NOVEL NEXT Chapter 47: The Trials of Kairos Castle
The sound of her heels echoed faintly against the cold stone floor as Lukas followed her deeper into the castle. He had made his choice.
What would happen if he had to face Nozar and their Hero From Another World? And even if he somehow got his father to stand down, what if there was another from the other Kingdoms of Humanity who was as strong as him? Could he be certain that he was capable of protecting Linemall? He could not. And he'd made a promise that he would serve the people of Linemall, his people. His kind. He would protect the dragons and that meant he would have to reach a level of strength that surpassed even Rodan Drakos.
"I suppose," the goddess mentioned dryly, "it's time I introduced myself properly."
Lukas raised a brow. "Really? After scaring the shit out of me and watching me get over gut–wrenching guilt that has been eating away at me for the past few months? You don't say."
She smirked over her shoulder. "I am the Mistress of Kairos Castle," she said with a wry smile. "Warden of the Trials and for this Trial in particular, a reluctant guide to a fool with too much to prove."
Lukas gave a low scoff to her introduction. "A pleasure."
"Oh, I'm sure it will be." The way she said that unsettled him. He didn't want to ask what she meant by that but he had a feeling he was about to find out.
They stepped through a tall archway into what Lukas had expected to be a dungeon, or a grand, gothic hall. Something that would fit this Underworld vibe. He thought there would have been blood splattered all around and bats hanging from the chandeliers…or something to that effect. Spooky shit. The interior was just plain. It wasn't grandiose. It wasn't haunted. It was just really empty. Stone corridors stretched in all directions, clean but unadorned. No torches. No statues. No portraits of old masters glaring down at intruders.
Just long, vacant stretches of pale grey lit by a soft ambient glow. They climbed the narrow stairs in silence, the only sound their steps against stone. At the summit, they entered a circular chamber with a single open dome that let in a sky of whirling blue clouds. This was more than just a castle. It was like they had entered an entirely new realm, a different plane of existence.
In the very center stood a small marble pedestal and atop it sat an hourglass. It was simple—framed in tarnished silver, glass bulb smooth and clear, sand glistening inside like crushed pearl. The sand trickled, grain by grain, toward the bottom chamber. Slowly and steadily.
Lukas stepped forward. "This is it?"
She nodded, circling the pedestal like a predator stalking a slow, thoughtful kill.
"Until the final grain of sand falls," she explained, this time in a much more serious tone, "you will remain within Kairos Castle."
He frowned. "And how long will it take for all of it to fall?"
"A hundred years."
The words stopped him cold. His breath caught in his chest.
"You're joking—"
"Time isn't something that I joke around with, Lukas Drakos." Her voice was flat, she was no longer joking around. "One hundred years in this castle will pass. But time outside of it? It stops completely. The living world will not age a second in your absence."
He stared at the sand as it slipped downward, patient and endless.
"One hundred years," he echoed. "Alone."
She smiled. "Yes. Alone with your thoughts, your fears, and whatever monsters you make for yourself."
"But…" Lukas stepped back, trying to wrap his mind around the weight of it. "A century. To do what?"
"How you spend those hundred years…that is up to you. It is in your hands, Lukas Drakos."
"Is that it?" He asked, having expected something…more.
She tilted her head before shaking her head. "Oh, the pride of the mortal man. I do not mean to belittle you but you have only known what it is like to be a dragon for…a few months? I admit that there have been few who have passed this trial, even fewer who were mortals. But all of them have known what it is like to live for hundreds of years. You do not."
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Lukas felt dread begin to rise. Perhaps she was right. This was the true nature of the Trials of Kairos Castle. He had seen what time did to the human mind. He had seen what the effects of time had done to his father, broken to the point where he had become almost unrecognizable compared to the man he had once known. Would these Trials affect him the same way? Would he lose himself in the straits of time, just when he'd finally found himself in the sea of his emotions?
"And if I flip it again? " he asked, voice lower now.
She grinned. He was asking the right questions.
