The rusted gate slammed shut behind them.
**[SFX: *KRAAANG—*]**
The sound rang across the frozen courtyard like a judge's gavel.
Levi didn't flinch.
Exit sealed. No refunds. Proceed to the next circle of hell.
The wasteland opened ahead—an endless white expanse crusted with snow, shattered by jagged black rock that jutted up like broken teeth. The trail switchbacked along the lower slopes of Blackwind Mountain, snaking upward before vanishing into boiling cloud.
Wind howled down from the peaks in rhythmic surges, carrying ice crystals that stung like thrown grit.
Levi counted.
First gust—hard enough to stagger.
Second—slightly weaker.
Pattern established.
Every four minutes.
Predictable.
Useful.
The alien sun hung low and bloated in the sky, its blue light staining the snow and casting violet shadows that stretched wrong across the ground. Everything looked hyper-real, like the world had been over-saturated by a cruel editor.
The guards wasted no time.
Spear butts jabbed into backs and ribs.
"Move."
"The mountain doesn't wait."
Levi's borrowed body protested immediately. The robes were laughably thin. Bare feet met packed snow that burned like dry ice. Numbness crept in fast, gnawing at toes and fingers.
He ignored it.
He'd ignored worse.
Back home, he'd learned to compartmentalize pain—lock it in a box, label it *later*, and move on.
He stayed in the rear third of the line, eyes down, awareness wide.
The path was littered with evidence of past failures.
Frozen bodies half-buried in drifts. Gray robes stiff as stone. Some fresh—frost clinging to lashes, mouths frozen open in silent surprise. Others older, worn smooth by wind or gnawed by whatever scavenged here.
One corpse lay near the trail's edge, fingers fused around a jagged shard of obsidian.
Levi noticed.
Improvised weapons: possible.
At the front rode Cassian.
Someone had whispered the name earlier.
He sat astride a shaggy beast that looked like a horse bred with a sabre-tooth—too many muscles, too many teeth. Cassian himself was tall, sharp-featured, red-brown hair tied back beneath a fur-lined helm. Handsome in the way a blade was handsome—clean lines, obvious purpose.
Amber eyes scanned the line with lazy amusement.
A whip coiled at his hip like a resting snake.
When a servant near the middle slowed to help a stumbling companion, Cassian's hand flicked.
The whip uncoiled.
**[SFX: *SNAP—!*]**
It wrapped around the helper's ankle and yanked.
The woman hit the snow hard, cry torn away by the wind.
Cassian laughed—low, genuine, pleased.
Levi watched carefully.
Cassian didn't strike at random.
He chose moments of maximum disruption. Fear multiplied faster than pain. Psychological warfare.
Smart.
Predictable, if you paid attention.
A spear butt slammed into Levi's shoulder.
"Keep up, runt."
Levi staggered forward deliberately, letting his knees buckle just enough to sell the act.
Internally: *Runt. Bold. Truly groundbreaking.*
The trail steepened with every switchback. Breath burned in lungs not used to altitude. The air felt like razor wire, slicing deeper with every inhale.
Levi moved efficiently.
Short steps.
Weight centered.
Using the body ahead as a partial windbreak.
He watched the stronger ones surge forward, burning energy to prove something.
Front-runners always died first.
An hour in, the first casualty fell.
An older man—gray-bearded, movements labored from the start—collapsed face-first into a drift. His breath plumed weakly.
Then stopped.
The line hesitated.
Guards shouted. "No stopping! Move!"
Cassian dismounted with fluid ease, boots barely denting the snow. He nudged the body with one foot, rolling it over.
Glassy eyes stared up at the blue sun.
"Unfit," Cassian declared. His voice carried easily. "Leave him. The wind buries its own."
And it did.
Snow swallowed the corpse as they crested the next rise.
Levi glanced back once.
Gone.
Efficient system.
By mid-climb, Levi found himself alongside two others moving at a similar measured pace.
The woman—Mira—small, mousy hair peeking from her hood. Her eyes were wide, but sharp, constantly tracking movement. Fear tempered by awareness.
The man—Torin—broad, gruff, beard frosting over with ice. Face like weathered bark. Hard to kill, but not immortal.
When Cassian's mount surged ahead to scout a narrow pass, Mira leaned closer, voice barely audible beneath the wind.
"Where… where are you from? Before the door."
Levi considered.
The apartment.
The pills.
The red Xs on a calendar.
All of it felt like static from another life.
"City boy," he said lightly. "Slow-model death. Progressive failure. Like my body was a subscription service running out of renewals."
Mira let out a brittle huff that might've been a laugh. "Cancer. Inoperable. Thought I'd go out doped up in a hospital bed. Not marching for some cosmic sadist."
Torin grunted. "War. Shrapnel gut rot. Slow leak." He eyed Levi. "You drew the short straw on the body lottery, kid. Look like a strong gust could fold you in half."
Levi smirked, breath fogging. "Yeah. Economy class. Better mileage, though. You two look like you paid extra for legroom and still got screwed."
It wasn't much.
But Mira's eyes softened.
Torin's mouth twitched.
A scrap of warmth in the cold.
The trail narrowed ahead—ledge hugging cliff face, a sheer drop yawning on one side. The wind funneled through, screaming.
Front-runners reached it first.
A gust hit sideways.
Three people went down.
One slid screaming into nothing.
Cassian watched from his mount, smiling that calm, terrible smile.
Levi timed it.
Build.
Peak.
Fade.
Four-minute cycle.
As they approached, he murmured, "Wait for the lull. Low center. Hug the wall. Don't fight it."
Mira nodded instantly.
Torin grunted once.
They moved on the fade.
Levi went first, back pressed to stone, fingers scraping for purchase. A late swirl tugged at his robes—he dropped to a crouch and waited it out.
Mira followed.
Torin came last, bulk angled to shield her.
No one fell.
Above them, the line thinned.
Twenty-five.
Twenty.
Maybe less.
The sun dipped lower, violet shadows stretching long and predatory.
They crested a plateau.
Ruins jutted from the snow—black stone outpost, walls half-collapsed, alcoves yawning dark. Guards herded them inside.
Cassian raised a hand.
"Rest here," he said casually. "The strong ones continue at dawn."
Levi's eyes narrowed.
*Rest?*
With night falling.
Wind rising.
Shadows moving.
He scanned the ruins.
Scratches marred the stone—long, deep gouges. Not weathered. Fresh.
Something watched from the alcoves.
This wasn't rest.
It was the next cull.
Levi caught Mira's gaze, tilted his head toward the markings.
Torin saw it too. Gave a single nod.
Mira's fingers tightened in her robe.
Levi smiled faintly as dusk gathered.
Fine.
Night round, then.
He'd always been better in the dark anyway.