Obsidian sand scattered as the wind howled through the glass towers.
The sky was a furnace, burning red—not from flame, but from the memory of flame. Every inch of the new Trial burned with intention—not to destroy, but to purify.
Lucia Payne stood alone.
No chain lashed from her wrist. No voice called from the system. No echo of the Wheel hummed in the background.
She was not a player.
She was the Trial.
> TRIAL SIX: LEGACY OF FIRE
RULE: TO SURVIVE, YOU MUST END HER STORY.
The players appeared across the desert, spaced far apart. Dazed. Confused.
Naomi rose first, shielding her eyes against the shimmer. Eren followed, already sweating beneath the cruel heat. The remaining three formed behind a fallen dune, watching the lone figure in the distance.
"Is that her?" one whispered.
Naomi nodded. "Lucia."
Eren blinked. "But she was one of the resistance. Why is she the enemy now?"
They all turned as a voice boomed across the desert.
Not Saylor.
Lucia.
> "I gave up everything to change the Field. I bled to rewrite it. And now he wants to burn me into history like another mistake."
She raised her hand.
The sand caught fire.
> "So let's see who learns from the fire."
---
Vault – Saylor Watches
He stood with arms crossed, expression neutral. Before him, screens flickered between the players' perspectives, Lucia's heat signature, and the system's shifting calculations.
> INSTABILITY PROJECTION: INCREASING LUCIA PAYNE — STATUS: SYSTEM-APPROVED HOSTILE TRIAL MODE: OPEN COMBAT + MEMORY COLLAPSE ZONES
Saylor murmured, "She wanted change. Let's see what it costs."
He typed a line:
> ALLOW RESISTANCE VIEW ACCESS — OBSERVE ONLY
---
Resistance Underground
Veyra gasped.
A screen opened inside their broken node — a full view of the Trial.
Lucia, alone.
Facing five.
Brant clenched his jaw. "That son of a—"
Veyra grabbed his wrist. "We can't interfere. He's baiting us."
"She's going to die."
"Not unless she wants to."
---
The First Clash
Lucia moved like a flame given purpose.
She struck without mercy, not to kill, but to test. Her first blow launched a molten spike from the sand that sent one player—Tomas—flying backwards.
He scrambled to his feet, hand glowing. His Ticket: Kinetic Divide.
He tried to shield.
Lucia shattered it with a single whip of chain-fire.
> PLAYER VITALS: 43%
Naomi ran to intervene. Eren flanked wide.
Lucia stood her ground.
> "I am not your enemy. I am your mirror."
The battle intensified. Each strike from Lucia left not just burns—but memories. Her flames wove through more than armor. They pulled thoughts loose, spilling dreams, regrets, and truths across the burning Field.
Eren swung in hard, his Ticket pulsing.
> Slipguard: brief invulnerability when charging from behind.
He landed a clean blow.
Lucia staggered but did not fall.
Instead, she caught his wrist.
> "Tell me, Eren… what did you give up to be here?"
Flames ignited around them.
Eren gasped—visions flooding him. His brother's death. The guilt. The silence that followed.
He dropped to his knees.
Lucia didn't strike again.
She turned away.
> PLAYER SYNAPSE SHOCKED: NO ELIMINATION REGISTERED.
---
Elsewhere: The Vault Begins to Fracture
Saylor didn't speak. The Memory Core behind him began flickering. Not failing, but reacting.
Lucia's power was not destroying the system.
It was accessing it.
He recognized it now.
> "She took more than the Judge's mask."
The Trial wasn't just fire.
It was remembrance.
Lucia's very existence had become a living code—a countermeasure stitched from forgotten fragments.
He typed a command:
> LOCKDOWN STAGE 1: PERSONAL MEMORY SEALS
But nothing responded.
Lucia had locked him out.
And she wasn't finished.
---
Back on the Field
Naomi stepped forward. She held no weapon.
"If you're not here to kill us... what are you here to do?"
Lucia stood in the firelight, face unreadable.
> "I'm here to break the story."
The wind howled.
The towers cracked.
The Trial wasn't over.
It was only beginning.
Lucia raised her hand, not to attack—but to reveal.
The fire from the glass towers spiraled down and coiled around her body, creating a blazing crown of flickering memory sigils. The players saw not just flames—but images within the fire.
Naomi stepped back in awe.
She saw herself at five, screaming at a funeral. Her mother collapsing at the casket.
Eren saw the last letter his brother wrote, one he had never opened.
Tomas—half-conscious and bleeding—wept silently as he watched his first trial spin on loop: how he had laughed while someone else died.
Lucia's voice rang across the sand.
> "You cannot burn truth. You can only forge it."
---
Vault Emergency Protocol Engaged
The Memory Core screamed.
> ERROR: ARCHIVAL PURGE BLOCKED LUCIA PAYNE ACCESSING SYSTEM ROOT VIA FIELD CHANNEL CONNECTION STABILITY: COMPROMISED
Saylor finally moved.
He walked from the control altar to the Core.
"You're not breaking my system. You're feeding it," he whispered.
He pressed his hand to the core.
> MANUAL MEMORY FLUSH: CYCLE 001 THROUGH 035
The system resisted.
And failed.
A blast erupted from the Vault, sending fractures downward—into the Trial.
The glass towers exploded.
Fire surged inward, not outward.
And Lucia disappeared in the flame.
---
Silence
The players stood in stunned quiet.
The battlefield gone.
Just sky. Ash. And an empty center.
> TRIAL TERMINATED. PLAYER COUNT: 5
Naomi fell to her knees.
Eren looked to the sky.
Lucia was gone.
But they knew better.
She wasn't defeated.
She had just become part of the system.