When Selvar opened his eyes, he found himself in slightly familiar territory. Selvar stood upon a golden platform with a pedestal in the center, and a wall of molten gold surrounding the platform. Upon the pedestal in the center was a golden shield. Recognizing the scene, Selvar gritted his teeth and picked up the shield. Almost instantly, figures covered in gold stepped through the veil of molten gold, to either side of Selvar, with only one side having any sort of weapons.

“So that's how you wanna play this, huh Andstine? All right, I'll play your game.” Selvar walked over to the side without weapons and raised the shield. “Your attributes are supposed to be honor and defense of the weak, right? Hah.” Stepping forth, one of the figures with weapons charged him. Meeting the charge head on with the shield, Selvar lowered the shield and slammed it into the figure. Raising the shield in a throw, Selvar threw the figure into the wall of molten gold.

Selvar raised his head to look at the group with weapons. “Who’s next? I'm not in the mood to play around.”

----------------------------------------

About half an hour later, Selvar had beaten every gold figure that came at him. He had disarmed one and picked up its blade, allowing Selvar to smash the other figures. Once the final one went down, the blade and the unarmed figures dissipated, along with the curtain of gold. With the curtain dissipated, Selvar could see the eight paths leading into infinity from the main platform. One figure stood in front of each path. Selvar instantly understood what to do. Stepping forth to one of the figures, it spoke.

“The two paths beside me are not the ones you seek.”

Sighing, Selvar first went towards the figure on his left.

“The path to my right is not the one you seek.”

Selvar almost laughed. Just from these two alone, he already knew the correct path was one of these two. Next, he headed to the figure to the right of the first one.

“The path to my left is not the one you seek.”

Selvar broke down laughing. “Come on! This is absurdly easy! Where’s the trial?” Walking back to the first figure, Selvar pushed him aside and stepped onto the path.

The path lasted for nearly forever. Eventually, the path came to another golden platform, this one with a single figure on it. Reaching the platform, Selvar stopped.

“So, you wanted to talk?”

The figure… nay, Andstine turned to face Selvar. “Thank you for completing the Trial of Honor.”

Selvar spit. “I'm not becoming your Champion. I'm already the Champion of Night.”

“Please, hear me out.”

“Alright, then speak. Explain exactly why the hell you haven't done anything about this ‘Holy Empire’ of yours.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

Andstine looked down. “I… have no control over them. If I speak to anyone and send them to deliver my message to the Empire, they’re declared a heretic and murdered. I even spoke to the Emperor, but while he's doing this in my name, he doesn't care for my worship at all. He's just using my name to further his own cause.”

“Your former Champion is still alive. You could have reinstated him and sent him. If the Empire literally can't declare him a heretic. You LET the Empire continue on this path. There's no such thing as no control, you've held the power to stop this before it even started. But, because you didn't want to just give a ring to your old Champion, thousands of people have been brainwashed in your name.”

Andstine’s head sunk further. “I… please, just don't murder them all… my worship has grown unpopular everywhere else, and they're all I have left…”

“You brought this upon yourself.” Selvar threw the shield to the ground.

“Please! I'm begging you! They're not all bad! Some are innocent!”

Selvar reached out to his side, Night energy swirling around him. “Those innocents have been brainwashed into ‘worshipping’ you. I'll shatter that spell with my power.” The Night energy condensed into a familiar silver blade, which Selvar grabbed the grip of. “I will not become your Champion. I, Selvar, Champion of the Night, refuse your request!” And with that, Selvar slammed the point of his blade upon the Shield of Andstine… and the shield shattered.

Andstine’s pleading face turned to horror, as the Trial started crumbling. “What… have you… done…”

All went black.

----------------------------------------

Selvar woke up in the Room of Night at Lesron. Blinking a few times, he went to get up… and found a girl in his bed. Recognizing the girl as Veren, he shrugged and got out of bed, being careful not to disturb her. Pulling a fresh set of clothing out of his pack, he put it on. Looking once more at Veren, he decided he couldn't just leave her in his room. Shaking her side lightly, Selvar tried to wake her up.

Veren slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was Selvar.

“Good Morning Lady Felsa.”

After a moment, Veren’s eyes snapped open wide and she scrambled back away from Selvar. Unfortunately, she moved a bit too far and actually fell off the bed, landing on the floor with a rather loud thump. “Why am I in your room!”

‘Selvar, she climbed into your bed last night. I do believe she was sleepwalking. Also, what the hell happened last night? Andstine’s Trial just… crumbled!’

“Night says you were sleepwalking and climbed into my bed.” Selvar spoke, then sent a message back to Night. ‘He pulled me into his Trial. I completed it, then we spoke. Eventually, I shattered his Shield. Why?’

“I don't sleepwalk anymore! I only did that when I was younger!”

“Evidently you do. Anyways, mind going back to your room? I have some studying to do.”

Veren huffed and ran out of Selvar’s room, closing the door behind her.

‘You… shattered the shield? How in the twelve hells did you do that???’

‘I summoned your blade and pierced the Shield. Then the Trial fell down around us.’

‘You destroyed a Relic. The Trials are linked to the Relics. You shouldn't have even been able to summon mine, since energy of other gods shouldn't be able to enter our respective domains…’

‘Really? I just kind of did it. Either way, what happened?’

‘Andstine is missing. Entirely. If we try to talk to him, he's just… not there. We have no idea WHAT happened.’

‘So… I basically just destroyed the god I hate most.’

‘I have no idea. I need to confer with the other gods about this. I'll talk to you later.’

Feeling the connection shut off, Selvar left his room to head to the main hall. He needed to head back to the library, to research some Mind magic.