I Chose This Path, Now the Universe Will Know My Name

ZAVIER

The moment I crossed the threshold, the world blinked.

One step — that's all it took. The snow, the wind, the dying light behind me… gone.Replaced by silence.

A void.

Then light returned. But not light from above — it rose from below.Veins of glowing script ran through obsidian stone under my feet, forming a circular platform that floated in endless darkness.

I spun slowly.

No sky. No ground. No stars.

Only the hum of a power so ancient it made my skin crawl.

Then — a voice.

Not in my ears.

In my mind.

"Participant: Zavier King. Race: Human. Buff: [Endless Evolution]. Eligibility Confirmed."

The voice was genderless. Mechanical.Still, I felt something behind it — an intelligence. Cold and vast.

"Trial Commencing: Understanding Self."

Great. Vague and ominous.

From the darkness beyond the platform, a figure stepped forward.I froze.

It was… me.

Exactly me.

But not quite.

His eyes glowed faint gold. His smile was smug. He walked like someone who'd already won.

"So," he said. "This is where you fall apart."

"What are you supposed to be?"

"A question," he replied. "That you've been avoiding."

He tilted his head.

"What do you think evolution means, Zavier?"

He rushed me.

I raised my guard instinctively — but he was already behind me, sweeping my legs. I crashed into the stone with a grunt. Pain exploded through my ribs.

Before I could rise, he was on top of me, a blade formed of light in his hand — aimed for my throat.

I pushed back with a shout, and power surged.

That… was new.

I rolled away, landing in a crouch. My arms shimmered faintly — strength awakening again.

"You're afraid of what you could become," he said.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are. You think evolution is about getting stronger. But what if it's about becoming something you can't control?"

He attacked again.

Each movement mirrored my own, but perfected — faster, cleaner, crueler.

I countered.Clashed.Fell.

Got back up.

Each exchange left me bleeding, aching, panting — but something inside me was learning.

Not just how to fight — how to adapt.

My mind began predicting his strikes.

My instincts screamed change — and I listened.

Power unfurled inside me.

My blood burned.

Bones cracked.

I didn't grow bigger — not yet — but I shifted. Slightly. Subtly. Muscles coiled tighter. My senses flared. Every nerve tuned sharper.

And I hit him.

Square in the jaw.

He stumbled — the first time I'd landed anything.

"Good," he said, smiling with bloodied teeth. "Maybe you can survive."

Then his body began to fracture — pixel by pixel — and disappeared into gold dust.

"Trial One Passed."

The platform shook.

Rings of light formed above me, collapsing downward.

Then, nothing.

LYSSIRA

I felt it before I saw it.

The moment Zavier vanished through the trial gate, the air shifted.

The runes above the arch turned from red to black.The snow stopped. The wind died. The trees didn't sway.

Everything… held its breath.

"Zavier?" I called out, stepping closer.

The stone beneath the gate glowed faintly.

I touched it.

And recoiled — not from pain, but from sheer rejection.

The gateway wouldn't let me follow.

"Of course," I whispered. "It's his trial."

Still, I hated this feeling.

Not fear. Not quite.

Something else. Something worse.

Helplessness.

I made camp beside the arch, placing mana wards around its edges, drawing a perimeter with sigils Tairo once taught me.And I waited.

Hours passed.

Still nothing.

I stared into the distance, toward the ever-present Tree.

"You better come back," I muttered. "You still don't know anything about this world."

A pause.

"And I don't want to explain it twice."

Sleep didn't come.

When you've lost too many people, silence stops being comforting.It becomes the weight that settles on your chest, asking: how long before the next one disappears too?

At some point, I took out a fragment of the old memory stone Tairo and I once recorded.

Faint echoes of laughter played. Mine. His.Talking about evolution, the tournament, theories.

One line stuck with me:

"If you want to reach the Tree, Lyss… it's not enough to be strong. You have to want something more than power."

I looked at the gate again.

Still silent.

Still sealed.

ZAVIER

I woke in a new space.

Or maybe grew into one.

The air shimmered with mana. The ground pulsed. And above me — no sky, just a massive ceiling of veins and glowing roots.

I was inside something alive.

"Trial Two," the voice intoned."Understanding Purpose."