The holographic green scroll hovered before Jelani, its ethereal light casting an eerie glow on his blood-stained clothes. The words pulsed with an otherworldly energy, seeming to bore into his very soul:

"Will you enter the trial of the bond breaker and take a chance at awakening real power?"

Jelani's mind reeled, the pain from his gunshot wounds momentarily forgotten in the face of this impossible choice. Who or what was this bond breaker? What kind of trial awaited him? And could he really trust this mysterious entity offering him power when he was at his most vulnerable?

With a grimace, Jelani forced himself to focus. Life was slowly fading from his body. Kamari was already gone. Whatever this was—hallucination, divine intervention, or something far stranger—it was the only chance he had left.

"Who are you?" Jelani managed to croak out, his voice barely above a whisper. "Are you the one behind all the vortexes?"

The scroll's text shifted, new words forming in response: "I am your potential patron. I am separate from those who brought the calamity to your world. As a sign of good faith I’ll gift you this,”

A pulse emanated from the vortex and crashed into Jelani as a green mist. It entered his body then seemed to stop the bleeding and pain he felt though he could tell the bullets were still lodged into his chest. He’d been given an extra moment to survive. The words on the scroll shifted.

“I’ve sealed your wounds for now but survival will still be in your hands. The opportunity I present you is one to amass enough strength to make change in your world."

As Jelani processed this, the message changed again: "You will be taking on the trial unawakened and face challenges that may prove FATAL, but success should be possible for someone with true ambition."

"Damn," Jelani thought bitterly. "Didn't have to emphasize 'fatal' like that." He was already a dying man with few options left; a second chance at death wasn't exactly an enticing sales pitch.

Yet, despite his cynicism, Jelani felt a spark of hope ignite in his chest. He'd never heard of anyone awakening this way, but his gut told him this was real. It was a chance—maybe his only chance—at survival and power.

"What's the catch?" Jelani asked, his voice stronger now. "What do I have to pay?"

The scroll's response was cryptic: "The price you pay is the life you leave behind."

A chill ran down Jelani's spine. He wanted to believe it simply meant leaving behind his old, powerless self. But he couldn't shake the feeling that this was some classic trickster god bullshit. What if it meant he'd become a puppet to this entity? Or that Kamari's life was somehow the price?

Pushing past his growing unease, Jelani challenged the entity. "Keep it straight with me. You some kind of dark god or something? Am I selling my soul here, or signing up for some fucked-up contract?"

He waited, half-expecting the worst, as he tried to gauge whether becoming some alien dark god's paladin was an acceptable trade-off for awakening and saving his life.

The scroll's response surprised him: "I am no god, though I hold enough power to give you a chance to be a force on your world capable of standing as a one-man army. If you're ambitious enough to achieve it. It will not require you to offer me a sacrifice. It will require you to determine if you're someone who can do what it takes to control your own destiny."

Jelani stared at the glowing words, his mind racing. This was it—an opportunity to survive, to gain power, to potentially change everything. It would make him part of some huge development in the vortex crisis. No one knew who or what was behind all this; he'd have an edge.

But it wasn't an option that would save Kamari.

For a brief, agonizing moment, Jelani considered refusing. If he stayed, maybe he could yell loud enough for help to come. Maybe there was still a way to save the boy.

"Something..." he thought desperately. But even as the idea formed, he knew it was futile. Kamari was gone. He'd tried his best, but he couldn't miss this chance to ensure his own survival.

A traitorous part of Jelani's mind whispered that this might all be a delusion—his dying brain's attempt to give him a peaceful way out. But no, he'd seen that odd green vortex earlier. For whatever reason, it had its attention on him. This was real, as insane as it seemed.

It was a ruthless timeline they'd found themselves in, full of cruel twists of fate. He'd failed to protect himself, failed to protect this innocent kid. But maybe, just maybe, this trial was a chance to change things for the future.

He didn't know what lay in store for him, but with death creeping ever closer from multiple directions, Jelani decided to trust his gut. It was the only real option he had left.

"Yes," he said to the scroll, his voice barely audible. Then, marshaling the reignited embers of his strength, he repeated more firmly, "I will take on the trial."

The scroll faded from view, and the small vortex began to pulse with increasing intensity. Jelani closed his eyes, bracing himself for whatever gruesome possibilities awaited him as his body was raised into the air and drawn into the swirling emerald energy.

jelani tensed before crossing the threshold. For a moment, there was nothing—no sensation, no thought, just a vast, empty void. Then, with a jolt that seemed to shake his very soul, Jelani found himself suspended in an infinite blackness. His body was a transparent silhouette against the endless dark, weightless yet somehow heavy with potential.

The nothingness pressed in on him from all sides, a suffocating weight that threatened to crush his very essence. Just as panic began to claw at the edges of his mind, a colossal eye materialized before him.

