Arson wasn’t restrained by the weight of the world he’d left behind. Regardless of the attempts Anastasia made to help him remember, nothing stuck.

His next days were spent traveling from the nest toward the distortion Anastasia had picked up on her radars, further giving Arson training time with his newest weapon.

He was unaware that he’d spent a large period of time training with the weapon already as a youth, but he felt a connection grow with each shot taken. After Arson had achieved his violent escape from the nest, he began to experiment more with the capabilities of the bow.

Flickers of the memories the previous owner’s soul had imparted into the bow, gave him a foundation to start with. His newly inspired rain of arrows made his assault on any of the giants he came across far more manageable than ever before.

Anastasia told Arson that he’d struggled more to kill the giants before even with the full access to all his power, which made her believe he had been holding himself back somehow. Fear, or maybe even a heightened level of the anxiety he currently battled may have been the cause, Arson suppressing the sensations unwittingly through the strength of his own willpower was the only possibility either of them could think of.

The distortion sat but a few dozen yards away. The only thing stopping Arson from a potential exit, a cluster of giants sitting around a camp fire the size of a bonfire just before the haze Arson assumed to be a portal.

Arson slunk through the shallows of the waters that surrounded the island the group sat on, listening to a language that became increasingly familiar with each day that he was forced to fight the race of young titans.

“Many have died recently,” said one of the giants, and Arson’s eyes went wide as the dialect seemed to be as common to his ears as his own spoken vernacular. The surrounding group of giants whistled. The sound normally would have been received in that moment to Arson as the other giants relaying an impression of the situation being understated, but instead he knew the whistles to be that of a sign of agreement.

Not knowing why his mind was able to comprehend what was being discussed with such clarity, Arson froze completely, only his eyes and ears above the water as he listened, crouched within the shallows with his bow in hand at the ready.

“Do you believe in the rumors of the boy who smells of the sky and demons as the others do, my brother?”

Arson’s eyes flickered between the speakers, barely able to tell each giant apart. The group's only distinguishing factors the armor they wore that all seemed to be made from various beasts, styles of metals, and even different cultures and time periods

"Before, I did not, but now as the smell of our dead brethren drifts toward us even now on the breeze, I have begun to change my mind,” said the original speaker. Arson noted that this giant’s armor was more intricate than the others, making him wonder if this was an indication of leadership amongst giants.

“What do the other races believe,” another giant asked. The deep blue hues of the bones that made up this giants armor reflected the light of the bonfire in a way that made Arson’s mind itch making him believe his brain reached for memories that were no longer kept within its depths.

“The walking dragons feel that there is new life within this place,” said the assumed leader, gesturing around himself before he continued.

“It hasn’t happened in quite some time, but new predators were once common here. Our gods may be testing us all, the equilibrium we’ve found between all the races may not be what our masters want of us, this is a place of warfare for the sake of growth in skill and combat, not peace and tranquility.”

Hmm, I wonder what gods they are talking about, I’ll have to ask Anastasia if she knows later.

“What should we do then, brother?”

The smallest of the giants didn’t speak up immediately, looking around the vast open space. The skies above now sublime in their features like that of setting suns and star filled canvases, painted to capture the heart and mind of any who viewed them. Arson found himself looking around at the same beautiful sky and landscape of islands, only to return his gaze to the leader’s own eyes now trained on his exact location.

Arson felt his heart skip a beat. The giant took a deep breath and in that moment Arson felt his body temperature lower, feeling as if time itself had paused entirely. Then the giant nodded slowly as if to himself, and looked away.

“We must find a way to not make an enemy of this predator. They may be as we all are in this plain, lost and confused as all the races here are. And if they have indeed forgotten their origin as we all have and are still as dangerous as they have proven themselves to be, it would be unwise for us to not consider them as a potential guide toward freedom from these tumultuous lands of palaces and stolen time and foreign plains.”

He’s got me all wrong. Well... I am lost and confused, but a guide I am far from being…

“How do we befriend a ghost that we cannot seem to find?”

