The wind was wrong.
Kael stood at the threshold of the next trial, his cloak fluttering in the unnatural gusts that flowed out from the crimson chasm ahead. The jagged maw in the obsidian rock pulsed like a wound in the world itself, leaking a red mist that stung the eyes and burned the lungs. His allies stood behind him, silent, tense. None offered words of encouragement. None dared break the stillness.
They all felt it.
This one was different.
"Are you ready for this?" Raen asked, his usual smirk replaced by a grim line. His black-gloved hand rested on the hilt of his blade, knuckles white.
Kael didn't answer immediately. His mind was still replaying the last battle—the raw power he'd used, the fear in his allies' eyes, and the voice… the voice that had whispered from the core of the system, ancient and cold.
"Power reclaimed is still power stolen."
He shook his head. No time for doubt.
"I go," Kael said, stepping into the mist.
The world on the other side of the veil was… wrong.
Color bled unnaturally across the sky, smearing hues of red and violet that pulsed like heartbeats. The ground was wet with something thicker than water—squelching with each step. Monoliths, shaped like screaming faces, jutted from the earth, frozen in anguish.
Kael checked the system interface.
[Trial Initiated: Crimson Veil – Level 3 Domain Challenge]
Warning: Reality in this zone is unstable. Sanity decay and spiritual bleed detected.
Modifiers Active:
— Pain Echo x2
— Enemy Resurrection (First Cycle)
— Limit Breaker Locked
— Companion Entry: Prohibited
He exhaled slowly. Alone again. Just as the system always intended.
A growl broke the silence.
From the red fog ahead, shapes moved. Not fast. Not loud. Just… there—shuffling, twitching, like puppets moved by invisible hands. Humanoid. Almost.
Kael took a step forward, and the mist parted enough for him to see.
His breath caught.
They were his allies.
Not just imitations—exact copies of Raen, Thalia, Yren, Kess, and the others. Each wore the same armor. Each carried their weapons. But their eyes were hollow voids. And their faces… twisted with hatred. Distorted with pain.
A message flashed.
[Echo of the Lost Bond – Phase One: Severance]
You must confront and destroy what you fear to lose.
Kael drew in a deep breath. Then, slowly, deliberately, he pulled his blade from the holster on his back.
So this is what they meant by pain echo.
He didn't hesitate. The longer he stared, the more the copies began to whisper—perfect imitations of voices he knew better than his own.
"Why didn't you save me, Kael?"
"You let her die."
"We followed you into the abyss, and you climbed out alone."
They charged.
Kael moved like a phantom, blade dancing through the first two illusions—Yren and Kess—cutting them down in swift, efficient arcs. But as they fell, their forms twisted, shuddered, and rose again, their bodies crackling with red energy.
[Enemy Resurrection Triggered – First Cycle]
He cursed and vaulted backward, narrowly avoiding Raen's crimson copy as it slashed downward with his trademark phase-blade. Kael parried, their weapons ringing out like clashing chimes of war.
These weren't just illusions—they fought like the real ones. Same moves. Same strategies. They were them.
He couldn't just swing wildly. He had to outthink them.
Kael triggered Phase Cloak and slid behind Thalia's copy, delivering a precise strike to the spine. She dropped. But even before her body hit the ground, her hand flung out in a death spell, catching Kael in the ribs with a blast of withering energy.
He coughed blood.
[Health -27%]
[Pain Echo x2 Triggered – Full Feedback Synaptic Loop]
Agony doubled. The system wasn't joking. Every hit hurt—twice.
Kael's white-glowing eyes narrowed. He could feel it bubbling just beneath his skin—that deeper power, the one he'd barely tapped before. But the system had locked it.
Limit Breaker: Locked
No choice.
Win as I am.
Ten minutes passed. Maybe twenty.
He didn't keep track. Time was… bleeding here. Like everything else.
One by one, he dismantled them. Not without wounds. Not without pain. Every strike was like killing a piece of himself, or worse—his past, his trust.
He stood in the center of the battlefield, surrounded by twitching bodies and twitching shadows. Breathing heavy. Knees almost buckling. Crimson mist curling around him like smoke.
