The chamber did not reset. The black stone walls remained. The bell still hung at the center, silent now, but watching.
Seijuro was still seated on his sigil when the realization truly hit. They were gone.
Not unconscious. Not removed. Gone.
The space where the others had been felt wrong, like teeth pulled from a jaw. Seventeen sigils glowed faintly now, surrounded by empty darkness where the rest had stood moments ago. A sharp breath broke the silence. Then another.
A girl near the far wall staggered to her feet, eyes wide, pupils shaking. "They…"Her voice cracked. "They died."
Someone else stood abruptly. "This wasn't, this wasn't supposed to…"
"What kind of exam kills people?!" a boy shouted, panic finally ripping free from his throat.
The chamber filled with noise, ragged breathing, frantic murmurs, disbelief turning rapidly into fear. Tenebris stirred in the air again, reacting to the emotional spike like a predator sensing blood. Seijuro stayed seated. Not because he wasn't afraid. Because he remembered Frank's words,
A powerful man who is a slave to his emotions has no power at all.
Dying… in the exam… failing isn't an option…
The bell rang and the chamber shifted. The sigils beneath them dissolved into flowing light, spreading outward before reforming into stone pathways suspended over endless darkness. Bridges stretched and intersected at impossible angles, some wide and stable, others narrow and unforgiving, barely the width of a foot. Several candidates stumbled as the ground changed beneath them.
Kenji's voice cut through the chaos, close and immediate. "You are alive," he said, "because you controlled yourselves."
The candidates froze. Kenji stood near the chamber's edge now, arms crossed, purple eyes sharp and unmoved. A girl near the center spun toward him, anger overtaking fear. "You let us think this was safe! You let us believe…"
"That you would be protected?" Kenji finished flatly.
Silence followed.
"This is the Fear Foundation," he continued. "You train to face entities born from terror, trauma, and despair. If you believed danger stopped at our doors, that belief was your failure."
Lisa stepped forward beside him. Her presence shifted the room. Where Kenji was stone, she was something else, quiet grief held carefully in place, "The bell does not kill," she said softly. Her red eyes moved across the remaining candidates, lingering, searching, "Tenebris is emotion given form," she continued. "Fear, anger, sorrow… it reacts when you lose balance. Those who vanished were overwhelmed."
The chamber felt heavier after that.
Someone whispered, "We didn't know we could die."
Kenji did not look away. "Now you do."
Lisa closed her eyes briefly, then lifted her head,
"Trial Two," she said, voice steady despite the weight behind it, "is in motion. You must move with the ground. It is dependent on your Tenebris control."
The bell rang again. Immediately, Seijuro felt it, the pull, stronger now, more insistent. Tenebris stirred in response to movement. Stone paths began to move. Slow at first. Then faster. They rotated, separated, reconnected at sharp angles. Some rose sharply. Others dipped without warning, threatening to hurl anyone unprepared into the void below, "If you fall," Kenji said, "the bell will ring."
No one asked what that meant. Seijuro stepped forward. The moment his boot touched the moving stone, pressure surged through his chest. His instincts screamed to reinforce his body, to flood his limbs with power and force stability through strength alone. Instead, he breathed. Ahead of him, a tall boy with ash-gray hair stepped onto a narrowing bridge. His posture was loose, confident. He adjusted naturally as the path shifted, neither rushing nor hesitating, Tenebris flowing around him like a restrained current.
To Seijuro's right, a girl with pale hair stepped onto a rising platform. Her expression was calm, almost serene. When the stone dipped suddenly, she bent with it, knees soft, balance flawless. Her Tenebris shimmered faintly, never spilling beyond her form. The bell did not ring.
Seijuro followed. Each step demanded restraint. The void beneath him seemed closer now, watching. The wind howled through the chamber, artificial but biting, tugging at thoughts and resolve alike. Halfway across, someone behind him panicked, "I… I can't keep it in…!"
The bell rang. The scream ended abruptly. Seijuro did not turn. The paths twisted upward into a spiraling ascent. His footing slipped once, heart lurching, but he exhaled, loosening his grip on power instead of tightening it. His balance corrected,
I can't lose focus… I must keep steady.
Across the chamber, the pale-haired girl reached a junction where three paths split. She paused only a moment before choosing, not the safest-looking route, but the most stable. The ash-haired boy followed a similar instinct, stepping onto a narrow bridge without hesitation.
Another bell rang. Then another.
By the time Seijuro reached the far platform, his legs trembled, not from exhaustion, but restraint. He stepped onto solid ground and allowed himself one steady breath. He turned. Only eleven remained. Lisa's gaze found him immediately, while Kenji's expression did not change. The bell rang once more. Trial Two was still not over.