“You want to take the trial now? Have you forgotten about your injury?” Edith asked.

  Alhen and Catherine were currently in the living room beside Edith, who sat on a sofa, relaxing.

  She looked at Alhen strangely. It had only been a full cycle, and he already wanted to test himself despite his injury.

  Alhen shook his head, rolling his pants up before showing her that his injury had indeed healed almost completely.

  The difference between a full recovery and this was that of an occasional tickle, nothing to be worried about.

  Edith furrowed her brows and looked at Alhen suspiciously. “How did you manage to heal this fast?” she asked with clear disbelief.

  “Maybe it had something to do with me being hollow or whatever you say I am,” Alhen responded sarcastically, and contrary to his expectations, she took it seriously.

  “It could be. I have never seen a creature like you, so this might be normal. Whenever you were injured, did you heal fast?” she asked, reaching out to touch his foot.

  Alhen stayed still and let her feel all she wanted, and while she did that, he answered. “I have always been a fast healer. Most of my injuries have healed in record time,” he told her.

  She didn’t respond, being too engrossed in touching his foot with curiosity.

  After a few seconds of him standing awkwardly without doing anything, she finally stopped and returned to her sofa.

  “The injury has healed, I would say about ninety-four percent. With this, you are indeed capable of taking the test, but I would recommend you wait until next cycle, as you will have to use your legs a lot,” she advised.

  He knew better than to argue, knowing that he would just have to wait one more cycle before starting.

  ‘Thankfully, it’s starting next cycle, I was worried it might have taken a week or so even if I was fully healed,’ he thought.

  Alhen nodded in her direction, acknowledging her words. “Thanks for giving me this opportunity,” he said before bowing.

  Edith scoffed and didn’t pay him attention after that.

  She closed her eyes and looked prepared to fall asleep. Without missing a beat, he returned to his room with Catherine following behind him.

  When they entered, Alhen stopped at the door. “Catherine, I will be resting. Please don’t disturb me. I thank you for everything that you have done for me up to this point.”

  Catherine gave him a light smile before saying, “No problem, I will be here in case you need anything. I hope you rest well!”

  Alhen couldn’t help but smile once again. He waved his goodbyes before closing the door, immersing himself in complete darkness.

  Now that he was alone, the smile dropped off his face, and he approached the bed, where he lay down facing up and closed his eyes.

  Contrary to his expectations, it didn’t take long for him to fall asleep.

  He had slept almost all cycles, and despite feeling energetic, it was as if his body responded to his desires naturally, making him able to sleep despite feeling no need for it.

  Opening his eyes again after waking up, he instinctively knew that it wasn’t time yet; he had not slept for a full cycle.

  He went to sleep again, and after a few minutes, he fell back asleep, just that this time, he had a dream, a lucid one.

  Alhen was walking through the streets of the Kingdom of Yhia when he saw a crying kid being taken by a group of cultists.

  The kid thrashed in the cultist's arms and even saw Alhen and asked for help.

  He, however, didn’t mind or prevent the event from happening; he simply walked past and looked at his surroundings.

  There was something weird regarding the buildings. They all reached into the sky and pierced the clouds.

  It was then that he realized that he must be dreaming because that doesn’t exist back in the kingdom.

  “So, this is a lucid dream,’ he said before looking in front of him, where many people had appeared and walked normally as if they were real.

  ‘To think that these people are all a creation of my subconscious mind, I have to get out of here and prepare for the test,’ he thought, wishing to return to his physical body.

  He felt the world fading around him, but before it could fully do so, he was snapped right back by someone who touched his back.

  Turning around and facing that person, he noticed that it was Henry. Alhen widened his eyes and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  “Henry, you… No,” Alhen shook his head.

  He knew that this was a dream, and he refused to entertain the possibility of talking with a fake version of his friend created by his brain.

  Before he could do anything, Henry spoke in a serious tone, “You are weak. You will never amount to anything, and you will never achieve what you have set out to do.”

  “The Father is too strong, and you will die before reaching even a small piece of his power.”

  Alhen frowned, wondering what was happening. He refused to listen any further and forcibly woke himself up, this time without distractions.

  When he returned to his physical body, in that room full of darkness, his body knew how much time had passed, but he also wondered what just happened.

  Realizing something, he furrowed his brows and started breathing heavily. “Is this really what I think? Am I really this weak that I can’t even control my mind?” he asked himself.

  Subconsciously, he recognized that all the people in his dreams were created by his subconscious, which meant that it wasn’t Henry speaking to him, but himself.

  Based on what Henry said, it must have been true for him.

  That’s what he really thought, and he almost couldn’t believe it, but the evidence was right in front of him, and he wasn’t going to ignore it.

  He shook his head before gritting his teeth. Wasting no more time, he took off the cover from his body and glanced at his leg, which looked completely healed.

