Elara was talented, but the Guild was a coalition of multiple powers, and they did not think that she would be able to fully suppress all the challenges that would emerge in this trial.

Although they were hunting monsters that were suspected to be in the tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, they knew that the most danger would not come from these monsters but from the other candidates on this trial.

Inside this wall, the laws of the city were no more, and only anarchy would reign, and for that, they needed something more... brutal.

With the robust teleportation network of the city, it was easy to send word to a candidate who was presently very far from the city, and it was a good thing that there was a week of grace, else they would not have been able to invite the person they were looking for.

Stormfall was just one city, but the Guilds were spread all over the world of Trion, and their reach was technically greater than any party in the city.

In most times, they were content to stay in the middle districts and allow the royal families to take the bulk of the benefits; they even worked for them, but when events like this happened, where unknown benefits that could not necessarily be purchased with money were found, then they would begin to exercise their profound reach.

And that reach found Theron Vex, son of the Beastmaster General.

Originally, Theron should have been a soldier, serving under one of the many Orders spread around the planet, but due to circumstances and his mother being a high-ranking Guild member, he was nurtured by the Guilds.

He was nineteen years old, with broad shoulders and a thick neck like a bull, with hands like shovels.

His hair was black like darkness, and even in daylight, his hair seemed to be drinking the light of the sun.

Theron’s features might have been too brutal, but it was saved by his eyes, which were big and brown and surprisingly innocent.

He had been tested at ten, as all the children of the old families were tested, in a ceremony that most people in the world did not know about, and Theron had opened four pools, not the best, not the worst, enough to be noticed, but not enough to be remarkable.

Anywhere else, four pools would have been seen as a supreme genius, but not in a family as old as his own.

Since his talent could not make him a core of the family, he had been taken to the kennels and was shown to the beasts that had been there since before he was born.

These beasts had been here long before his family even existed, and they were just one of the long line of stewards that had been given the task of watching over this place.

Surprisingly, there was something inside Theron that was accepted by the beasts, and they took him as one of their own. From the age of ten, he had been training with the beasts ever since.

It was here that Theron’s full potential was revealed, and it was so great that having four pools of Lumina was nothing when his talent was placed into the equation.

His talent could not even be considered a normal talent, because it was something so old that even the Guild masters did not have a name for it, since it was among one of the pieces of knowledge lost in the war against the gods and daemons.

Theron could speak to the beasts and understand them as well. His presence made every beast trust and willingly follow him, even the oldest of Rune Beasts, creatures so powerful they could devastate entire continents and could only be fully suppressed by Ascendants, saw something they recognized when they saw him.

He was a single man, but his call could lead to the devastation of an entire continent.

With the opportunity to enhance his abilities behind the wall, Theron had been summoned, and with his talent, the Guilds believed that this trial was theirs to win.

When the full depths of his talent had revealed themselves, his father was a bit regretful that he had allowed his son to be taken under the wings of the Guilds, and decided to slowly nurture back their ties.

Theron was brought to a beat enclave and told to pick from the myriad runebeasts here, but his choice had surprised everyone.

The first beast he picked was a Rune Wolf, old and scarred, with grey fur and yellow eyes, and yet still retained all of its teeth that were long enough to tear through steel.

It had been in the kennels for four hundred years, and from the moment Theron had chosen this beast, it had not left his side since.

No one knew why, of all the beasts that he could have chosen, Theron had taken a beast that was at the end of its lifespan and should be the weakest beast out of all in the enclave.

The next beast Theron had chosen to keep by his side after a few years was a Sky Hunter, a bird the size of a horse, with large wings and claws sharp enough to split stone.

It had been a gift from the Academy, and they were also surprised that Theron had accepted it when he was always refusing gifts.

The third and his most recent companion was a Deep Crawler, a thing that had been pulled from the earth beneath the city of Stormfall. It had come to him on its own, crawled up from the deep places, found him in the kennels, and waited.

One of the reasons Theron had returned to Stormfall after he was given the message of this trial was related to his final beast.

He had learned much from this beast, and he had kept that knowledge to himself. Previously, he was thinking that he would return to Stormfall a decade or so from now when he was a Void Sentinel, but this opportunity was too much for him to let go, and he accepted the invitation.

The Guild had given him a squad of eight young Siphons, all from the families that had bred beasts for generations, and trained in the old ways, all carrying the old blood.

They were a separate team from Elara’s, and although the guild had also created thirty teams just like this one, Theron knew that his team was the one the Guild favored to win, and the rest were there to help him.

These creatures came from deep in the earth. Theron believed that he may finally have the opportunity to reach that place.