The Spirit Hall emptied slowly, but the pressure did not lift.
Kael remained standing at the center of the sigil circle long after the Council dispersed. The marble beneath his feet was warm now, faintly pulsing in rhythm with the Spirit Core embedded in his chest. Every heartbeat felt louder than the last, as if the realm itself was listening.
Eira watched him closely. "You're fighting the resonance."
Kael wiped sweat from his brow. "It feels like something is trying to… overwrite me."
Ryn snorted. "That'd be the Core syncing with your soul. Think of it like two beasts locked in a cage, deciding who gets to breathe."
"That's not reassuring."
"It's accurate."
The ice-haired girl stepped forward, arms crossed. "Guardian, he cannot be released into the realm like this. His aura is leaking. Even minor spirits can sense him."
Eira nodded slowly. "Which is why he will undergo the Trial of Becoming."
Kael frowned. "That sounds ominous."
"It is," Ryn said cheerfully.
Eira raised her hand. The air fractured, peeling open like glass to reveal a descending staircase of light.
"The Trial is an ancient rite," she explained. "Designed to determine whether a Spirit Walker survives… or is erased by the power they carry."
Kael swallowed. "And if I fail?"
"There will be nothing left to bury."
No one spoke after that.
The trial chamber lay deep beneath the Spirit Hall, carved directly into the bones of the realm. The walls were alive with moving runes, recounting the names of those who had attempted the trial before.
Most names were shattered.
Only a few remained intact.
Kael stood at the threshold, heart pounding.
"This is where I stop," Eira said softly. "Once you enter, no external force may interfere."
Ryn hopped down from Kael's shoulder, suddenly serious. "Hey. One thing before we go in."
"We?" Kael asked.
Ryn grinned. "Spirit contracts mean shared suffering. You're not getting rid of me that easily."
The door sealed behind them.
Darkness swallowed everything.
Then—
Light exploded.
Kael found himself standing in a vast, empty plain beneath a sky split between fire and void. Across from him stood another figure.
It was him.
Same face. Same body.
Different eyes.
"You're weak," the other Kael said coldly. "You hesitate. You doubt."
Kael clenched his fists. "You're not real."
The double smiled. "Neither is your courage."
Without warning, the other Kael attacked.
The battle was brutal and intimate—every strike mirrored, every weakness exposed. Kael was thrown to the ground again and again, his double exploiting fear, doubt, hesitation.
"Power doesn't belong to the afraid," the double hissed, pinning him down. "It devours them."
Kael coughed, blood staining the ground.
Then he laughed.
Ryn's voice echoed in his mind. Power doesn't choose the fearless. It chooses the stubborn.
Kael grabbed his double's arm.
"I'm afraid," he admitted. "But I keep moving anyway."
The Spirit Core flared.
Blue fire erupted.
The double screamed as it dissolved into light.
The sky stabilized.
A voice echoed through the chamber.
—Trial passed. Spirit Walker stabilized.—
Kael collapsed to his knees, gasping.
Somewhere far above, Eira exhaled in relief.