Notes from the Demon King, page 351:

The trial of gates is arguably one of the hardest trial that any mage must face. Add to that the fact that is the first trial and the difficulty effectively skyrockets.

It is not the fact that the trail is dangerous that makes it so hard, though in many of the challenges you are likely to ‘die’ and be expelled, it is the fact that the trial has so many “moving parts” that make it hellish.

First, you have to figure out the fact that you need to put the key to your eye, which make no sense and usually takes a challenge or two to get someone that desperate, but whatever. Then, you have to solve the puzzle your presented with when looking through the key, with no reference or instruction, mind you. You just have to figure out what you think the solution is and hope you get it right. Because if you're wrong you're going to have to face another challenge. Once you finally succeed, guess what, most people have to do it again. And some a third time. And on rare occasions, like myself, a forth or even fifth. And I haven’t even discussed the challenges yet. It’s been over 225 years since I faced the trial of gates and I can tell you without doubt that the challenges suck. Each incorrect gate that you try to access nets one challenge, they range in content depending on the element the gate represents and are different for every person, based mainly off your subconscious interpretations and impressions of that element. Like pretty much everything in magic. What ties them all together is that you are usually in pain of some sort afterwards, be it physical, mental, emotional or etcetera.

And then once you’re finally found all your gates. Once you’ve activated all your cores. Once you’re finally done.

Only then can you finally leave…and the real work begins

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Chapter six

Kenn-

Kenn. Wanted. To. Scream.

He had been burned, battered, thrown across a room, and nearly torn apart, before he had found his first gate.

When he had used the key, instead of being pulled into a challenge, it felt like something inside him instantly became clear. As if he had just put on glasses for the first time, he could feel more than see a pulsing ball of chrome light floating somewhere within him, maybe his abdomen.

The power of the thing, his core, flowed into him like a torrent. It felt sharp and hard, but not painful, and he instantly knew what it represented. Not its name, but it’s essence.

A sword, a shield. Armor and mail. Pole arms and maces and claymores and…

Kenn choked in a breath, his mind suddenly pulling itself from the spiral in his center. The first of his two key cards disappeared as the door swung open, letting the power it contained rush into the hotel-like configuration of his soulspace.

Decorative weapons appeared on the walls, suits of plate-male forming at attention, shoulders back against the wall. Giving the hotel a medieval stylization that Kenn very much liked.

He turned to the Demon King, who was in the form of a valet, and explained what he had experienced.

“An armament affinity, sounds like. A broader version of both the weapon and armor affinity. Which interestingly enough are themselves broader versions of affinities like blade, mace, bow, etcetera, and the many armor affinities that exist. In fac-” The Demon paused, clearing his throat when he saw that Kenn was obviously not listening, “My point is it's a pretty good affinity. You may not be totally useless in the future after all, Although, the odds are against that.” He chuckled seemingly oblivious to the fact that said ‘pretty good affinity’ would be used to stop him from destroying the world. “You still have another gate to find, right? Get to it.”

With a nod, Kenn turned back the room doors, but not without stealing a look at the demons butt in the tight staff uniform pants.

"I know your looking. And hey, I don't blame you. I’m flattered but I don’t go that way with students. Feel free to enjoy the view though.” The demon called back, giving a little wiggle.

Kenn’s face went hot at being caught. He was just glad he couldn’t visibly blush.

Shaking of the embarrassment, he had placed the key card to his eye, looking through a hole in the top where one would have string or something to allow the user to wear in like a necklace.

And that’s what he had been doing for what felt like the last five hours.

Kenn groaned, slamming his head against the wall. It had been so easy the first time.

Then, when he looked through the card the doors had all started glowing different colors, he just had to find the one that matched the color on the key. It was harder than it sounded because he needed an exact match and with the number of doors close shades were inevitable. It didn't help that the color had been gray. There were like fifty different shades!

He had succeeded after, as stated earlier, being burned, battered, thrown, etcetera. He was exhausted by the end and probably scared for life, but he had made it.

This time though, it seemed he was in for an even harder puzzle.

Kenn didn’t even know where to start with this one.

Lines stretched across the hall, each one connecting one door to another. Each door linked in an endless web that meant absolutely nothing to Kenn. He’d tried following the line from his first gate to the one it connected too but that failed, forcing him to complete another trial when he tried the door. The decay gate or something he guessed based on it having the decor of a junkyard filled with rotting wood and old rusting metal. He was lucky to escape tetanus free.

Hoping for some kind of help Kenn, looked at the card. he found nothing but a random series of letters. ‘C S A P E’ he was sure they were important but without any reference they were meaningless.

