attacked first.
It didn't charge. It erupted.
A wall of fme, surging forward.
Zoren barely had time to react before—
FWOOOOSH!
Elizabeth moved.
Not away. Forward.
A step into the fme—and she twisted.
A path.
She had seen the one part of the fire that wasn't real. An illusion mixed with the reality—a trap for the untrained mind.
But her crity let her see through it.
And she walked through fire unburned.
A test for the mind.
A test she had already won.
---
Around them, the others chose their paths.
Aiden leapt toward the Fire Titan. The fmes meant nothing to him. He was fire itself.
Franklin and Elyria braced against the Earth Titan. A battle of power—a mountain against its own ndslide.
Zoren looked up.
The Lightning Titan watched him.
Waiting.
Then—
A single bolt.
The storm struck.
And the real trial began.
---
To be continued.
---
Thanks for reading this chapter of Titan’s Ascent! Your support means everything. If you enjoyed it, drop a comment—I’d love to hear your thoughts.
