Nameless King

When Vineta came to her senses, she smiled and headed for the tree with the massive green crown to the left of the path. She plucked a red apple from the tree and took a small bite. She acted like a typical traveler enjoying nature.

Vineta looked at the flower field and the huge waterfall.

"How beautiful..." Mumbled the girl admiring the bubbling water and the various flowers.

Wain watched this with a strange expression on his face and pondered the situation.

'Hmm, she's not acting as she did before. It feels like she's become more impressionable and emotional... Maybe her mind has been transported back to a few years ago when she was just a child?'

Wain didn't stay with Vineta for more than an hour, but it was enough for him to understand the girl's approximate character. In Wain's opinion, she was cold, calm, and rational. Vineta was something like him, only less aggressive and defiant.

"If the darkness has changed her conscious age, then perhaps the world looks a little different from her eyes than it does from my side." Mumbled Wain.

He was completely right. Even though Vineta was still wearing her silver armor and had long green hair, she saw a different scene. She was dressed in simple clothes and had a short haircut.

Crack.

When Wain thought about it, Venita's appearance suddenly changed to the one she sees. Then the girl walked forward. She headed toward the tunnel, far up the hill.

"Help!"

Suddenly there was a scream from the depths of the forest. Vineta grew wary but decided to go into the woods; she could not pass by when someone needed help.

Although Wain watched the ordeal from the outside, he could not yet see what had happened in the woods. Before the scream, a dark veil appeared over the woods, hiding the scene from Wain's view.

'Damn, the darkness knows how to intrigue. It's like I'm watching some film...' thought Wain.

Vineta ran into the woods following the cry for help. After a while, she saw a wounded man, and next to him lay a dead wolf. The beast had been killed with several stabs, but before it died, it managed to hurt a man seriously.

The man was bleeding profusely, part of the flesh on his leg had been bitten off, and there were numerous scratches and cuts on his body. He miraculously won the confrontation with the wolf, but he was on the brink of life and death.

Ten yards away was a mossy house with a pond nearby.

When Vineta saw the man, she immediately ran up to him and tried to help. She tore some of her clothes to dress the bleeding wounds and found healing herbs in the area. It wasn't enough, but Vineta did what she could.

Crackling.

Suddenly the door of the mossy cottage opened. An all-black silhouette resembling a man in a cloak and with a long wooden staff in his hand stepped out. Vineta smiled and headed toward the shape. She thought that the forest dweller would help them now.

Whoooosh.

However, reality turned out to be cruel. Several spheres appeared around the silhouette, which flew towards Vineta and pierced each of her limbs and stomach several times.

She could not dodge and be seriously wounded. Vineta was too weak to react to such an attack.

"What happened...?" Vineta mumbled with difficulty.

Blood flowed nonstop from her mouth and her eyes blurred. Her condition and the man's were fatal, and without help, they would both die.

The situation was hopeless, but suddenly the wooden staff glowed brightly, and a blue pill appeared before the silhouette. It shone brightly like a neutron star.

The pill fell into Vineta's hands, and the silhouette walked away. He closed the door, and the mossy house suddenly disappeared, but Vineta paid no attention to it.

At that moment, she stared intently at the pill in her palm. She could feel the tremendous energy emanating from the thing, and she was getting better by the second.

"Please... help me..." Mumbled the bloodied man.

He understood, as did Vineta, that this pill could save him. Vineta did not know what to do. She trembled and mumbled something uncertainly to herself.

Crackling.

Suddenly the man crawled toward her with the last of his strength. He wanted to take the pill away from her. At that moment, Vineta was trying to figure out what she had to do. She had to choose between herself and saving the other person.

'Huh, she had to decide what was more important to her, selfishness or self-sacrifice for the greater good.' Wain thought.

As the man crawled toward Vineta, he kept asking her for help. Finally, when everything blurred before her eyes, Vineta was ready to give up the pill. She had been taught since childhood to help others, even at the cost of herself.

Not every man was capable of sacrificing himself for others. History has awarded such men the title of heroes who have saved thousands of lives through their courage.

Vineta reached forward to make it easier for the man to take it.

'But... I don't want to die either...' thought Vineta looking at the bright pill.

'Why should I sacrifice myself if I want to live!'

She clenched her palm in her fist and threw the pill into her mouth the next moment. The man didn't expect her to change her mind suddenly.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, great, looks like this girl is better than I imagined." Wain laughed.

Whoooosh.

Vineta's body shone brightly blue, and her wounds recovered rapidly. She felt a great rush of energy, and after a while, she could stand firmly on her feet.

There was no trace of the wounds. Instead of scars, her skin was smooth and soft.

Then a dark spike pierced the man's body, turning his body to ink. It was proof that Vineta could pass this stage of the ordeal, but it was not the end.

Crackling.

Suddenly thunderclouds appeared in the sky, and the forest and flower meadow on the other side turned to ink. Likewise, Vineta's appearance began to change.

She returned to her former appearance with long green hair, amber eyes, and silver armor fitting tightly over her body.

There were no right or wrong choices in the trial of the World of Darkness. Each choice was right and wrong, depending on the situation and a person.

If Vineta had chosen to give the pill to a man, she would not have passed this stage of the test, and the World of Darkness would have killed her as unworthy.

