The second Dreamstone pulsed faintly against Alpha's palm as he walked beyond the cave's mouth again. His arm was bandaged in cloth torn from his own shirt, the cut raw but closing. The Nameless Knight had not followed—its test was done. Now the Labyrinth itself would sharpen him.
The ruins outside shifted again. Walls that had crumbled the night before now rose taller, jagged, crowding the street. The stones seemed to lean in, narrowing the path like jaws closing. Viren was alive, adapting.
Alpha tightened his grip on the shard. His breath steamed in the cold night air. He forced himself to remember the lesson: stance steady, movements deliberate. Fear could not rule him again.
The first sound came not from one, but many. Bones clattering, echoing through the tight street. Shadows moved in the corners. Pale lights blinked into existence—three sets, then four.
Alpha's chest tightened. One had nearly killed him before. Now there were more.
The first skeleton stumbled into view, ribs caved inward, its clawed fingers twitching. Behind it came another, jaw hanging loose, dragging a rusted chain along the ground. Two more lurked farther back, their movements jerky, predatory.
Alpha swallowed. His pulse hammered in his ears.
Run? No—the Labyrinth would only corner him. The Knight had shown him enough. He had to fight.
The nearest skeleton lunged with rattling speed. Alpha sidestepped, his blade swinging low. The shard struck bone with a jarring crack. Not clean, but it slowed the monster's advance.
Another rushed from the side, its chain whipping forward. Alpha raised his arm to block, the iron scraping his skin. Pain sparked, but he gritted his teeth and shoved forward. He struck wildly, the shard slicing across its skull. Fragments of bone scattered, but the thing did not fall.
His chest burned. His movements were sloppy, desperate. The rhythm of training began to fray under the pressure.
"Breathe," he whispered, forcing himself to steady. Feet planted. Eyes forward. Do not scatter.
The skeleton with the chain hissed and lunged again. Alpha pivoted, dragging his shard upward. This time, the strike landed clean. The blade split its skull with a sharp crunch, light extinguishing in its sockets.
One down.
But two others closed in.
Alpha's breath came ragged. He could feel his body reaching its limit. Still, he raised the shard again, sweat stinging his eyes. One skeleton swiped, claws catching his chest and ripping shallow furrows across his skin. He hissed in pain but didn't retreat.
He slammed his shoulder forward, ramming the creature back into a wall. Bones cracked against stone. He raised the shard and drove it down. Once. Twice. Three times. The light inside it flickered and died.
The last skeleton lunged while his weapon was still buried. Alpha tore it free just in time to meet the strike. Claws scraped his side, nearly toppling him.
His arms trembled. His legs quaked. But he swung again, forcing his whole body into it. The shard cleaved through the skull. Bone shattered. Silence returned.
Alpha collapsed to one knee, chest heaving, sweat dripping from his chin. His whole body burned. Every muscle screamed. His wounds throbbed with fire.
And then he saw them.
Three faint lights rising from the corpses. Dreamstones.
His hand shook as he gathered them. Small, pale, fragile—but real. With each one, warmth spread faintly through his palm, a strange resonance that made his heartbeat slow.
Five stones now, in total. Five proofs of survival.
He stared at them, his bloodied reflection faint in their glow. His lips parted, and for the first time since freedom, he let out a sound half between a laugh and a sob.
He had survived. Against many.
The ruins around him were quiet once more. The Labyrinth's whispers faded, as though watching, waiting. The test was not done. It would never be done.
Alpha rose slowly, clutching the stones, his knees shaking. He turned back toward the cave, dragging himself step by step. His wounds bled, his strength faltered—but the shard was still in his hand. And he did not let it fall.
When he stumbled into the cavern, the Nameless Knight's sockets flickered again. It did not move, but Alpha felt its gaze on him, weighing, judging.
Alpha lifted the stones weakly, their glow spilling across the chamber. "I… didn't die," he whispered hoarsely.
The Knight lowered its broken blade, tapping it once against the ground. The sound echoed like thunder in Alpha's chest.
The weight of many had nearly broken him. But he was still here. And tomorrow, he would be stronger.
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