The snow was so white, so pure, that it seemed to glow in the darkness that surrounded the mountains. The further Bartant walked, the steeper the path became and thicker the snow felt. And yet, in spite of the sad view, Bartant felt at ease, looking at the Sky Council's Hall.  That place ... he felt he has somehow been there before, but he couldn't explain when or how. He felt drawn to it like compelled to walk towards it. He also had no choice, if he wanted to finish the trials. 

He was still exhausted from his previous fight. All his energy was depleted trying to survive Famine's fury. He was a very good fighter, but he was still inexperienced at fighting for that long. He decided to take shelter for half an hour before proceeding to the bridge in order to recover his strength. After walking for a few minutes, he was able to find a small cave. He trod carefully, inspecting that the cave was empty and after securing the perimeter, he gathered some small rocks and a few coals. All he needed now was to lit them to make a good fire, but our good Bartant had no fire spells. He cursed again not listening to his mother when he should have. After sitting there in the cold for a moment, he remembered a lesson from his father. A blade and flint can create a spark, and that is enough to make a fire for whenever you are in danger. And he certainly was in danger. He started looking around trying to find a piece of flint, but the darkness made it very difficult. Did he lose track of time, how much time passed by? An hour, two? Finally, he was able to find a piece of flint, and rubbed it at his knife's steel and made a fire. There he sat, alone in the silent dark cave, admiring how the flame moved from side to side until he fell asleep.

After a few hours, he woke up startled. He felt like someone or something was watching him, he sharpen his sight, looked all around but could not find anything. Strange, he thought. He then packed everything, turn the fire off and walked outside the cave. He felt renewed. That sleep was all he needed to move forward.

As he drew closer to the bridge, the snow was extremely thick, he could feel how each step was extremely difficult, and it also was harder to breathe. He also didn't like what lurked in the skies. Wyverns, Rocs and Stryx flew around, awaiting a weak prey to come near them. Eventually, he reached the bridge. It was made of wood and pieced together by two long vines, which seemed extracted from an old giant tree. There was also a gate with an inscription in the Ancient language:

"Uru haase volum oda sum kaelna nor turune"

Bartant's knowledge of the ancient language was acceptable at best, but he could understand a few words from the message which he interpreted as "The path is opened to those whose blood is not tainted". He knew he was troublesome and had a hard time obeying authority, but he also knew he never meant ill to anyone. He ventured into the bridge and as soon as he landed both his feet on the bridge, it started to rook. At first, it was slow, but each step he did, the more it rooked. 

Like a thundering bolt, Bartant's worst fear came true. A Wyvern spotted him and was descending at tremendous speed. He knew he didn't have much room to cast any spell, and he knew he couldn't dodge without destroying the bridge. He only had one possible course of action, and a single shot at it. He should face it directly and mortally strike it in order to change its course. Wyverns, like Dragons, are magical creatures but from a lesser evolved stage, they resemble a Firstos in appearance but are smaller and weaker. However, for Bartant, a young Anglik, the Wyvern was huge. He knew he had to hit it at its weakest point, the right leg, and then stab it through the neck, so he took his knife and hid it at waist level with his right hand, slightly bent the knees and raised the left arm as a shield and there he waited. The Wyvern was still going straight to him, and he did not falter, he waited, patiently, and the wyvern opened his mouth, it could almost taste its dinner, but Bartant was immobile, he knew he had to wait the right moment. The Wyvern was now at one body of distance and opened both his claws to strike its prey without mercy. As soon as the claws were fully revealed, Bartant jumped directly into it. The first claw attack came from the right, and he used his left arm to climb to the arm and avoid the attack, but the Wyvern did waste time and launched a bite attack on him, Bartant could almost feel its teeth sinking into his skin, but he was able to jump to its head, and while it had bitten its own right arm and the creature was screeching in pain, he took advantage of the left foot being open and mortally cut it. The Wyvern raised its head screeching again leaving its neck wide open, where Bartant would drive the knife deep, to fatally injure the creature. He did it. The Wyvern was falling now into the bottomless void that was beneath them. he landed again on the bridge and sheathed his knife. He did two steps further, only to realize the bridge was disappearing at his own eyes. He took a deep breath and made a jump to the end with all his power. But it was not enough, and so, he fell to the eternal emptiness beneath the bridge.

Darkness. Silence. Was he dead? Was he finally sent to the Mortunides? Slowly he opened his eyes, only to realize he was not dead. He was in an even darker place now, and as he looked up, he discovered he was in a valley with a V shape. Crystalline walls were formed, they looked white as ice but glossy as pure salt. Instinctively, he tried to climb up, but only to slide down. He tried using his knife as an anchor, but the walls were extremely hard and were not penetrated by the blade. Even if he could jump from side to side the V shape would make it extremely hard from the midsection and upwards. He was stuck, and to his front and his back, the same V shape seemed to extend until the eternity. He could see the Sky Council no more, so he wasn't sure if he should walk north or south of the Valley. He looked around and all life was frozen. It was desperate. He did not have food or water, and the night was just beginning. He made up his mind to walk north. After an hour or so of walking north, he was able to see an old temple and quickly dashed towards it.

