Chapter 5 — The First Resonance
The world was wrong.
Elias stood in a field of black glass, fractured sky bending above him like a shattered mirror. The stars pulsed, alive—each one a trembling eye watching him. His breath came ragged, his throat scraped raw by the taste of dust and iron. Somewhere in the dark, something crawled.
He didn't know how long he had been here. Time didn't flow—it circled. Each heartbeat echoed twice, as if the world refused to let it end. His mind kept slipping, replaying moments from his real life—the cold floor of their shack, Lira's small hand gripping his sleeve before he left for work, her sleepy "Come back safe, okay?"
He would. He had to.
The glass beneath his boots hummed softly, almost whispering. He crouched, pressing his palm against it. A faint vibration rippled through his fingers—like the breath of something buried beneath. He clenched his jaw. "You want me to move, don't you?"
The whisper grew louder.
Then the world screamed.
The glass shattered. Out from the cracks slithered a swarm of translucent shapes—half insect, half shadow, each one whispering fragments of his own thoughts. They moved like echoes given form. Elias didn't run. He'd already learned that running meant death here.
Instead, he dropped low, grabbed a shard of the broken glass, and pressed his palm against its sharp edge. Blood spilled—thick, bright, and alive. The creatures paused, sniffing at the air as though tasting his fear.
"Come on," he muttered, his tone almost mocking. "Let's dance."
When they lunged, Elias didn't swing—he threw the bloodied shard ahead of him. The swarm followed it like moths to flame. And as they converged, the shard cracked the surface of a nearby fissure, collapsing part of the glass plain. The creatures fell with it, shrieking as they dissolved into shimmering dust.
Elias stumbled back, chest heaving.
That was his third close call.
He looked at his palm—the cut still bleeding faintly. And then something strange happened. The blood shimmered, curling like smoke. Threads of faint blue light weaved into his skin.
> [Resonance Detected]
[Trial Progress: 47%]
His eyes widened. For the first time, he saw it. The faint outline of a system window, translucent and trembling like a reflection in water. He blinked, and it flickered out of existence.
He had no idea what that meant—but he remembered what little he knew about the "Trials." Every Resoner candidate faced one, but no one ever described what they saw. Those who survived simply changed.
He wasn't sure if that made him lucky or cursed.
Hours—or maybe days—passed. He found no food, no rest, just endless mirages of things familiar: a door from their old house, Lira's toy rabbit, even his own handwriting scrawled across the ground in blood. The Trial wasn't trying to kill him anymore. It was testing him.
That realization scared him more than the monsters.
When he reached what looked like the edge of the world, he found a chasm—bottomless, filled with whispering fog. Across it, he saw a faint glimmer of light. His instincts screamed that it was the exit. But the bridge… wasn't there. Only fragments floated midair, suspended by invisible threads.
He exhaled slowly, his eyes narrowing. "So this is the part where I'm supposed to die."
He grabbed a shard of glass and tossed it forward. It hit one of the floating stones—then vanished instantly, devoured by the fog. Illusion.
He crouched, thinking fast. Threads. The creatures earlier followed vibration and sound. The glass beneath had reacted to resonance. Maybe this place… reacted the same way.
He picked up another shard and hummed softly. The sound trembled through the air—and faintly, the nearest stone flickered, stabilizing for a moment.
His heart pounded. "Alright. You respond to resonance…"
He focused. A faint vibration built in his chest—instinctive, raw, like a pulse deep within his bones. He hummed again, louder. This time, the stones aligned, forming a half-broken path. He stepped forward carefully, each step matching the rhythm of his heartbeat.
The farther he went, the heavier the air became. The fog began to whisper again—not words, but memories. His memories.
> "You're not strong enough, Elias."
"You should've let her die like the rest."
"You'll fail her. You always do."
He gritted his teeth. "Shut up."
He forced another hum through his throat, but it broke midway, his voice shaking. The bridge flickered again, vanishing beneath him. He fell.
But before the void could swallow him whole, he grabbed one of the invisible threads he'd sensed earlier. It burned through his hand like molten wire, but he held on, pulling himself upward through sheer will.
> [Resonance Adaptation: Partial]
[Trial Progress: 89%]
His vision blurred. Everything hurt. His mind screamed to let go. But then he saw it—her face. Lira, smiling faintly in his memory, sunlight catching in her hair.
He screamed, pulling himself up the final ledge, collapsing onto the glass floor.
Silence.
Then light.
The void cracked open, flooding the world with brilliance.
> [Trial Complete]
[Resonance Achieved — Rank 9: Late Stage]
[Reward: Unholy Resonance Echo — "The Voice of Shards"]
The words echoed through his skull. The shard in his hand pulsed once, glowing faintly with dull, crimson light.
He didn't know what "Voice of Shards" meant. But when the next whisper came—from somewhere far beyond that world—it didn't sound hostile.
It sounded curious.