The fire at their campsite dimmed, the river's murmur thinned, and the world tilted as if a giant hand had turned the page of existence.
Andy felt it first — a tug deep in his chest, subtle but irresistible, like the weight of destiny winding around his ribs. His vision fractured; the constellations above multiplied, blurred, then broke into a thousand uncountable points. Time itself hesitated.
The system's voice did not chime this time. It descended — heavy, commanding, woven through bone and breath.
[Trial Protocol: ACTIVE]
Designation: Dragon-Phoenix Nova
Condition: Constellation Overdrive 100%
Objective: Demonstrate ultimate form stability
Environment: Constructed
Warning: Survival not guaranteed
The campsite dissolved.
Flame vanished. River vanished. The scent of pine smoke and bread-crust was gone.
They stood on an endless plane of black glass. The ground mirrored them perfectly, but warped, as though reflections resented their originals. Above: no sky, only an inverted abyss filled with trembling shards of star-light, sharp as knives. The air smelled faintly of iron, wet stone, and ozone just before lightning strikes.
Nia gripped her staff, eyes darting. "This… isn't the world. We're inside the system." Her breath frosted faintly, though no cold should have been there.
Aurelia spun a dagger into her palm, grin sharp despite the unease. "Good. At least here the rules are honest."
Andy said nothing. His aura answered instead — wings unfurling, feather-flame and dragon-scale merging, casting light that hissed against the glass below. The Oathblade materialized in his grip, weightless yet infinite, its hum low and steady, like the heartbeat of a god.
The trial birthed its enemy.
From the horizon, a colossus stepped forward.
It was a dragon, and it was not. Its body was carved from shadow turned brittle, every scale jagged like shards of obsidian, every joint oozing black fire. Its eyes were pits, dripping starlight that smelled of sulfur and old grief. Its breath poured across the void, tasting of rusted chains and rain trapped too long in stone.
The sound of its roar shattered the silence. The black glass beneath their feet cracked in spiderwebs that bled molten gold. The horizon bent, and in the distortion came whispers — thousands of voices echoing again, again, again.
The system annotated, precise and merciless:
[Opponent Construct: Tier III — Simulated]
Strength: Equalized to Dragon-Phoenix baseline
Purpose: Destruction resistance
Condition: Dragon-Phoenix Nova Required
Nia's knuckles whitened around her staff, runes flickering frantic. "It's… an echo of the Corrupter, purified to test us."
"Purified?" Aurelia scoffed, hair lifting in the storm of its aura. "Looks like rot given armor. I've seen prettier nightmares."
The colossus lunged. Claws fell like collapsing mountain ranges. Its wings spanned the entire void, and with each beat, the air thickened, rancid with sulfur and scorched marrow.
Andy stepped forward.
His Oathblade lifted. All four elements flared at once: ember roaring scarlet, tide surging azure, gale slicing silver, stone anchoring gold-brown. Phoenix fire crowned them, not chaos but order, weaving contradiction into harmony.
The hum deepened until it wasn't sound but law.
Andy whispered it. Not a shout, not a roar — a truth carried in the marrow of his bones.
"Dragon-Phoenix Nova."
The blade cut downward.
The void itself split.
Fire erupted, not to consume, but to reveal. Water surged, carving edges precise as glass. Wind carried, spreading the cut faster than sight. Stone anchored, giving the strike a weight the void could not deny. Phoenix fire braided all of it into finality.
The colossus froze mid-roar.
Cracks webbed across its chest, glowing white-gold. The sound of breaking echoed like temples collapsing, like oaths undone. Its hollow eyes filled — not with rage, but with silence that finally meant peace.
It shattered.
The pieces fell upward instead of down, fragments dissolving into dust finer than ash. Each mote rang faintly, like crystal struck by a careful hand. The thousand whispers died mid-breath. The void exhaled relief.
But the strike did not stop at the enemy. The horizon itself unraveled. Black towers collapsed into rivers of light, shadow peeled into brilliance, the glass beneath their feet fissured wide, bleeding dawn.
Nia shielded her eyes, tears streaking down her cheeks though she hadn't wept. "He's not cutting an enemy. He's rewriting the trial."
Aurelia laughed, half feral, half awed. "Overkill. Glorious."
The system responded, not with cold detachment, but with something almost reverent:
[Dragon-Phoenix Nova: Verified]
Output: 999% baseline
Overdrive Stability: Absolute
Trial Status: CLEARED
Light swallowed everything.
---
They stood once more at their camp. The river murmured, the bread lay half-eaten, the villagers' lanterns glowed distant. To anyone else, nothing had changed.
But Andy's wings still smoldered faintly, his aura humming steady with the echo of what he had unleashed.
Nia lowered her staff, staring at him as though seeing him anew. "One strike…" she whispered, voice trembling between awe and devotion.
Aurelia let out a long whistle, shaking her head. Her grin curved sharp. "Not even a fight. You cut the system itself."
Andy said nothing. He lowered the Oathblade; it slipped back into the Shared Inventory with a clean chime. His gaze turned skyward. Orion burned steady, but to the east, a cluster of stars trembled, waiting.
The system whispered privately, letters folding into his vision like secrets:
[Constellation Orion — Stage Complete]
Next Constellation: Manifesting…
Time Remaining: 12h
Andy closed his eyes, his breath calm, his body unshaken. The fire crackled, the river sang, and the stars leaned closer.
The Dragon-Phoenix had not only passed its trial.
It had made the system itself bow.