It was vast beyond comprehension, its iris a swirling vortex of emerald energy that pulsed with an otherworldly intelligence. The eye was composed of thousands of complex, floating glyphs in some mystical language Jelani had never seen before. He felt exposed, laid bare before this cosmic entity that seemed to peer into the very depths of his being.

Jelani tried to speak, to demand answers or beg for mercy—he wasn't sure which—but no sound escaped his spectral form.

Without warning, Jelani felt himself being torn apart. It wasn't physical pain—there was no physical body to feel—but a psychic agony as his very being was dissected and absorbed into the great eye's iris. His life flashed before him, not in a linear progression, but as a chaotic collage of burning scrolls. Each fragment of memory seared itself into the cosmic retina, judged and cataloged by the unknowable intelligence behind that emerald gaze.

Jelani witnessed the key moments of his existence in a dizzying kaleidoscope:

The pride of his first paycheck, crumpled and insufficient. The sting of his mother's disappointment when he got into a fist fight with his father. The paralyzing fear that gripped him when the first vortexes opened, just after his 18th birthday. The rush of adrenaline as he faced down four guys in a street fight, all because he dared to speak to their girlfriends. The terrifying thrill of escaping a bear-monster with bone armor in his delivery van, equal parts terror and exhilaration.

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Each memory felt like it was being weighed, measured, and in some ineffable way, found worthy.

Just as suddenly as it began, the psychic dissection ended. Jelani snapped back into cohesion, whole once more in the infinite void. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing the madness away, and when he opened them...

Reality reasserted itself with a gut-punch of sensory overload. Gone was the blood-soaked alley where he'd lain dying. Instead, Jelani found himself standing in a clearing within a dark, foreboding forest at the foot of a massive, cone-shaped mountain.

The forest around him was filled with odd, towering trees of a deep brown that reached impossibly high, their branches forming a web-like canopy that allowed only scattered glimpses of the world above. Through these openings, Jelani could see that at the mountain's peak stood a silver tower shrouded in mist.

The sky was a pure, inky black, devoid of clouds or stars. Hanging above it all was a moon that shone with an unnatural, neon green hue. Jelani's eyes were drawn to it, transfixed by its alien beauty before he forced his gaze back to the silver spire. That had to be the goal of this challenge, he reasoned. The whole scene looked like something conjured up within a vast void, an elaborate set piece for some cosmic drama.

Jelani quickly checked himself, noting with relief that the wounds in his chest were gone. His work shirt still bore the bullet holes, a grim reminder of how close he'd come to death. As he took in his surroundings, he realized he wasn't alone. People of various ages and ethnicities stood scattered throughout the clearing, all looking as confused and disoriented as he felt.

"So much for a solo trial," Jelani muttered to himself. Of course this "bond breaker" would want to test multiple people at once. A fleeting thought of Kamari, lying dead back in that Atlanta alley, threatened to overwhelm him. Jelani pushed it aside, steeling himself. He'd honor the boy by succeeding here.

As Jelani scanned the crowd, trying to gauge his potential competition, a crucial question formed in his mind: "Are there limited spots to succeed, or can we all make it if we finish the trial?"

His eyes landed on a brunette guy in a tattered firefighter's outfit, clutching his stomach and looking like he was still trying to process their new reality. "Poor bastard must've had one hell of a vortex break experience," Jelani thought.

Nearby stood a Middle Eastern man in military gear, alert and assessing the situation with practiced ease. A European woman in torn corporate attire was tying her hair back, a look of grim determination on her face. An East Asian girl with vibrant red hair seemed transfixed by the eerie green moon overhead.

As Jelani continued his survey, he noticed that nothing had happened yet beyond their arrival in this strange realm. The initial shock was wearing off, replaced by a simmering anger that burned in his chest like hot wax under a dying flame. Those enforcers and radiants back in Atlanta—they were prime examples of the kind of people holding back real progress. Jelani swore to himself that he'd get payback, and then some. But first, he had to succeed in whatever this trial turned out to be.

Looking around at the gathered group, Jelani decided it might be best to try and obtain more information from his fellow participants. The entity had seemed to speak to him directly earlier, but he wasn't sure if otherworldly beings had some kind of automated response system. Maybe someone here had asked different questions and gained special insight.

Jelani knew no one was obligated to tell him anything, but he figured it was worth a shot. He approached a dark-skinned man in his early 30s with a high-top fade, wearing a scorched light brown short-sleeve shirt and khaki pants. The man was kneeling beside one of the twisted trees, looking lost in thought.

"What's up, man?" Jelani called out as he drew near. "Where you coming from?"

The response he got was hesitant and in what sounded like French. Jelani's heart sank a little. This confirmed his suspicion that they'd pulled people from all over the world, which meant not everyone would be able to communicate easily.