The sound of whistles filled the air again, and Arson wanted nothing more but to run and dive through the distortion. His mind awakened with alarm bells that told him his life was coming close to its end, not even the warm water he crouched in enough to keep the goosebumps from rising along his skin from head to toe.

Arson needed a distraction, but could think of nothing. He listened as the group of giants discussed their plans to find him, detailing the use of skills of other races beyond themselves that Arson hoped Anastasia would remember for him, as the list was long and he knew his memory wasn’t to be trusted.

I have to make a move, or they may begin to—

Arson’s gaze flickered to either side of himself, only then seeing the two giants that patrolled the limits of the island he hid near to. His mind went blank, cutting off any reasonable thoughts, and Arson began to move on pure instinct.

He began to charge an arrow beneath the water. The power being gathered caused the liquid in front of him to bubble and steam as pressure built.

The arrow being summoned was larger than normal. The body of the projectile consisted of smaller braided arrows, the bones used wrapped around one another, built the larger arrow by layering themselves so tightly together that no seams were visible. Yet Arson knew from testing that the imperceptible gaps between each arrow being fitted to intertwine between each other were all incredibly sharp.

The two on patrol stopped and looked in Arson’s direction, as did all of the other giants sitting around the large campfire. Time seemed to freeze once more and Arson pushed even more power into the arrow he summoned as all parties looked in his direction.

Now or never!

Arson rose from his crouch and yelled.

“Anastasia, flare!”

A brilliant white and gold light boomed outward and flooded the night sky, dazzling all the giants with the exception of one. The leader of the giants covered his eyes even before Arson could point his bow skyward.

He felt his head swim momentarily, but roared with everything he had as he fired the massive arrow into the air above them all. The projectile shot far upward, before a halo of white light spread outward. All sounds were suppressed as a crack of thunder was momentarily heard, and Arson charged forward knowing what was to come.

The silence that followed was instantly corrupted by a panicked yell for the giants to take cover and raise their shields. The group could still see nothing as Anastasia pushed out light so bright in all directions that she even threatened to blind Arson, his Closed Eye Dominion no longer giving him an unrivaled sense of direction.

He stumbled on what he hoped was the correct path toward the distortion. His every movement haggard by the ground shaking actions being taken by the giants trying to protect themselves from an unseen enemy.

Then the whistles were heard. Not the conversing whistles customary to the giant’s language, but the whistle of the hundreds of dragon bone arrows piercing the sky above.

“Left, you idiot, left! You're about to be trampled, watch where your going!”

“I can’t even see you and your on my wrist. How do you expect me to do anything even close to watch where I’m going?”

“Valid, I’m used to you being able to see with your eyes closed, runt. Now move more left, a little right... ooh that was close, left!”

Arson heard the cries of giants being punctured by the dragon bone arrows, and not a moment later, felt a cluster of arrows rip through random points across his upper torso, his own yells drowned out by the roars and screams of the giants being assaulted.

Arson felt as if his vision would have gone white under the the duress of the pain, but Anastasia’s flare was already bright enough to distract any natural thinking processes. Anastasia’s light slowly dimmed and Arson was immediately able to see what his first successful arrow rain was capable of. The level of destruction was impressive enough to make Anastasia whistle, which oddly enough caused the giant Arson assumed to be the leader to look in his direction.

Giants groaned with arrows sticking out from their bodies from almost head to toe. Some knelt down and had only their upper halves penetrated, while others fell over in their panics and were sliced and pierced through from head to toe.

At first Arson was in awe of the carnage, but his analytical mind took over and began to break down ways he could make an even more effective attack.

“The giant leader stared down Arson, watching as the young man nodded to himself. Arson’s emotions and thoughts completely transparent to the giant, who could tell that the individual before him could potentially do far more damage than was achieved.

The leader rose to his feet, lowering his tower shield from above his head. The symbol of a Titan Steel Tree inscribed across its face, not a single scratch across its surface even after the storm of arrows.

