The void came around the latest bend, the cloak whistling through the air. It was nearly upon the target, the rest of the world disappearing behind. It watched as the tired figure paused before a hole in the floor, peered over, and then looked back. Gritting teeth, the somewhat frail young man spun around and jumped into the hole below, the sigil following along. The cloaked void stood before the hole and path, thrown off by the hidden mechanisms at every one of these forks, searching for the scent of that child. After ridding itself of its daze, it remembered where the young man went; the memory couldn't be fully erased from its consciousness. Looking down, it dipped into the darkened space and continued its restless chase.

  Mona woke up from the floor. He could feel the flat shoved into his bones, the surface a hard reminder of why he shouldn't jump into holes. The distance he fell was just enough to kick up up a strand of anxiety in his blood, and before he knew it, he hit the floor. Maybe he shouldn't have closed his eyes on his way down.

  "I thought this was supposed to be safe!"

  The words left his lips in a hiss, his body giving spurts of pain as he tried to realign himself. Time and time again he could only ask himself if his father really told him everything. Was his father lying to him?

  Mona rid himself the thought of that happening. His father wasn't a dishonest man, and this definitely couldn't be the fault of anyone except for the ...founder?

  His body froze as the thought began to roll and lather in the bubbles of his thoughts. The founder. The owner of his armor piece, the carver of the sigil neatly finding a home in between his ribs, adding a sharp pain of its own to his form.

  That's right, he thought. The founder would have definitely known something about this! He had to. There was no other way. The field. The rustic cabin. The golem. That void. The whole world must have been something the original Aurum knew about. Surely. Right?

  He sighed. There was nothing left of that era. Even the sigil, the crest of their family had been simplified to such a degree, let alone words from whoever that predecessor was. With a heave, and plenty of jolts of pain and winces to follow, he stood on his two legs, taking a moment to stabilize.

  Then, with as much care as he could, he tenderly pulled on the sigil from his armor. The armor was cracked in the fall, the sigil cut into the metal fabric, the ornate gems shattered and scattered, the mana that meekly glimmered from inside long dead. All Mona could feel was more pain. Pulling the sigil out slowly wasn't the best idea. While he had no puncture wounds, his attempt at delicately removing the symbol only prolonged his suffering.

  It did get free, eventually. He had to grit plenty through it, with bits of the armor falling to the floor, remains of those gems interspersed. Beyond the hole in his dress, and the throbbing pain, he seemed to be relatively ok. Nothing broke on his fall, and the pain would gradually melt away. He took a deep breath, finally paying attention to the hallway.

  The walls shifted again, the floor as well. This hall seemed to be a dungeon of sorts, a well kept one. Well shaped bricks of some dark grey material held up the walls. Metal embellishments were added to the trim of the ceiling and the floor. Mona blinked twice, questioning if he was in the right place. Making sure, he looked up, and yep, there was the hole he fell from.

  Letting out a breath, Mona took a step forward. It was slow at first. His flesh pulsated from the fall, and it didn't help he was trying to move not long after. This ascension of his was highly realistic; he was confident that his father was probably in a slight panic, seeing his body shudder in pain on the other side. The thought made the pain a bit easier to deal with.

  Shuffling forward, his feet gliding over the matted floor, he could only feel a sense of joy and relief overcome him. He had made it. The room! It was the room! The room was right here at last!

  There was the orange walls, the table and chair, the fireplace. Everything was as he remembered. The plain decor was always hard to look at, but he couldn't care. He made it to the end. He was almost certain he was getting played for a fool earlier; he had to turn twice in the elaborate hallway before the familiar room was in front of him.

  The pain largely subsided, Mona's stride returned to before, making his way to the fireplace. The sigil in his hands hadn't let him down; the little thing kept tugging him along, and now tugged toward the fireplace.

  "Oh, I get it now!"

  It clicked in his head rather easily. From the fire he received it, and to the fire it had to returned. Of course he hesitated. This was a fire. Was he really going to put his hands in one. But the sigil didn't relent; it needed to return to the flames. The sigil seemed to glint in frustration at Mona's pause. Put me in already, it seemed to be saying.