Jelani tried to think of something else to say, but all that came out was a awkward, "No English?"

"No English," the man replied in a thick accent, shaking his head.

Accepting that this conversation wasn't going anywhere, Jelani decided to look elsewhere for information. As he moved through the clearing, he passed several battle-hardened looking South Asian men crouching or leaning against trees shrouded in darkness.

"Lots of serious types out here," Jelani thought to himself. "I've got some fight experience if it comes down to it, but I'm no military guy. Gonna have to watch my back."

Ahead, he spotted two guys who seemed to be around his age, speaking to each other. One was a dark-skinned man with waves in his low-faded hair, wearing a tattered black and white suit that looked like it had been well-tailored before whatever hellish experience had left it dirty and torn. What looked like bite marks peppered the fabric.

To his right, leaning against a tree, was a young Latino-looking man with plaited hair. He wore a black hoodie torn at the neck, dried blood staining the upper chest. A denim jacket was draped over his shoulders, and he had on baggy jeans tucked into Timberland boots.

As Jelani approached, both men tensed slightly, sizing him up. Their posture remained non-aggressive, but the wariness in their eyes was clear. Jelani gave them a casual nod, which they returned after a moment's hesitation.

"Alright, they seem cool," Jelani thought. "Let's see what I can find out."

He closed the distance and dapped them both up, a small gesture of solidarity in this bizarre situation. "I'm Jelani, from Atlanta," he said by way of introduction. "Where y'all from?"

The man in the suit replied first. "Tobi. Originally from Nigeria, but I've been living in Houston."

The other guy nodded. "Reason. Straight outta the Bronx."

"Y'all knew each other beforehand?" Jelani asked, curious about their easy rapport.

Tobi shook his head. "Nah, we just met. Woke up kind of close to each other."

"Pause," all three of them said almost in unison, the reflex bringing a light chuckle from the group. It was a small moment of levity, but it helped break some of the tension that had formed in the wake of their shared, insane circumstances.

Reason cleared his throat, gesturing at their battered appearances. "Based on our clothes, I'd say we all had a rough time. But damn, they really did a number on you, especially." He nodded towards Tobi's shredded suit.

Up close, Jelani could see the extent of the damage. Sizable claw marks ran from Tobi's chest down to his groin. Jelani winced internally, not wanting to imagine what that must have felt like.

Tobi's expression darkened. "Got left for dead," he said simply, his tone flat.

Reason touched his neck, where Jelani now noticed a thin, angry scar. "Got involved in some shit way above my pay grade. Ended up getting my throat slit."

Jelani looked down at the bullet holes in his own chest, a grim reminder of his near-death experience. "I got fucked over and left to die," he said, matching their matter-of-fact tone.

"Definitely convenient that our potential patron found multiple people fucked over on death's door to offer power," Jelani added, unable to keep the sarcasm from his voice.

Tobi nodded, his eyes scanning their surroundings. "Never expected I'd be on the other side of a vortex," he mused. "But here we are."

Reason cleared his throat, gesturing at the twisted landscape around them. "So, this is where we're supposed to prove ourselves, huh? Gotta say, this place definitely looks like the dark realm of some fucked-up wizard or something."

"It does have a certain... ambiance," Tobi deadpanned, eyeing a nearby tree that seemed to be pulsating slightly. "Most likely the kind of environment designed to keep things dead."

Jelani nodded, his gaze drawn once again to the sickly green moon hanging over the mountain peak. Its otherworldly glow cast long shadows across the clearing, making everything seem slightly unreal.

"So," Jelani asked, turning back to his new acquaintances, "what did our generous host tell y'all about this trial? 'Cause all I got was some cryptic explanations and a vague promise of 'true power'."

Reason shrugged. "I asked mad questions, but the answers kept getting more and more abstract. To me, it sounds like we're doing some test to become freedom fighters for some otherworldly boss."

Tobi's brow furrowed. "I didn't get much about the trial itself, but it mentioned something about entities trying to tie us to them. So my only realistic conclusion is that this is a separate being taking advantage of the chaos to make us work for them."

Jelani nodded slowly. "I'm thinking along the same lines. The timing was too convenient, what with vortexes opening right as we're dying. But my gut tells me that this special awakening might give us an edge against everybody else back home."

As conversations amongst the larger group began to grow louder, a sudden formation of light in the center of the clearing caught everyone's attention. Out of thin air, a tall, slim-built yet imposing spectral knight appeared.

The being wore dark armor that suggested an elite warrior built for speed. Its helm, adorned with curving horns, left its eyes and lower face exposed, revealing a transparent, neon green form. Between the gaps in the knight's armor, a translucent green energy pulsed, showcasing that this was no living being. Strapped to its back was a sheath holding a large sword. The knight's mouth began to move, but instead of sound, Jelani heard words forming directly in his mind.