A/N: Wow. 2 weeks ago I was saying thanks for 100 reads, and now I'm at 600. Thank all of you for your support, I couldn't do this without your reads and feedback.

Last chapter, Seric and Karia were traveling to an unknown location and Karia explained her blessing, "Carry Me On" to Seric and the origin of her Spirit Of Kodan. They now see their next destination in the far distance which Karia calls "The First Trial".

Seric's P.O.V

"Would that "Trial" happen to be one of the ones you were talking about back at Vegahold?" I ask.

"Oh yeah, I didn't explain what the trials are yet did I. Oops." She responds innocently.

"It's alright, I should have asked you earlier anyways. Can you explain the general idea right now?"

"There should be just enough time to. Oh wait, I almost forgot about our new clothes". Karia interrupts herself as she takes my pair of clothes off of a metal counter and hands them to me.

"I'll be in the washroom changing, you can just change out here. I know it's tempting but you better not peak." She laughs as she walks down into the lower part of the boat.

"Well I mean, I guess there's no other boats out here. But still though..." I think to myself as I take one last look around and quickly start to get changed into my new set of clothes in broad daylight.

I go to the mirror next to me which is a screen a bit bigger and wider than me. I'm pretty impressed as the screen allows you to view yourself in it with a high-tech camera. Also with the benefits of being able to zoom in and out, taking full scale pictures of yourself.

The clothes Karia got me was first a navy blue t-shirt which has the name "Tirion" imprinted on the front in big capital white letters with a thumbs up underneath it.

The rest were were flexible black jeans, black socks and navy blue running shoes.

I'm happy with them considering she got them from a passerby Bazaar.

"Hey, I'm coming up now. I hope you're done". Karia says after a few minutes emerging from the washroom.

Her clothes look similar to mine being a simple purple t-shirt with 3 horizontal rows of black diamond patterns across the front. Also with a pair of navy-blue jeans, simple white socks and running shoes.

"Looks like I picked out the right clothes for you." Karia complements me and herself.

"You're looking good as well. Thanks for buying them by the way."

I respond with a slight blush on my face, as Karia's "features" were quite noticeable through these thinner clothes.

"No problem. Anyways I don't know about the other four territories, but in the Hopian area at least there's a total of six of these trials. The trials are small cave entrances that no one has ever been able to enter because of some stupid doors that aren't even locked."

"Well what's the catch?"

"While the doors aren't locked, anyone who's ever tried to open any of them were instantly killed when they touched it." Karia says semi darkly.

The mood around us instantly changes, "Seriously? Why don't they just open it indirectly then or destroy it, and how is that even possible?"

"People have tried opening it using tools and even using dead bodies, but none of it worked so to this day it's accepted that only a living human that touches the door can open it. Hopian has tried everything in the books to destroy it but nothing even scratched it. About how it's possible for the deaths, you may find this creepy, but no one knows how it happens but every person who touched the door was found to have all of their insides gone without a trace, like a coat made of skin." Karia says far too lightly

I then mentally gag, "Oh god... and now you want me to do that?!"

"Hey calm down, you'll be fine. Probably."

I then calm down a bit, and shakily respond, "Probably?"

"Yeah. The reason why we're doing this in the first place is because of that old lady Bersia who I made a Carry Me On agreement with. She told me to find a young black-haired boy in Vegahold and to complete the trials. In case you couldn't tell she's how I used Escape Route back at Vegahold."

"How am I special though?"

"I don't know. It could be because of your blessing or something else completely. Though I'm sure you're the one she was talking about though since I haven't ever seen any other kids in prison for a life sentence."

"What about what we're supposed to do in the trials?" I ask as we reach the shore of the miniscule island.

"No clue. I doubt Bersia would have given me specific instructions to find you and complete them if she was lying and wanted us dead, so it's probably fine." Karia says as she hops off the boat onto the island.

"Well I guess you have a point there."

I say as I reluctantly and clumsily get off the boat as well and walk ashore. Looking ahead, I can now clearly see the trail.

Like Karia said it's a small cave entrance similar to a bunker made of rough black rock blocked off by a brown wooden door. This is a surprise based on the other technologically I saw beforehand.

"So this is it... I can't believe this thing has taken lives before." I say in both fear and awe next to the trial door.

"Yeah, you can never judge a book by its cover. Are you ready?"

"Wait. Even though we don't know what's in the trail, we should still have a general plan for how we're gonna go through it, right?"

"Hmm... I know. Stay on my back and don't die."

"You must of been quite the strategist as a soldier huh."

I say being slightly angered at her little to no regard for either of our lives and to lighten the mood.

"Like you've got anything better smart-ass. Just open the door." Karia responds with a slight grin on her face.

"Alright, here goes nothing." I say exhaling as I reach my hand out to the white door handle.

"Come on, I can do this. My blessing let me regenerate a stab wound, so I'm pretty sure I can handle a puny inside-destroying door." I think to myself as I hold my hand above the handle.

*** 5 minutes later ***

I'm still waiting and to my surprise Karia doesn't say a word.

"This is getting stupid. On the count of three. Three! Two! One!"

I think to pump myself up but my hand still isn't touching the handle. "Alright, alright that was just some uh, practice."

"For real this time. Three Two One!!"

...

The door is still untouched.

I then close my eyes and take a deep breath.

"Three... Two... One..." I close my eyes and quickly grab the handle, preparing for the worst.

"See, I told you." Karia says happily while walking up to me.

"Nice job though. Be proud that you had the guts to do that. Although I was kinda hoping for a new coat..."

I take a sigh of relief and laugh, "I'm sorry to disappoint. Anyways now to get this thing open."

I say more confident in myself after Karia's complement.

Her good one I mean.

I then fully open the old wooden door, only to be met with pitch black darkness inside the cave.

"Well, you ready Seric?"

"Can't I just wait out here?" I reply nervously.

Karia then kneels down and I sigh as I hop on her back.

We begin to walk (well she) into the dark unknown of the trial unhesitatingly. The door slams shut behind us, causing the whole room to violently shake and scare the crap out of me (oh wait).

"What, scared of a little noise?"

Karia says cockily grinning as she pulls out a flashlight from her pocket, and with a click illuminating the room.

The room is actually an enclosed gray stone hallway that looks worn down with smooth cracked walls.

There's also rather detailed engraved murals on the ceiling of the hallway which were abstract art of people with strange proportions.

An empty doorway was at the end of the hallway leading to nothing but more darkness.

I then say before we go any further, "I'm guessing we have to go to that entrance, but it's too easy. There's probably traps here."

"Oh, I guess you could be right." She agrees.

I still wonder how someone so careless could have so much power.

"Spirit of Bersia: Hide of Aegis."

Karia says as she gracefully pulls out a translucent purple cloak made of ghostly hide from thin air, slowly turning 360° and wrapping it completely around us.

Unlike her Spirit of Kodan, this time her blessing stays active and visible around us.

"Your blessing really is overpowered." I say.

"Hehe, damn straight. In this case the cloak will protect us from most normal weapons like bullets from all sides, but if something comes from above or below we're screwed. Also it can't tank very many hits or it'll break, but it should work easily against some traps." Karia responds with pride

"Should isn't the most encouraging word right now..." I think to myself with my courage from before gone almost entirely.

A/N: So it begins! But are Seric and Karia really ready for what lies inside, with no idea what to expect?

Be sure to consider voting or commenting if you enjoyed, and see you next Friday!