Daiden acknowledged Aelius Bloodheart as a special existence. It impressed him when the latter moved with a sense of purpose and pride, dutybound to his status as a soldier of his world. His arms glided to a steady position, unhindered by the weight of his armour, and snapped to create shades of orange – light at first, and then as bright as the sun. The aura emanated a gentle warmth, forcing ripples into the fabric of the Earthen Realm. The air bent, twisted, and gradually thinned to unveil a world of darkness.

As an immediate reaction, Daiden gulped at what appeared to be the doorway to his new world. In that instant, Aelius moved away from the entrance and gestured for the former to take a step, his first into unchartered territories.

“I don’t have much time, but I can spare a few moments for last goodbyes,” reminded Aelius. “I relate to your situation, in part. As a child barely out of the stink of goat’s milk, I was forced to flee from my village, abandon my parents even…”

Aelius shrunk in a moment of weakness, with rare emotion. It passed in the blink of an eye.

Daiden noticed the change, but chose to refrain from asking for more than what was offered. His heart warmed to the presence of his once Evaluator. He empathized with the story, more so its abrupt end, but remained unfeeling to his past. Daiden realized it then, a passion that overrode what could only be described as cruel abandonment. He felt pained with the memories of his parents, but his years in misery urged towards a desire for change, for something different.

“There is no point in such sentiment,” said Daiden, politely. “In my time interacting with Ehedus, I requested the erasure of my existence from this world. That’s when I was granted my name – Daiden Lost, lost to the world that once raised me, loved me, cared for me.”

“A wise choice,” said Aelius, with a nod, in appreciation of Daiden’s decision. “Let us continue without delay then.”

Daiden firmed his heart and followed the will of his once Evaluator. He stepped into the rift and felt his skin tremble almost immediately. His eyes twitched from the pressure, and the fine hair on his arms bristled with restless anticipation. He shook away his tension and soldiered into the void, deeper until only the darkness remained. Daiden heard Aelius in footsteps, a little distance away, behind him. His confidence peaked in that moment; there was little to worry about. With every step, he forced a portion of his past into oblivion. His memories, once drenched with anxiety and depression, dulled, paving way to resilience and hope instead.

In time, a strand of light appeared – a path, merely flickers. Daiden grasped onto it and followed. He recognized the darkness as little more than a passage between worlds, but then paused thought at the sound of something strange, a scream. He heard it again, a cacophony. It grew louder through the echoes, each more disturbing than the last.

“It would be good for you to experience this first-hand,” said Aelius, over the noise. His lips twirled to a smile when Daiden turned to him, with a puzzled expression on his face. At the sight, the former regressed to his role as an Evaluator. “I could make this a little more rewarding for you, with your permission.”

Daiden meekly scratched the back of his head. He alternated his gaze between Aelius and the path in front of him. His lips almost parted for a response, but his heart pressured for another step. He resisted the latter.

“Yes, yes,” managed Daiden, in a stutter. “What did you have in mind?”

Aelius raised a finger and sparked the presence of his aeter. It shone with brilliance despite its size, a small, almost inconsequential sphere of pure energy. He slowly tilted his wrist and shot the aeter-made sphere to one side of the tunnel. It burst upon contact with the walls and illuminated what lingered beyond the darkness.

Daiden noticed it then, past the murky, translucent walls – the existence of a world filled with chaos and misery. The creatures moaned and screamed, removed from sanity, across lands filled with rust and decay. They drank mud in hope for moisture and ate flesh without reason. The smallest of creatures often died, becoming prey to those bigger in size, in an endless cycle of death and carnage.

Some observed the chaos from a distance, beings Aelius once described as intelligent, in degradation, the Contractors. They sat in a group, with what appeared to be stacks of paper, making notes in earnest. Their inherent nature struggled against the torment of their environment, in a battle that decayed their flesh, a losing battle. They persisted, nonetheless. It inspired Daiden, their existence within the world in between, a world that swallowed the very concept of hope.

“What did you have in mind?” repeated Daiden, carefully this time.

“I’m yet to think of an appropriate reward, but rest assured of its value to your growth,” promised Aelius, with a sly smile. “All you have to do is survive across the wall for ten minutes.”

Daiden’s eyes widened with amazement. His mind faltered at the suggestion, but recovered to normalcy with little effort. He stifled a laugh and clenched his chest instead. After some thought, he shook his head in refusal.

“Not yet, not without assessing my position in this new world,” thought Daiden, in self-observation. “Damn it, I’m tempted, but is it at all worth the risk?”

Daiden felt a pain emerge from his indecision. He considered the wager once more, but retaliated the thought in harsh criticism of his status as weak.

“Aelius wouldn’t have recommended the wager if it meant absolute failure, and I did draw a named weapon,” thought Daiden, in another evaluation. “But the variables, I simply can’t overrule the variables.”

Daiden remembered it around that time, of the exertion that led to his injuries. He then quickly turned to Aelius and apologized. “I’m not competent enough to challenge such a task, not at this time anyway.”

Aelius masked a frown and shrugged in acceptance of the apology. He retracted his magic from the tunnels and offered to take lead, as a guide, for the remainder of their journey. Daiden obliged without hesitation.

“Caution, not courage,” confirmed Aelius, in thought, now snickering at Daiden’s missed opportunity for an easy reward. “Did he not pay attention to when I described the world, as an ecosystem for the abandoned?”

Aelius dug deeper still, in consideration of the positives this time. “He’s still passable enough to recruit with some merits to his name. Well, I hope, at least.”

In that moment, Daiden hastened to a sprint when touched with a light from afar. It wasn’t magic, but sunlight. He recognized it without mistake, the presence of a world, beyond the end of the tunnel. His face felt a gentle breeze – fresh, cold, and comforting all at once. With the exit in front of him, Daiden trembled with childlike impatience. He wished for Aelius to hurry to his side.

“Just a moment, Daiden Lost.”