The cave greeted me with silence.
Not the empty kind—the kind that pressed inward, thick and deliberate, as if the air itself was waiting for me to make the first mistake. I stood still for a moment, boots planted against cold stone, letting my breathing settle into something slow and controlled.
Trials liked hesitation.
I didn't give it the satisfaction.
Light bled in from nowhere and everywhere at once, dim and colorless, illuminating a space far larger than it should have been. The cavern stretched upward into darkness, its ceiling lost beyond sight, its walls uneven and scarred as though something massive had once tried to claw its way out.
I felt my mana immediately.
Whole.
Unrestricted.
Coiled tight in my core, eager and volatile, like it always was.
Good.
That told me everything I needed to know.
This wasn't about limitation.
This was about confrontation.
