For a trial, everything felt like a long-ass, boring walk. Miguel trudged forward through the dense forest, step after light step, not in any hurry—conserving energy was smarter than rushing headlong into whatever nonsense this nightmare had to offer. The gargantuan tree in the middle of the forest looked like it was lightyears away, yet oddly enough, it kept getting closer with every minute, clearer with every blink. It was strange. The distance between him and the tree felt infinite... but it wasn't.
Despite the suffocating atmosphere, the forest remained eerily still. Miguel could feel it—it was full of ferocious beasts, awakened predators hiding in the shadows, watching. But none of them dared to approach him. Maybe they sensed something, maybe they were just smart. Either way, Miguel wasn't complaining.
Then, faintly, he began to hear voices in the distance. Murmured, echoing—like a conversation carried by the wind. He couldn't make out what was being said, but someone—or something—was definitely up ahead.
A few minutes later, three figures emerged from behind a mossy hill. Two men and a woman. The two men wore leather armor and had bows slung across their backs, quivers full of arrows hanging at their sides. The third person—a woman—wore a sky-blue tunic and a breastplate that only covered the essentials: heart, lungs, and maybe a bit of pride.
The two archers immediately raised their bows, arrows notched and aimed straight at Miguel.
"Who are you?" one of the men demanded.
Miguel raised an eyebrow, totally unfazed. "I'm Miguel," he said casually, hands by his sides, voice flat.
The man clearly wasn't a fan of the attitude. "What do you want?"
Miguel shrugged. "Heard some noise. Thought maybe someone needed help. I'm sort of sent by a higher being, I guess. Came to give you guys a hand."
The other man scoffed. "Are you out of your mind or something?"
Miguel nodded, deadly serious. "Probably. I'm kind of an insane man too, but that's beside the point. I'm here to help. Oh, and I already told you my name, so..."
The tension was rising. Both men were seconds away from letting those arrows fly. But before they could, the woman stepped forward and raised her hand.
"Don't shoot," she said, eyes fixed on Miguel. "You said your name is Miguel? Good. My name is Aurora. The bearded man to my right is William, and the young one on my left is Auro."
Her gaze lingered on Miguel for a moment longer, evaluating him. "You say you want to help us? Fine. Here's the deal: between the three of you, your job is to escort me safely to the top of that tree."
She pointed toward the distant monolith piercing the sky.
Miguel looked at the tree, then at her, then at the two still-hostile archers. "Welp... that's better than wandering around with no damn purpose."
A few minutes passed. The awkward silence of new allies hung heavy in the air. Eventually, Aurora broke it, explaining the situation while they walked beneath the ever-darkening canopy.
Aurora, apparently, was some sort of princess—though Miguel couldn't have cared less about titles. Her kingdom worshipped the goddess of war. Problem was, so did the enemy kingdom. Yeah, go figure. Same goddess, two sides, endless conflict. Classic divine irony, these gods are a joke.
Auro and William were hunters from her homeland, tasked with escorting her to the top of the massive tree. There, she was meant to meet with a priest of the goddess of the storm. If the priest deemed her worthy, the storm goddess would grant her a blessing powerful enough to sink this entire forest into a deep, oceanic abyss—cutting off the enemy's access and dooming any plans of invasion.
After hearing all of that, Miguel furrowed his brow.
"I got a question, Princess Aurora."
"Go ahead, please," she said politely.
Miguel squinted at her, then at the tree, then back at her again. "It's pretty simple. After this place gets turned into Atlantis 2.0, how exactly do you plan on escaping?"
Aurora smiled. Just a little. A sly, knowing smirk.
"We don't," she said.
Miguel stopped walking for a moment. He facepalmed so hard it echoed. "So be it," he sighed. "I won't argue further."
Auro glanced sideways at him. "You're real calm for someone who knows he's heading toward certain death."
Miguel didn't even blink. "I got nothing to live for, nor to die for. So I got nothing to lose."
The conversation died there. The sky was starting to dim. William looked up and muttered, "We'll camp here. I'll take first watch."
Miguel nodded and sat on the nearest rock. The grass beneath his boots shimmered faintly in the moonlight. He looked up at the stars for a second, then summoned the memory: Killing Spree. The odachi materialized in his hand, dark steel catching the light like a predator's grin. He slid it smoothly into its sheath and fastened it to his waist.
"You're a strange person, you know that?" Auro said quietly, staring into the fire. "You just... show up out of nowhere, try to help people you've never met—like it's nothing. Even when your life's on the line. People don't do that."
Miguel sat a few feet away, leaning back against a smooth stone, hands behind his head. He followed the trail of smoke curling into the dark canopy before responding.
"No," he said, almost absently, "people usually don't."
He shifted his gaze toward Auro—not cold, not sharp. Just... direct. Honest."But you and I both know that doesn't mean they shouldn't."
Auro blinked but didn't answer right away.
Miguel let the moment sit before continuing, voice low and steady.
"You act like what I'm doing is strange. But I've seen the way you move when something's about to go wrong. How you glance at people's backs when they're not looking. You probably are one of the person that my friend would hate the most."
The silence that followed was Tense. a dangerous gleam formed on Miguel's eyes
Auro gulped "Why?"
Miguel chuckled lowly "Because there is nothing more pathetic than a slave trusting his enslaver."
Auro looked away, face unreadable in the firelight.
Auro didn't reply. Not right away.
The fire crackled between them, casting shifting shadows on their faces. Overhead, clouds crept into the night sky, slow and silent, dimming the light of the stars.
After a while, Miguel exhaled, laying back more comfortably against the rock.
"You don't have to force a conversation, Auro," he said, more gently now. "I'm not here to judge you, I'm here to achieve something that you can't comprehend."
Auro's mouth tightened, as if he had more to say, but he swallowed it.
He lay down quietly, staring up at the gray ceiling of clouds above.
The forest whispered.
The fire hissed.
The trial wasn't over. Far from it.
And neither of them said another word.