Elder Yueh watched from above, a smirk playing on his lips. These students thought themselves clever. They assumed elimination was easy. Fools. The truth of alchemy was cruel, and the salts they disturbed would make them pay for their arrogance.

  Below, the students moved quickly, scrambling to execute their confirmatory tests while the five deadly gases thickened around them. But the notes—ah, the notes—were leading them astray.

  The First Trial – The Ghost’s Shroud

  “Quickly! The notes say the essence of Phantom Carbonic must be bound with a dissolving sigil!” Valencia shouted, flipping through the pages.

  Cassius and Aether moved in tandem, inscribing the formation with practiced precision. The runes glowed for a brief moment before flickering and vanishing.

  Then the mist thickened.

  The students coughed violently as the invisible gas coiled tighter, their chests constricting as if unseen hands were gripping their lungs. One student fell to his knees, gasping for air.

  “This isn’t working! The formation is failing!” Lysandra coughed, eyes burning. “We’re being suffocated!”

  Cassius, through sheer force of will, forced himself to think. The notes had led them astray. But why? His mind flashed back to their lessons.

  “Carbonate! When dissolved in acid, it releases carbon dioxide!” he gasped. “We need to confirm it! Someone, pass the gas through limewater!”

  Valencia hurriedly took a beaker, guiding the gas into the milky solution. Within seconds, the liquid turned cloudy.

  “It’s CO?! The anion must be Carbonate (CO?2?)!”

  They carved a new sigil, one that dispersed the gas instead of trying to bind it. The mist finally thinned, allowing them to breathe.

  Elder Yueh chuckled. “Ah, so they do have brains after all.”

  The Second Trial – The Abyssal Breath

  A foul, yellow-green vapor coiled around them next. One student gagged violently, collapsing to the ground.

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  “Rotten eggs… this must be the breath of the Abyss—Hydrogen Sulfide!” Thorne muttered.

  “The notes say we should burn it away using alchemical fire,” Sylvaine stated, flipping the pages.

  Cassius frowned. “No. This could be another trick.”

  “Do we have time to doubt it?” Valencia shot back.

  The mist thickened. The air turned acidic, their skin prickling painfully.

  Aether’s eyes narrowed. “We verify before we commit. The wrong sigil could be worse than no sigil at all!”

  He ripped a strip of lead acetate paper and exposed it to the gas. It darkened immediately.

  “There! That confirms it’s H?S. The anion is Sulfide (S2?)!”

  Instead of fire, they used an absorptive sigil, drawing the gas into a contained essence field. The air cleared, but their nerves remained frayed.

  The notes had nearly killed them again.

  The Third Trial – The Battlefield’s Curse

  A sharp, burning scent filled the air. Some students recoiled as their eyes burned.

  “This is Sulfur Dioxide,” Valencia declared. “Sulfite anions reacting!”

  “No, it’s not,” Cassius countered. “It’s another deception. We confirm first.”

  Lysandra, however, snatched the testing reagents before Cassius could intervene. “I don’t need your permission.”

  Rivalries flared as different groups debated which confirmatory test to use. In the chaos, someone dumped the gas into potassium dichromate instead of acidified potassium permanganate.

  A loud crack echoed, and an explosion of volatile mist sent several students sprawling.

  “The wrong test,” Aether hissed. “We wasted time!”

  With little choice, they performed the correct test. The acidified potassium permanganate solution turned green.

  “Sulfite (SO?2?),” Cassius muttered darkly. “This was a mistake we can’t afford again.”

  The Fourth Trial – The Demon’s Breath

  As soon as the brown fumes curled around them, the students didn’t argue. They worked in sync, setting aside rivalries.

  “The demon’s breath… Nitrogen Dioxide,” Aether said quickly.

  “This time, no errors,” Valencia stated. “We go by the book. Acidified potassium iodide with starch.”

  The moment they performed the test, the solution turned blue.

  “Confirmed. The anion is Nitrite (NO??),” Cassius said. “Set the formation.”

  No hesitation. No arguments. They moved as one, and the mist dissipated like it had never existed.

  The Final Trial – The Alchemist’s Gamble

  The last mist came swiftly. Too fast.

  A vinegar-like scent coated the air, and panic swelled. They had no time. No reagents left for confirmatory tests. The formation had to be set immediately.

  Aether looked around. “Do we have anything left?”

  “Only this,” Sylvaine said, holding up a strip of blue litmus paper. They dipped it into the gas.

  It turned red.

  “Acid,” Cassius whispered. “But which one?”

  They had to gamble.

  “It’s Acetic Acid,” Valencia said. “The anion is Acetate (CH?COO?). We take the risk.”

  There was no time to think. They set the formation based on their assumption—and the mist dissolved into nothingness.

  Silence followed.

  Then, slow applause.

  Elder Yueh clapped his hands, stepping forward with an amused expression. “You survived. Barely. But you survived.”

  The students collapsed to their knees, exhausted, burned, and breathless.

  The Trial of Five Mists was over. But none of them would ever forget the lessons they had learned today.

  And this was only the beginning.