Seph stepped through the portal with Sun on his shoulders.

  He found himself in something that resembled a deserted, debilitated temple.

  There were walls that looked to be made of sandstone or something.

  The roof was falling apart, many pieces of the roof had fallen on the ground.

  Smashing the mosaic floor and littering the floor with many huge chunks of stone.

  In the middle, Seph recognized the emaciated form of Scorn, all four swords still sticking out of his body, each held by a chain that was sticking out of a column of mysterious metal with runes carved all over pillars and the chains.

  Seph couldn’t see it, but there was a protective seal around Scorn. Yes, he was still alive, but Seph wouldn’t try to save him. Scorn’s soul sliver had specifically warned him not to.

  Seph was alone with Sun. If the soul sliver had followed it would have gotten sealed as well, and Seph would have had lost his only way back.

  Off to the side, leaning on the right wall, was his query.

  A coffin made of bones. Lilith was supposed to be inside of it.

  The cover of the coffin was like glass. He could see her from the outside. According to Scorn, that’s because of the fading seal.

  She was a pretty girl of eighteen years of age, maybe twenty. He wasn’t sure.

  Her body was covered in armor that was made of scales. He didn’t know what type of scales exactly.

  The chest armor was shoulder-less, stopping right under her armpits.

  The pants were way less thick than the chest armor. They hugged her legs tightly, but were made of the same scales, and her feet were bare.

  Above her head was some kind of hat made of bones or something. Seph wasn’t really sure.

  She had very delicate features, and such a sweet, kind, sleeping face.

  Seph felt his heart skip a beat once he saw her face up close.

  He wasn’t sure how to convince her to come back to life, but something changed. Now he really wanted her to give life a second chance.

  She wasn’t the first woman he saw during these trials. She wasn’t the first girl around his age, either. Why did he feel so different about her without even talking to her?

  He shook his head out of these thoughts.

  Sun looked at the surrounding temple; sand from the desert covered the surrounding area.

  It was crazy that the desert didn’t claim the entire temple, as it usually does with age. Maybe there was some kind of protection against that in place.

  Seph walked up close to the coffin and held his hand against the transparent glass cover, which was a special type of bones that got eaten away by the years.

  Seph wondered if the Skeleton Lord was the one who made it.

  He began speaking, “Hello Lilith. You don’t know me. I know some things about you. So, I’ll introduce myself, so that we’ll be on equal grounds. My name is Seph. I was a challenger in a legacy trial made by your father, Scorn, and I won the trials. I saw his story, and learned what happened to him, and to you. Your father… He asked me to convince you to give life another chance. The seal holding you is very weak. You can break out if that’s what you want, but you have to want to. Nobody else can make this decision but you.”

  Seph stopped for a second and thought, What happens if the seal breaks anyway after years? Will she be forced awake? And can she head back to civilization from here?

  Seph looked at the sky and noticed a very different scene than what he sees in the sky of his own planet.

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  Are they imprisoned on a different planet entirely? How is this even possible? Seph thought, his mind was completely blown away, realizing that he was probably on a different planet right now.

  “Uh, sorry. My mind got side tracked there for a minute. It was very brutal what happened to your family. I have a mother too, you know? She is the reason I am even here. She got really sick, you see, and I went to bring her a healing herb and ended up as a collateral casualty in the war between the cultivators and their Yin counterpart. I then got an offer to join this trial where I would find the healing herb for my mom and gain a lot of power. Without losing much time because time inside the trial is compressed. Issue is, I feel the time compressing aspect of the trial doesn’t work in this place. So, I probably don’t have a lot of time to convince you to go back with me. But I won’t leave without you.” Seph sighed heavily.

  He looked around him some more before saying, “You know, the only reason that I want to be alive is to save her. So, I am really the worst person your father could have sent for this task. I had big dreams. I wanted to be a scholar, and I worked so hard as a water carrier to achieve this dream, but after my death, all my dreams came crashing down.”

  Seph sighed, then said. “I can’t assume, but that’s how you probably felt when your parents died. Your dreams included them and when they were killed, you didn’t know how you could go on anymore.”

