The bridge of light stretched for miles, arching between floating towers that shimmered like glass veins.
Far below, an endless sea of darkness pulsed with faint blue sparks like stars trapped underwater.
Haruki led the way, each step sending ripples of light across the bridge. The air vibrated faintly around him, carrying whispers too low to form words.
Kana walked beside him, eyes darting from rune to rune carved into the transparent floor. "These markings… they're alive. They keep rewriting themselves."
Jinto leaned over the edge, peering into the abyss. "If I fall, do you think it counts as fast-travel?"
Ren sighed. "Fall and find out. I'll mark your grave on the way down."
Despite the joke, everyone moved carefully. The further they went, the heavier the atmosphere became. The Sanctuary seemed to be watching them.
Haruki's System flickered.
[Core Sync 70% – Sanctuary Recognition Increasing]
[Caution: Unknown Entity Ahead.]
He stopped. "Something's waiting."
Ren raised his sword. "Formation C. Kana, backline. Jinto, eyes sharp."
They reached the end of the bridge where a massive gate loomed. Unlike the others, this one wasn't made of light. It was stone, cracked and chained shut, with a symbol of a single eye carved in the center.
Kana whispered, "That symbol again. The one from the altar."
As Haruki approached, the chains trembled. A deep hum filled the air, vibrating in their bones. Then, a voice echoed not from outside, but from within the gate itself.
"The Heir walks. The Unfinished breathes. The Trial awaits."
The gate shattered open.
A burst of energy hurled them backward, scattering dust and light. When the air cleared, a giant figure stood where the gate had been a knight of pure obsidian, etched with glowing blue runes. Its eyes burned like dying stars.
Ren tightened his grip. "Guess we found the welcoming committee."
Haruki's pulse matched the hum of his System. The knight's gaze locked on him, as if recognizing something ancient.
[Sanctuary Guardian Protocol Activated.]
[Objective: Test the Heir's Resolve.]
Haruki raised his blade. "Then let's prove we deserve to be here."
The obsidian knight's chest split open with a deep metallic groan. From within, streams of blue light spiraled out, weaving into human shapes shadows that flickered between form and memory.
Haruki staggered back as one of the illusions solidified in front of him.
It was himself but darker, eyes cold, the same face twisted with anger and doubt.
"Who… what are you?" he breathed.
The shadow smiled, voice echoing like broken glass. "I'm what you try to forget every time you look forward. The part of you that remembers failure."
Ren cursed as two other figures took shape one wearing the bloodied insignia of his old squad, the ones who'd fallen years ago. Kana's illusion was worse: her younger self, crying beside a shattered research lab.
Jinto tried to joke, but his voice cracked. "Oh, great. My worst fear is apparently… me."
The Guardian's voice boomed through the chamber:
"The Heir's path is not written in blood or strength, but acceptance. Face what you are or fall where you stand."
The illusions lunged.
Haruki's double struck fast, blades clashing in a burst of light. Every move mirrored his own. Each parry came a fraction faster, every swing heavier.
"I won't lose to you!" Haruki shouted.
His shadow laughed. "You already did the day you doubted yourself."
Ren sliced through his illusion, but it reformed instantly, whispering every failure he'd ever buried. Kana's hands shook as her illusion reached out.
"Why did you survive when everyone else didn't?" it asked.
Her answer came in a whisper. "Because I still have something left to fix."
Ren drove his sword into the ground, releasing a pulse of energy that shattered his phantom into dust. He turned to Haruki and shouted
"You can't fight your darkness, Haruki. You have to own it!"
The words hit deeper than any strike.
Haruki's eyes burned as he raised his sword. "Then let's become something my shadow can't control."
Light erupted from his core, swallowing both him and the phantom in a blinding wave.
When it cleared, only one Haruki remained standing taller, calmer, and stronger.
"Even shadows disappear," he said quietly, "when the light stops running from itself."
The light slowly faded, leaving behind silence thick enough to feel. The obsidian walls pulsed with a dim blue glow, as if the chamber itself had been holding its breath.
Haruki exhaled shakily. His reflection was gone no shadow, no whisper, no echo. Only the faint hum of the Guardian remained.
Kana wiped her eyes and smiled weakly. "So… that was our emotional damage speedrun."
Ren chuckled under his breath. "If this was the warm-up, I'm terrified of what's next."
The Guardian's massive form shifted, eyes glowing like dying stars. "You faced yourselves and did not shatter. Few Hunters ever pass the Trial of Shadows."
A sigil appeared before them a six-pointed crystal burning with golden light. The Guardian's voice deepened. "Take this seal. With it, the path to the Second Gate will open."
Haruki stepped forward, hand trembling as he reached for it. But before he could touch it, the Guardian's voice rumbled again.
"Heir of the Broken Star… your light carries a flaw."
Haruki froze. "A flaw?"
"You shine too hard to hide your fear. Strength that cannot rest becomes madness."
