After narrowly escaping the third trial, known as the Endless Palace Entrance, Alex passed through the violet door without hesitation.
The moment he stepped beyond it, the world around him shifted again.
He now stood in a colossal hallway, one so vast it stretched beyond the horizon, far longer than any palace corridor should’ve been capable of.
The smooth, polished floor reflected the dim violet glow of crystalline lights embedded in the ceiling, giving the entire corridor an eerie, almost sacred feel.
The silence was dense, broken only by the faint echo of Alex’s footsteps.
On either side of the endless corridor were massive window-like panels.
Each one was easily ten meters tall and just as wide, yet what lay behind them wasn’t the other side of a wall, it was something else entirely.
Each window revealed a completely different world, as if they were gateways into countless dimensions.
One displayed a tranquil garden bathed in sunlight, petals floating gently in the wind.
Another showed a volcanic wasteland spewing rivers of magma and fire into the sky.
One further down depicted a graveyard veiled in mist, where black trees clawed toward a sky devoid of stars.
Alex slowed his pace, glancing at them one by one, curious despite himself.
These weren’t illusions.
They were scenes, places, realms, or memories, maybe, all real in their own way.
There were too many to count, each more fascinating than the last, each more distinct.
But he didn’t have time to marvel for long.
Something was off.
The air around him started to grow heavier the further he walked.
There was no end in sight to the hallway, and though his instincts whispered of danger, nothing had yet happened.
Then,
DING!
A sharp notification rang out in his mind.
[Fourth Test: Run away from the GBlaster.]
“…The what?” Alex’s voice was barely a murmur, his eyes narrowing at the message.
He hadn’t even had the chance to ask why, before the answer made itself known.
FWISH!
BOOM!
From out of thin air, as if reality had torn open, something massive and menacing surged into existence behind him.
Alex whipped around, eyes widening as he caught sight of it.
The so-called GBlaster.
It floated ominously in the air, a towering mechanical horror shaped like a monstrous skeletal cannon.
Its face resembled a warped skull, sharp and flame-like at the edges, with wide, circular eyes that glowed with a dull blue hue.
A vertical stripe ran down the center of its forehead, and its mouth was formed of jagged metal plating that curved open into a deep, gaping maw.
It was monstrous in every sense, fifty times Alex’s size, stretching to fill nearly the entire hallway.
For a second, he considered fighting it.
That instinct was ingrained in him.
Face danger, overcome it.
But the moment he took a single step forward, his body revolted.
His instincts flared violently, slamming warnings into his mind like knives.
“What the—”
[Do not fight it. You will die. Run.]
His instincts screamed it so loudly it made his head throb.
Whatever that thing was, it was far beyond him.
Not just strong, unkillable.
At least here, in this domain.
“So this place can summon things I have zero chance of beating?” Alex thought bitterly, already backpedaling, “Just how far does this place go?”
He didn’t get long to dwell.
The GBlaster’s jaw creaked open, revealing a swirling core of bright energy gathering inside its mouth.
The air vibrated violently as the core pulsed and spun, growing rapidly in size and intensity.
“Oh shit.”
Now it made sense.
The endless hallway, the warning, the trial.
Alex tried to summon his wings without thinking, but before they even fully formed,
BEEP!
[You aren’t allowed to use your wings in this test. The domain wants to see your true speed.]
“Tch.” He clicked his tongue, already bolting forward.
His wings vanished in a blink, but that didn’t mean he was slow. Far from it.
Even without flight, Alex had honed his speed through countless battles.
His body kicked into overdrive immediately, his legs pounding against the floor as he blurred forward.
But right behind him…
BOOOOOOOM!
The GBlaster fired.
A searing beam of energy, dozens of meters wide, erupted from its mouth.
It tore through the hallway like a god’s wrath, melting and vaporizing everything in its path.
The intense heat licked at Alex’s back even from a distance, a warning of what would happen if he so much as faltered for a second.
“Holy shit holy shit holy shit,”
His thoughts raced just as fast as his legs.
He didn’t dare look back again, but he didn’t need to.
He felt the beam drawing closer.
Worse yet, the GBlaster wasn’t stationary.
It was flying forward too, keeping pace with its own beam, hellbent on running him down.
The corridor flew by in a blur.
Thousands of windows flashed past his peripheral vision, each one showing a different world.
But Alex had no time to appreciate them.
His eyes were focused forward, every fiber of his being devoted to survival.
Then…
[The GBlaster will gain speed and the power of its beam will increase in 5 seconds.]
Alex’s breath hitched.
[4…]
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he thought, his teeth clenched.
[3…]
Was this a time-based trial? Had he hit a certain threshold in distance?
[2…]
The hum of the beam behind him deepened, and its color began to shift.
[1…]
Then came the change.
The light-blue beam warped into a light purple one. Its edges sharpened and expanded.
The temperature behind him surged, and the hallway darkened as the beam consumed more and more space.
[Second stage initiated.]
The GBlaster’s glowing blue eyes now pulsed with violet fire, its power surging.
The energy it radiated nearly crushed the air behind Alex.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions erupted as the pressure of the beam shattered every window they passed, fragments of glass and debris being vaporized before they could even hit the floor.
Still, Alex ran.
His muscles burned, not with pain, but with strain, pushing his body to limits he hadn’t touched before.
And then, far in the distance, he saw it: the end.
“There it is!” His heart leapt, though his feet never stopped moving.
Just a little more.
But the beam was nearly upon him now, less than a meter behind.
The heat was so close it felt like it was clawing at his back.
[The GBlaster will gain speed and the power of its beam will increase to max capacity in 3 seconds.]
He didn’t respond. He didn’t even blink.
[3…]
Crimson and golden energy erupted around him, his aura blazing behind like a comet’s trail.
[2…]
The GBlaster’s maw widened further, the purple energy becoming near black, shrieking as it charged its final surge.
[1…]
The end of the hallway was almost within reach.
Alex’s vision tunneled.
[Final stage initiated.]
BOOOOOM!
The final surge hit.
Every window in the corridor shattered in sync, the beam tearing at space itself.
The GBlaster entered its final mode, completely silent now, deadly and determined.
It was faster. Its beam now so large it consumed everything behind Alex.
And still, he didn’t stop.
He ran.
Every muscle in his body burned, his heart pounded against his chest, and his vision flickered, but he kept going.
The very air was being sucked forward into the beam’s vacuum, dragging him back.
And then, in the final moment…
FWISH! BAM!
Alex pushed harder.
Somehow, impossibly, his body responded.
A centimeter of extra speed, just enough.
His foot crossed the final threshold.
BAM!
He shot through the tall door at the end, and the moment he passed through, the door slammed shut behind him with thunderous force.
The beam collided against it.
BOOM!
The entire palace trembled from the impact, but the door held.
Alex collapsed to his knees, gasping for breath, sweat trailing down his face as he looked back.
The beam kept hammering at the door, but after about twenty seconds, it vanished entirely, along with the presence of the GBlaster.
Silence returned.
Then…
DING!
[Exceptional Speed, Fatebreaker. You may even be able to outrun the fastest of foes in this world!]
“Hmph…” Alex exhaled slowly, still catching his breath.
That had easily been the most stressful trial yet.
Not because of pain. Not because of combat.
But because for once, he was pitted against something he couldn’t fight, only escape.
Still, he’d made it. Which meant only one thing.
He had went deeper into the Palace of Destiny.
And though he didn’t know how many trials remained, something inside told him, he was getting close to the end.