The mist pressed close like a living thing. Every footstep echoed too loud, every heartbeat felt like it could betray a secret. The labyrinth was silent — but it was not still.
Each of the Top Ten now walked their own path, swallowed by the shifting maze. Ten bridges, ten destinies.
The first to confront his reflection was Nox Vale.
His echo stood a few steps ahead, draped in shadow, wearing his face but not his expression. Its eyes burned with a pale, cold light.
"Do you really believe you deserve this?" the echo whispered. "A forgotten name. A ruined house. You were supposed to stay hidden in the forest."
Nox didn't answer immediately. He focused on his breathing, on the pulse of resonance in his core. The reflection moved exactly as he did, step for step, but when he raised his hand, the echo summoned not light… but shadows, swirling and hungry.
"Strength without conviction is nothing," it hissed. "You're not the heir of anything. You're the remnant."
Nox exhaled slowly, anchoring himself. "Maybe," he said softly, "but remnants can still burn."
Their clash wasn't loud. It was sharp — precise resonance pulses colliding like threads of light and darkness woven against each other. His control, honed through instinct rather than training, met the echo's raw malice. Each movement was mirrored, each strike reflected. But Nox's calm steadiness began to unravel the storm of shadow.
The echo fractured, screaming without sound as light pierced through its chest — and Nox stood alone again, breathing hard.
Selene Aurelion walked a different path. Hers was a corridor of lightless glass — every wall a perfect mirror. Her echo wasn't a monster. It was her. Perfectly composed. Unwavering. Unfeeling.
"You've built walls so high you can't even hear yourself anymore," it said. "Control everything. Trust nothing. Is that strength, or fear?"
Selene's fingers twitched — a rare, human gesture. "You're just a voice."
"I'm you. The part you never let breathe."
Light flickered between them, an elegant dance of control versus raw emotion. Selene's strength was precision — unshakable. But the echo moved with the fluidity of someone without restraint. Every perfect strike she delivered was met with chaotic brilliance. It wasn't trying to overpower her; it was trying to make her feel.
She steadied herself, lowered her weapon slightly, and whispered, "I don't need to erase you. Just accept you."
The labyrinth shuddered. Her reflection froze… then dissolved into motes of light. Selene walked forward — colder, but more complete.
Taren Voss laughed when his echo appeared. It laughed back.
"Finally," it snarled, a perfect mirror of his reckless grin, "someone who understands me."
The ground around them fractured under the weight of their resonance. Both unleashed raw force, not precision. Taren's echo was everything he was — and worse. More violent. More destructive. It wasn't trying to trick him. It was trying to break everything.
Energy surged like a thunderstorm trapped in a cage. Taren roared, pushing harder, his control unstable but relentless. In a brutal collision, he drove his echo back, shattering the mirrored floor beneath them.
"Only room for one storm," he growled, smashing the final blow through its chest.
He stood over the fading echo, sweat on his brow and a crooked grin on his face.
Lyra Fen faced not a person, but a maze of illusions. Her echo hid behind a hundred mirrored faces, whispering doubts in her own voice.
"You're clever, Lyra. Clever doesn't win against power.""They'll always see you as the trickster, never the victor.""You're replaceable."
She smiled softly — not a real smile, but one sharpened by experience. "You're talking too much."
She didn't overpower the maze. She outsmarted it. Layer by layer, she unraveled each illusion, finding the true echo at the center: a trembling, scared version of herself from years ago. She didn't destroy it. She touched its forehead, and it faded like mist in the wind.
Meanwhile, Raven Drayke charged into his trial like it was a brawl. His echo was a version of him with no restraint — loud, wild, burning everything. Their fight shook the corridor like a forge hammer. But Raven's grin didn't fade.
"I'm me," he shouted between blows, "and you're just a bad copy!"
He won not by strength — but because he never doubted who he was.
Kaelis Norrin, Eira Solcrest, Finn Ashvale, Liora Cendris, and Draven Marric each faced their own echoes — some with tears, some with fury, some with quiet resolve.
Eira faced guilt over a sister she couldn't save.Finn faced the fear of living in someone else's shadow.Liora faced the crushing expectations of her house.Draven faced the whisper that told him he was a coward.Kaelis faced nothing — only silence — and that, somehow, was the hardest of all.
One by one, their reflections fell.
High above the labyrinth, the scrying mirrors flared as sigils ignited. Names began to reorder on the ranking board as synchronization and resolve were measured by the Tower itself.
"Interesting," a silver-robed instructor murmured. "Some are climbing not through power… but through clarity."
The Tower wasn't merely testing skill — it was weighing their souls.
As the last echo dissolved, the labyrinth shifted again. The paths, once fractured and twisted, converged into a single glowing arch. The candidates stepped out one by one, some pale, some grim, some quietly burning with newfound resolve.
Raven clapped Nox on the shoulder. "You look like death warmed over. Must've been fun."
"Not exactly," Nox replied.
Selene emerged a moment later, as composed as ever — though there was a faint crack in her mask now, something human in the edges of her calm.
The Tower's voice returned, steady and ancient.
"Floor Two: Cleared. Echoes faced. Reflections accepted. Proceed… if you dare."
The floor beneath them dissolved into starlight. A new portal swirled open ahead, larger than before, pulsing like the heartbeat of a slumbering beast.
"Looks like quitting's still an option," Lyra muttered, glancing at the faintly glowing withdrawal sigil. None of the Top Ten moved toward it.
"Then up we go," Raven said with a grin.
Nox took a breath and stepped into the portal first.
Floor Three awaited.