With no other leads, Kenn looked to the Demon King for advice.

“Do you have any idea what’s going on here?” he sighed, handing the demon the key card which he took and put to his eye, stroking his chin thoughtfully with his other hand.

“Hm… I don’t necessarily have the answer but if I had to guess, try considering possible connections between the linked doors. What was the gate you just challenged?”

“The decay gate or the trash gate or something” Ken answered “there was a lot of rusted metal and rotting wood and stuff”

“Sounds like the deterioration gate, a terrifying magic type to combat. Imagine having your skin forcibly aged centuries in seconds and it’s even worse on equipment. The only saving grace is their spell casting is usually slow becau- your not listening again are you.”

Kenn shook his head honestly.

The demon sighed "I guess I was getting of topic. Now, deterioration connected to armament… “ The demon snapped his fingers in triumph “Got it!”

“Did you figure out the answer?”

“If I did, what type of teacher would I be if I told you? You use your brain little enough as it is as your group’s tank, figure it out your self.”

Kenn felt indignation rise “I’ll have you know, acting as a tank takes a lot of thinking in the form of strategy and planning. You have to know when to push forward or turn back for heal an-”

“Yeah yeah Heavy, I’ve heard this before, I’ve been on the TF2 forums. Tanks are the bottoms of any party, and you know it. But sure, tell yourself whatever helps you sleep at night, I’m still not telling. I already gave you a hint what more do you want?”

“An answer” the warrior muttered, but left it at that.

Why had he expected an actual demon to be helpful

The demon king handed Kenn back the card. With a smile that would have been encouraging without the sarcastic shine in the demon’s eyes.

The young man groaned and got back to work.

Kenn decided to work smarter rather than harder, making his way to a gate that’s challenge he’d already completed and remembered the element of.

The stone gate had been a challenge that required him to carry a heavy rock to a pressure plates to get access to the door, doing so before a time limit ran out, measured with an hour glass filled with pebbles. He would never forget the stress, desperation and exhaustion that lay behind that door. Which made it the perfect starting point.

He made sure to follow the line exactly, harder than it sounded with all the intersections and crosses, and it wasn't long until he came to another door,

“Okay” Kenn said taking a deep breath and opening the door, there was the now familiar sucking sensation, and he found himself standing somewhere else.

Kenn stood on a ledge about six feet above the floor below, a ladder off to his left assumedly to allow him to get back up if and when he fell.

He looked down at the floor to his surprise there were no spikes, no deadly traps, nothing. This must be a timed challenge then. He didn't know what happened when the time on those ran out, but it couldn’t be anything good. He was guessing the spikes he noticed on the ceiling had something to do with this particular punishment.

Looking more closely at the floor, Kenn thought he saw what he was supposed to do

There was a checker pattern of large holes in the floor, placed at regular intervals.

He climbed down the ladder. Carefully walking over to one of the holes and attempted to look down it.

Kenn immediately felt like his face was going to be ripped off by the torrent of air that was rushing out of the hole. It blew completely upward in an impossibly straight and precise manner.

Kenn glanced up at the ceiling spikes.

“Got it. Getting launched up there equals getting impaled.”

He searched the area a bit more, coming across the exit which was on a ledge about 10 feet higher than the one he had started on. The challenge was getting up there but how?

It had something to do with the updraft holes obviously. But what.

He couldn't just jump into the nearest wind tunnel and hope for the best. I mean… he could, but he doubted it would end well. There had to be something he was missing. Unlike the actual trial itself all the challenges had had obvious solutions.

He walked back to his starting point and searched the ledge, looking for anything he may have missed.

He found it under his feet. The floor moving slightly when he scuffed it with his heel.

On closer inspection, Kenn found that the ledge floor wasn't really a floor at all, more of a collection of 40 or so large tiles, plasticity in texture and, when he bent down to lift one, surprisingly light.

Kenn looked at the tile in his hand and then back at the air blowing out of the ground.

He had an idea, and he was either going to feel like an idiot or a moron after this. But there was a small chance he was a genius.

He carried the tile over to the nearest hole and threw it into the updraft.

It hurdled upward pushed by the wind and then stopped flying just a little further due to momentum and then falling back down, caught stably by the air current.

Kenn’s plan had sort of worked… the tile did float as he had been thinking, but he had wanted to use it as a platform he could stand on that wasn't a possibility with the tile being way higher than he could possibly reach. It was closer to the ceiling than to his ledge.

Kenn stared forlornly at the results of his plan, but he couldn’t be deterred going back and grabbing another tile he trekked over to the second closest hole, vent maybe, this time the tile flew up much higher.

