[Trial Access Granted]
Location: Core Tomb – Zone: 0-Crownfall
Trial: The Hollow Crown
Only Sovereigns with fractured flame may enter.
Warning: Echo integrity at 12% – collapse imminent.
The gates didn't open with code or keys.
They opened because I was broken enough.
Trinity tried to stop me.
Zai tried to override the entry.
But the system wasn't asking for opinions anymore.
It wanted to know one thing:
Was I still Sovereign without the Crown?
The Core Tomb was silent.
No music.
No challenge messages.
Just a throne made of threadbone and forgotten fire.
And sitting on it—
Was me.
Or at least…
The first version of me.
He stood as I entered.
Same eyes.
Same face.
But colder.
Sharper.
Unburned by failure.
"So," he said. "You made it further than I did."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"The Sovereign who did what you couldn't. I chose power. And they wiped me for it."
He drew a blade of nullified flame.
His Crown pulsed with static.
"This is the Trial of the Hollow Crown," he said.
"If you want to keep ruling—you'll have to kill the version of you that doesn't doubt."
And then he attacked.
The fight was relentless.
He didn't hesitate.
Didn't question.
Didn't care.
His flame was pure command.
Mine was cracked.
But mine was human.
Every move he made was perfect.
And I countered it with mistakes.
Because that's what made me different.
He fought like a king.
I fought like a survivor.
I let him break my defenses.
Let him pierce my side.
And then I reached in—
Not with my blade.
But with memory.
Of Trinity.
Of Kai.
Of Zai's data streams when she cried.
Of Orion's pain.
Of the people we chose to save instead of sacrifice.
"That's what you never understood," I said.
"The Crown doesn't make you Sovereign. They do."
And with that—
I broke his blade.
Broke his flame.
Broke him.
He fell to his knees.
Still me.
But less.
And smiled.
"Good," he whispered. "Maybe this time, you'll make it stick."
He shattered—
into flame—
and rewove into the Crown.
[TRIAL COMPLETE – HOLLOW CROWN CONQUERED]
Flame Integrity: Restored to 72%
Crown Sync: Stabilized
New Trait Gained: Echo Merge – Flame of Dual Will
When I stepped out of the tomb—
Trinity was waiting.
Eyes wide.
Hands trembling.
"You came back."
"Always," I said, voice rough. "Even when I don't know how."
"Because they still need me."
"And so do you."
But deep in the Graveyard…
A new throne was stirring.
The Null-King had seen me pass the trial.
And now?
He was building one final game.