~~~
Jin stepped through the silver door, and his foot found nothing.
No floor. No ground. No solid reality to catch him. He floated in an absolute void where thoughts had weight and consciousness was the only truth that mattered.
By spirits... What is this place?
The darkness pressed against him from all sides, not hostile but overwhelming in its completeness. It was like being blind and deaf simultaneously, except somehow he could still perceive. Still exist.
Ugh… This is giving me nausea. How can nothing make me feel motion sick?
The void around him wasn't empty—Jin could sense that now. It teemed with potential, like standing in front of a blank canvas that somehow contained every possible painting waiting to be created.
Words manifested not as sound but as understanding carved directly into his consciousness:
INITIATION CHAMBER FOR THE PATH OF ETERNAL SOVEREIGN
FIRST STEP: GAIN DOMINION OVER SELF
Well, that's ominous. Dominion over self... does that mean I'm about to get brainwashed? Split into multiple personalities? Have my memories scrambled?
Jin felt his Mantle of Harvest stir, its essence intertwining with the trial's energy in ways he hadn't expected. The connection felt... natural. Like two puzzle pieces clicking together.
Huh. My Mantle likes this place.
Then the memories came.
Not just his memories, but fragments of the original Jin Winters. Fear at awakening such a mundane Mantle. Shame at falling behind his peers while they manifested flashy combat abilities, and he got... farming. The crushing weight of feeling ordinary in a world that demanded extraordinary.
Oh hell. Here we go.
The trial forced him to experience every doubt simultaneously. The terror of dying alone in a hospital bed—that was his memory. But the humiliation of perceived mediocrity, the way other students looked at him with barely concealed pity when his Mantle manifested as something so mundane—that was pure original Jin.
Yeah, that's understandable, original Jin. Although we are one and the same person now, I'd have given up too if I didn't have all the memories from before my... what do I even call it? Reincarnation? Transmigration?
The distinction suddenly felt important. Reincarnation implied his soul had moved naturally from one life to another. Transmigration suggested outside intervention.
Makes me think about that Morpheus wannabe again. Someone with the power to cause transmigration between worlds... is he a god? Some cosmic entity pulling strings from the shadows? And if so, what does he want with me?
The questions spiraled, but before Jin could pursue them further, pressure slammed into his consciousness like a physical weight.
EMBRACE THE WEAKNESS. LET IT DEFINE YOU. ACCEPT YOUR LIMITATIONS.
The command pressed against his mind like a crushing weight, trying to force him into despair. Images flashed through his awareness—every failure, every moment of helplessness, every time he'd been too weak to change anything that mattered.
Yeah... quite the classic awakening trial. Break them down completely, then build them back up. Except...
Jin felt a smile tugging at his lips despite the pressure trying to crush his spirit.
I'm already one with myself, aren't I? I know who I am.
I suppose I need to show some conviction here. Time to make my declaration.
"I am Jin Winters, but I am more than Jin Winters." Jin's mental voice grew stronger with each word. "I am the soul who chose to fight cancer instead of giving up. I am the mind that lived and imagined being in this world every single day of my previous life. I am the one who will save this world, not because I have to, but because I choose to."
The words felt right as he spoke them. Not like empty bravado, but like fundamental truth.
I'm not here because I have to be. I'm here because I want to be.
The void began to change. Where before there had been empty darkness, now there was structure. Geometric patterns responded to his will, reshaping themselves according to his conscious intent.
But then a voice returned, different now. Gentler. Almost... proud?
Young Harvest, you resist the trial's purpose. Tell me, what do you truly fear?
Jin paused. The presence felt... familiar.
The dungeon? I still don't get its angle. In due time, I guess. Till then, I'll play along.
The question deserved honest consideration, though. What did he truly fear?
"I fear losing myself," he admitted, his voice echoing strangely in the void. "I've seen too many stories where people become something else entirely, where power changes who they are at their core. They start human and end up as something cold, calculating, inhuman."
Like those cultivation protagonists who start as righteous heroes and gradually become genocidal sociopaths because 'power requires sacrifice.' I refuse to become that.
Ah. Wisdom beyond your years. But consider this—does the farmer fear the harvest? Does the seed resist becoming the tree?
Jin frowned, considering the metaphor. Why would a seed resist?
"That's different, though. Plants don't have consciousness to lose. They can become something completely different because they don't have a sense of self to preserve."
And yet, consciousness can grow too. The trial does not seek to destroy who you are, young one. It seeks to help you become who you truly are, without the chains of doubt and fear.
"You're saying I can keep being me, just... more?"
Yes. The Path of Eternal Sovereign is not about losing oneself—it is about finding the true self beneath layers of uncertainty.
That would be the ideal outcome. But how many people have thought the same thing before losing themselves to power?
Tell me, what do you see when you look inward?
Jin closed his eyes in the void and looked within himself.
What he found surprised him.
Holy shit.
Two souls, intertwined like DNA helices. The original Jin Winters—scared, doubtful, but possessing an iron will forged by suffering. And his own soul, scarred by cancer but strengthened by the knowledge that death wasn't the end.
"I see two people who became one," he said softly. "Both of us were afraid. Both of us felt powerless. But together... together we're something neither could be alone."
Good. Now, let us begin the true work.
Jin's Mantle blazed to life in this space of pure thought. Instead of crops growing from soil, abstract concepts began to sprout around him like ethereal plants.
Knowledge became golden wheat he could grasp and absorb. Experience transformed into silver grain that enriched his understanding. Even the trial itself became something he could harvest.