On his third try it stopped much lower, and the fourth was even lower, low enough in fact that he could pull himself up to stand on it, the wind seeming to increase to support his weight.

Kenn remembered a video game he had played on earth, one puzzle had required the player to walk a set path on a large group of tiles, what if this was the reverse of that. What if he had to create his own path in the right order.

Kenn frowned at the tiles he had used already, that was a tenth of his supply before he had even figured out what he was doing…

So how was he supposed to know which vents went in what order. He tried testing the air pressure with his arm, but it all felt the same to him. Maybe they were reacting to the air in some way, or maybe it was magic. This was his soul or subconscious or whatever he doubted things always had to make sense.

It didn't take Kenn as long as he thought it might to figure it out. By the edges of the hole was a mark, checking the other holes he saw there were a set near each hole’s edge, they were Roman numerals, going from one to ten repeatedly and most definitely not in order. With the highest he had placed at this point being a six, and the lowest that he had stood on being a one.

So finally, the actual challenge was to find the fastest path to the door and place the tiles before… time ran out… He had forgotten about the time! He had been acting like he had as long as he wanted to look around, he hadn’t even seen what was measuring the count down yet, but he was sure he was running out of time.

In a bit of a frenzy Kenn frantically began searching for the nearest two,

The next fifteen minutes were spent hurriedly finding the correct order of vents to place tiles on. There were times that Kenn had to form a bridge of sorts to reach the next highest step, and with one tile here and another there, sometimes going down a step only to move back up, by the time he was done he had used all of the tiles he had.

Now was just to walk it.

The walkway was thinner than it looked, Kenn was forced to balance across feeling like he was on a tight rope as the squares were too small for him to walk with both feet placed normally. It didn't help that the tiles bobbed a bit when weight was put on them

Kenn tottered as fast as he could following the path he had created just minutes before, cursing his past self most of the way. Why had he placed these in such a hurry? There were so many unnecessary twists, turns, and dips, where he would have to balance to the side, or right his direction mid-step or make little hops. All when a fall meant, ironically, being skewered on the spikes above his head.

Kenn hopped over to the next tile, slightly higher than the last one and stumbled, he felt the wind brush his boys as he fell forward crotch first, barely managing to catch himself and stumble backward landing hard on his ass on the tile behind him.

Awkwardly standing with his feet placed perpendicular to each other and continuing on.

Kenn was about halfway to the door when he heard it.

Tlic

The sound of something hard but light hitting the ceiling. He turned to the direction of the noise only to see the first tile in his path pushed against the spiked ceiling by intense air pressure. The air that had been holding it up multiplied indefinitely. As he watched the same happened to the next. And then one of the tiles he had placed incorrectly slammed against the ceiling. And another and another… He was out of time.

It was time to run!

Kenn sprinted across the remaining tiles with only the barest regard for safety. Nearly falling off several times when he had to turn, and just jumping across any dips.

All the while the tiles rose faster and faster, gaining on him. He could hear the clicks getting closer and with every glance back he managed to steal there was one less tile separating him from a spiked demise. Soon it got to the point where each tile Kenn stepped off was flying off to join its brothers.

He was just six steps from the end now. He could make it.

Five!

FOUR!

THREE!!!

TWO!!!

As the very tile under his feet began to rise Kenn vaulted forward, landing in a slide on the exit ledge.

He felt joy, he felt pride, he felt relief. And as the entire room began to shake with the force of the spiked ceiling slowly pushing its way down. He felt the need to get the fuck out of there.

With the last of his strength Kenn pulled the door open and part scrambled and part tripped trough.

He groaned, laying on the floor of the hall for a long second. With an effort of will Kenn forced himself to stand. He jumped as he noticed the demon king standing barely a foot away from his face. The demon had definitely not been there a second ago.

“I’m guessing that was the air gate.”

“Why is that” Kenn asked looking at himself for anything that would suggest that.

"Mostly all the air involved in that challenge… unless that was the title gate, but I don't see how tiles…"

"Wait, how do you know that!?"

"I was watching from out here. You can see though the doors when you go through them. You did surprisingly good by the way. I was shocked you could accomplish the bare minimum. "

"Umm… thanks. I think?"

Kenn thought over the connection between, earth and air. He had an idea, but he decided to do a few more tests to make sure.

Time didn't mean much within the trial, but from Kenn's perspective he spent about the next two days doing gate challenges.

The clothe gate was connected to the needle gate

The steel gate was connected to the lightning gate

The beast gate was connected to the plant gate

The fire to water.

Poison to medicine.

Knowledge to flesh.

Earth to air...

