Torrin slightly raised his head as the gate creaked open. His next challenger was someone he knew well, someone he used to know, at least.

"Get up, Rin." The name was spat with venom as the man slowly walked towards him.

'Whoever this Master guy is, he's a real dick.' Torrin thought, as he clambered up to his knees.

"Or just stay down, and die like the disappointment you are, you dishonorable cur." The man sneered at Torrin with obvious hatred as the deep baritone of his voice echoed smoothly within the empty arena.

Torrin sighed, shaking his head slowly as he got his feet under him and stood up. He studied the man as they approached each other in the center of the arena, studied the familiar ghost from his past.

The young man stood two heads taller than Torrin, with broad shoulders, wearing a plate armor that shone a bright silver in the lights of the arena. A family crest composed of two interlocked swords with a blood red sun as the background was imprinted on the middle of the silver cuirass.

The challenger's face was tanned and chiseled, many would say handsome. His blonde hair was cut short and his green eyes were piercing. He had a heroic air about him as his armor clanked while approaching Torrin.

"Well, High Warrior Torrin Sesh... it is an honor to fight you," Torrin said sarcastically as the doppelganger stood a few feet away, donning his helmet. It was strange seeing his old face once more in person, rather than just seeing the shocked expression he wore looking into the vanity mirror in Perria's room in his nightmares.

"I can't say the same to you, Rin. You died with honor, but what you've become now is nothing more than a menace." The doppelganger spat.

"Yeah, yeah, I already know. Had a lot of time to think down in this hellhole." Torrin felt silly talking to himself, or at least this orb-generated representation.

'Hmm...It's quite fucked up to have to kill my former self to pass this test... What a shitbag ancestor you have, Lark.' Torrin thought sourly.

"Die!" The armored man yelled as he unsheathed his sword from the scabbard on his back and swung down at Torrin in one fluid motion, both hands gripping the hilt as to lend the blade extra speed and strength.

Torrin stepped to the side, parrying the strike with the weak part of his blade, causing it to veer slightly off course and miss him. Sesh recovered quickly, blocking Torrin's quick counter-strike.

Torrin was much faster than his former self, but he was also smaller and slightly weaker, so he needed to use his speed to his advantage. Seeing the diagonal strike aimed at his neck, he rolled backwards over his shoulder, planting his feet and springing forward with a counter-strike.

Sword energy coalesced along the blade as it swung horizontally, slicing a clean line left to right through the cuirass, but not deep enough to score blood.

Torrin instantly retreated, dodging the cheeky left hook that shot out from the warrior. As he backed off, he looked at the cuirass, his old family crest cut straight across the middle.

The doppelganger's broadsword roared to life with a bright sword aura, it looked powerful but was far less controlled than Torrin's.

The two shot towards each other, Sesh using all his strength with every blow. Seeing this, Torrin couldn't believe how clumsy the movements seemed now. He easily dodged each attack, knocking the broadsword aside each time.

More and more scratches began to appear on the silvery armor, and the warrior soon began to slow. Seeing the armored warrior begin to flag, Torrin took a risk, dashing inside his opponents guard, attempting to run his sword straight through the ghost's heart.

As Torrin's blade reached his opponent's armor and began to pierce through it, metal screeching against metal, the doppelganger turned his body slightly to the left, making the killing blow turn into a glancing strike that cut along his ribs, letting blood flow freely in his armor.

Keeping the momentum of his spin, the armored man sent his plated right elbow directly at Torrin's temple. Torrin was able to duck slightly as he wrenched his blade free of the armor, causing the elbow to graze the crown of his head instead of brain him.

Torrin felt slightly dazed from the glancing blow as he pulled the blade back. Torrin allowed himself to roll backwards with the momentum, landing on his feet. The doppelganger gave Torrin no time to think as he charged forward like an angry bull, sword point leading the way.

Torrin's eyes narrowed, he slashed his sword left and right, sending two arcs of sword light at the man's legs, scoring cuts through the already damage armor on both, before leaping to the side. Sesh's momentum faltered as the sword light landed.

The doppelganger removed his helmet, sweat streaming down his face, and threw it at Torrin before smiling.

"Looks like it's time to get serious, eh, Rin?" Sesh used a knife at his belt to cut his own armor off as Torrin regained his breath.

"Yeah, sure... Sounds great," Torrin replied with a thumbs up, hoping the man would take a bit longer. All this running around, rolling, and dodging had tired him out completely. He still hadn't recovered from his previous fight and his nose was still clogged with blood, making it harder to breath.

The now unarmored man twisted his body left and right, a slight cracking noise sounding out from his popping bones. Blood ran down his left side in a steady stream and the cuts on his legs had turned the man's tan trousers into a dark brown hue, but he still looked confident, wearing a smug smirk.

'What a pompous ass...' Torrin thought, rolling his eyes before shooting another sword light at his enemy to buy a little more time.

Sesh used a torrent of sword energy, striking back against the incoming attack. He was knocked back slightly and his sword slightly chipped on its edge.

The smirk was gone and the man's brows drew down in concentration. Torrin didn't like the more serious look and shot forward, adrenaline granting him a burst of energy.

The two slashed and sliced, parried and counter-attacked, dipped and dodged, the ringing of their blades a macabre melody. They became entangled in a deadly dance, both flowing through familiar sword forms as they fought for survival.

Sesh stepped his left foot back, raising his sword above his head, preparing a downward strike. A gleam appeared in Torrin's eyes seeing this.

The blade flew down, and Torrin batted it to the side, stepping into his opponents guard once more as a blazing sword aura formed on his straightened left hand. He stabbed directly through the doppelganger's chest, piercing his heart.

