The rest had been short, but meaningful. When they rose again, it wasn't just with renewed strength—it was with silent purpose, the kind only born from shared survival and unspoken bonds.
Yuki led the way, his massive form gliding silently through the widening corridor that now shimmered with silver glyphs. As they descended, the temperature dropped subtly. The walls pulsed with ancient magic, whispering in tongues older than the world.
"This place… it's not just a dungeon," Elira murmured, walking beside him. "It's alive. Listening."
"I feel it too," Sylvaeria said, her eyes narrowed. "The air carries intent. Not malevolence… but something like judgment."
"A final guardian, maybe?" Seiris offered, checking the weight of her twin daggers.
Aeiris clutched the hem of her cloak, eyes darting toward the distant glowing arch ahead. "Why do I feel like it already knows everything about us?"
"Because it probably does," Yuki replied. "These ruins were made to test more than just strength."
Lumi rolled her shoulders. "Well, if it wants to know who we are, I'm happy to give it a show."
At the end of the corridor, the archway flared to life.
Lines of starlight traced its shape, forming an ornate gateway suspended in nothingness. Through it, they could glimpse a floating chamber—a vast circular space suspended in the void, platforms scattered like stepping stones beneath a massive tree of crystal and light. Roots stretched into the air like veins, and suspended between them was a figure cloaked in radiant silver threads, unmoving.
"The final trial," Elira whispered.
As the group stepped through, gravity seemed to shift. The moment their feet touched the floating platform, the space trembled with a deep, harmonic resonance.
Then the voice came.
Not loud. Not hostile.
But absolute.
**"Worthy children of flame, of wind, of moon and steel. You have traversed the trials. Now, face the final measure—not of your power… but of your unity."**
A pulse of energy rippled from the tree.
From each root descended a mirrored form—twisted shadows bearing the faces of Yuki and each of the girls. Their auras pulsed with distortion, eyes glowing with fractured emotions: jealousy, doubt, fear, pride.
"This again?" Lumi growled, sword flaring to life. "Didn't we already beat our worst selves?"
"No," Sylvaeria said softly. "Before, we fought illusions of self. These… are echoes of the bonds we fear to lose."
Seiris stepped forward now, shadows already flickering along her limbs.
"I'll fight too," she said firmly.
Yuki nodded. "You're one of us. This trial belongs to you as well."
Seiris smirked faintly. "Good. I was starting to get bored."
And then the echoes attacked.
Yuki lunged at his own twisted double—a primal, roaring dragon of wrath and chaos, whose roars sent shockwaves through the void. His claw met its twin's in a clash of crimson and gold.
Lumi and Seiris moved in tandem, blades flashing as they danced between platforms, their mirrored selves whispering poisoned thoughts of betrayal and abandonment.
Elira stood at the center, surrounded by moons made of obsidian, as her doppelgänger whispered every regret she carried. But Elira only smiled coldly. "I am not afraid of what I was."
Sylvaeria faced her echo alone—an empty-eyed spirit of nature abandoned and corrupted. But when it moved to strike her, Aeiris leapt between them, wind and light bursting from her fingertips.
"You don't fight alone anymore!" she cried.
And Seiris—deadly, silent, precise—was the first to strike down her own echo.
Dagger met dagger in a flurry of blinding strikes, but she moved like flowing shadow—each motion deliberate, graceful. In her opponent's eyes, she saw doubt. Her own. The part of her afraid she'd never truly belong.
She silenced it with one clean strike, the echo fading into shimmering dust.
The light around the crystal tree pulsed.
One by one, the echoes faded, shattering into motes of light.
And above them, the voice returned.
**"You have passed. Together, not as fragments… but as flame-forged unity."**
The tree bloomed in full.
And from its heart descended six orbs of radiant essence—each one attuned to the soul it sought.
Elira's eyes widened. "Is this…?"
Yuki stepped forward. "Our reward."
And just as the light touched each of them, the world around them began to shift once more—
Not ending…
But opening.
---