"I figured it out!”

“Hm?” The demon King looked up “It really took you that many challenges? I was thinking you were just a masochist or something,” Kenn glared and the demon relented “oh okay. What do you think it is?”

"I figured out the connections between the gates!” Kenn stated proudly “Its elemental weaknesses!”

The demon king turned to Kenn, looked him in the eyes, and burst out laughing.

“There's no such thing as ‘elemental weaknesses’, kid. This isn’t Pokémon. What do you think, the wind is going to do more damage to a bolder because some random law of the universe says so? Things are just things here, even with magic.” The demon whipped a tear of mirth from his eye, causing Kenn to want to die. In that moment, he understood how Hailey felt.

“But I do think you were on the right track. Have you considered plain opposites, just because there’s no magical significance doesn't mean elements aren't opposites of each other ”

“But… A lot of the one that went through aren't actually opposites of each other. I only thought They might be Elemental weaknesses because it kind of made sense.”

“You forget that we’re in your soulspace, which is connected directly to your subconscious. As long as the elements are conceptually opposites to you that's all that matters. I mean dogs and cats aren’t opposites, but we think of them as such, it's the same principle”

“Oh. that makes...sense?” Kenn frowned “but how does knowing that help me”

“I don’t know, you have to figure out what your looking for tho opposite of. Or maybe you’re looking for a door with no opposite. Or maybe a door with every opposite. Have you noticed any kind of pattern in the links you’ve tested so far.”

Kenn thought about it felling like the answer was on the tip of his tongue.

All the ones he had considered the weaker of the set had always been on the opposite side of where he had started.

If he came out of a challenge the weakest of the next pair was always on the opposite wall while the stronger one was on the same side as him.

What did that mean…?

If he always came out on the same side as what he considered the stronger option maybe his subconscious was trying to lead him somewhere.

Seizing that line of thought Kenn followed his gut on the next gate to open.

Once he completed that challenge he turned to the first door that he saw and entered it. he followed this pattern for a while, determined on trying every door in the hall if necessary over the next few hours.

Sometime later, Kenn was pulled into the next gate, finding himself in a small room connected to a hallway. The entire place was white, and sterile feeling. Reminding the warrior of a laboratory somehow, on the wall furthermost from the hall were a set of markings, each a different color.

Red, blue, yellow, purple, green, orange.

“Uhg, another puzzle!? I’m too dumb for this!!!” With a sigh Kenn turned and walked down the hallway, It was a lot shorter than it looked. He came out in a larger room, about the size of his high school gym back on earth. In the room were six pillars, placed seemingly randomly around. Each was one of the colors Kenn had seen on the wall of the last room.

From left to right Purple, blue, orange, red, green, yellow.

Above it all were five clear hovering crystal orbs.

When Kenn stepped in to the room there was a jerking sensation, that felt like his mind was being tugged from his body.

And he found himself standing slightly to the right, in the middle of the circle or symbols, he must have stepped into it by accident, was it a trap?

Kenn tensed up prepared for the worst, but when nothing happened after a few seconds he shrugged deciding to continue on.

As soon as Kenn stepped out of the circle the ticking began. He panicked looking around for some change or obvious device to deal death to him and/or explain the sound. On his glance upward he noticed that all five of the orbs were glowing with the right most one dimming quickly, as it winked out the next crystal in the line began to dim, a time limit and a ridiculously short one at that.

Taking a guess at what he was supposed to do, Kenn ran over to each pillar touching them in order of the colors in the other room.

Red, blue, yellow, purple, green, orange.

As soon as he touched the orange pillar the ticking stopped. A ding sound resonated though the air and when Kenn looked all the crystals had gone dim, excluding one, which now glowed green in contrast.

Suddenly there was the jerking sensation again, and he stood back in the circle of runes, was the room a little bigger now?

At a glance Kenn could tell things had changed. The room was definitely bigger, about 100 by 70 feet, and the pillars had moved to new random locations, the only pattern was they were all further away than they had been before.

“So not a puzzle after all” Kenn thought with a smirk. He was far from out of shape from working as an adventurer for the last year, and a lot of that time had been spent running away from things. Hell, he had just outrun a giant pig before he even entered this stupid trial. If it was a physical challenge he was up to it.

By the time the fourth crystal was green Kenn’s clothes were matted with sweat, his breath came in gulps of air and his legs barely held him upright in the circular starting point. He would have killed for a glass of water or even one of Ali’s icebolts to the face.