  Shaking his head clear of his fears, except not really, Mona steadily moved the sigil of his family crest into the flames, placing it atop the logs of what seemed like the same objects he saw in the fireplace back near the golem. He expected burns, a scarring, to yank his arms back in pain and rolling on the floor. What came back was a gentleness.

  It was light the spirits of the world were holding his hands tenderly as he let go of the sigil, and he almost missed the sensation when he took both his arms back. The sigil steadily started to gleam, eventually hovering much as it did in the other fireplace, glowing. Soon, it took on a golden hue, hummed in the air, and shined in the flames. The sigil looked like a fish in water, taking in the flames around it.

  Mona let out a sigh of relief. It was done. He carried this symbol from the cabin all the way here, wherever this was. He could feel his mind relax, and it finally dawned on him.

  *cough* "Yes, its done."

  A tinge of embarassment came over him. This entire time he had been acting out of character. He was a son of Aurum, he could hear his father, how could he act like this. He began tidying at his clothes, clearing his throat, trying to think what came over him. He didn't usually act like this. The last time he acted this way was back when his mother was ...

  "No, no. Why am I going there?"

  He dismissed the thought from his mind before the brooding took him over. He waited a moment, wondering what was supposed to happen next. Was the golem going to make a reappearance? Feeling the time pass by, and noticed nothing changed. He turned around, got ready to maybe sit down and see if that changed anything. And then he froze.

  Floating there in front of him was the cloak. Its sleeves were fluttering, the fabric flapping in an invisible wind. Beneath the hood Mona could see nothing, but behind the cloak he could see the void. Omniprescent, churning in on itself, waiting to follow the cloak like a dog to its master. The cloak, whatever was guiding it, lifted a sleeve towards Mona, the copious fabric shimmering in the firelight. On queue, the void surged forwards, engulfing the chair and table. Right before Mona could see the void swallow him, he disappeared.

  *****

  The scene blurred at first, but soon cleared, revealing Mona somewhere new. The expanse was a frosty gray. He could see that the edges of his vision returned a darkness to him. There was no gloom here to bother him, but rather the air carried an ancientness to it. No wait, it tasted as much on his tongue. Not exactly the most pleasant sensation, but far more welcome than the cloak of doom from before.

  He took a step forward to look around, glad to see he wasn't trapped like before. The last "world" he was in relied on his armor as a gimmick, and he didn't know if his broken piece of dress could help transport him again. Thinking of the chestpiece, he looked down. It was completely intact.

  "It's fixed."

  He ran his hand over the edges of the armor, the gems and metal still present as if it never broke in his escape. The gemstones glimmered their aura back to his eyes, just as before. Leaving his armor aside, he swiveled around, trying to find his footing in this new scenery.

  "Ahem."

  An old, gravely voice filled his ears, giving Mona a bit of a fright. He tried to hide his alarm and began turning his head faster, hoping to see the source.

  *COUGH* "AHEM."

  It repeated, a bit more forceful this time. Whatever was making this voice, it wasn't pleased.

  Mona could only try to squint in every direction around him. But he couldn't find out what was talking to him. Beneath him and around, the gray expanse was infinite, stretching in every direction. Forget shapes, it was like Mona was the only existence in the entire area. Maybe if he tried walking he might see something new, but his gut told him that wasn't likely. And how would he return? He couldn't identify any markers a person could use to tell his way around.

  "Screw it."

  Mona felt himself slammed into the floor. It was sudden, and once again the wind was knocked out of him. Thanks to the armor, he didn't hurt like before, but he didn't break into a bout of coughing as he was trying to catch his breath. He could feel a bit of a sting on the back of his head. What hit him?

  "Up here."

  The voice from before beckoned him to look upwards, and Mona turned around to look.

  "Higher. Right above you."

  The annoyance in the old voice was evident as it kept barking directions. A bit annoyed himself, Mona looked even higher, straight above at his zenith, he could see a dot.