The two stood there, shock written on Sesh's face as he stared into Torrin's upturned gaze. Torrin stared back, a wash of conflicting emotions flickering across his visage. Sadness, grief, happiness, and regret all played a major role as the two stared at one for the last time.

Sesh coughed once, blood splattering onto Torrin's face, then he collapsed, turning into so much smoke on the wind.

'Well that was unnecessary as fuck!' Torrin shouted in his mind, wiping the blood from his face, pissed at whoever set this whole test up.

He shook his head sadly, watching the his former body disintegrate, blown away on an invisible wind.

A raspy voice rang in his mind, "Congratulations, descendant. By passing this trial you have proved your worthiness to inherit my master's legacy." The world blurred as the words slithered through his awareness.

Torrin closed his eyes from the disorienting feeling. Opening them once more, he found his face pressed to the floor, drool leaking from his mouth and golden runes shining light directly into his squinting eyes.

*SCREECH*

A sound of groaning metal rang out, as the entire wall opposite the room's entrance sank into the floor. Behind was a well-lit hallway, light reflecting and scattering strangely as it bounced off the metallic surface ahead.

Torrin sat up slowly, groaning, mind weary from the battles. He couldn't help feeling his victory was an important milestone for his future, as messed up as it seemed.

A long while passed as Torrin held his head in his hands, leaning back on the plinth, thinking over everything. He eventually decided to take a nap before the next leg of his journey, unsure of what kind of terrible tests awaited him down the well-lit hallway.

Surprisingly, for the first time since reincarnating in this world, Torrin slept peacefully, no nightmare accompanied the slumbering kid.

Torrin awoke some time later, feeling extremely refreshed. His mind felt renewed and he stood up, stretching like a cat.

His eyes roamed the room as he made sure nothing was left behind. The orb sat on the plinth, preening in all its glory. Torrin walked past it, heading down the hallway.

After a short walk, Torrin arrived at another glowing set of double doors identical to the first ones he'd encountered; the human on the left and the other being on the right. Torrin quickly smeared a bit of blood onto the door, causing the golden runes to bleed crimson light and the door to clang open.

He saw a deep darkness beyond the doors, the only light coming from some sort of glowing, golden container near the back wall. He walked forward hesitantly. His will washed over the room, not sensing anything living. As his foot passed the threshold, lights began to come on one by one in the ceiling.

Torrin stepped down a few stairs and was in the main area of the room. It was a large open space, with cages lining one wall. There were shelves on the opposite side of the room, containing boxes with strange labels on them that Torrin couldn't read. A few journals and books lined the shelves as well.

Various equipment and tables were near the shelves as well, but what caught Torrin's attention was the raised platform at the back of the room. The shining golden container sat atop a raised platform, about 100 feet from him, but even at that distance, Torrin could feel an oppressive power coming from the thing.

His brows rose in surprise at the feeling, scanning the room once more.

'This place is creepy as fuck, and that container is holding something very powerful...' Torrin thought as he walked towards the cages on the right side of the room. The cages held thin almost mummified remains, bones peaked out through decayed flesh.

The bones were interesting, instead of purely white, they had rainbow-like striations along them in various patterns, different for each body. There were 10 cages, 5 stacked atop another 5. He had never seen anything like it--rainbow bones.

Torrin walked towards the other side of the room and studied a few charts and diagrams that were perfectly preserved on a small table. He didn't understand the language that was written on the pages, but it seemed to be some type of energy circulation method, judging by the diagrams.

It reminded him of body strengthening techniques with Chi. Torrin passed the tables and tried reading some of the titles of the books on the wall. There were a total of ten thick books, that looked like diaries. They had titles that he didn't understand. Two thin books bound in hard leather could be seen at the end of the shelf, he took the books down and scanned the titles on the front.

"'Nim's Ascendancy 1' and 'Nim's Ascendancy 2'... What the hell?" Torrin wondered aloud.

He looked along another shelf and reached for one of the small containers. He realized they also had numbers on them and grabbed the one labeled '1'.

It was a small box--about the size of both his palms together--and he held it gingerly, taking it to one of the tables.

He tried opening it with his mana and will before sighing, cutting his thumb once more.

His blood lit the runes in red and the box opened with a clinking sound. He removed the lid and stared at the contents. It was some sort of tablet-like object with intricate runes covering the entire thing.

Torrin stared at the tablet for a long while, before deciding to come back to it. The last time he messed with something covered in runes his mind got sucked into a battle for his very soul.

He walked towards the stage at the end of the room. When he got close, he realized it wasn't actually the container that was glowing, but a liquid-like substance inside the glass-like barrier.

It flowed slowly, and he could see strange runes etched along the inside of the bottom of the container.

The container stood twice Torrin's height, filled with the strange liquid. Torrin felt a resonance with the liquid and had the thought to put his hand on the glass, so he did.

He screeched in pain as his right hand went straight through the barrier and into the liquid. A cracking sound rang out and Torrin quickly removed his hand in shock and pain. Grams' ring was cracked like a damn watermelon, runes sparking to life and dimming like crazy as his skin writhed on his hand.

His mana pathways were being stretched by the vicious, viscous energy, and he forced it out of his hand with pure willpower. Once the energy was gone the fire in his veins lessened, and his hand slowly returned to normal. The ring was done for and he drained as much mana from it as he could before removing it and storing it in his pouch.

"What...the...actual...FUCK?!" Torrin shouted as he glared furiously at the swirling liquid energy he'd stuck his hand into.