The four anomalies, Evelyn, Caesar, Rose, and Tharion stood together with Levianthe towering behind them like a living mountain of black scales. Vale, standing slightly apart, watched them closely. Now that he had seen more of this world and its strange powers, his curiosity burned hotter than ever.
He closed his eyes and reached inward, focusing on that quiet sense he'd been testing since he awoke in this world. A perception, instinctive, yet deliberate, that allowed him to feel the signature of another's energy.
As he tuned into the sensation, the differences emerged.
Evelyn's energy felt like a cool shadow: dark but calm, almost comforting in its weight.
Caesar's was enigmatic, twisting and swirling with currents he couldn't place, mysterious and unpredictable.
Rose's aura felt natural, like gentle wind through trees, steady and warm.
Tharion's presence was soft, gentle in a way that surprised him, like a flickering candle someone was shielding from the wind.
And Levianthe…
Her energy was enormous. Not vast in quantity, but in weight like each mote of her existence carried the pressure of the ocean depths.
Vale's brows furrowed as he concentrated harder, trying to piece together what these energies meant.
Tharion noticed immediately.
The black-haired, tired-eyed man tilted his head slightly and asked,
"Are you using a perception-based ability?"
Vale blinked in surprise, pulled from his focus.
He hadn't thought his concentration would be so obvious.
"Yeah… something like that," he admitted. "How did you know?"
Rather than answering, Tharion glanced at Caesar.
"Hey, can I reach into your eye for a second?"
Caesar grimaced as though the question was painfully familiar.
"Well… it never feels great, but sure. If you really have no other choice."
Tharion lifted a hand toward Caesar's face while speaking to Vale again, voice soft and slow.
"We all need to focus to activate our abilities. You had that same zoned-out look we all get, so I assumed you were using one."
His fingers neared Caesar's eye
and space rippled.
A bright, shimmering hole appeared in the air before Caesar's face, no larger than a dinner plate. It warped the world around it, shifting colors and reflections like molten glass being stirred.
Vale's breath caught.
Tharion's hand slipped smoothly into the tear as though dipping his fingers into water.
"What is that?" Vale whispered.
Tharion answered without looking away from the rift.
"Oh, this? One of my abilities." He yawned lightly. "I can store equipment inside reflections. But to retrieve something, I need another reflective surface."
Vale's mind ran through it quickly, eyes reflected light too. So a reflection in someone's iris counted. The logic clicked neatly into place.
After a moment, Tharion withdrew his arm from the shifting tear, and in his hand was a strange black glove. Unremarkable at first glance, yet deeply unsettling in a way Vale couldn't describe.
Tharion slipped it onto his hand with practiced ease.
Everyone except Vale seemed to tense with anticipation.
He turned to Vale.
"Well then," he murmured, walking closer, "are you ready?"
Vale swallowed, unsure but trusting these people more than anything else in this unfamiliar world.
He nodded and knelt on the soft sand.
Tharion placed the gloved hand gently on Vale's forehead.
The tired man's eyes fluttered closed, and the air stirred faintly.
Vale closed his own eyes, focusing inward.
Instantly he felt it.
A presence, soft and warm, unmistakably Tharion had entered him. Not invasive, not painful. More like a small ember drifting through his soul, searching with impossible delicacy.
He followed it instinctively.
The ember moved through him, drifting with purpose…
…until it stopped.
It hovered motionless for several seconds, burning silently.
And then,
It vanished.
The presence winked out like a candle crushed by darkness.
Vale felt Tharion pull his hand away, and he opened his eyes,
but Tharion wasn't merely removing his hand.
His entire arm shattered.
Like a mirror struck by a hammer, his limb fractured into dozens of floating shards of black-glass light. Tharion staggered, shock ripping through his once-sleepy expression.
Vale lunged forward, catching him by his remaining arm.
"Are you okay?!"
The others rushed in immediately.
Evelyn's voice was low, grim.
"So… it's a strong one?"
Tharion didn't answer at first, still staring at the broken pieces of his arm floating around him like orbiting fragments of a star.
At last he breathed out, voice trembling slightly.
"I… don't know."
He swallowed hard.
"It didn't allow me to remember."
Rose, Caesar and Evelyn each froze with a sharp intake of breath. Even Levianthe lowered her massive head, eyes narrowing. Shock rippled through all of them.
Vale stared at their faces, then down at Tharion's shattered arm, utterly lost.
