The cavern had fallen silent again.
Alpha lay on the stone floor, his chest rising and falling in shallow waves. The taste of blood lingered in his mouth, metallic and bitter. His arm still trembled from the clash with the Nameless Knight, every muscle burning with the memory of steel meeting bone.
He did not know how long he stayed there, staring up at the ceiling where cracks stretched like veins of the earth. His body told him to surrender, to sleep, to let the shadows swallow him. But the whisper that had carried him this far refused to quiet.
'Not yet.'
With a groan, he pushed himself upright. His legs wobbled, but they held. The Dreamstones lay where he had dropped them, glowing faintly, as if mocking his weakness. He picked them up one by one, their cold weight heavy against his skin.
The Nameless Knight remained motionless. It had returned to stillness, blade buried in the ground before it like a tombstone. Its sockets burned faintly, the last embers of its will watching him even now.
Alpha met that empty gaze. "You could have killed me."
The words were quiet, not a question but a truth. The Knight did not answer. It never did. But in the silence, Alpha felt its judgment. It had chosen not to break him. Not yet.
He tightened his grip on the Dreamstones. His hands shook, but his voice steadied. "Then I'll make it worth something."
The cavern's air shivered.
A faint chime echoed in his head, fragile like glass about to crack. His eyes widened as a faint shimmer flickered before him—lines of light, threads weaving into words.
[ Veyres System: Status ]
[Veyres Name: Feylith — The Fateless Shadow]
[Veyres Rank: Wisc]
[Liberance Rank: Mortyros — Incomplete]
[Essence: 0/10]
[Flaw: None]
[Dreamstones: 3]
The words pulsed once, then fractured, scattering like mist. Gone again.
Alpha stood frozen. His breath quickened. It wasn't complete—still fractured, still elusive—but it was there. Proof. Something was changing inside him, as if the Labyrinth itself had recognized him for surviving the trial.
His tattoo burned faintly on his back, the scar of 'Alpha Omega'. For the first time, he wondered if the mark had always been more than a brand.
He touched the stone wall, grounding himself. "So this is it… Viren isn't just trying to kill me."
The thought struck like lightning. Every skeleton, every shadowed ruin, every trial—it wasn't random. The Labyrinth was reflecting him. The emptiness of the slave yard. The corpses. The despair. His past reborn in twisted forms.
He was not wandering through Viren. Viren was inside him.
His hand clenched into a fist. "Then I'll tear it apart. Even if it means tearing myself apart too."
The ground rumbled faintly, as if the Labyrinth had heard him. Stones shifted, dust falling from the ceiling. Somewhere deeper within, a door had opened.
Alpha turned toward the darkness beyond the cave. His body was still broken, but his spirit surged with something new. Not hope. Not yet. But resolve.
He slid the Dreamstones into the fold of his tattered cloth. Their glow seeped through the fabric, pulsing against his ribs like a second heartbeat.
The Nameless Knight remained still as he stepped past it. For a moment, Alpha hesitated. He bowed his head slightly, the gesture awkward, foreign. Gratitude was not something he had ever been taught.
"Until next time," he murmured.
He left the cavern.
---
The deeper halls of Viren awaited him. The walls twisted into shapes that no human hand had carved, jagged and sharp as though grown from bone. The air was colder here, thick with a stench that clung to his lungs.
Alpha's footsteps echoed, each one heavier than the last. But he no longer walked blindly. Every shadow, every ruin felt like an echo of himself. The Labyrinth was not endless; it was personal.
The corridor widened into a chamber filled with broken statues. Their faces were shattered, their hands reaching upward in frozen agony. Among them, faint shapes stirred—undead, brittle but many.
Alpha tightened his grip on the shard he carried. His arms screamed, his body begged him to rest. But the Dreamstones pulsed against him. The Nameless Knight's gaze lingered in his memory.
He lifted the shard. "Come."
The first of the undead lurched forward. Its empty sockets locked onto him, jaws snapping. Alpha stepped into its path, shard cutting through brittle bone. Sparks danced. The second came, then the third.
His strikes were sloppy, uneven. Pain slowed him. But each cut landed closer to what the Knight had shown him. Small pivots. Balance. Focus.
The Dreamstone within the second skeleton dropped at his feet. Alpha picked it up with trembling hands. Another glow. Another ember against the void.
The battle raged. Alpha bled. But with every kill, he rose again.
By the time the chamber was still, his breath was shallow, his arms heavy. But he stood. He had not fallen.
And when he looked back, the statues seemed less like mourners and more like witnesses.
---
Hours later, Alpha found a hollow in the wall to rest. He pressed the Dreamstones together, watching their faint light ripple in the dark.
For the first time since leaving the slave yard, he felt a thread of purpose. Thin. Fragile. But real.
He whispered his name again. "Alpha Omega."
The words no longer tasted like emptiness.
In the silence, the Labyrinth pulsed. The forge had only begun.
---