Kael stood still, a faint ringing in his ears.
Seraphina's hand had just let go of his collar, her fingers slipping away without a word.
She stepped back, her breathing finally calm.
The storm behind her eyes was gone—replaced with her usual steel-like coldness.
She stared at him with an unreadable expression for a couple of seconds without speaking.
And then… she walked right past him.
Not a glance. Not a word.
She just moved straight toward the others.
Kael didn't move.
He just blinked confused.
'What the hell just happened?'
Before he could make sense of anything, he heard footsteps behind him.
Turning, he found Rylen walking up with that signature grin stretched ear to ear.
Rylen gave him a mysterious thumbs up. "Nice one, bro."
Kael's mouth twitched. "Wait, what—? It's not like that."
Rylen patted him on the shoulder, grin unwavering. "Sure, sure. I believe you."
Then winked. And casually walked off, humming.
"..." Kael stood there for another moment, still confused about what was going on.
✦✦✦✦✦✦
After the awkward moment and a lot of internal screaming, they set off through the endless desert in search of shelter.
Problem was, there was no shelter.
Just sand.
Endless, soul-destroying, ankle-swallowing sand.
By the time the sun had climbed overhead, they'd been walking for hours and ended up... right back where they started.
At the gate.
Kael dropped onto the hot sand with a groan. "At this rate, I'll die of sun irritation before we even have a chance to challenge the second gate."
The group sat in a loose, miserable circle, everyone shielding their faces however they could.
Kael, now sweaty and borderline delirious, narrowed his eyes at Rylen, who seemed... fine. Too fine. Suspiciously fine.
"Hey, Rylen," Kael said, his voice laced with suspicion. "You wouldn't happen to have anything on you? Say... like a portable shelter, right?"
Rylen tilted his head, blinked a few times, and then smiled. "Oh! Yeah. I've got a tent."
The silence that followed was painful.
Kael: "..."
Theo: "..."
Niko: "..."
Liri: "..."
Seraphina: "..."
And as if that wasn't bad enough, Rylen added, cheerful as ever: "It's even heat-resistant."
Kael slowly turned to Theo, his eyes pleading. "Hey Theo."
Theo didn't look up. "Yes?"
"We don't all have to make it out alive to pass this test, right?"
Theo sighed. "Unfortunately, we do."
✦✦✦✦✦✦
After several minutes of everyone trying to stop Kael from committing murder, Rylen finally pulled out the so-called tent.
"Let's see the useless thing," Kael muttered under his breath, expecting a flimsy excuse for shade.
And to everyone's surprise—it wasn't a lie.
The tent assembled itself with a mechanical hiss, unfolding into a large, sturdy dome with reinforced fabric and glowing runes.
It was wide enough for the entire team to lounge in, with enough leftover space for Rylen to dance in circles.
Which he actually did.
Twice.
Everyone immediately collapsed inside like they'd reached the promised land.
Kael lay flat on the cool floor, arms splayed. "I take it back. I love this tent. I'm marrying this tent."
Liri giggled softly, the first genuine laugh from her since the Test began.
Kael turned to Rylen, genuinely curious now. "Isn't it cheating to have stuff like this during a test?"
Rylen tilted his head. "Why?"
"I mean, it's clearly giving us an advantage. I doubt every group has someone walking around with a five-star hotel in their backpack."
Rylen shrugged, his smile unchanging. "Everything I brought, I made myself. Custom-built. If I bought it, yeah, maybe that'd be cheating. But I built it. Besides, the Archive allows only trinkets under Tier-3 to be used during this kind of tests."
"I guess that makes sense," Kael conceded. He then groaned and sank deeper into the mat beneath him. "Please let the next guardian be weak to sarcasm. It's the only weapon I've mastered."