After the trials, the newly proven candidates were led deep beneath Gaia's citadel to the Vault of Echoes. The air grew warmer as they descended—until at last the stairs ended in a chamber that seemed as old as the world itself.
The walls were etched with swirling sigils that pulsed in hues of gold and blue. At the center rose eight pedestals, each bearing a relic that glowed with its own impossible aura: the Divine Artifacts, born in the First War and bound to Gaia's fate.
King Leonardo himself stood waiting beside them, a tall silhouette crowned with ivy laurels. He looked over the eight young warriors—some still bloodied from the Trial—and inclined his head.
"Today," he said, his voice resonant as a cathedral bell, "you shall each choose the Synthesis that will bind your essence to Gaia's own."
Mia drew in a quiet breath, her eyes fixed on the artifact shaped like a crystalline seed. She felt it calling to her—the Creation Core, the embodiment of life's unbroken cycle.
Cyg stepped forward first, unhesitating. His gaze locked on the Azure Sigil, a blade forged from the cold purity of the Nihileth. As his hand closed around its hilt, pale frost spidered over his palm but did not harm him.
Harriet was next. Her heart thundered as she approached the Ember Crown, a circlet that pulsed with volcanic heat. She remembered the slums, the night she had first chosen to fight. With a slow exhale, she lifted the crown in both hands. Fire coiled around her shoulders like a mantle of living light.
Hikari lingered longest before her choice. For a moment, her trembling fingers hovered between the Argent Veil and the Nocturne Shard—one a symbol of cleansing, the other of cursed shadow. But then she straightened her back. "I will own what I am," she whispered, and took the Nocturne Shard into her grasp. A hush fell over the chamber as darkness blossomed around her, gentle as dusk.
Charlotte, Sylvia, Elaine, and Eun-Ha each stepped forward in turn, claiming the relics that resonated with the truths they had laid bare in the Trial.
When Mia's turn came, she pressed a hand to her heart, feeling the echo of the Creation Force within her. She reached out and lifted the crystalline seed. At once, it unfurled in her palms like a blooming flower, bathing her in a living radiance that brought tears to her eyes.
Leonardo raised both arms. "You have chosen. And in so doing, you have become something more than warriors. You are Gaia's bond made manifest—its shield and its final hope."
As the chamber filled with rippling power, each of them felt a new certainty settle in their bones. Whatever the Abyss might unleash, they would not face it alone.
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