  That's all he could see. A black dot. No shape. No form. Just a small dot. Maybe if he got closer he could see more details, but from his eyesight all that appeared was a dot.

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  "Good. You can see me."

  The old voice didn't hold back on Mona, letting its irritation sit in the area for a while.

  "What are you? Why are you up there?"

  "Hello to you too, you little..."

  The voice was muffled before it could finish, and went on for a while before it stopped. The old voice huffed, and began to speak again.

  "I am DeGorian Von Soule, the almighty. I have conquered plains. Ascended skies. Bedded women and stolen wives. I am the peak of all that exists! I am..."

  "All I can see is a ...dot."

  Mona shut the old voice down, torpedoing any chance of this old man from continuing his monologue. The young noble could feel the tension in the air thicken for a while, almost like the dot was glaring at him. It didn't affect Mona one bit, and the voice knew that.

  "Yes, I know I am a dot. For now. It's... circumstantial."

  "Circum... stantial?"

  "Ok, ok. I was captured when I was running away one day ago, my soul confined to this space by a squadron of knights, and fell into your ancestor's hands in the end. I can't remember everything that happened, but I do remember the anger I felt on how it was decided I would belong to your family. He put me here, high in the sky, and I've been here since."

  Compared to before, Von Soule was a tad warmer. Mona was grateful he could converse with someone at last, but he didn't forget what happened earlier.

  "One day?"

  "This space is weird. One day has passed, but also countless lifetimes. There's multiple time axes here... Forget it. I'm not big on chronospatial mana theory alright? All you need to know is I've seen all of your predecessors here, one by one, with about five minutes gap in between."

  The dot seemed to tremble slightly.

  "It was five minutes, right? I'm going to count, tell me if I'm off. One, two, three...."

  And Von Soule started to count, just like that. Mona ignored him, his mind thinking back to the idea of a soul meeting all of his ancestors. It was a dizzying thought. He stepped in place, thinking his forefathers once came here too. It made him proud, and he stood a bit taller.

  "Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty! How was that, Aurum kid?"

  The dot asked back.

  "Good. Good."

  Mona didn't give a serious answer. He was a tad sympathetic with Von Soule hearing he was trapped, but his grouchiness from before when they first interacted wasn't something he just forgot.

  "Were you the one coughing earlier?"

  "Do you see anything else here?"

  Von Soule cheerily replied, like a teacher guiding a kid to explore a map. The sarcasm was out in the open, and Mona frowned.

  "So, tell me, what hit me?"

  "Do you have to ask? I just used some of my mana control. Maybe pay attention when someone is present."

  The voice Von Soule responded in a chipper tone, ignoring the glare growing in Mona's eyes.

  "Now, now. Calm down. All I did is whack you a little. This multitemporal plane can't cause you any pain. I doubt your ancestor would let the place bring any harm to one of his descendents."

  "I can see why you're here."

  Mona didn't bother to hide the bitterness in his voice. Pain would be one thing, but after the last few chase sequences, he wasn't fond of unexpected face planting. He tried to return a few barbs back to the dot, but it seemed unfazed.

  "...Anyway, you being here means you have successfully passed the gauntlet set before you by your ancestor. Your battles with a hundred foes was surely riveting. Now that you are here..."

  "Wait? A hundred foes? Was I supposed to fight one hundred enemies for my ascension?"

  Mona's eyes widened a little. That didn't match what he had gone through.

  "...Yes?"

  The dot at the zenith of this plane was confused. The Aurum ancestor had given some information to the spirit before it left, letting it know of what was to follow in the future. And it could clearly remember utterances about a hundred enemy battle. It wasn't much really, just waves of figures to fight it out with, starting with 1, then 2, until you had to fight what was left. Projections of simple novice to expert level apparitions with different talents to help weed out what the ascender was truly skilled at. Von Soule would see an Aurum come in, exchange the relevant information letting them know what their talents were, then watch them return to the realm of the living. After 5 or so minutes, the next generation would appear.

