Chapter Five: The First Trial

Dawn arrived shrouded in mist, the capital’s golden towers cloaked in pale silence. But within the Trial Grounds, the stillness shattered.

The gates creaked open, revealing a vast coliseum carved from black stone. Thousands gathered in the stands nobles, scholars, mercenaries, and mystics all drawn by the promise of blood and legend. Banners of the Ten Houses fluttered in the wind, each one representing a pillar of the Empire: House Tatsuno of Dragon Blades, House Yurei of Shadows, House Kazenari of Wind Dancers, and others.

Kaede and Ren stepped into the arena alongside the other contenders, each clad in ceremonial armor laced with their clan’s crest. Their eyes scanned the competition not as enemies, but as threats.

At the center of the arena stood a monolithic obsidian platform. Lord Kanzuro descended a staircase carved into it, flanked by guards in white and crimson.

He raised a hand.

“The First Trial begins now.”

A deafening boom echoed.

From the shadows, ten colossal gates opened each releasing a creature forged from nightmare and legend. A twin-headed tiger wreathed in fire. A skeletal serpent with wings of bone. A howling wind-wraith that melted into air and reappeared behind its prey.

The crowd erupted. The first trial was not a duel.

It was survival.

“Separate and kill your assigned beast,” Kanzuro announced. “Or be devoured before the second trial ever comes.”

A roar shook the arena. The stone beneath Kaede’s feet cracked as her beast emerged a massive, obsidian boar with molten tusks and eyes like dying stars. It charged without hesitation, sending splinters of ground flying.

Kaede leapt to the side, drawing her katana in a flash of steel. She didn’t have time to think. Only move.

Across the battlefield, Ren was already mid-air, slashing across the back of his own opponent a leviathan lizard cloaked in hardened scales. He struck fast, precise but it shrugged off the blow and countered with a tail whip that shattered the wall behind him.

Kaede rolled under the boar’s next charge, slashing upward. Her blade struck its underbelly but instead of cutting, it sparked against enchanted hide.

“No weakness... unless” Her eyes darted to its glowing tusks.

The source of its heat. Its power.

She sheathed her sword.

The crowd gasped.

Kaede took a deep breath, centering herself. Then she ran toward the beast.

The boar bellowed and lunged again but at the last second, Kaede slid beneath its body and unleashed a blindingly fast iai slash a single cut drawn from the scabbard and completed in an instant directly at the base of its tusk.

A shattering crack rang out. The tusk split, releasing a burst of molten steam.

The boar screamed and collapsed.

Cheers exploded across the coliseum.

Kaede rose slowly, blade dripping with glowing ichor.

Across the battlefield, Ren rammed his sword into a crack he had made in the leviathan’s jaw, twisting hard until the creature convulsed and stilled.

The twins turned to each other bloodied, exhausted, but alive.

But before the applause faded, Lord Kanzuro raised his hand again.

“Five have fallen. Five remain. But the Trial is not over.”

The arena floor groaned.

And then it split open.

From the chasm below rose a black-robed figure, face hidden, holding two curved blades etched with crimson runes.

He pointed at Kaede and Ren.

“The final task of the First Trial,” Kanzuro announced, his voice cold. “One twin must defeat this champion alone. The other is forbidden to interfere.”

Kaede stepped forward.

But Ren moved faster.

“I’ll go.”

Kaede’s eyes widened. “Ren”

“If we’re going to survive, we’ll have to show them that neither of us is expendable,” he said quietly. “I’ll win. I have to.”

And as he stepped into the circle, the crowd fell silent.

The shadow champion’s blades glowed brighter.

The true test had begun.