It has been almost three years since Magda died.

On the morning each of them turned eighteen, Jack, Cara, and Logan received a letter written in her hand. It was her last instruction. She asked them to return to the stretch of wilderness she had taken them to each year, to the silent pool they once called their special place, and there to scatter her ashes into the waiting water.

Only... The moment the ashes touched the water, the pool broke open and revealed something far older than grief.

Their First Trial had already begun.

Drawn into a realm shaped by an unseen will, governed by quests, levels, and creatures that show no mercy, the siblings are forced into a brutal truth: survival is not granted, it is earned.

The first law of this world is simple.

Reach level ten. Ascend.

What lies beyond that command is left unspoken. Whether ascent leads to salvation, escape, or something far worse, no voice offers an answer.

There is one question, however, that is forever present in their minds.

Are they fighting to return home… or walking a path that was laid for them long before any of them were even born?

The Alurium Saga begins with a promise kept, a threshold crossed, and a Trial whose cost may echo far beyond the end of the climb.