"You will be stuck here for another two hundred years. Not just one. Every time you flip it, you add another hundred years on top of it all. So flip it three times and you will have to remain here for the next three hundred years. There's no cap. No limit. But once you flip it, you're bound. You must stay until the sand runs dry. There is no undoing it." She told him.
Lukas turned back to the hourglass, its slow trickle of sand now heavier than any weight he'd ever felt.
"Most get past the first hundred years. I believe you will as well. Your mind is more sturdy than most humans. But everyone who has made it past the First Flip…they gain confidence…they become arrogant. They slip the sandglass once more and during those two hundred years…well, that's when their sanity begins to slip. No one has ever made it past the Third Flip, Lukas Drakos."
Lukas didn't speak. This Trial was much more dangerous, in ways that he had never seen coming. In ways that he had no idea of how to handle. His opponent was time itself. The Mistress stepped beside him, her voice dropping to something softer—less cruel, but still cold.
"This place doesn't train your body. At least not physically. No muscles, no scars, no brute strength. It trains your soul. What you build in this Castle will shape the man who walks out. But it's you who decides how far to push."
She began walking toward the exit, her figure half-swallowed by the shadows of the corridor.
"You will find no weapons. No teachers. No books or scrolls to guide you. It will just be this castle. And your mind."
Her voice lingered as she vanished.
"Good luck, Lukas Drakos. You'll need it."
The door closed behind her with a soft click as she left him alone. So Lukas was left standing beneath the open sky, a single hourglass ticking behind him—the first second of his hundred years just beginning to fall. So the Trials of Kairos Castle had finally started.
The first hundred years had begun.
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At first, Lukas felt alright. In fact, it was just like the Mistress of Kairos Castle had expected, he felt confident. It was sort of like a dream come true. This Trial was giving him the chance to become stronger while having infinite time to do so. But quickly, the effects of the Trial began to take its toll on his mind.
It was doubt. Doubt was what began to gnaw away at his confidence. Was he training right?
No one was there to point out even if he made any mistakes. No one was there to tell him whether he was on the right track. He had nothing to measure up against, no indicator on whether or not he was making progress. Lady Kaitlyn Drakos had been his mentor, she was the one who had taught him the basics. She was the one who would pinpoint every little error he made, forcing him to improve; allowing him to improve solely because of her guidance. Rodan had promised to complete his training to properly wield the Divinity of the Seas. He would have been able to teach him things he did not yet understand about the Divinity of the Seas.
Here in the castle, he had no one to guide him.
Even if he was performing the spells right or if he was heading down the wrong path, he had no fucking clue. So…what if he was doing it all wrong? Then would that mean that all of this pain and effort would be for nothing?
Days turned to weeks…weeks to months. Soon those were the only thoughts that filled his mind. Lukas could barely focus on using the Divinity of the Seas, let alone try and improve on what he was already capable of. He just needed some certainty, someone to tell him that he was going down the right path! It even got to the point where he would ask his questions aloud…yet every single time there would be no reply.
Four months in and Lukas felt like he had not made any improvement whatsoever. When he hoped this Trial would end as soon as it possibly could, he would return to the upper floors of Kairos Castle; only for it to seem like not a single grain had fallen. He would sit in front of the hourglass for hours on end, hoping…praying that time would somehow pass just a little faster. It was pathetic. But one cannot understand the feeling of stagnation without being able to do a single thing about it. Because it felt like there was really nothing he could do, nothing he could tell himself to convince him that he was on the right track.
The Mistress watched him the entire time, shaking her head in silence. It was looking like…she might have to prepare to send another soul to the afterlife for it seemed as if Lukas' mind would not be able to last even the First Flip. She was hoping that he would survive this Trial. She had hoped he'd been the one to fulfill the Oracle's prophecy. He had promised her that Lukas was the one.
Later on, she would still remember the moment the flip switched within Lukas Drakos and she would never forget it. It was in the seventh month that this would occur. And after that, all the pieces fell into place. That was the moment for Lukas Drakos in which the Trials of Kairos Castle truly began.