"Holy shit," Jin whispered, watching concepts bloom around him like a garden made of pure ideas. "I can literally harvest thoughts and understanding. This is..."
Your Mantle is truly unique, Young Harvest. Most who walk the Sovereign path or any path must rely on meditation and gradual enlightenment, slowly building their understanding through years of dedicated practice.
You, on the other hand, can take shortcuts that would normally be impossible.
"Is that good or bad?"
That depends entirely on your wisdom. Power gained too quickly can corrupt. But power gained with understanding... that can elevate both the individual and everyone around them.
The warning was clear, but Jin felt oddly confident about his ability to handle it.
The void suddenly blazed with brilliant white light. Jin cursed, throwing his hands up to shield his eyes as the sudden change from dark to bright sent spikes of pain through his skull.
Ow. Fuck.
"What the hell—warn a guy next time!"
Forgive me. Since you are already one with yourself, we can skip much of the psychological preparation. Let us begin the physical awakening.
When Jin's vision cleared, he found himself standing on a vast white expanse that stretched to infinity in all directions. The surface beneath his feet felt solid but somehow not quite real—like walking on crystallized light.
Then a massive magic circle blazed to life beneath him, intricate patterns spreading outward like the roots of some cosmic tree. The formations were incredibly complex, layering spell matrices on top of each other in ways that made Jin's head spin.
His Reader's Dominion activated automatically, and Jin's eyes widened as he began to decipher the magical formations.
Catalyst functions, safeguard arrays, mental amplification matrices, consciousness expansion protocols... Holy hell, there's even some kind of soul-anchoring ward to prevent complete personality dissolution.
"Holy shit," Jin breathed, his mind racing as he identified spell after spell. "That's a lot of spell arrays…"
Around the edges of the circle, ingredients began to materialize. Mind-Opening Elixirs in crystal vials that seemed to hold liquid starlight. Neural Restructuring Catalysts that pulsed with their own inner light. Consciousness Expansion Serums that made Jin's head hurt just looking at them.
The process will be... intense. Your body will be rebuilt, yes, but more importantly, your essence channels will be completely rewired to accommodate your new capabilities.
Are you prepared? From this point forward, every step will be irreversible.
Jin stared at the magical apparatus that was about to fundamentally alter his existence. For a moment, doubt crept in like ice water through his veins.
What if I come out wrong? What if I lose the parts of myself that actually matter? What if the person who emerges from this trial is me in name only?
What if I become exactly the kind of monster I'm afraid of becoming?
But then he thought about Rudy, probably going through his own trial of pain and transformation right now. He thought about the world that needed saving, about all the people who would die if he wasn't strong enough. About Uncle Marcus, who'd already sacrificed so much. About all the future victims of the calamity.
More than that, though... I want this.
"Yeah," he said, stepping into the center of the circle. "Let's do this. Just... try to keep me sane, alright?"
I cannot promise sanity, young one. But I can promise that you will remain yourself—perhaps more yourself than you have ever been before.
The circle hummed to life with a sound like reality singing.
Power rushed through the magical formations, and Jin felt the very air around him thicken with energy. The elixirs and catalysts dissolved into pure essence that flowed toward him in streams of liquid light.
Here we go.
Then the pain began.
It started as a tingling sensation, like pins and needles throughout his entire body. But within seconds, that tingling became burning, and the burning became agony that defied description.
Jin's body began wrecking and rebuilding itself. His bones creaked and reformed, his muscles tore and regrew stronger, his nervous system rewired itself with electric fire that made him scream.
It's like being struck by lightning, but from the inside out. Every nerve ending is on fire.
But that was nothing compared to his essence churning and burning, as if it was changing into something else entirely. His very soul felt like it was being put through a cosmic forge, heated and hammered into a new shape.
He screamed, the sound echoing across the white expanse.
It's nothing I can't handle. Nothing compared to cancer.
The comparison came naturally, and with it, a strange sense of calm even amid the agony.
Cancer was slow torture with no payoff, no meaning, no purpose except dying. This hurts worse moment to moment, but it has an endpoint. It's making me stronger instead of killing me.
I survived eighteen years of that meaningless pain. I can survive this meaningful pain.
The first realm of the Sovereign path... Foundation of Will... consciousness separation from flesh...
He could feel his awareness expanding, becoming something more than just human perception. His consciousness was literally separating from his physical brain, becoming a semi-independent entity that could exist and think even if his body was destroyed.
Jin gritted his teeth and willed his Mantle to harvest everything—the pain, the transformation, the knowledge flowing through him, even the trial itself. If he was going to suffer, he was damn well going to make sure he extracted every possible benefit from the experience.
Waste nothing. Take everything. That's what harvest means.
Power flooded through him in response.
The pain was incredible, though. Even with his cancer experience, even with his stubborn will, Jin felt his consciousness beginning to slip away from the sheer overload.
Can't... pass out... need to... harvest everything...
His Mantle pulsed one final time, pulling in every fragment of power it could reach, and then darkness claimed him.
Did I... did I get it all?
The last coherent thought faded as unconsciousness took hold.
In the space beyond the trial chamber, the dungeon presence watched with something approaching amusement.
Remarkable. Most candidates require days to process even the first stage of mental reconstruction. This one harvested the entire transformation in minutes.
The presence shifted its attention to another chamber, where screams of a very different nature were echoing through flames that burned hotter than the heart of a star.
Perhaps the young Colossus will prove equally surprising.
~~~