In addition to the room getting bigger each round, it was now nearing the size of a football field, the green crystals didn't seem to count for the count down, so the time he had for each run was less than before. He found this out the hard way when he had failed to make all the pillars the third time, thinking he had more time than he did. Luckily, it hadn't made him fail the trial all together, but it had resulted in the third orb turning a glaring red along with a loud blare. Kenn was guessing he either needed three out of five green to succeed of four out of five. If it was the former this last run was just a formality, if it was the latter… it was best to assume the worst.

Kenn took in one final deep breath mentally preparing for the coming hardship glanced up at the one crystal that would decide his fate, and sprinted off to the Red pillar. He put on more speed as he went, touching the pillar and pushing of it to conserve momentum. The crystal was loosing light, he’d have to be faster, Pulling just a bit more on his reserves Kenn pushed his legs forward, Almost crashing into the blue pillar holding out his arm he reached out to use the pillar as a pendulum to add more speed. He felt something in his arm tear at the action, but it hardly mattered now. The crystal was halfway dark. Kenn reached out His arm burning with the effort and tapped the yellow pillar running past it to his next target. His hand landed on the purple pillar. He turned pushing off again with all the force he could muster, dispite the damage to his arm.

He caught a glimpse of the orb, just over a forth lit, as he passed. Closing with the green pillar as it became little more glow than a dying bulb. It would be close but he could make it. Kenn pushed off the green pillar with all the muscles in his body, pulling the last of his strength from his reserves and slamming it into his legs, his lungs burned, his vision blurred and the crystal dimmed the warrior reached out, growling like some sort of beast that had escaped its cage, and tapped the orange pillar just as the orb winked out.

Kenn looked up, wondering who had prevailed in this photo finish. It ha been the exact moment. Only the trial knew which had happened first. A long moment passed as the entire world seemed to watch with bated breath, Kenn could practically hear the demon king munching on popcorn during this dramatic moment.

With a flicker, almost seeming hesitant the crystal glowed green, a door appearing in a flash of light right in front of Kenn, who grinned like a little kid, too exhausted to cheer.

Kenn stepped out of the gate, barely standing, forcing his legs to move he crossed the hall, following the line visible through the card and opened the connected door,

Rather than another challenge Kenn barely had time to feel shock as his vision shifted inward.

He felt another ball of light stoked to brightness, this one a pale brown, almost almond but much lighter to the point it was almost white.

As he looked into it Kenn felt... age. He felt young and old. He felt one moment move to the next. He felt nanoseconds become seconds, and second become minutes, and minutes become hours. He saw a baby born and eventually grow into a wise old man. He saw a seed be planted and growing into a beautiful flower, its own seeds falling to the dirt in following suit.

Kenn saw endless cycles, endless lines, endless change, because above all that was all it was change. Forever. Every heartbeat to the next changed, it wa-

Kenn snapped out of the visions.

HE HAD DONE IT!!!

The magic rushed from the door into his soulspace. Grandfather clocks appeared next to the suits of armor, Hanging clocks graced the walls, a wrist watch even appeared on Kenn’s arm.

“I am fucking flabbergasted…” groaned the Demon king, mouth agape.

“What? That I solved the puzzle” Kenn said with a prideful snort.

“No you didn’t! You just opened every door until you got the right one. That was just trail and error! You're lucky that we were so close already or else we could have ended up here for months if you had kept that ‘solution’ up! I mean it's kind of impressive in a completely idiotic sort of way! Did you forget about the letters on the card or something have you even check those once since you looked at them the first time?”

Kenn shook his head dejectedly.

“No, I bet you didn't. You- wait” The Demon King looked taken aback finally noticing how the hallway had changed once the new type of mana had entered, “clocks? A clockwork affinity? Usually those represented by wind-up toys or something… A mechanic affinity then? No… clocks are too specific Then… W-what?” the demon king stared at the clock as the second hand barely moved, Kenn wouldn't have noticed it any other time, but now it just felt so significant now.

“It can't be…”

“What is it?” Kenn asked getting worried

“This clock… all these clocks… are synced to real world time… Kenn, I need you to be very clear with this. What did you feel when you opened the door?”

Seeing only seriousness reflect in the red eyes of the demon, and despite the general distrust he still felt for the man-creature, Kenn described the experience of unlocking his second core in as much detail as he could manage, the edges were already getting fuzzy, like a dream.

“But… that's not an affinity…” the demon king spoke as if in shock

“What do yo-”

“Kenn I don't think you understand… I have never heard of this affinity before… but based on your explanation there's only one word that fits…”

“And what word is that…?”

“Kenn my friend, you have what may be the first ever TIME affinity.”

Kenn took a step back as he watched a grin stretch across the face of the demon king

“And we’re going to use it to make you a hero”