As her senses grew accustomed to the place and her perception of the land improved she started noticing many more details than her initial analysis. The ground was not only red and moist with a bloody smell attached to it, but it also had minuscule white particles attached to it, and those, she discovered after picking them up, were extremely hard and durable, at least as resilient as the golden sand that covered this macabre stretch of land previously.

Knowing full well that heading towards the enormous tornado sucking all the golden sand was the most stupid course of action she could take, she promptly began exploring the region with the hopes of maybe finding anything that could aid in the completion of her mission or perhaps, she excitedly thought after remembering the manager's word right before the second trial started, find the hidden treasure buried in this hazard dimension. The thought only motivated her further due to it being something provided by the association, after all, something provided by the behemoth that was the magi association could not possibly be trash right? it had to be a massively valued treasure!

After disposing of the beast's carcass she walked in the direct opposite direction of the huge tornado, she figured that going anywhere near that thing in any direction possible would just be throwing her life away so it was best to move as further away from it as possible.

...

Amidst the raging winds of the tornado that swallowed the golden desert, right in the very core of the spinning monstrously mighty winds that people would often call "eye" sat a young man, peacefully meditating whilst slightly floating a couple of centimeters above the ground. His abdominal region glowed with a bright golden radiance whilst billions of golden threads shot out of it and collected the golden sand particles around the teen at a blinding speed, at the same time, below the young man spun furiously a massive gold-colored draconic seal that constantly attracted the sand as if it was a massive magnet pulling the golden particles ever closer to itself, aiding in the collection of the golden sand.

Ventus's consciousness grew blurred as the sudden epiphany struck him, ever so slightly he felt his grasp on reality fading and only the familiar sensation of the wind remained to still make him remember he existed. The moments grew longer whilst the silence grew louder in his mind to the point his focus was almost giving in to the extremely pleasant sensation of being truly one with the wind that threatened to swallow his mind if he was not careful.

"Do not resist child..." A voice spoke softly.

Ventus's mind was instantly alarmed and he managed to considerably push back the pleasant comfort of the element and focus on the newcomer's voice.

"Who are you?" Ventus replied sceptical and cautious.

"Don't resist and let yourself reach a place where many want but cannot reach, many dream but cannot touch, many desire but cannot ever in their lives even imagine its true essence..." the voice continued.

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The voice was melodious and sweet to the ears as it offered, its tempting powers were so strong that Ventus consciously struggled even more to resist its call. However, unbeknownst to even himself, in the deep corners of his subconscious, he was already giving in. His will was growing ever weaker and his mental fortitude was waning no matter how much he roared in his heart against the foreign influence. It was as if he was facing the sweet voice of his mother, a sound that transmitted deep care for him and would never do him any harm.

"Come child..." the voice spoke once more, "come and meet us, learn of what you can actually achieve..."

Despite his best efforts and strongest resistance against the voice's influence, his will failed and he could not resist. His mind turned fully blank for an uncountable time that escaped his perception and when he finally came to he no longer felt the struggle and pressure from the world around him and the landscape no longer existed, the new scenario, in fact, did not exist either.

His eyes were fully open, but besides his own body, he could not see anything whatsoever. Rather, even his own body did not seem to exist, after all, from what he could gather, his body only had a faint outline that helped define its figure, but aside from that, it did not possess any features or details of its own. It was truly what one could call an actual blank slate, or perhaps, a mere avatar of his existence in this pure white space that was, at the same time, completely strange and awfully familiar to himself.

He did not feel pain or struggle, effort or any sort of hardship upon himself. Aside from his strangely woke consciousness that made him feel somewhat overly aware of everything, he found himself unable to feel anything other than comfort and absolute peace in this space. The flow of time was non-existent in this space, or atleast, Ventus thought, he could not sense or keep track of it whatsoever, at the same pace that it felt like he'd just arrived there, it also felt like he had spent the eternal age of the cosmos inside this space.

"Hello there young one..." the voice spoke once more.

Ventus's attention was then greeted with the sight of a single hand outline that greeted him, he found the phantom-like limb quite amusing, but his amused lasted little as right after the rest of the body began materializing and formed the figure of a genderless humanoid being that smiled at him.

"It has been long since we had another one who could tap and connect to this place," the voice spoke cheerfully, "it is always amazing to find one such blessed child such as yourself that can visit this place, and from what I can gather, you're especially talented since you can stay connected to this place for quite sometime!"

"It was a bit foolish to resist the connection to this marvellous space, but I cannot blame you, after all, who could actually trust a strange voice and the infinite comfortable feeling this space and others similar to it give to those who can access them? from the land you come from where the world's will has granted its full authority to a single being, it is quite common that the blessed ones that can tap into the universal element hearts will have such constant worry and distrust against strangers!" The figure chuckled.

The figure moved closer to Ventus and inspected him curiously.

"Say...what is your name young one?" it asked.

"Ventus Astriss." he replied.

"Ventus huh?" the figure pondered, "quite an excellent naming! it seems one such as yourself that managed to connect to this place did quite an effort to twist fate and reserve a spot for you in this space so you could come and learn here about the essence of the wind!" he laughed excitedly, "I feel this visit is going to be especially interesting!"

The figure opened his arms wide and grinned.

"Welcome young Ventus, to the Heart of all WInds!"