Tess lay on the moss-covered rocks at the edge of the cliff, staring at the bruised sky. His chest still throbbed from the chase, but the adrenaline had begun to fade, leaving a quiet ache in its place. The Sigil Flame above his heart glowed faintly, almost contemplative, as if it too remembered something long buried.
He closed his eyes and let his mind wander. The city below, with its crumbling towers and narrow streets, seemed distant, almost unreal. Up here, in the quiet of his sanctuary, he could think—could remember.
He thought back to a conversation he had barely understood as a child. His mother, soft-spoken but fierce in her way, had often tried to explain the world to him before she vanished.
"Tess," she had said one evening, her fingers tracing the faint marks of his budding Sigil Flame, "this world… it isn't what it seems. Everything you see, everything you feel, flows from something called mana. It's the energy that binds life, magic, and even the beasts to this world. Without it, nothing lives… nothing survives."
He remembered tilting his head, confused. "Mana? Like the magic in stories?" he had asked.
"Not quite," she replied, eyes shadowed with worry. "Magic is just one expression of mana. It flows through the earth, the air, even through you. Some people can shape it… some can barely feel it. And the strongest… the ones who survive the Trials… they command it in ways most can't imagine."
She had paused, glancing toward the distant mountains. "The System, Tess… it exists because someone had to guide humanity. Long ago, a being of unimaginable power—the First Godspawn—sacrificed itself to create it. The System is… a path. A test for mortals, to awaken potential. To survive, to rise… or to die and be forgotten."
Tess had shivered even then. "Beasts… what about the beasts? Are they like us?"
"No," she said softly. "They're ranked, like humans, but differently. The Monarchs rule them, the apex predators of mana-born life. Beast ranks show power and ferocity. Some are simple predators, others… almost gods in themselves. They respond to the System in their own way, and they grow stronger with every challenge. The strongest are those who survive the harshest trials."
Her words had seemed distant back then, like a story meant for someone else. But now, lying atop the cliffs with the twilight pressing in, Tess understood them differently. He felt the Sigil Flame stir with every memory—its pulse like a heartbeat of truth he had never fully grasped.
The System… the Trials… the flame in my chest…
He had always thought it was just a strange mark, a flicker of heat and light. But now he could feel it as a part of him, responding to his fear, his adrenaline, even the wolf that had chased him. The world was alive, and the System watched. It measured. It remembered.
Tess pushed himself upright, brushing dirt and leaves from his pants. The cliffs stretched endlessly, dark trees swaying in the wind below. Somewhere in the distance, a faint shimmer flickered—he didn't see it clearly, but he felt it.
Could it be… another Trial?
He had heard whispers of them in the city, in the mouths of merchants and old beggars too broken to matter. Seven Trials, each one harder than the last, each one unlocking a Seal inside the one who survives. His mother had called them paths to ascension. Few who attempted the first Trial ever returned, and fewer still reached the last.
Tess's fingers brushed his chest, over the faint warmth of the Sigil Flame. One day, he knew, it would burn brighter. One day, he would feel it fully, and with it, he would understand more of the truth.
He exhaled slowly, letting the wind carry away the lingering fear of the wolf, the remnants of his pounding heart, the echoes of the city far below.
The cliffs were silent. The world was patient. The System… watched.
And somewhere, deep in the shadows of the ruins, a Monarch stirred.
Far below, in a dark alley filled with the stench of smoke and rot, the old man muttered over the Codex again:
"The flame… it stirs in the boy… the Sigil awakens… the first Trial will come, and with it, the seals…"
Tess didn't hear him, of course. He was too far away, too wrapped in the quiet and the memories, unaware that the first step toward the Trial gates was already calling his name.