“The StarFall…” Arden muttered.

  Aldren’s eyes locked on Arden. Fire burned within them.

  “You know of this?”

  Arden nodded gravely.

  “I'm not an expert by any means,” he said. “But something similar happened back in my world. About 80 years before I was born, every star but one vanished suddenly. We called it the StarFall.”

  Arden thought about his world's history and how it fared against the StarFall and what came after. His was a technologically advanced world, and was barely able to fight off the hordes of Celestials. A seventh of Earth's landmass was destroyed by a single cascade.

  Would this world be any better?

  Arden glanced at the pope’s staff, and decided that the world was likely on a crash course. This world had magic, but Arden was willing to bet that it was roughly equal in power to his scientific world.

  “You want to stop this whatever it takes. Trust me on this.”

  Aldren looked Arden dead in the eye. The young man did not appear to be lying. The mischievous glint in his eyes when he was talking about being a transmigrator was gone. This was the truth.

  “I think I know why you were brought here,” Aldren said.

  Arden grimaced. He realized it too.

  “I have to help prevent the StarFall.”

  Arden leaned back on his chair with a hand covering his eyes. He couldn’t believe it. It was just too much.

  ‘This is just the first trial. How am I supposed to prevent a dimensional cataclysm?’

  Arden collected himself slightly and continued thinking. Planning.

  ‘Wait. I don't have to prevent it. I just have to survive it. My StarFall didn't end the world, it just changed it. This is possible. Just barely. But how do I continue?’

  Arden wasn’t sure what to do. He knew he had to survive, but figuring out how to do so was a tall order. Preventing the StarFall and all that came with it would work out the best, but he had no way to know what he was supposed to do to try and make that a reality.

  Aldren looked at him with pity, attributing Arden’s sour mood to believing that all was lost, which in a sense was true.

  “I know it seems hopeless now, but there is a chance,” Alrden said. “I didn’t come here just to depress everyone. I have a possible solution.”

  Arden looked at him and hoped that it was viable. He didn’t want to spend an eternity as an undying husk in a dying world. He still had so many things he wanted to do back home. He’d come up with a list, but it would really just say ‘anything.’

  “The Helios Church has several special items in stasis storage. Relics from our history. The shackle of Devatris, an infamous fundamentalist, the Sun Spear, a spear used by the first of the Six Paladins, and plenty of others.”

  “Please tell me you’re not just going to load up on gear and try to fight the cosmic monstrosity in a one on one fight,” Arden said with disapproval. “I hate to break it to you, but I dont think a mere saint can put up a fight against annihilation itself, no matter how much savior juice your weapons are dipped in.”

  “Trust me, I’ve had a similar thought. I’d love for this to be resolved with only one death, or none at all, but it's impossible. This goes beyond us mortals. What we need is something closer to a god.”

  Arden had a bad feeling. The last thing he wanted to see was the appearance of another Archon.

  “And you happen to have one?”

  “No. As the pope and Helios Saint, I am the Golden Star’s agent. Even then, I am lacking something important. Something that would propel one’s status to something similar to godhood.”

  “Divinity,” Arden answered.

  “Correct. No priest across any of the world’s churches is divine. Divinity is the territory of the gods, and as such, only gods have access to divinity. We can’t use divinity. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have it.”

  “Humans have divinity?”

  “Not ‘we’ as humans. ‘We’ of the Helios Church. When the first Helios Saint founded the Helios Church, she was rewarded by the Golden Star. She was given a small rock that contained the Golden Star’s divinity, and was told that it was only to be used if it was truly needed. This rock, the Godstone, is the Helios Church’s greatest relic and secret, to the point that only each generation’s Helios Saint knows about it.”

  “And me.”

  “And you. Soon, the Valtorin family will learn of the Godstone, as well as the rest of humanity. The revelation showed the Godstone being taken to the Starlight Grove by a member of the family and fighting against the darkness. After soaking in the Pool of Starlight, their body will be reformed into that of a saint. With divinity being used by a member of the family, the end can be averted.”

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  “If it works.”

  “I think we have a pretty good shot here. The inheritor of the Godstone will be your master.”

  “That Nux guy? Is he the right choice?”

  Aldren nodded.

  “He's mostly proper,” Aldren said. “But in cases like this, strength matters far more, and he is the strongest of his generation. He is also one of the most respected and well-liked members of his family, second only to his sister.”

  Arden and Aldren sat in silence for a few minutes. The former was thinking about how this would affect his trial, while the latter was thinking on how he could save the world. Despite the differences in power and age, they both felt incredibly out of their depth.

  Arden sighed.

  “I wish this felt even a little possible. Clutching at straws sucks.”

  Aldren stood up and walked towards where they had entered the secret room.

  “You ready to go?” he asked.

  Arden stood up and walked to his side.

  “I guess. What should I do when we get out?”

  “Return to what you were doing before I found you.”

  ‘That is probably the least helpful advice I’ve ever gotten.’

  Aldren performed the same spell he had earlier to open the exit. Arden sighed and reluctantly returned to his mute mindset when the portal opened. He didn’t know how much longer he’d have to stay as a mute, and that thought sickened him. For years, his only weapons were the Legacy of Beyond and his mouth. Now in the Golden Stargate where his life was once again on the line, Arden was denied both.