  For Von Soule, the process was only five or so minutes apart, but for the Aurums it was entire generations. This was a saving grace for the dot spirit, because it didn't know how it could last decades alone without going insane. Sure the Ancestor of these people trapped him here, but at least they were generous enough to warp time to minimize the wait for him. He didn't have to go stir-crazy completing this task. Sure would like to be free though.

  But this one, this young lord standing before him made him pause. Wasn't he supposed to fight a hundred spirits too? Didn't he do that?

  "Was I supposed to fight a hundred enemies?"

  "Yes, you were. You were supposed to best a hundred enemies on a meadow, walking a path led by a metal thread. Whether you passed or fell halfway, you would show up here. What did you go through?"

  Von Soule probed Mona for answers.

  "A meadow... I was in a field of statues. I couldn't move. The sky was dark, or gray. My words carried me forward on the directionals, and I was chased by a cloak. The cabin, the golem..."

  Mona looked around, double checking that the realm he currently stood in was in fact blank.

  The dot was silent for a moment, pondering over what its heard. After a moment, it spoke again.

  "Alright. I'll admit I don't know everything about the ascension process. My own was relatively lackluster. The Medivers all give different tasks to complete, but I was expecting to hear something that made sense. I've never heard of a chase by a cloak even in my day, let alone in the Aurum family.

  I don't know. Did you annoy some greater deity? I know you're pretty clueless. Maybe don't forget your offerings next time."

  Mona grit his teeth. What was this captured spirit going on about? He didn't know him, and the insults were too much to accept. He tilted his head, staring directly at the dot.

  "Oh yes, mighty peak of existence. Regale me your profound knowledge from within your infinitismal prison!"

  He gave a false bow, and scoffed at the dot.

  The message got along perfectly. He could hear the rage in the dot's voice.

  "Give your thanks to Alephi you little brat, if it wasn't for this encagement I would have stripped your soul, thread by thread, feasting on your minutes and forced you to watch."

  "Alright, just get out of the prison and I can watch you feast on my spirit."

  Mona gave an exaggerated nod, pretending to be enthused by the idea. He then cocked his head.

  "How did you get trapped anyway?"

  The space went silent for a moment. A rather long moment. Von Soule's voice came back to him, trying to clean the air.

  *Cough* *Cough* "Ahem, it doesn't matter. Anyway, let's get back to why we are here. My stories of battle can wait for another day. It is time for you to hear your talents!"

  Von Soule put on a dramatic voice. Mona thought that if the spirit wasn't squeezed into that dot hanging into the sky but still had his body, the man would make a big fluorish of a cape as he spoke. The spirit was still full of energy even in these countless years.

  "Now, let us begin the examination!"

  On queue, the hazy environment began to change. The dull grays began to adopt a golden hue. Motes of glimmer began to float in the air, as if they were always there. The dot up above began to descend, gently floating in its descent before it reached eyesight with Mona. He could see it more better now. The dot wasn't a dot, but a sphere. Barely the length of a finger in diameter, the sphere seemed to absorb all light in its color. Etched onto the surface of the sphere were countless runes, truly countless. Mona realized at closer inspection there were one, two, no more than three layers of runes atop each other. The runes gleamed of a distant past, slivery gray letters and shapes in font oh so small he could barely make out a single character. This was a work of a master, of the highest caliber. And it was fitting, he thought, only something so complex could contain the complexities of a soul. Such items in the other world were legends at best, rumors at worst.

  "Are souls dark and endless? I thought they were light and airy?"

  "Ahem, pay attention."

  Von Soule realized that Mona was looking at his cage of runes, his sore spot, and didn't want to get into explaining the finer details.

  "Aurum, you've past this grand trial of ascension to stand before me, and receive word of your talents. After passing the trial as a whole, I am glad to congratulate you, for you have... you have..."

  With his words hitting a higher pitch, the environment only glowed brighter. The motes danced in the air with the rhythm, celebrating Mona's talents. Mona went along with this feeling, waiting for Von Soule to read back to him his talent in Aura.

