_______
Ren didn't remember how long he had been inside the pit.
The walls dripped with moisture, but no water ever gathered at the bottom. Just bones. Bones of those who tried to scream. The silence devoured everything here. Even thoughts were muffled.
He sat in a corner, eyes closed, mind sharp.
This wasn't a cell. It was a test. And every second inside was part of it.
---
He had been captured three days ago. Or maybe four. The sect didn't bother counting. Time inside this place moved differently anyway. When the blindfold was finally removed, the one greeting him was not a man.
It was a voice. Slithering. Feminine. Echoing.
"You are not here to live. You are here to become."
And then silence again. Ren was thrown into the pit. Bones cracked under his weight. And yet, he said nothing. No fear. No cry.
He was not the only child there.
There were others. Some older. Some younger. But all broken in some way. Their eyes were wide with terror, their fingers bloody from clawing at the stone walls. They had screamed.
The walls liked it when they screamed.
Ren didn't. Not even once.
---
On the fifth day, it began.
The pit opened into a labyrinth. No warnings. No lights. Just a flicker of blue flame that danced just far enough ahead to draw the desperate forward.
Those who chased it blindly… never came back.
Ren didn't move at first. He watched. He listened. He tracked the echoes and the tremble of air. He marked steps with tiny bone fragments, always counting.
When he moved, it was precise. His breaths were measured. His steps silent.
The first challenge wasn't physical.
It was a room of mirrors—twisted, bending reflections that showed the children dead in different ways. Drowned. Burned. Betrayed.
But Ren's reflection… didn't die.
It stood still, watching him with a blank stare. Then smiled.
He didn't blink.
He walked through the mirror.
---
Behind it, a corridor of whispers. The voices of the other children. Begging. Pleading. Accusing.
"You left us."
"You watched us die."
"You're a monster."
But Ren knew the trick. His eyes scanned for what didn't belong.
And there it was.
A heartbeat. Slightly off rhythm. Not a ghost. Not a voice.
A real enemy.
He turned. Threw a fragment of mirror like a blade. It struck something invisible. A howl erupted as blood sprayed across the wall. The illusion broke.
Behind the lies was a man cloaked in shadow. Not expecting a child to kill.
But Ren wasn't just a child.
He was remembering who he was.
---
By the time the test ended, only six children made it through the labyrinth.
Three of them were already whispering Ren's name. Not because they knew it.
Because they feared what he was becoming.
The voice returned.
"Interesting. We might have overfed this one."
And so the real games began.
Deadlier.
Bloodier.
Quieter.