Where Ansh had already passed his trial and moved forward on the path to becoming a god, his friends were still giving their respective trials. Kavi was in a world that was completely made of metal. Rivers shone like mercury, and the air was filled with the sharp smell of rusted iron.
His trial was—complete mastery over metal.
And in this very place, where everything was made of metal, Kavi lay in the middle, drenched in blood—injured and completely exhausted. In front of him was a door, half sunken into the ground, which was probably a part of his trial. The sun was shining directly above him, cooling even the remaining spark of strength he had left.
He did not know how much time had passed. When he had entered this trial, he had immediately felt that his powers were no longer working the way they used to. It felt as if they had been taken away from him.
In the distance, he could see a massive iron gate half buried in the ground, and his instincts told him that this was probably the final gate of the trial. He began moving forward, but after walking for many days, he realized that no matter how much he walked, he was not getting any closer to the gate. Instead, the distance seemed to be increasing.
He looked at himself, then at the sunken gate. Then he looked at the crooked, winding path that led to the gate. And then he decided to abandon the path and walk straight instead.
He moved off the path and started walking along the side. The stones there were extremely sharp, and walking over them caused blood to flow from Kavi's feet. After walking for some time, he felt that the distance was truly beginning to decrease.
His feet were completely wounded, but he did not lose his courage.
Ahead, he saw trees. He decided to stop there for a short while, but the leaves of those trees were like blades, causing him even more pain.
He had only moved a little further when suddenly a storm began. Fallen metal leaves started flying in the storm and covered Kavi's body with wounds. Kavi tried to stop those metal leaves using his remaining strength, but he had become very weak.
After enduring the storm for a long time, the wind finally stopped. And from within it, the wounded Kavi emerged. Not even a single piece of clothing on his body remained intact. The beating sun, the burden of hunger, and exhaustion had completely broken him.
But his eyes were still shining with a firm determination that had never been seen before.
And finally, he reached the door and collapsed unconscious from exhaustion.
Meanwhile, Siya lay frightened and trembling on a stone bridge built over flowing lava, her legs folded beneath her. Behind her closed eyes was the fear of burning in fire once again.
When Siya had entered this world filled with fire, she was completely confident that this would be child's play for her. She had seen the stone bridge leading toward a massive volcano in the distance, filled with cracks and melting due to the heat.
She closed her eyes, bent both arms at the elbows, took a deep breath, filled herself with courage, and tried to relax herself.
She said—
"Siya, you can do this. And you must do it."
She knew that even a single wrong step would welcome her into the abyss of molten lava—certain death.
Her heart pounding rapidly,
Siya stepped onto the first bridge.
The bridge trembled,
but she steadied herself—
reinforcing the stone with her remaining strength.
Slowly, she began moving forward. After a few steps, the trembling intensified, and her balance faltered—she barely managed to save herself.
The heat was so intense that the sweat leaving her body instantly turned into steam. In this suffocating environment, Siya was barely able to maintain her composure.
Where she was moving forward, the lava was slowly swallowing the stones.
And then another violent tremor—
And this time, Siya was engulfed by the lava.
She wanted to scream, but the lava began filling her body. Her body was burning. She was writhing, burning. But because of her connection to fire, she was still alive.
The pain was real—
worse than death.
She prayed to die, but even that was futile, because here there was no death—this very connection with fire was her trial.
Minutes passed.
Hours passed.
Days passed.
And finally, flowing with the lava, she reached the stone where she had been lying earlier.
A voice echoed in her mind—
"Siya… Siya… wake up. How long will you keep sleeping?
Didn't you promise that after all this, we would all go hunting double horn rabbits in the icy mountains to the north?
Wake up… everyone is waiting for you.
Look, if you don't wake up, I'll lie down too just to keep you company.
Wake up, Siya…"
And then, with a deep breath, Siya opened her eyes and sat up.
She looked ahead—
the bridge ended just one foot away.
She gathered all her strength and jumped, and she lay on the ground, gasping for breath. Many thoughts flooded her mind, and from those thoughts, a truth slowly began to take shape.
The fire was not attacking her.
It did not want to burn her.
It wanted to become one with her.
It wanted to make her stronger.
Until now, Siya had been fighting fire—trying to control it, seeing herself as separate from it. But that was her mistake.
She was not merely controlling fire.
She herself was fire.
That thought struck her like lightning, and in that very moment, everything became clear.
Siya slowly rose into the air. Her legs were trembling, but her mind was now calm. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She let go of fear, anger, and pain.
She allowed the fire to flow within her—not as a power, but as a part of her existence.
Flames wrapped around her—but they were no longer burning. They were warm, comforting, as if they were embracing her.
The fire wrapped her in a cocoon, and Siya finally emerged from it.
Her hair shone with red and golden light.
Her eyes looked as if rivers of flowing molten lava were running within them.
Her body shone as if it were made of white jade.
She looked like a goddess descended from heaven.
She felt that her power had now increased greatly—up to the level of high-tier god heirs.
She took a deep breath.
The world around her lit up with fiery radiance.
Her body was surrounded by fire, but it was not harming her.
The fire was now hers—
or perhaps she herself had become fire.
She had crossed her limits.
She had passed the trial.
Siya had increased her powers.
Ansh had become a low-tier god (demigod).
But Kavi still had not passed his trial.
He realized that until he gained complete mastery over metals, he would not be able to leave this place.
He stood up and sat down.
He closed his eyes and focused on the energy around him. He tried to reach the metal with his mind—to feel its pulse, its energy.
But it was not easy.
It felt like trying to grab smoke.
The metal was cold and unyielding, as if it were resisting him.
Frustration surged within him.
He had come so far, overcome so many hardships—and now he was stuck here.
But then a thought flashed through his mind—
Maybe he was trying the wrong way.
Metal was not merely something to be controlled.
It too was alive in its own way.
It had its own will, its own energy.
He did not need to conquer it, but understand it.
Not rule over it, but communicate with it.
Kavi took a deep breath and calmed himself.
He tried again—this time not to control, but to feel.
Slowly, he began to sense the energy hidden within the metal around him.
It was extremely subtle, but it existed—a faint current of life buried within the cold surface.
The more he concentrated, the clearer everything became.
The metal was not resisting him—
it simply wanted Kavi to recognize its true nature and work together with it.
Suddenly, the entire place began to change.
Metal structures started to tremble, bend, and reshape themselves, as if they were alive.
A faint silver-like light began to emerge from Kavi's hands, and he effortlessly started guiding the metal—not forcefully, but in harmony with its nature.
Kavi's eyes widened in amazement.
In that moment, he understood—
he had passed the trial.
He had mastered metal manipulation (Metal Bending)—not through power, but through understanding.
Now metal was no longer just an element—
it had become a part of him, an extension of his will.
The door that had been half sunken now stood before him.
And finally—
the trial had tested him,
and Kavi had succeeded in it.