  Bouncing up from the bed, he forgot all about his dream for now and opened the door. He didn’t find Edith on the sofa and realized that she must have moved.

  ‘There is no other option, I will have to find Catherine, or if I’m lucky, Edith herself, and ask for the test.’

  Alhen headed straight for the spiral stairs until he was on the second floor. It was then that he realized that he didn’t know which was Catherine’s room.

  ‘It’s also going to be a problem if I place my ear against one of the rooms and Edith discovers that I’m there. I don’t even want to think about the trouble I would get into,’ he thought.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He wondered what to do until he remembered the secret room in the wall.

  He headed straight for the place where he last opened it and placed his ear against the wall, noticing a faint sound emanating from inside.

  ‘I was right, Catherine should be in here doing something,' he thought.

  Without wasting any time, he opened the secret door and entered. As soon as he did, the noise inside stopped, and a nauseous stench began filling his nostrils.

  He covered his nose and walked forward where he last heard the sound. “Catherine, is that you?” he asked.

  There was no response, and he wondered whether she was playing a prank on him, but the same thing happened last time, so he didn’t pay it much attention.

  “Clatter!” Alhen stopped.

  Those were the sounds of metal chains moving, and this time, he wondered whether it was truly Catherine right in front of him.

  Just to be sure, he moved back a step and immediately sensed danger.

  Without thinking twice, he activated his blessing and barely avoided something coming his way.

  Due to the darkness, he wasn’t able to perceive it well, but he guessed that it was a wiht.

  “Growl!” It let out before rushing at him again.

  It couldn’t reach him, however, because the chain wrapping around it was fixed to something that didn’t let him move forward.

  His quick reflexes had saved him from imminent death, and that’s when he promised never to enter this place again unless completely necessary.

  He heard the door opening behind him, and Catherine came into view.

  Alhen sighed in relief but also annoyance. He had almost been killed by this girl’s strange hobby.

  She was clearly surprised to see him there, as she had her eyes wide open. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I wanted to see if you were here, but almost ended up dying to your little experiment here instead,” he replied.

  “Get away from there!” she exclaimed before rushing to his side and pushing him further away from the chained danger.

  Alhen fell to the floor and almost landed face-first, but held himself before that could happen.

  He looked at Catherine as if she were crazy and told her sarcastically, “Thanks for the help."

  Catherine didn't seem to catch his hidden message and responded, “You should be more careful. What if something happened to you?"

  "Also, how did you not think of calling out for me? That would avoid this situation entirely.”

  “That’s what I tried doing, but last time you didn’t respond, so I assumed you didn’t do it again and went ahead anyway.”

  Catherine winced as if she had been hurt physically, and Alhen rolled his eyes.

  The wiht kept on trying to grab her, and now Alhen could see it because his eyes had adapted to the darkness.

  It was a massive lump of red flesh dripping with liquid to the ground.

  It tried reaching Catherine with desperate movements, but its arms were not long enough to get a hold of her.

  Alhen’s facial expression twisted in disgust, and without missing a beat, Catherine killed it.

  It took him a second to process that the thing was dead, its head suddenly disappeared, and it landed a few feet away from him.

  The movement had been so fast that he wondered whether she had truly moved at all.

  After recovering from the shock, a wide smile manifested on his face, and then it widened even further.

  Catherine looked at him with a side eye, wondering if he had become insane. Alhen could feel his body trembling from excitement at seeing her power.

  ‘There’s no doubt, training with Edith is the right choice. Just thinking that Catherine was trained by her mother and is this strong gives me hope I can definitely gain that level of power and even surpass it,' he thought.

  No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t wipe that stupid grin off his face, and Catherine accepted that he had become insane without second thought.

  “Why were you here in the first place?" she asked, "Something you want to tell me?”

  That’s when Alhen remembered what he had come to do in the first place.

  “I simply wanted to ask you where your mother was. I am ready to take anything she throws at me and succeed without fail,” he explained.

  “Oh, she will not be back for a few hours. I believe she went out to prepare for the test,” she commented.

  Alhen nodded slowly and thought about something. “So, do you know what the test will be about? What did she make others do before I came along?” he asked.

  “I have no idea,” she answered, and Alhen remained silent, waiting for a further explanation.

  “What I mean is that she has never even considered training anyone out of her own volition. I believe you are the first one she has even given a chance,” she said.

  Alhen didn’t know whether to feel good or concerned; it meant that he would be taking the test completely blind, and there was no reference before him so that he could plan his moves.

  He sighed. “Then forget that I said anything if that’s the case. So, Edith will be arriving in a few hours. What are we going to do until then?”

  “You want to do something together? Why do you not sleep again?”

  Shaking his head, he explained, “I’m tired of sleeping, my body has much energy, so much in fact that I’m starting to think that I’m becoming hyperactive. My foot can’t stop shaking.”

  He pointed to his foot, and indeed, it was shaking. Catherine saw this with narrowed eyes and asked, “Is that not the same foot that was hurt?”