Tharion gathered himself, exhaling as though pushing the tremor out of his body.
Slowly, the shards around him began to rise.
Higher and higher, each fragment rotating as though drawn by invisible threads, until they aligned themselves at his shoulder.
With a soft, crystalline sound, they fused back into a solid limb.
Vale's eyes widened in disbelief.
When Tharion flexed his fingers, the arm looked as perfect and seamless as before.
Vale hesitated, then finally asked the only question he could form:
"…Was your arm supposed to break?"
Tharion stared at him a moment, exhaustion creeping back into his features.
And then he smiled, thin, tired, and not entirely reassuring.
"It wasn't," Tharion admitted calmly. "Not really. Only the glove I brought was supposed to break. However… the enigma overseeing your plane seems to be especially powerful, and bad-tempered." A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as the last shards of his arm slotted back into place, glass becoming flesh once more.
Vale's expression grew complicated. "Then… what did you do?" he asked, unable to keep the confusion from his voice.
Tharion rose to his feet with the casualness of someone brushing dust off his pants rather than recovering from having his arm shattered by cosmic backlash. When he spoke, he did so in the same offhand tone, giving Vale the impression that these people had seen and survived far stranger phenomena.
"One of my many abilities allows me to peer into people's planes and observe how their connection to the world works," he explained. "Part of that process involves meeting the plane's enigma and politely convincing it to let me leave unharmed. Usually, if something goes wrong, the glove shatters." He lifted his newly restored arm, flexing the fingers. "Not my entire limb."
He paused, his tired eyes narrowing with interest.
"However, your enigma bypassed that ability entirely. And if I had to guess…" His voice lowered, tinged with something between awe and unease. "It probably did so effortlessly."
Vale needed a moment to process that. He didn't yet understand what planes or enigmas were, but he could guess they were something like, guardians? Gatekeepers? Entities tied to the deepest layers of a person's being? As he opened his mouth to ask more questions,
Rose cut in before he could speak.
"Well," she said, lightly clapping her hands together, "we can do more research later. Vale, for now we'd like to explain the real reason we brought you here."
Vale blinked and tilted his head. "The real reason? Wait, hold on, can't I at least learn what you all know before we suddenly switch topics?"
Rose sighed softly, though her eyes remained gentle. "I'd _love_ to explain everything, but there are too many unknown variables. Most of what you need to know will be taught during your lessons with Eve."
She glanced at Evelyn, who simply gave a tiny nod.
"As for the real reason," Rose continued, her smile brightening, "it's simple. We brought you here to conduct a test of sorts."
"A… test?" Vale repeated, shoulders sagging.
"Yes!" she chimed. "To be specific, a combat-oriented test. We want to see your current level of skill."
She pointed at Caesar with an almost theatrical flourish.
"Originally, Evelyn was supposed to be your opponent. But Caesar is a far better match for your development, so you two will be having a little sparring session."
Vale turned to Caesar, who wore the exact expression of someone who had just been volunteered against his will. He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Hey, kid," he said, forcing a crooked smile, "I didn't plan on fighting you either, if that makes you feel any better."
Vale exhaled through his nose. "Let's just get this over with."
He walked a short distance away, boots sinking slightly into the pale sand with each step. The ground felt cool beneath him, each grain shifting around his soles. He didn't pay it much mind, his focus was on preparing himself, steadying his breath, gathering his thoughts.
But then,
A sensation sliced into his awareness.
A sudden, vicious intent surged behind him, like a predator lunging from the blind spot of his soul. Instinct overtook thought. Vale spun and kicked with everything he had.
His heel struck something solid.
Caesar.
The older man shot back a few meters, sliding across the sand and landing with a grunt. A thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his lip. He wiped it off casually, meeting Vale's astonished look with a small, satisfied smirk.
Lesson learned.
Never let your guard down.
The realization settled naturally into Vale's mind.
"Sorry about the cheap shot," Caesar said as he pushed himself upright, rolling his shoulders loose. "So, shall we get started for real?"
He dropped into a combat stance, relaxed but sharp, the air around him shifting with a subtle pressure that hinted at the power he kept restrained.
Vale inhaled deeply, then lowered his own stance, muscles tensing as anticipation filled his veins. This was it, the first real step into whatever strange world he had been dragged into.
He locked eyes with Caesar, curiosity igniting inside him.
"Yeah," Vale said quietly. "Let's begin."