[Echo of the Lost Bond – Phase One Complete]
Sanity Check Passed: 43% Threshold Met
Proceeding to Phase Two: Regret Ascendant
A new figure emerged.
Kael tensed—this wasn't an illusion. It was her.
Arienne.
His sister.
Before she died.
"No," Kael whispered, his voice cracking. "This isn't fair."
The girl standing before him looked no older than sixteen. Braided hair. Soft eyes. A sun-dyed scarf wrapped around her neck. He remembered it all.
She smiled at him.
"You could've saved me," she said. "But you didn't."
The wound in his chest reopened.
"I tried—" he began, but her expression darkened.
"You gave up. You turned away when it mattered most."
[Regret Ascendant Initiated]
Warning: This is a soul-wound confrontation. Any emotional collapse will reset trial progress.
Kael staggered backward as Arienne raised her hand. She wasn't attacking with weapons. No. Memories exploded outward—real ones.
The alley. The blood. His scream. Her fingers twitching once before the light faded.
It was all here. And it wouldn't stop.
Kael dropped to one knee, teeth grinding. He wanted to scream. To shatter the world.
But he didn't.
Instead, he spoke.
"I failed. I know that. I've relived it every night since."
The images paused.
"I hated myself. Still do. But if I die here, if I break—then she dies for nothing. I move forward because I must."
The mist trembled.
Arienne smiled.
And faded.
[Phase Two Complete – Soul Resilience Achieved]
The trial shuddered.
The red mist twisted into a vortex, pulling inward toward the monolith at the center of the broken plain. The screaming faces turned skyward and howled—reality cracking open with a sound like shattering glass.
[Final Phase: The Crimson King Awakens]
Kael raised his head.
Oh.
Oh no.
It rose from the stone like a god born of ruin—twenty feet tall, skin like flayed muscle, crowned in bone and burning light. The Crimson King. A forgotten warspawn from before the Collapse.
Its voice split the air like thunder.
"You trespass in sovereign blood."
Kael barely dodged the first blow—a hammer of red force that cratered the earth behind him. His boots skidded across the slick battlefield, muscles screaming in protest.
He needed to end this.
But he had nothing left. Health was at 39%. No Limit Breaker. No allies. No escape.
The King strode toward him, each step a quake.
Kael's hands tightened on his blade.
"Then I'll steal your throne," he said.
And charged.
What followed wasn't a fight—it was survival. The King was a walking calamity. Each blow could level a fortress. Each roar triggered system alerts about spatial instability.
Kael used everything—short-range teleport bursts, shadow chains, feedback loops, and high-speed phase strikes—but it wasn't enough. The King adapted. Learned.
And then it hit him.
Hard.
Kael slammed into the wall of a stone pillar. Blood spurted from his mouth. Vision blurred.
[Health Critical – 7%]
[One-Time System Override Detected]
[Limit Breaker: Unshackled]
Kael's eyes snapped wide.
White light bled from his pupils, and something deep inside snapped. Not with rage. Not with hate.
With clarity.
The power surged—not borrowed. Not stolen. Claimed.
He moved faster than the King could process, slashing through flesh, bone, and memory.
"You exist to test me?" Kael growled, his voice echoing with layered tones. "Then break beneath me."
He struck the core—a pulsing knot in the King's chest—and drove the blade through.
The world split.
When the light faded, Kael stood alone.
No mist. No monoliths. Just… sky. And silence.
[Trial Complete – Crimson Veil Conquered]
XP Gained: 390,000
New Ability Unlocked: Sovereign's Defiance – Passive
Your actions have altered your fate. Future trials will now scale dynamically.
Note: Ascension Path deviation recorded.
Kael fell to his knees.
Not from pain. But from the weight of what he'd seen. What he'd done.
Behind him, the crimson portal shimmered open.
Waiting.
Outside the Veil
The moment Kael reappeared, the others rushed to him.
Raen caught him as he collapsed. Thalia placed a hand over his heart, checking for rhythm. Kess knelt beside him, silent.
Kael's eyes opened slowly—still glowing faintly white.
"…It's done," he said.
But they could see the change in him.
Something had shifted. A fracture deeper than bone. A wound no system could heal.
And as he closed his eyes again, they wondered:
What would the next trial take?