CHAPTER EIGHT: The Trial Beyond Fire

The world didn't look the same after the Gate.

Colors whispered now.

Time bent when Nyra blinked too slowly.

Her shadow… sometimes walked the other way.

Lucifer met her outside the war chamber, his arms crossed.

He looked at her like a proud executioner inspecting a perfected blade.

"You passed," he said simply.

Nyra said nothing.

The silence between them was heavier than steel.

Then Lucifer added:

"But passing means nothing. Until you've bled in real war."

He led her into the volcanic coliseum beneath the academy.

A hell-forged arena where screams soaked the rock.

It was silent now.

Because she was the only one scheduled to fight.

Her opponent?

Not a student.

Not even a creature.

It was a memory.

Lucifer's.

He created a replica of one of his greatest battles.

A demon-void titan from the Fifth Burned Realm.

Ten thousand souls trapped inside it.

Eyes like galaxies.

Its roar cracked clouds.

Lucifer waved his hand — and it appeared.

"Kill it," he said, "or die."

Nyra didn't flinch.

She leapt forward.

No glyphs.

No divine weapon.

Just her fists, wrapped in bandages soaked with gateblood.

She punched the titan's knee — and it laughed.

Its arm, the size of a continent, came crashing down.

BOOM.

The entire arena shook.

Dust and ash flew.

And Nyra was gone.

Until she wasn't.

She reappeared behind it, climbing its back with bleeding fingers.

Her left eye turned black.

Her bones cracked with each movement — too much power, too little vessel.

But she didn't stop.

She reached its core — a spinning sphere of trapped souls.

And whispered:

"You're already dead."

She touched the core — and absorbed its pain.

All 10,000 screams.

She didn't run from them.

She welcomed them.

And then—

She exploded.

When the light faded, the titan was dust.

Nyra knelt in the center of the crater, not breathing.

Lucifer stood at the edge, unfazed.

He walked toward her, then offered his hand.

She looked up.

And for the first time since training began…

She took it.

Later that night, Caelia found her in the garden.

Nyra sat under the broken moon tree, holding her head.

"I don't know what I am anymore," she said.

Caelia knelt beside her.

"You're mine," she whispered.

And kissed her.