The wooden face of the child seemed to light up and Andar heard a giggle, the mouth of the child opened up and Andar stepped closer to observe it and saw it had just enough space for the card that was given to him.

He took out the Metallic Card and slipped it into the mouth which closed with a snap, but with Andar reflex, he was able to remove his fingers quickly enough. He could not be sure but he thought he heard a faint curse.

The mouth of the boy chewed the metallic card with a loud crunch, before closing its glowing eye. Andar paused and noticing no other movements, he brought his hand to the doorknob which was in the shape of a bony hand.

As he held the hand, it squeezed back a bit and Andar looked at it with a thoughtful expression before turning the knob and opening the door to reveal a room. Andar paused before he crossed through and the door shut behind him and vanished, leaving him inside the room.

Andar suspected that he had just crossed a vast distance and yet he did not feel any fluctuations of Space, or perhaps he was still too weak to notice any faint stirrings of power, but he had to concede that the Mage World had better Teleportation than Trion.

Whatever method was used was not the same as moving through the Shadow Realm, and Andar was very much interested in that wooden door and its seemingly omnipotent ability to cross a large span of space.

The room he found himself in was very simple, it had only a bed and a chair. Andar reached the bed and brought the single pillow to his nose, it smelled fresh and clean. With his enhanced physique came improved sense, and his hearing was especially acute.

It was the reason he could hear the sounds of many people talking outside the room, not far from him but before he opened the door, he went up to the window and looked outside.

He saw clouds.

He looked further into the horizon and he saw massive castles in their hundreds that were floating in the cloud. The clouds were painted with all the colors of the rainbow and the floating castles gave the scene a fantastical appearance.

Andar came closer to the windows and looked up, and even with his temperament he had to pause in shock.

On Ikaron V, Andar was used to the sky. It was a normal sky that had a sun and a moon that rose and set at their allotted time, but the truth was that although the light of the sun still reached the ground and nourished the plants and shone on all living things, and although the light of the moon still caressed the sea and caused tides to form on the surface of the ocean, it was all a mirage.

The Black Federation did not have any moons or stars, and the scene the Mortals saw was only a gigantic Formation created by an Archmage to hide the real truth about reality from mortals, not because of any hidden conspiracy but because the sight of the true nature of the Black Federation and the Black Tower could drive mortals mad.

Millions of years ago, the grand 9th Star Archmage Erick Black transformed a black hole into an Aether Geyser, and although Rowan was aware of that information due to the investigations of Suriel, it was the first time he was seeing it.

The appearance of the Aether Geyser was too far and shrouded in so much Aether that he could not see its true form, but he could see countless tendrils of multicolored light shooting out from a central core that was vast beyond reason.

This light should be massive streams of Aether that escaped the Aether Geyser and were flung into the universe. It was like countless eruptions of titanic proportions were happening on the surface of the Aether Geyser and the smallest fraction of it that escaped was lighting up the entire section of space.

The amount of power escaping from the Aether Geyser was astonishing and Andar wondered if this amount of energy was enough for his Main Body to consume to reach Godhood, or even better, what was the method used to create something like this?

He was sure with that knowledge he could find a black hole somewhere in the universe and replicate this same feat, with the caveat that he must be strong enough.

Witnessing all this grand showing of power was lighting and itch inside the heart of Andar. Unknown to him for a brief moment his eyes turned golden before turning silver.

A presence that was intrinsically part of him, yet he was not aware of seemed to be watching his every action and then it faded away.

Deep in the clouds, thunder rumbled as a violent stream of condensed Aether shot from the Geyser passed through it, and with that opportunity, Andar saw what lay below the cloud, it was a palm that had been severed from the wrist,

From the wrist came clouds that supported all the hundreds of castles floating around.

Andar knew that this palm was not from an Empyrean, but it was from a god, but one of such great power that should be equal to the gods of Trion.

Also whomever god this palm belonged to. He was not yet dead. Andar could sense the faint stirring of a soul within.

Andar moved away from the window and went to the door. If he was correct then he was on one of the floating castles, and he was one of the many participants that would be called upon to participate in the Trial Grounds.

Andar sighed, a new journey was before him, and he was eager to begin. With a click and a push, Andar stepped into a new world.

Many faces of youths of both sexes with different skin tones and physical structures turned to him.

Andar closed the door behind him and walked over, and silence descended on the crowd.

He looked at them all, and he smiled, “Hi, my name is Andar Erickson.”