Atlas looked around in panic at first, searching for a reaction from the guards, but no one seemed to bat an eye.
At least for a second.
An alarm started blaring, sharp and sudden. All the guards immediately rushed from the catwalks and upper levels, disappearing behind the walls of the prison.
Dozens of them flooded into the yard, swords in hand, shouting as they ushered all the prisoners back inside. Atlas wasn't one to sit around and wait, so he moved quickly and stepped through the yard door.
He glanced back one last time.
The wave was almost upon them already. It was massive, moving at such impossible speeds that it looked like an optical illusion. The sheer size of it made the prison walls seem like paper.
Inside, he saw Ivan standing alone, whispering to himself. Atlas looked around for the behemoth. A man that large was hard to misplace.
But he was gone.
The door leading outside closed behind them without a sound. A moment later, the world seemed to collapse.
A crashing noise rang through the building, loud enough to shake the air itself. It was like the entire world had dropped onto the prison all at once.
Atlas's legs gave out. His weight shifted without warning as the ground beneath him bucked. He slammed shoulder-first into the wall, then dropped hard to his knees, palms slapping the stone floor to keep himself from falling flat. Dust fell from the ceiling. His ears rang.
Everything shook, from the walls to the torches, to the very air he was breathing. The wave had hit, and the prison had taken the full brunt of it.
Cracks split across the walls. The structure groaned under the pressure, as if it had bones to break.
But then something stranger happened.
The cracks began to glow. Thin, pale lines of light spread through the stone, sealing the damage. The fractures healed, smooth and quiet, as though the prison was a living creature fixing itself.
That wave should have taken the whole place out. What kind of place was this?
As the shaking faded, Atlas pulled himself to his feet.
That wave was sudden but the guards seemed prepared for it as if it happened often.
Almost like the world was reading his thoughts.
A guard, calm and unreadable, walked back to the yard entrance and pulled the door open again.
Atlas moved carefully, peeking past the frame.
The yard was littered with black puddles across the concrete, reflecting strange colors in the sunlight. And scattered among them were creatures.
They were small, no bigger than a finger. Their bodies were smooth and sleek, drifting silently just above the ground as if swimming through the air. Their skin shimmered with shifting colors, glowing softly in violet, green, and silver, like oil blooming across water. At the center of each one pulsed a ring of soft, pale blue light.
It was beautiful.
Atlas didn't know why, but something about them pulled him in. Not fear, not alarm. Something softer. Something familiar. It felt like trying to remember a dream from years ago.
Without thinking, he stepped forward, trailing the guard outside.
No one stopped him.
In fact, no one even seemed to notice.
Everyone was just watching the creatures. Even the guards stood still.
The guard nearest to Atlas reached for one of them, his hand steady.
As his black armor neared, the creature lifted slightly, curling upward like a snake that had been charmed. Then it touched the armor.
Nothing happened.
The guard stared at it for a long moment, then backed away and turned toward the door.
Atlas wanted to reach for one too. To hold it. To understand it. They looked fragile, like something that needed care.
He stepped closer, but as he glanced back at the guard, he froze.
One of the creatures had moved. It had latched onto the back of the guard's armor, fangs buried deep, melting a hole through the plating like acid.
Tricky bastard.
Atlas snapped back to awareness and looked again at the one the guard had touched.
It was still there, motionless.
Frozen.
He lifted his foot and stomped on it. The fake shattered instantly, crumbling like dry leaves. Dust scattered at his feet.
That wasn't the real creature at all. Just a shell.
It had switched places without anyone noticing.
He turned toward the closest one and stomped again, hard as his new legs would allow, determined to kill it in one blow.
Thankfully, he did.
Then he heard it for the first time.
A voice, not spoken aloud, but inside his head. It rang clearly, both loud and soft, like it knew him.
"You have killed a Tithe. Lethality Rating: Two."
"Your Aether Core has grown stronger."
Atlas froze. The words didn't come from him. He hadn't imagined them. It was real.
Some part of the trial had just responded to what he did.
So he wasn't completely lost. He had missed something. Some hidden rule, some objective.
He just needed to accomplish something.
He turned to stomp on another, but someone grabbed his collar from behind.
A guard dragged him back without warning, stomping toward the yard entrance.
"Little shit thinks he can sneak out into the yard without permission. Looks like your privileges wanted to be thrown away."
Atlas didn't resist. The moment had shifted, and the surreal peace was gone. He was hauled back inside with no explanation.
As he got closer to the door, he saw something that made his stomach twist.
Two large footprints near the wall. Surrounded by dozens of shells left by the Tithes.
While being marched back to his cell he thought back to the voice that talked again surprised by its sudden appearance and how this trial was actually set up.
His thoughts were cut short as the guard shoved him into his cell.
"Lights out early today. No dinner tonight."
Atlas didn't want to think about it.
But he had to.
His neighbor, the monster they called Near, had been attacked.
And no one noticed.
He rushed to his bed and grabbed the makeshift blade Ivan had given him, pulling it from where he'd hidden it in the bedding. Carefully, he stuck the blade past the bars, angling it just right to catch a reflection in the polished metal.
It took a minute, but he found him.
In the corner of the next cell, Near crouched with his back turned, hunched over and fiddling with something.
All across his back were holes. Dozens of them.
Each one looked like something had burrowed inside.
The lights shut off.