The temple was abandoned, deteriorated by the cold breezes and the harsh temperature. He entered carefully only to realize it was full of trinkets and rune marks. The temple was not big, it had two meditating rooms, two bedrooms, and one shrine. It was enough to spend the night until he figured out what to do. The shrine was the warmest room, so he decided to pass the night there but he had to clean up a bit to make room for him. Rocks and rubbish were scattered around the room, so he started piling them up. Rubbish to the east of the room and the rocks piled up to make a bed. When he had finished he found an old book with a word printed on the front - Nidhoggr (Dragon in ancient language).  He sat on the bed he made and opened the book. The first phrase caught his eye:

"Uru haase volum oda sum kaelna nor turune"

The same phrase that was on the bridge, but it went further:

"Uru haase volum oda sum kaelna nor turune. Durignas volum aprova, lux dey baugr et brandr fanusa sutul"

For Bartant, this was extremely difficult to understand, he could roughly get a few words, a test, a sword and a shadow. An accurate translation is that the path shall be opened to those whose blood is not yet tainted. Worthiness shall be first tested, as light dies within the heart and the sword of the phantom raises. Full of gibberish, that is what he thought, and as soon as he closed the book, the earth started to rumble. he quickly went outside to see what was happening, only to be terrorized by the landscape.

An entire army of armed skeletons was raising from the white floor. One by one the skeletons started to line up. Ten, twenty, fifty could he count. And then, a bigger skeleton with a full cloth and a pale white sword stood behind the 5 lines of skeletons, raised his sword to the sky.

"Nidhoggr .... dey" - it shouted.

One of the 5 lines slowly started to march towards the temple. That Bartant could understand perfectly. Dragon ... die. But how could he kill something it was already dead. It made no sense. And more importantly, how was he going to kill 50 of those dead enemies. The first line kept advancing, and time was running short. He knew he had to do something, but what could he do? He had no magic, so he hid in the temple to think what could he do. 

And there he waited, silently. But nothing happened. He went out again and all skeletons were standing there, watching him, immobile. Why wouldn't they corner him, attack him? It seemed as if they feared something inside the temple. Bartant carefully picked one of the rocks that were at the entrance and threw it at one skeleton hitting his arm. The scream was horrifying, it was aching in extreme pain, and slowly his arm disintegrated into thin air. Only one explanation was possible, he was standing on Sacred Ground, and the skeletons were conjured by Necromancy, so this was his way of winning this battle. He broke one wooden panel and with his knife carved a wooden "holy" sword, and then broke another wooden panel to make a wooden "holy" shield. He carefully grabbed both, closed his eyes and dashed straight to the first skeleton wave. Crawl, uppercut, dash, sidecut, jump, descent. Bartant was moving at an extreme speed, slashing with his right and bashing with his left. One by one the skeletons started to fall, and one by one did the armies of the big skeleton fall. 

"Ek heiti Svangr Ferr ... Nidhoggr ek te veg" - shouted the big skeleton.

Bartant knew two things now, his name was Wolf the Hungry and he was very angry. But he feared not, as he had his "holy" weapons. He quickly dashes towards Svangr Ferr, but he jumped twenty feet up to the wall and grabbed himself. He was not falling, he was not sliding, he was standing there. He pressed his legs together, and then dive towards him at full speed. "Ictos" -  chanted Bartant to avoid the attack. But the dashing distance wasn't enough to avoid the wind that generated the colossal force of the skeleton. With one strike, the ground shattered and the winds it generated hurt him pretty bad. He quickly recovered to strike the skeleton, but the skeleton jumped again up high and dashed again. "Ictos" - chanted Bartant again but again it failed. He quickly dashed again to strike him, but Svangr Ferr dodged him again. He was fast, and there he charged his attack again. But Bartant was an innate fighter, and his keen fighting eye allowed him to see it this time. It needed time to prepare his attack, it needed to charge, and that was its weak spot. So he wasted no time:

"Fuga"  - chanted Bartant quickly to jump as high as he could - "I really didn't want to use this yet, but you leave me no choice" - he shouted, close his eyes and switched his grip as if his sword was now a lance and chanted -" Gladio: Iaculum" 

He threw his sword as if it was a lance, but the sword flew at a tremendous speed, more than Svangr Ferr could expect. The sword perforated its hand and a horrible scream could be heard. And it lost it's balanced and was now hanging with his remaining hand. Bartant wasted no time and attacked again:

  Gladio: Iaculum

But this time it wasn't the hand, it was not a foot, the sword pierced through Svangr Ferr's neck, and as soon as the head hit the ground, his light was extinguished, and the rest of his body disintegrated, except for his hand. Bartant felt a strange aura coming from the hand as if it was calling him. He could hear the strange voice in his head, over and over again.

Nidhoggr, Nidhoggr, Nidhoggr ...,

He picked up the gigantic hand, and as soon as he held it with both hands, it started to shrink until it was of his hand's size. The hand turned to a glove. He carefully put it on, and runes in ancient Draconis started to glow ..... Wolf's claw ... and then his body was covered in a very dark cold glow. It was as if the glove spoke to him and he knew exactly its purpose. He walked closer to the wall of the valley, and started to climb, just like the Svangr Ferr did, he climbed and climbed and climbed until he reached the top. 

He could see the Hall of the Sky Council again, but there was someone there as well, a young warrior, who slowly turned his face to reveal himself to Bartant.