The world reshaped itself around him once more. 

 

Light collapsed inward, folding like a curtain being drawn, and for a heartbeat the boy felt weightless—neither falling nor standing, neither moving nor still. Then gravity returned all at once. Solid ground met the soles of his feet, and the air rushed into his lungs with the dry, mineral taste of dust and stone. 

 

He staggered, catching himself before he could fall flat on his face. 

“Okay… okay, yeah, I’m up,” he muttered, rubbing his nose as if the world might have punched him there on purpose. 

 

The air was different here. Heavy. Old. It carried the smell of rock baked by centuries of sun and pressure, of soil that had not been disturbed in ages. When he finally lifted his head, his breath caught. 

 

A canyon. 

 

Not just a crack in the land, but a colossal wound carved straight through the world. Walls of stone towered on either side, layered in jagged strata like the exposed bones of the planet itself. The rock faces were uneven and brutal, shaped by time, erosion, and forces far beyond anything human. At the canyon’s center yawned a massive fissure, splitting the ground open as though the earth itself had been torn apart. 

 

Darkness pooled inside it. Not shadow—absence. 

 

The boy swallowed. 

“…Yeah. That’s just… great.” 

 

He didn’t need a sign to tell him what came next. 

 

“I guess this is the Trial of Earth,” he said, trying to sound casual and failing just a little. “Figures. Wind tried to tear me apart, the sea tried to swallow me… so what will the earth want from me?” 

 

He took a few careful steps forward, boots scraping softly against stone, and stopped near the edge of the fissure. Pebbles dislodged under his weight and vanished into the dark, never making a sound when they hit bottom. 

 

He straightened, took a breath, and closed his eyes. 

 

“Essence,” he whispered, more to himself than to the world. “Same rules. Same lesson. Don’t fight it… don’t run from it… understand it.” 

 

Wind had been freedom and motion. 

The sea had been surrender without erasure. 

So what was earth? 

 

He lowered himself onto a flat slab of rock and crossed his legs. The stone was cold, unyielding, utterly indifferent to his presence. It didn’t shift. Didn’t respond. Didn’t care that he was sitting on it at all. 

 

He slowed his breathing. 

 

At first, there was nothing. No flow like water. No movement like wind. Just stillness. 

 

Then the weight came. 

 

Not physical pressure, but something deeper—conceptual, almost emotional. A sense of age, of memory, of unbroken continuity. The earth did not rush. It did not yield. It simply was. 

 

He felt vibrations far below, slow and distant, like the heartbeat of a sleeping giant. Tectonic plates grinding together. Magma rolling in unseen rivers. The memory of mountains being born and ground to dust, of oceans forming and vanishing, of civilizations rising and crumbling while the stone beneath them remained. 

 

Endurance. 

Persistence. 

Immovable will. 

 

His chest tightened. 

 

“So that’s it…” he murmured. “You don’t move for anyone.” 

 

Understanding slid into place, quiet and heavy. 

 

When he opened his eyes, a faint brown aura shimmered around him, thin as dust in sunlight but undeniably real. It clung to his skin, not flowing, not flickering—just existing, steady and grounded. 

 

He blinked at it. 

“…Huh. That was… kind of fast.” 

 

The canyon answered. 

 

A deep, thunderous rumble rolled through the stone, so low it felt more like a vibration than a sound. The ground beneath him shuddered. Dust cascaded from the canyon walls, drifting down in pale clouds. 

 

He shot to his feet. 

“Okay, I clearly talked too fast!” He said annoyed 

 

Cracks spread across the ground in jagged lines, racing outward like lightning frozen in stone. The rock beneath him buckled, collapsed inward— 

 

And something massive forced its way out. 

 

The earth exploded. 

 

Stone shattered and flew as a colossal, serpentine form burst from the fissure. Its body was thick and elongated, armored in overlapping brown scales that looked less grown than carved. It had no wings, no limbs—just a powerful, coiling body built for tunneling and crushing. Its head alone was wider than the boy’s entire torso, eyes glowing faintly like embers buried in soil. 

 

A wyrm. 

 

A true earth-dweller, a dragon kin, a dragoon. 

 

The boy reacted on instinct. He planted one foot against the rising creature’s snout and kicked off, using the momentum to launch himself backward. He hit the canyon floor hard, rolled, and came up with both pistols in hand. 