  "You have... have..."

  Von Soule's voice took on a weird tone. The spirit seemed to be confused? Frustrated? Uncertain? He sounded like he was reading a letter, and the final key bits were smudged by the writer into an indiscernable mess. Mona kept his hopes up however. He was ready to wake up and return to his father, the guests, and back to the place he could trust the ground would stay still.

  "I QUIT! I CAN'T TELL A THING! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR BODY??? MGHRHGH!"

  Out of no where, Von Soule started shouting about. Mona didn't know exactly what Von Soule was going through. He wasn't a spirit trapped in this place, but the words did leave their mark.

  "My body? What about it?"

  Mona took a moment to take a once over his figure. Two arms. Two legs. Purple pupils. Dark hair. A tad thin appearance. Maybe he should eat more, then he could fill out the armor better. But he felt fine. Nothing like the fall he had back in the void landscape. He looked at the armor, but it didn't have a response either. Everything was normal, or so he thought.

  Once Von Soule got done screeching in a muffled tone, he took a moment to collect itself. It was ticked off. It couldn't tell Mona what his talent was. That's why he was here. Sure, at first, he hated this prison sentence of a job, where he served as a Mediver identification spirit. But it was better than the alternative at the time, and the wait wasn't long between each participant. That ancestor of the Aurum clan was kind enough to add additional time axes to the Mediver, so at the least he didn't feel frozen in time. And if he was lucky, he could even find out what was going on in the real world. Truth was honestly he didn't remember everything that went on back then to lead to his entrapment. Age steals memories faster than the flesh.

  He really grew to like this little task. He had nothing else to do here. It was just him, the motes, and the grand blandness of the space. The occasional arrival of a youngling gave him something to do. And the last few generations of Aurum even let strangers use the device, giving him more company albeit for a short while. Who knows, maybe he could even be let out one day. The trend of these Aurum kids was really pointing in that direction. Von Soule wondered what the world was like now, eons in the future. These thoughts kept his spirits up as each child passed his "inspection."

  But now appeared the man of the hour, and he couldn't tell what was going on. In fact, he was stretching the edges of his incorporeal form but he couldn't sense a thing. Impossible. An Aurum without talents? That couldn't be. Each of his family always had talent in Metal Aura. Always. So why was the kid blank? He should've felt like he hit a metal wall when his spirit reached close to Mona's body, but instead he felt absence. Yes, absence. Like nothing was there. Like the young man in front of him was just a mirage. But that couldn't be.

  "Sigh. I can't sense your talents, Aurum. Everyone has talents in something, but you, you don't seem to have anything."

  "What?"

  Mona took a moment to digest what the spirit said.

  "I said, I can't tell what your talents are. You must have something, but I can't find it. A shame, I was really looking forward to making Metal puns this time. I thought of a few."

  Mona switched back and forth from looking at his body, then at the dot, and back at his body.

  "What do you mean I don't have any talents?"

  "You're empty. Like nothing's there. There might be something, but I can't tell. Too bad, no do overs. Have a nice trip back."

  Before Mona could get a word in, the motes in the air began to gather. They surrounded Mona, affixing themselves to his body and armor, until each bit filled the gaps. His figure coated in a golden sheen, the motes seemed to fuse as one and flashed. Once the flash passed, the motes separated and returned to the air, Mona no where to be seen.

  "How could I sense nothing? He must have talent right? And what was that about a cloak chasing him?"

  Von Soule furrowed his nonexistent brows. He didn't know what to make of this situation. After much thinking, he gave up and relaxed.

  "Not that its my problem. It's his! I should just enjoy this task while I can. Hmmm. I wonder when they will let me free. I know it won't be too long. I can feel it in my..."

  Von Soule wanted to finish what he was saying, but he was a soul now, not a person. The spirit cleared the awkward silence with a cough, and returned to the zenith of the room, waiting for the next talent to oversee. It wouldn't be too long now.

  Just five minutes.