The aether gate closed behind him with a hiss, and the world was nothing but heat.
Zack lifted an arm to shield his eyes. The Thanalan sun bore down on a sea of cracked stone and drifting sand, its glare so fierce that the horizon blurred into molten gold. The silence pressed on him — no merchants calling, no chocobos whistling, not even the rustle of desert creatures. Only the hiss of the wind.
Until the ground trembled.
A fissure split the desert floor, coughing dust into the air. Then, with the scream of grinding gears, a giant rose from the earth.
It was forged of iron plates thicker than a man's body, its surface scarred and rusted from centuries yet still unbreakable. Joints groaned like chains dragged across stone, and its faceless helm glowed with twin eyes of molten red. In its hands, it gripped a hammer the size of a chocobo cart, blackened steel pitted with old blood and sand.
The Iron Colossus.
Zack let out a low whistle, brushing sweat from his brow. "Guess the guildmaster wasn't kidding about a 'trial by fire.' That thing looks like it eats Ifrits for breakfast."
The Colossus stepped forward, each impact shaking the desert like thunder. Its shadow swallowed Zack whole. Then it moved — faster than something that size should — swinging the hammer down in a brutal arc.
Zack rolled aside, the impact cracking the earth where he'd stood. Shards of stone exploded upward, pelting him as he scrambled to his feet.
"Okay… big, heavy, mean. Just my type." He gripped his bastard sword tighter, the blade's broad edge gleaming under the desert sun.
---
Clash of Steel and Stone
The first exchange was a storm. Zack darted forward, sword flashing, and struck at the Colossus's knee joint. Sparks flew, but the construct didn't even flinch.
It retaliated with a backhand swing, hammer cutting the air with a howl. Zack barely raised his blade in time. The blow drove him skidding across the sand, boots carving trenches.
He staggered, his arms numb. "Damn. You don't play around."
The Colossus advanced, each step leaving a crater. A wide, horizontal swing followed, a blow that would flatten an entire squad. Zack ducked low, sliding beneath the arc, and slashed up at its chest. His blade cut shallow, just enough to pry open a glowing seam of molten aether.
The Colossus roared, the sound like stone breaking. It slammed its fists into the ground, and the desert convulsed. Jagged pillars of stone erupted in a deadly circle around Zack.
He jumped, twisting midair, barely clearing a spire that ripped skyward where his head had been. He landed hard, panting, sweat stinging his eyes.
"Not just muscle, huh? You've got tricks too."
Minutes bled into an hour. The desert rang with steel on stone, hammer against sword, explosions of sand and fire. Zack's body burned with exhaustion, arms heavy, breath ragged. Every strike he landed was shallow, every dodge a heartbeat from death.
---
Memories on the Edge of Death
His thoughts wandered between gasps of air.
If Angeal were here, he'd call me reckless again. "Don't just swing, Zack. Understand why you fight."
He remembered Cloud, that wide-eyed kid, looking at him like he was invincible. He remembered Aerith's smile, soft and unguarded, the one he hadn't been able to protect.
His jaw clenched. He planted his boots as the Colossus raised its hammer high, shadow drowning him.
No more running. Not this time.
The hammer came down.
Steel met steel with a cataclysmic boom. Pain shot down Zack's arms as the weight drove him to his knees, the ground fracturing beneath him. His vision blurred, blood dripping from his lip, but he held. He held.
And then his sword blazed with light.
---
The Oath of a Paladin
Holy radiance burst from the blade, forming a shield of luminous energy that spread wide behind him. For the first time, the Colossus recoiled, its hammer sliding off the radiant barrier.
Zack forced himself upright, his sword glowing like the dawn. His voice shook, but it carried across the desert:
"My life… for the lives of others. My sword is their shield!"
The Colossus roared and swung again. Zack intercepted, the barrier flaring brighter. This time, he didn't stagger. The construct reeled, its molten eyes flickering, almost… thoughtful.
For the first time, Zack realized it wasn't trying to kill him outright. It was judging him. Testing if he would endure.
"I get it now," Zack muttered, lips pulling into a grin. "This isn't about strength. It's about who I am."
---
The Shattering of the Trial
The Colossus's chest cracked open, molten light pouring out in rivers of fire. With a final roar, it smashed both fists into the earth.
The shockwave tore through the desert — not just stone, but the fabric of the trial itself.
The sky shattered like glass.
Zack stumbled back as the horizon fractured. Golden dunes bled into dark forest glades, storm-wracked caverns, jagged mountain peaks. Shards of other arenas bled through the cracks, overlapping like broken mirrors.
Through one rift, he saw Aerith falter, her staff trembling as a corrupted treant spewed poison into the air.
Through another, Galuf reeled under the storm-breath of a Chimera, his fists still swinging defiantly.
A third showed Noctis staggering beneath the shadow of a wyvern, warp-strikes crackling as his strength waned.
And in the fourth, Reks clashed against a horned juggernaut, his shield splitting but his stance unbroken.
Zack's heart pounded. They're all fighting too. All of us… tested together.
---
A Trial of Trials
The Iron Colossus lurched forward, its molten core burning brighter, now fused with strands of the other monsters' energies seeping through the cracks.
Vines crawled across its arms. Storm-light flickered in its chest. Draconic wings of shadow flared faintly behind it.
A monster of monsters. A trial of trials.
Zack's grip tightened on his glowing sword. His chest burned, his body screamed, but his grin returned, wide and reckless.
"Guess it's not just my fight anymore."
He planted his boots in the fractured twilight realm, sword raised high. Around him, the broken world spun, each shard showing a comrade locked in their own desperate struggle.
Zack lifted his blade, the radiance blazing like a beacon. His voice cut across the chaos, not just to the Colossus, but to his scattered friends:
"Together — we've got this!"
And with that, the battlefield shattered into one.