Julius opened his eyes to see himself sitting in a chair in what looked like a classroom from his memories.
A frown reached him as he looked outside, the entire place was quiet. The last thing he remembered was walking into a door.
"Don't even think about standing up. You're not in your world anymore, and you shouldn't speak as well." A thick, unholy voice reached his ears, and he looked around and he couldn't see anything.
Julius frowned as he heard this voice and then he gently nodded.
"Good. You are currently in the void, in this place, you'll be sent forward depending on the story you end up with."
"Each person here is in a state of slumber of some sorts, they are all undergoing their trials." The voice seemed to sound flat and bored as it explained.
Julius kept nodding at the figure.
"Rules in this place, don't talk, don't ask any of the people here anything, they're not humans, and you don't want them to know you are."
Julius nodded as he heard that information.
This sounded a bit too creepy to him.
He had never heard of a warden facing something like this in one of their trials. Normally a person is thrown into an illusionary world where they would have to fulfil a specific condition to inherit abilities.
But now he was in someplace known as the void. He felt a chill down his spine as he looked around again and he still couldn't see the person talking to him.
A cold breeze suddenly washed passed him and he swallowed as he kept quiet, waiting for what was next.
"It seems that your affinity with divinity is quite high." the voice came again, this time, he heard the sound of someone snapping a finger.
Julius heard a clicking sound in front of him. Looking forward he saw a large wheel with sections which had words on them.
"Now we spin the wheel of destiny. Let's see what your story is." The voice came again, and Julius could swear that he heard a chuckle along with that voice.
The wheel suddenly spun on its own and Julius frowned as he gazed at the wheel with a stern look.
'The wheel of destiny is just a myth on earth. A wheel which seems to be made of pure gold and can reveal someone's future path. In this case, it decides the story that the challengers would face.'
This system was indeed brutal. No one had a choice whether they would want to challenge a story or not. Living as a normal citizen for as long as he could remember, he never thought of being one of those chosen to challenge a story.
Of course, it seems all white and no black, in fact, it was completely black...
...because only 29% of people managed to survive the trials.
This was another factor that caused humans to remain on one continent till today. Because there weren't many humans to begin with.
Julius had read a lot about these trials from the newspapers. Each trial was practically a nightmare, and people had faced the so called impossible.
Julius wasn't going to complain about anything, whether he survives or not would be up to him. He just needs to be patient and wait for his trial to be decided.
The wheel spun for several minutes before finally coming to an end on a fairly small space. On it read:
[Path of the clown]
*GRRRR...! *
The building they were in suddenly shook and a loud voice came from behind him.
"So, you're the one we've been looking for."
Julius' face fell and hit the table as he felt a heavy pressure from behind him. He heard footsteps coming towards him, each one making the building tremble.
Julius' intuitions were telling at him to turn and take a look at the being behind him which was most likely a god. His instincts on the other hand were screaming at him to close his eyes as he would regret looking back right now, he feared going mad.
"Why are you stopping me?" The voice came again and this time he heard... fear from its voice.
This godly being was scared... by what?
"As long as this is my domain, you don't dare act without my permission." A melodic, feminine voice came from... all around him.
Julius still had his eyes close the entire time and then the pressure vanished and the chills he got vanished too, at the same time.
He immediately sat up, still keeping his head down and looking at the desk.
He didn't forget that he wasn't allowed to talk while being in this place. At the same time countless thoughts flashed around his head.
Were the two people who spoke now gods?
He just listened to beings in charge of granting humanity with great powers through stories, no one had ever spoken about it in his world.
'Or maybe they never lived to tell the tale.' He swallowed and remained there.
"I'm sorry for the delay, you would now be sent into your trial, Quinn." The same feminine voice from before reached his ears.
Now that he heard it clearly, the voice sounded like a musical instrument rather than a voice, it was soothing and pleasing to hear.
"For the inconvenience, I would allow you to ask any question of your choosing." The voice said to him and he frowned, still having his head down.
"Are you both... gods?" this particular question plagued his mind ever since he heard the man's voice.
"Hahahaha..."
A blush found its way to Julius' cheeks as he heard the melodic laughter. He couldn't help but feel it in his soul.
"Mortal, do you know what a god is?" The woman asked with a pleasant tone and he shook his head.
"I and the other are both immortals. A mortal hearing a god's voice, your head would have exploded into a bloody mess by now."
Julius felt a chill run down his spine as he heard that and a sharp pain began to press upon his mind.
"Hearing the voice of immortals is almost impossible for mortals, so I'm surprised that you haven't showed signs of feeling pain... oh, there it is."
The lady was right as Julius was feeling as if his head was about to explode just from listening to the woman.
"You won't remember what happened here, but I hope you don't die along the way, Quinn."
As Julius' consciousness faded away, he couldn't help but wonder why the woman kept calling him that name...
Quinn.