“Have we offended you, Reaper?”

Arson’s eyes snapped over toward the only standing giant. The leader and him once more staring into one another’s eyes.

Arson pointed to himself in question, feeling as if he was being spoken to, rather than the giant speaking to unseen gods distributing karmic retribution in his and his kins direction.

The giant nodded and Arson felt something stir within himself, almost as if his shadow itself was stirring to life, deciding to shake his head slowly at first, but then deciding to speak as he gestured around at the still living giants being left to groan in agony.

“This is survival, nothing more,” Arson said bowing before he stepped backward and moved directly into the distortion, ripping out arrows from his own shoulder as he did so.

“Good luck then Reaper. There are far more dangerous foes than me and mine within this plane…”

The giants words never graced Arson’s ears, but the giants brethren trembled at the use of the name Reaper. This was a title given only to those that the trapped races thought to be the apex predator within the trial planes.

Arson wasn’t aware of how the trial of infallible memories had been used by gods as a prison. Nor was he aware of the scale of monsters, beasts, and even prime races that had been forced to find ways to thrive within.

Only now, his path was being twisted by a power that embodied fate and destiny, to trigger events that would push Arson to become not only the Fearless Godling of Potential, but to one day also claim the title of Reaper. The one said to be capable of freeing all those trapped within the very trial he now trekked through.

Arson stepped out of the distortion and even before he could look around, Anastasia spoke, sharing with him a notification, as even his Overlay was being suppressed; the young man lifting his watch to see her face as she relayed the message.

“You’ve entered a new zone, it's apparently known as the City of Palaces, there is no combat allowed in the city’s limits, but there is a dueling area used to solve disputes.” Anastasia continued to explain various details given, and Arson listened hoping that answers would be gained, but ended up disappointed, only gaining a handful of points of interest, and the exits to other zones.

Anastasia even shared a map with him, and Arson decided to move as far away as he could from the distortion at his back, hoping to not give any of the giants an opportunity to enter and challenge him to a duel.

The path he took was paved and curved upward around a hill. By the time he arrived at the top of the hill, he’d gained a view of the city and smiled at the sight.

The city of palaces was indeed exactly that. Large mansions could be seen forming what Anastasia described to him to be a residential area. While different architectural palaces more palatial in design surrounded the mansions, seemed to hold various businesses, and buildings devoted to the infrastructure of the city as a whole.

Arson was awed by the spiral of homes, that stretched as far as his eyes could see. Every structure connected by rope bridges, or floating platforms that moved back and forth between more vital areas that seemed to be more heavily guarded.

No area wasn’t filled with various inhabitants. Anastasia described an Orcal race with skin that spanned the color spectrum, various dragon races, and an Elven race that had wings from small to large, and a multitude of other races that all seemed to live and roam the city endlessly.

With every moment that Arson watched from his vantage, more details were seen. He formulated a plan based on the movements of the citizens below, and the seeming importance of each point of interest mentioned by Anastasia.

“So where are we going first?”

“I need food and a place to train my skills against different styles of weapons and opponents, so I think we should start there,” Arson said pointing toward a large area filled with open space that held multiple dojos that sat beside the even larger dueling arena.

“Hmm, sounds like a plan to me. So are you tired of all the Drake meat you’ve been eating?”

“Ha, you're funny, I think we both know that another bite of that stuff would drive me insane without some sort of seasoning or something to change it up,” Arson said turning around, only then seeing the small tree that stood atop of the hill he’d climbed.

He approached, and read a small stone slab that was embedded in the base of the small tree, and chuckled to himself as he took in the words.

Those who forget to look around, will always be distracted by the path taken by many, but those who look up, can gain opportunities taken by none…

Arson looked around once more, looking beyond the city to see the jungles beyond that he’d never noticed until that moment and smiled to himself. The sight beyond the city both intriguing and intimidating as the light of the setting suns above made the shadows stretch further, and the life within seem more dangerous hidden by the darkness beneath the trees.

“Looks like we have more to explore than I thought…”