However, this did not mean that the World of Darkness needed only selfish people.

The correct answer was the one Vineta truly wanted. If Vineta really believed that she had to sacrifice herself for others, then she would die if she succumbed to selfishness.

She made her choice, which was influenced by nothing but her desires, and that was the right answer.

This was also one of the reasons why the World of Darkness created such a location to test Vineta's.

Special conditions and unique circumstances were needed for each person. Since if Wain were to go through the same trial, it would be too easy.

Unlike Vineta, he wouldn't even think about which option to choose in this situation. He would instantly swallow the pill, so he had a different test.

Whoooooosh.

Vineta's memories were slowly coming back to her, but partially. She had to go through the next stage to complete the test.

At this time, the ink began to turn into a huge area. It was like a battlefield where warriors were gathered, and Vineta was in the role of commander.

To her right, a thousand dark silhouettes appeared. They were her warriors, whom she did not know, but they were part of her army and obeyed her.

Then just one silhouette appeared on her left, but it gradually transformed into a boy about seven years old.

Whoooosh.

Two bells appeared in front of Vineta, one black and the other iron with many cracks. Above the boy and the squad of dark silhouettes appeared huge swords.

"The Sword of Damocles..." Wain muttered. The scene reminded him that sometimes people have to make choices with no good options.

He didn't know who this guy was, but when Vineta saw him, tears came out of her eyes.

"Brother..." Mumbled the girl.

She hadn't seen him in a long time, for he had died several years ago in an accident. Now because of the influence of the World of Darkness on her mind, she thought her brother was alive and well. However, she had to make a choice.

Vineta had to decide who she would save, a thousand strangers or one.

Wain watched her closely, for he would have made that choice instantly.

Wain would not hesitate to kill a hundred, a thousand, or even a million people if there was even the slightest possibility of saving someone he cared about.

Of course, this was the wrong decision in terms of morality and rationality. After all, many people believed that the lives of all people were of equal value, and in such situations, one should always choose the majority.

In Wain's view, however, this was complete nonsense. People were not robots, each person had their own thoughts, feelings, and opinions.

To millions of people, someone could be a nobody, but that person was the most important in the world to the other one.

"I wonder what she will choose? Will it determine if she can pass the test of the World of Darkness and which option is the right one?" Wain muttered.

Vineta tried to run up to her brother, but an invisible wall stopped her. First, she had to make a choice.

The girl thought for a long time and decided to touch the dark bell. She was unsure of her actions.

Vineta wanted to save her brother, but she knew that she could not sacrifice a thousand people for one. He was the most precious person to her, but that was a subjective point of view.

However, when the tip of her finger should have touched the dark bell, the girl's gaze fell again on her brother.

"Good girl." Wain said with a smirk.

Vineta clenched her teeth with force, and I shouted in a fury, "To hell with you all!"

Crackle.

The next moment the darkness answered her call. Thunderclouds turned into a pillar of lightning and struck the thousand black silhouettes like a heavenly punishment. They died instantly and were turned to ash.

In the end, only Vineta and her brother remained in the square. But there was no more joy in her eyes, for then her memories returned. She understood that it was all a fake.

Whoooosh.

Suddenly her brother's body shattered into a thousand pieces that flew into her Soul Altar. She successfully passed the test and received the Seal of Darkness.

The darkness gradually disappeared, and Wain returned to the hall. He looked curiously at Vineta, who was trying to make sense of what had just happened.

'The main theme of her ordeal was choice, and at the end, it was resolved by a pillar of lightning... I wonder if it had something to do with her personality, lived events, and strength? Our trials were as drastically different in every aspect.' Wain thought.

"What is this seal..." Vineta muttered.

Then she turned around and saw Wain. To her surprise, he was back in the room, looking at her with a calm face.

Whoooosh.

Vineta immediately stepped back, and a lightning spear appeared in her hand. She was wary as she thought it was all Wain's fault.

It made sense, Wain disappeared at the most opportune moment and then reappeared as if nothing had happened.

"Calm down. I had nothing to do with it. The same thing happened to me once." Said Wain, and his Seal of Darkness glowed brightly.

Vineta felt it. Moreover, given that Wain had a Second Rank Seal of Darkness, she felt considerable pressure coming from him.

"What is it?"

Wain shrugged, "It was a World of Darkness. You have to find a spatial rift and get to the neutral zone. Everything will be explained to you there. I didn't understand a lot of things at first either, but it turned out to be pretty simple, but complicated at the same time."

Vineta nodded weakly. She pondered Wain's words and realized that he had no reason to lie. What had happened to her was strange, but she had to accept it.

"Wait...don't tell me you saw everything?!" Vineta suddenly exclaimed.

Wain smiled weakly, "It wasn't a bad show. Huh, the ticket was free, and I had the best seats."

Vineta frowned but answered nothing. She had no strength to be angry with Wain, a hurricane of different emotions was raging inside her at that moment.

"Okay, we need to go back. How long has it been approximately?" Vineta asked.

Wain shrugged, "Not much, about ten minutes. The others are probably still fighting, but maybe they're done by now."

Vineta nodded and ran back. Wain followed her.