  ‘This sucks.’

  The pair entered the portal and reappeared beside the possibly legendary tree. Arden looked up at the leaves and inwardly sighed at his predicament as Aldren spoke to him.

  “Alright child, this is where our paths part. If fate allows it, we will meet each other again.” He held his hand forward. “May the blazing sun provide warmth for you.”

  Then he was gone, leaving Arden alone by the tree with no evidence of ever being there, save for two scorch marks on the ground.

  *****

  It had been an eventful day for the Valtorin family. Arden had watched it go from a day like any other to a day that would go down in history.

  He could pinpoint the exact moment that things had taken a change. It was an hour after he and Aldren had emerged from the secret pocket dimension. While Arden had been exploring the property to get the lay of the land, he noticed many people with frantic looks on their faces start running around. As they ran around trying to scrounge up some form of resistance for the oncoming apocalypse, Arden was enjoying a scone. He smirked to himself from his seat as he hungrily devoured the pastry.

  That was how Arden found himself sitting beneath the potentially legendary tree. His arms were behind his head and his right leg was folded over his left in a textbook example of relaxation. He was surprised to learn that the leaves glowed in the dark which gave the area a dreamlike quality.

  All around the estate, lights warded away the darkness from many sources. Magic walkways that glowed from underfoot, people walking with hand lanterns, and good old fashioned lamp posts made the estate as bright as it was during the day.

  For the first time, Arden was able to appreciate the serenity of the clean air and natural environment. No slum air made filthy by years of pollutant runoff from the inner city, no stifling dusty air from a mausoleum, just pure, clean air.

  He took a deep breath and relished the way that his lungs didn't have a slight ache, though whether that was due to the clean air or the world’s ambient magic remained a mystery to Arden. Arden's gaze turned from the terrestrial to the astral, and he focused on the stars that threatened to disappear. Mindful that no one had any intention of approaching the tree that he was resting beneath, Arden spoke aloud.

  “Of course it's the StarFall,” he said dryly. “The trial could have been a bandit attack. It could have been a gladiatorial arena. It could have been an escort mission. But no, it had to be an apocalypse.”

  Arden was witnessing the StarFall in real-time, and if his guess was correct, which he believed it was thanks to his chat with the Status before arriving here, the dark force approaching was the Blight.

  In all honesty, Arden wasn't worried about the spread of the Blight here. In Arden's world, the Blight kept people as mundane Humans. Here, there were only mundane humans, at least in the context of the Starborn System. Aside from magic, which seemed to be something that one learned rather than just inherently possessed. The people should still be fine for the most part if the Blight did descend. Even though Arden wasn't truly part of this world, he hoped that the world would be able to survive the Blight as his world has.

  And that he would survive it as well.

  Arden’s thoughts shifted from the trial itself to those populating it. The people he'd met.

  Nux Valtorin, the prince of the Valtorin family. Bellum, Nux’s bodyguard and closest advisor. Aldren, Helios Saint and pope of the Helios Church. It was quite a stacked lineup from Arden’s perspective.

  The more he looked around and listened, the more learned about the prince. He was righteous, and more importantly strong. He was only in his mid-20’s, but people already believed him to be this generation’s future Sword Saint, the strongest swordsman in the world. Honestly, Arden would have loved to learn under him, but he knew that the skill gap was too vast. Vera for her part tuned down her own prowess so that Arden and Sya could learn.

  Nux was definitely worthy of the Godstone, even if he had a reputation of being a bit of a womanizer. Arden couldn’t blame the guy. If he looked like the prince did, and had the strength of him, Arden had no doubt that he'd go down a similar path. He frowned. For some reason, the image of Vera came to mind.

  Nux’s bodyguard Bellum was more of an enigma. Rumors of espionage and warfare were abound. Some said that Bellum was the strongest soldier of the imperial army. Some said that he was the mercenary king. Others said that he was the previous Sword Saint. Regardless of what the grizzled man’s history was, everyone in the Valtorin family knew him for one reason: Teaching Nux his swordsmanship.

  That left Aldren. Arden found it somewhat amusing that he shared an almost identical name to the Helios Saint, but that was the least interesting aspect of the pope. The sworn brother of the Valtorin patriarch, Strongest member and leader of the Helios Church, and the living sun. Aldren was regarded as a living myth.

  And he was the one that learned about the upcoming apocalypse, and came to elevate Nux’s position to that of essentially a demigod, filled with the Godstone’s divinity.

  Arden was on edge while thinking about the pope. He was too pure. Too helpful. He helped Arden and the workers without expecting anything in return. Arden didn’t understand that. Perhaps it was his cynicism, but he had trouble believing in altruism. It was much easier to trust someone who did something out of their own interest or benefits granted.

  He stood up and started walking back to his quarters. Tomorrow, the expedition to the Starlight Grove would begin, and Arden knew that he would be going along with Nux. He needed some sleep. He needed to be ready for anything. Today was just the prologue. The real trial would start tomorrow.