The crystalline bridge stretched out before them, suspended over a basin that had no visible bottom. The soil beneath had given way entirely, leaving a yawning gulf filled with shifting light—like an endless ocean of stars buried beneath the planet's skin.
Each step on the bridge rang like a bell. The sound didn't fade into silence. Instead, it multiplied, echoing outward, bouncing back in distorted tones until it felt as though a thousand versions of themselves were walking just behind.
Jonas grimaced. "I don't like this. Feels like we're walking inside someone's memory."
Liora's eyes darted around, wide. "Not memory. Reflection."
Mara raised an eyebrow. "Reflection of what?"
Before Liora could answer, the echoes sharpened. Voices bled into the ringing. Their voices—yet not.
"Why did you come here?" one asked, in Mara's voice but colder, sharper.
Mara froze, her grip on the rifle tightening. "That's not me."
Another voice rang out, Jonas's this time: "You'll die here like the rest."
Jonas swore and spat into the void. "Cheerful."
Eris walked steadily at the front, ignoring the voices even as his own joined them.
"You will fail them, as you failed yourself."
The words struck like knives, the sound of his own voice turning his gut. But he clenched his fists and kept moving.
The bridge pulsed underfoot, feeding the illusions. The light beneath twisted, forming half-shapes of faces, shadows of memories none of them wanted to see. Their regrets, their fears, the things they buried deep—all bled into the glow.
Jonas faltered, clutching his chest. "I can't… it's too heavy."
Eris spun back and grabbed his shoulder, holding him upright. "Don't listen. None of it is real. They're echoes trying to break us."
"Feels real enough," Jonas rasped.
Mara's teeth were clenched, her eyes hard, but she hadn't slowed. She muttered under her breath, almost like a mantra, "Not real, not real, not real."
Only Liora looked less shaken. Her gaze was fixed on the shifting light below, her lips moving as though she was speaking to it silently.
And then—silence.
The echoes ceased. The faces dissolved. The bridge straightened, leading them to a glowing arch at the far end.
They had passed.
But each of them carried the weight of the words they'd heard, the reflections of their own shadows lingering like wounds that would not heal.
Eris glanced back once, at the guardians still waiting in the basin, silent and unmoving. Then he turned forward.
The path had tested them.
The next chamber would demand more.