The moment the High Veiled vanished, the entire chamber groaned.
Stone cracked above them. The floor trembled.
Then the walls — shifted.
Massive slabs of rock ground together, closing the staircase behind them and sealing off every exit. The mist thickened, rising like smoke, swirling into impossible shapes.
They were trapped.
"This isn't a battle," Elizabeth whispered. "This is the Trial."
The chamber darkened. The glowing crystals overhead shattered one by one until only a few remained, casting long, flickering shadows across the stone.
A sound echoed through the darkness — wet, slow, dragging.
Like something ancient crawling across the ground.
And then it emerged.
Not a Veiled. Not even close.
A creature too large to hide, too misshapen to understand. Its body was a mass of twisting limbs and flickering faces — all shifting between expressions of pain, rage, and silence. Eyes blinked in places eyes didn't belong. Its skin pulsed with red veins like molten cracks in stone.
It didn't roar.
It watched.
"You have got to be kidding me," Braydon muttered, raising his weapon again.
"It's not attacking," KJ said quietly. "It's… reading us."
Shoto stepped forward, his fists clenched. He could feel the power inside him rising again — hot, unstable, begging to be unleashed.
The creature slowly opened its mouth.
But instead of sound, it released a wave of emotion — a pressure that crashed over them like a flood. Fear. Doubt. Rage. Guilt.
Each of them staggered as their own weaknesses rose to the surface — memories, regrets, moments they'd never said out loud.
Elizabeth dropped to one knee, breathing hard.
KJ gritted his teeth, gripping the shadows around him tighter.
Pate flinched as his light pulsed uncontrollably, pushing back the darkness around him.
Braydon tried to lift his weapon — but his hands were shaking.
And Shoto —
Shoto fell to his knees.
Inside him, the elemental storm surged like a beast breaking its chains.
His body trembled. The ground beneath him cracked and hissed with heat. Sparks danced across his skin, glowing brighter by the second.
He couldn't stop it.
Not this time.
"Shoto!" Elizabeth called out.
But he couldn't hear her.
He was lost in the storm.
Fire roared in his chest. Lightning cracked across the stone. The very air bent around him, warping from pressure and heat.
"SHOTO!"
And then —
A hand touched his.
Not a blow. Not a spell. Just a hand.
Elizabeth knelt beside him, calm in the chaos.
"You're not alone," she said. "Let it go."
And somehow — he did.
The storm inside him quieted, flickering back to a low hum. The heat faded. The chamber stilled.
The creature blinked. Its body shifted — no longer chaotic, but focused.
It understood now.
They weren't just power.
They were something more.
The Trial… was ending.
⸻
At the center of the chamber, a ring of runes ignited.
A massive stone rose from the ground, revealing an old, cracked tablet.
Etched into it were six symbols — one for each of them.
And above them all, a sentence burned in glowing red:
"Only one may lead. The rest must choose to follow… or fall."
The words pulsed once — and then the runes went dark.
No exit opened. No voice explained what came next.
Just silence.
And choice.