Lucien turned his gaze back toward the facility.
Below them, Sahrin and Khasari were still on the first layer. The Body Tempering Chamber.
Their muscles trembled as gravity fluctuated without warning. Heat licked at their skin. Pressure reshaped bone and tendon in slow, merciless increments. Every breath was labor. Every movement demanded adaptation.
This was only the beginning.
Lucien gestured, and the view shifted.
They rose to the second layer. the Mind Tempering Chamber.
A vast space of mirrored corridors unfolded before them. Overlapping reflections. Recursive perspectives.
No enemies. No attacks. Only selves.
"I haven't brought them here yet," Lucien said. "This layer is still incomplete."
Marie studied the space closely.
"These reflections…" she murmured.
Lucien nodded.
"I tried to reconstruct what we faced in the Ruins of Stillness," he said. "The reflection arrays. The journals from the library called them self-observation loops."
