After what felt like hours of walking, Kaius finally stopped near the outer training yard, his muscles sore but his mind sharper than ever. The castle grounds were vast, with winding corridors, hidden pathways, and a strategically placed set of buildings that made it clear this wasn’t just a boot camp, it was a battlefield waiting to be activated. Every hall, every stone, every turn had a purpose. It was built to test them, to push them, to force them to adapt or fail.
And failure was not an option.
By the time exhaustion began creeping into his limbs, the sun was already beginning to set, casting long shadows across the training grounds. He had learned a lot from his exploration. Where the guards were posted, how the schedules seemed to shift, and most importantly, how the others were b
