The void rippled, and Ethan felt his soul being pulled—thread by thread—into a different realm. When he opened his eyes, the hospital, Estrade, the stars—everything had vanished.
He stood in a corridor of polished obsidian, glowing softly with threads of violet light. Tall, arched doors lined both sides, humming with faint whispers. The air was thick with emotion and echoes of the past.
A deep voice, not Estrade's, resonated through the air.
"The First Trial begins. Let the Void Soul be weighed."
Then, Estrade's voice whispered faintly into Ethan's mind:
"Know this—the Trial amplifies your emotions fivefold. If you cannot withstand yourself, you will be lost. "Your emotions will be magnified fivefold," Estrade's whisper echoed with caution. "Regret will feel like despair. Guilt will become agony. Grief will drown you. Only those who can endure the storm of their own soul may pass.
"This test consists of 3 illusion's which was meant to see if you can do what I could not—master all three cores without losing yourself. And to see whether you are worthy of leading Estrade to survival."
illusion One: The Flames of Loss
Ethan reached for the first door. The moment his fingers brushed it, the world shifted. He stood on a roadside drenched in rain, watching a flaming wreck—his parents' car.
He was seven again, helpless and screaming as the fire consumed the twisted metal. Time looped. He tried everything—breaking the window, pulling at the doors, calling out. Every time, he failed.
Then came the memory of his brother, older, colder, distant. At first, they had bonded over shared grief, but that warmth had curdled into resentment. One day, his brother stood over him and whispered:
"You're bad luck. You ruined everything. They died because of you."
Betrayal twisted deeper than pain. His brother had left him alone in the world—cut ties, cut love.
Their childhood—the neglect, the abuse, the betrayal—all bled together in a storm of grief.
"Is this your truth?" asked the voice in the flames. "That you are cursed? That you destroy all you love?"
Ethan fell to his knees, broken. Then… he breathed.
"No," he whispered. "They're gone. And maybe I couldn't save them—but I'm still here. I'll live. I'll carry their memory forward. I'll make something out of this pain."
The fire froze. The door dissolved.
He had taken a full month to relive, reject, and finally accept it.
illusion Two: The Void of Abandonment
Tom and Sasha appeared before him—smiling, laughing. His only light in a dark world.
He saw himself sparring with Tom, bruised but laughing, learning techniques in the park. And Sasha—her head in his lap beneath the twilight sky as he promised her, "I'll be with you… till the very end."
And then—gone.
Sasha, vanished. Tom, chasing her into the unknown. Their warmth replaced by cold silence.
"Is this your fate?" the voice whispered. "To be left behind by everyone?"
Ethan reached out—but they faded every time. Like ghosts.
The ache grew deeper, a month of isolation, of regret.
Until he stood tall.
"They didn't leave me. They were taken. And I won't stop until I find them. I swear it—I'll bring them back. I'll protect them like they protected me."
The corridor shattered into stardust. A second month passed.
illusion Three: The Betrayal
Rick Joy.
Sunny, joking Rick. Friend. Traitor.
The illusion threw Ethan back into the lab—the moment Rick sold them out. Alia's screams, the shock on her face, the researchers dragging them away. The needles. The pain. Rick watching, eyes cold.
Then—Alia, disabled, weak, dying. Her golden eyes dim.
Ethan howled, broken.
"Is this your failure?" the voice said. "That you couldn't protect her? That love always ends in pain?"
Ethan walked through fire to get to Rick. Fought the guards. Reached him.
And in that illusion—he killed Rick.
Only then did Alia's condition reverse. Her breathing calmed. Her light returned.
It wasn't real. But it was closure.
"I'll protect her now. And I'll never trust so easily again."
The illusion shattered. The third month passed.
"You have passed the first door of 3 doors"
Three illusions, three months. Ethan emerged into a circular white chamber. In the center stood a cloaked figure—face hidden behind a shifting mask of stars.
The pressure of his presence was immense.
"You have endured and survived impressive, if you have not overcome your grief, you may have failed, the Trial would have consumed you. You would have been seen unworthy."
"Three doors, three months. "Three illusions. Three storms of amplified agony. You had drowned in your past and clawed your way out. It hadn't been survival. It had been rebirth."
Ethan speaks in a tired tone "You're not Estrade."
"No. I am the Predecessor—a partial Void Soul which is artificially created. I forged my path through will, not nature. And I created the Trials… for you."
"Why?"
"To see if you can do what I could not—master all three cores without losing yourself."
"Why now?"
"Because the new cosmos needs a shepherd—not a tyrant. And I am dying. You are the first to walk this path. And perhaps, the last."
He paused, then added:
"And to give Estrade a chance. The more who pass the Trials, the more who may survive the rebirth."
He held out his hand. A glowing chest appeared, etched with runes.
"The Sigil of Endurance. You have passed the First Trial."
"This Sigil is proof that you did not break. It will protect your mind against corruption… and remind you of what you overcame."
"This is your second reward. You may only open it in front of Estrade."
He stepped forward and pressed two fingers to Ethan's chest. A silver-black glyph lit up over Ethan's heart.
As the chamber dissolved, the Predecessor's voice lingered:
"The Trials will grow harder. The closer you walk to truth, the more it burns. There is… another reason for the Trials. One I will reveal when you complete the second."
He raised a hand, and three new doors shimmered into view ahead of Ethan.
"Three doors. Three more illusions. Each deeper than the last. They must all be passed. Only then will you be ready to awaken your second core."
Ethan sat up and see the doors glowing faintly.
"Now I will send you out"