The words sank into him like cold water. Haruki looked at his trembling fingers, remembering every fight, every desperate push to prove he wasn't weak anymore.
Ren placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. Flaws make you real. Power without scars isn't strength it's a story that ends too soon."
Haruki smiled faintly. "Guess we're all a little cracked, huh?"
Kana giggled. "That's where the light gets in."
"Then remember this," the Guardian thundered. "The strongest flame is not the one that burns brightest… but the one that refuses to go out."
The sigil floated into Haruki's hand, warm and alive. For a brief moment, he saw a memory not his own a figure wearing his face standing atop a field of ruin, eyes glowing crimson.
Z-Rank.
A whisper brushed against his mind:
"Every light casts a shadow. And every shadow seeks to rise."
Haruki blinked, and the vision was gone. Only the Guardian's voice remained.
"The next trial awaits… beyond the Gate of Glass."
The chamber trembled as the Guardian's gate opened.
A massive doorway of translucent crystal unfolded before them, its edges humming with light that shimmered like frozen lightning. Through it, they could see nothing but reflections — hundreds of versions of themselves walking different paths.
Kana stared into one reflection. In it, she was older, wearing armor instead of robes. "That's… me?" she whispered.
Ren glanced at his own mirror-self, who stood surrounded by fallen comrades. His jaw tightened. "Guess this corridor shows what could've been."
Haruki stepped closer, and the glass rippled like water. Within the reflection, he saw a world burning and himself standing over the ruins, eyes glowing red with the Z-Rank's mark.
His reflection spoke without sound, lips forming a single phrase: "Is this the power you wanted?"
Haruki touched the glass, and it fractured into a thousand shards.
The echoing sound was like a bell tolling in a dream.
"Don't stare too long," Kana said softly. "The future changes when you look at it too hard."
Haruki smiled faintly. "Maybe that's the point."
Ren snorted. "Then my future better include a vacation."
They walked on, the glass floor reflecting every step in perfect symmetry. But the further they went, the darker the reflections became twisted echoes of battles yet to come.
The System pinged softly in Haruki's mind.
[Emotional Stability: +3]
[Trait: Determined Heart – Active]
A voice followed, not the System's usual sarcasm, but something calmer.
"Courage isn't the absence of fear. It's walking through it until fear walks beside you."
Haruki whispered the words under his breath, memorizing them.
He wanted to remember that line for himself, for Makoto, for everyone still trapped in the unknown.
They finally reached the end of the corridor. Ahead stood a narrow archway carved in black stone, where streams of blue light fell like rain.
Kana grinned. "Well, we survived mirrors. What's next? Nightmares?"
Ren shrugged. "Probably worse."
Haruki chuckled, glancing at his reflection one last time.
"If we ever forget who we are… may our reflections remind us of what we could become."
Then he stepped through the archway into a world where light bled like water and the air hummed with whispers of destiny.
The archway led them into a world that didn't make sense.
Sound carried like whispers underwater. The ground shimmered with translucent waves of light, and every movement left behind a faint afterimage as though reality itself were remembering them in slow motion.
Kana spun slowly, eyes wide. "What… is this place?"
Ren frowned. "It feels like we're walking inside someone's memory."
A faint hum rolled through the air, followed by a voice deep, emotionless, yet ancient.
"You step into the Realm of Echoes… where thought becomes weight, and memory becomes chain."
The voice came from everywhere. The very air trembled with it.
Haruki clenched his fists. "Show yourself!"
Light coalesced in front of them, forming into a tall, robed figure whose face was hidden by a mask of cracked glass. The Second Guardian.
"I am Eidra, Keeper of What Was Forgotten.*"
The Guardian's words flowed like a dream. "You seek the next Seal, but to claim it, you must carry what you've buried. For only those who face the echoes of their heart may move forward unbroken."
Haruki felt the world tighten.
Suddenly, he saw Makoto his little brother standing a few meters away, smiling weakly as hospital monitors beeped behind him.
"Haruki…" Makoto's voice trembled. "You promised you'd come back."
The illusion hit him harder than any blade. His knees wavered.
Ren shouted, but his own echo appeared his squad, staring with empty eyes. Kana's reflection showed her mentor, cold and silent.
Eidra's voice cut through the chaos:
> "Strength is not found in forgetting. It is found in remembering without breaking."
Haruki's hands shook. He wanted to close his eyes, to run. But something inside him snapped differently this time not in pain, but in defiance.
"If remembering hurts, then I'll carry the pain until it stops hurting," he said through gritted teeth. "Because forgetting would mean I stopped caring."
The illusion of Makoto smiled faintly. "Then you're already stronger than you were."
Light rippled through the realm. The echoes dissolved. The Guardian bowed its head slightly.
"You have learned the weight of memory. The path ahead opens."
Haruki stood tall, exhausted but smiling faintly.
"Pain fades. What we learn from it doesn't."
The realm pulsed once more and the Gate to the Second Trial began to form.