 

“…You know,” he said breathlessly, staring at the monster, clearly annoyed , “I’m starting to think these trials are less ‘test your understanding’ and more ‘see if you can survive long enough to understand.’” 

 

The wyrm answered by diving back into the ground. 

 

Silence. 

 

No dust. No vibration. Nothing. 

 

He slowly turned in place, heart hammering. 

“And it keeps on getting better.” 

 

The earth erupted beneath him. 

 

He barely twisted aside as massive jaws snapped shut where his torso had been. The force of the bite sent a shockwave through the stone. Before he could regain his balance, the wyrm’s tail burst from the ground behind him and slammed into his back. 

 

The impact drove the air from his lungs. He skidded across the canyon floor, coughing, stars bursting behind his eyes. 

 

“DAMN IT!” 

 

He forced himself upright just as the creature vanished again. 

 

It came from the front this time. 

 

He backpedaled, and in that split second he noticed it: the wyrm wasn’t fully leaving the ground. Its body stayed partially submerged, using the earth itself as both armor and weapon. 

 

“He didn’t fully come out which means,” he muttered. 

The tail struck again. He threw a smoke bomb down on instinct and dodged. Gray clouds exploded outward, swallowing sound and sight. He rolled through the haze, creating distance as the wyrm thrashed blindly. 

 

But the ground betrayed him. 

 

Stone burst ahead of him, jaws snapping. He dove forward, feeling the wind of the bite skim his back as rock shattered where he’d been standing. 

 

He slid to a stop, chest heaving. 

 

“Think. Think,” he told himself. “Wind… water… now earth. Same rule every time. You’re not supposed to overpower it. You’re supposed to understand it.” 

 

He closed his eyes. 

 

The brown aura flared. 

 

This time, he didn’t look with sight. 

 

He listened with the ground. 

 

Vibrations rippled through the stone, subtle but clear, like ripples through a still pond. Every movement beneath the surface became a map in his mind. When the wyrm surged upward again, he moved before it fully emerged, rolling aside and firing. 

 

The bullet struck its exposed eye. 

 

The roar that followed shook the canyon. The creature thrashed wildly, smashing stone and tearing the ground apart in pain. 

 

He smirked. 

“An eye for an eye!” 

The boy took a break and looked at the wyrm 

“I can’t beat it,” he thought. “Not like this. Not by force. The trials are all about understanding. Even if it may look impossible, an answer exists somewhere.” 

 

He closed his eyes again, deeper, quieter. 

 

And then he felt it. 

 

Not the wyrm. 

 

The fissure. 

 

A pull. A presence. Something was deep within the fissure. Something that held a terrifying amount of power. 

 

Understanding clicked. 

“The answer to the trial.” He said with a smirk 

 

He broke into a sprint toward the chasm’s edge. The wyrm sensed the movement and immediately gave chase, its massive body ripping through the ground in pursuit. 

 

Just before its jaws could close around him, he jumped into the fissure and vanished into the darkness. 

 

The wyrm recoiled, terror rippling through its massive form. Whatever lay below, it wanted no part of it. It turned and fled, disappearing into the stone. 

 

The boy fell. 

 

Wind screamed past his ears—until a soft brown glow appeared beside him. 

 

A crystal. 

 

Diamond-shaped, perfectly formed, radiating dense, concentrated Essence of Earth. Not something to be summoned… something to be used. 

 

He reached for it and missed. 

 

A flicker of green aura, he managed to use the Essence of Storm he grasped during the first trial. He then conjured some wind, and the crystal slammed into his palm. 

 

“Got it!” 

 

The brown aura surged from the boy’s body and he sent it into the crystal. He was controlling what was already there, using the crystal as a core of pure, stabilized Essence. 

 

A chain erupted from the crystal, latching onto the fleeing wyrm and yanking the boy upward. He slammed onto its stone-scaled back, clinging desperately. 

 

“Time to end this!” 

 

He drove the crystal into the wound he’d made and released its power. 

 

Stone surged. 

 

The wyrm froze, petrifying mid-motion until it became part of the canyon itself. 

 

Silence. 

 

The boy slid off the statue and dropped to one knee, breathing hard. 

 

“…Yeah,” he said weakly, staring at his shaking hands. “I definitely need more practice.” 

 

A door formed nearby. 

He stood, wiped dust from his face, and managed a small grin. 

“Alright. Round four.”