  Seph looked at Scorn before saying, “The issue is that it tore your father. It broke his heart. Can you imagine a dead man hanging between life and death with a thread, and he still cares so much for his daughter?”

  Lilith’s lips trembled after hearing that and Seph noticed, but he thought maybe it’s his mind playing tricks on him.

  “Sun, did you see that?”

  Sun looked at him, confused.

  “Her face, buddy. Did you see her lips move?”

  Sun raised his shoulders, implying he didn’t know, and pointed elsewhere to tell him he wasn’t paying attention.

  Seph thought, Did she react because her father felt bad that she gave her life away with his? Or is this the first time she learned of his condition and that he is still alive?

  “I might not be big on life, but guess what? I want to live and cure my mother, and sell the gold nuggets I mined early in the trial and give her the coins to live a better life and not have to work again.” Seph smiled faintly before continuing, “I also want to make friends. I never had friends, you know?”

  Lilith’s eyelid twitched, and Seph didn’t have to ask Sun this time, because the monkey went bananas. He started screeching, and pointing at the sleeping girl.

  “You saw it too? Amazing, there is hope she listens to me, Sun!”

  After both highly excitable youths calmed down, Seph continued speaking, “I think I saw your face twitch twice so far. I am not sure how much of this you hear. So, I am very sorry if you heard the commotion me and Sun made. He is my first friend. Not of the human kind, though. Sun is a monkey.”

  Sun screeched at him.

  “A very smart monkey!” Sun screeched some more.

  “And a handsome monkey!” That seemed to have placated Sun. “Damn, he seems satisfied now. So, where was I? I want to be friends with some of the trial takers. I also would love to be your friend if you decide to come back with me. You know a lot about me already. More than I know about you now. So we aren’t equal anymore. Scorn feels horrible that you gave your life away with him. He couldn’t do anything about it then. And who knows, maybe it was for the best. Those traitorous officers of his would have probably hunted you down regardless, but we don’t even know where they are now. If they are alive or dead. Even if they were alive, they probably forgot about you.”

  The scales of Lilith’s armor moved aggressively all over her body, snapping on top of each other, before they stopped moving entirely again.

  Seph was very surprised he got away from the coffin, but once things settled down, he approached her again.

  “Fuck, your armor moved. You scared the hell out of me! Anyway, being alive means having a world of possibilities. You could make a new family of friends, or you could find love, or grow stronger and avenge your father if you are careful enough. I am not sure if he would appreciate me putting thoughts of revenge in your head. The first thing that will happen is you will see his picture in all his glory in the soul sliver. You could talk to him. Ask him for guidance? Or maybe tell him you love him?”

  A tear dropped from Lilith’s eyes.

  Seph stopped for a second. “I am sorry. I know when you made this decision, you probably thought that you were done with life. That you wouldn’t go through these emotions again. That you wouldn’t talk with any person again. Only to find this guy you don’t even know, come and tell you to give it one more chance. To talk with your father one last time, citing all the possibilities that could happen if you give it another go,” Seph sighed heavily before continuing. “But truly all I want to say is, it’s worth it, and your father will be so happy to learn that he didn’t cause your death, that you ended up living a full life. Who knows, maybe we can create something that even he and his army wouldn’t have been able to create. If you stick with me or if you go on your own way, it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is that you will end up with a world of possibilities and if it all goes south, you could just search for me and kick my ass or something.”

  Lilith smiled and opened her eyes slowly. She had the most beautiful green eyes Seph had ever seen. They were sharp, like the eyes of predators, but she was just waking up groggily, so he didn’t even see how sharp they really were yet.

  The thing above her head that looked like a hat made of bones also opened its eyes.

  It was a bone dragon, completely white, tiny, a little bigger than the size of her head, its two wings were tucked behind its back, and it had baby blue eyes that looked really pretty in contrast with its very terrifying skeletal body.

  The bone dragon made a cute roar and coughed up a lot of ash that blackened its face. It opened its eyes wide from the surprise accident and then shook its head repeatedly to clean its face.