  Now that she mentioned it, Alhen noticed that it was. He wondered what was going on, but he didn’t see anything bad about it; it’s not like it hurt.

  “For now, it’s not a problem; it might have been…” Alhen pressed his lips tightly shut.

  ‘That was bad, I almost let it slip that someone else was here. It might have been because of the Luna Ius I took with whatever Edith did to my foot that’s causing this reaction.’

  Looking at Catherine, he saw how she was waiting for him to say something. He scratched the back of his head and thought about what to say, but nothing came to mind.

  “Can you respond to one of my questions?” Catherine paused, waiting to see his reaction.

  Alhen didn’t take his eyes off her, asking what that thing was.

  “Have you gone insane?” she asked, and Alhen immediately sent her a sarcastic laugh.

  “Ha, ha, ha, you are quite the jokester. Don’t worry, I’m still me, maybe this is my true self, and you didn’t know,” he commented.

  Catherine shrugged her shoulders and guided him outside the room, where she took his hand and dragged him downstairs into the living room.

  “I told you that there is this beautiful place with deer, and I also said that I wanted to show you. Come on, we have a few hours to ourselves, let me guide you there,” she told him.

  If he was being honest, all he wanted was to take the test, but it would take a few hours for Edith to arrive, so he had no choice unless he wanted to bore himself to death.

  “Very well, I’m going to get my glasses,” Alhen said before doing exactly that.

  He returned in a few seconds and was in front of Catherine. She was going out this time in a black dress, barefoot, and with glasses covering her face.

  She urged him to hurry up, and Alhen jogged to her side, where she opened the door and gave way to the beautiful forest.

  Before he could immerse himself in the beauty, however, he had to ask one important question.

  “Catherine, I have but one question I need you to answer,” he said before waiting for her reaction.

  “What is it?” she asked with mild curiosity.

  “The last time I was in the forest with your mother, we came across a purple sign wiht. Will you be able to handle one of those if we meet one by any chance?” he asked, and Catherine shrugged off his worries.

  “We will not meet one during our travels, they are only where you went with my mother, we are going exactly in the opposite direction, where weaker wihts inhabit,” she explained.

  Alhen wasn’t going to take that for an answer, though, so he asked again. “What about the unlikely chance that it happens? What do we do then?”

  Catherine sighed, looking at him, almost annoyed.

  “You really can’t stop worrying about nothing, can you? In the unlikely situation that we meet a blood demon, then I will protect you,” she said.

  He wasn’t fully convinced, but that was enough of an assurance.

  “What are blood demons?” he asked.

  “Blood demons are simply wihts that have a purple sign, the levels above it are sleeping chaos and waking chaos, the most powerful types of wiht known,” she explained, sounding like she read that off a textbook.

  Alhen fell silent and let Catherine finally guide him through the forest. The trip took quite some time, and they hadn’t encountered any wihts.

  He asked about it and got the same answer as Edith, it was her energy that scared off the weaker wihts.

  Throughout the trip, Alhen kept looking at the trees with marvel.

  The sight was beautiful like always, and he thought that maybe once he killed the father, he could even live here, but that was a topic for another time.

  “Shh! Look, there they are,” Catherine whispered, pointing with her index finger down below.

  They were currently on a hill, and down below were the mutated deer glowing in the darkness and making a radiant scene.

  Multiple colors were in the air, with the air around them appearing to be blue and a light shade of purple.

  Alhen had to blink multiple times to make himself believe that what he was looking at was real life and not a dream.

  The deer's expressions were serene, and it was as if they were disconnected from the world of danger around them.

  He wondered how they managed to stay safe in this area, but he left that question unanswered.

  Looking to the side, he saw Catherine completely mesmerized with a small smile on her face. Seeing this, he smiled as well, gazing at the beauties of Mother Nature.

  One thing that he didn’t like, however, were his glasses; they were in the way and prevented him from seeing the full picture, but there was nothing he could do.

  It was then that his mind drifted to Edith and her ability not to be affected by the Nameless Lord, and he wondered whether he would learn that as well.

  Looking at Catherine, however, he erased that thought from his head.

  ‘If her own daughter is not able to do it, then why think I can do it?’ he thought.

  He shook his head before feeling a light tug on his jacket. It was Catherine telling him that they should get closer to the animals.

  Alhen agreed and followed after her, using the trees to their advantage, they snuck closer to the deer, getting a first-hand experience of their presence.

  They were so focused on them that they didn’t hear someone sneaking up behind them, at least until the person was too close.

  Alhen’s ears perked up once he heard the rustling of leaves behind him.

  Taking a look back, he saw something he wasn’t expecting and raised his heart beat up a notch.

  Catherine noticed his change in mood and turned around only to be surprised, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

  It was Edith; she stood behind them and looked at Alhen with a slightly dangerous edge.

  “What are you doing here, creature?”