His gaze… sharp, yet hollow. Like an idealism long abandoned by hope itself. That was the image of Kael's darker self.
Kael held his breath, as if his lungs refused to accept the air. Because the one standing before him now… was himself.
Not the Kael he knew.
But a shadow born from a tainted side—Kael distorted by the collapse of hope.
That figure stared back with piercing violet eyes, like a void forced to live after losing its rightful place. His face was flat, devoid of emotion, yet the air around him trembled, boiling with a tightly restrained aura of destruction. Like light forced into tyranny.
Kael whispered faintly, "…Is that… me?"
The shadow stretched into a long grin. Its voice was not merely heard—it slammed into Kael's mind, piercing him like an unseen blade.
"The Kael you knew… has been dead for a long time. What remains are only cracks—worthless fragments rotting among the ruins. I am what was born from the collapse of your hope. From the light that failed to save you… by your own hands."
Kael clenched his fist, his jaw tightening. "By my own hands…? No." His voice was firm. "You're not me. You're nothing but a rotten copy created to kill me."
The shadow let out a short laugh, its left eye opening wide with a strange expression, as if mocking something even it didn't fully understand.
"I am everything you ever desired, yet always rejected. I am lost light, idealism gone to rot. I was not born to imitate you… but to replace you… in this new world."
Kael lowered his head, drawing in a heavy breath. But when he raised his face again, the light in his eyes had changed—calm, cold, and sharp.
"Replace me…? Nonsense. If you were born from what collapsed within me, then your existence is only proof… that I'm still standing. I may be cracked and imperfect, but I am not a dead fragment. I am a foundation that still refuses to crumble."
Shadow Kael smiled without a soul, then burst into harsh, bitter laughter, as though the entire world itself were a joke.
"Kyahhahhahahaha! Still standing?! You're standing only because the world hasn't had the chance to completely crush you yet. You're defective—trash even history wants to erase. You are unworthiness given form, Kael Vieron."
Then he continued, forcing the words out. "Now… let me finish everything for you."
Kael snorted softly, taking a slight step forward. "Huh… leave my fate to you? No, thanks."
At that moment, the expression of the woman who had been silently standing before shifted—her eyes widening slightly in surprise as she realized Kael could move that freely. When, by all rights, he should not have been able to move at all.
For an instant, a thin smile appeared on Shadow Kael's face—like a small, quiet victory.
"Don't be anti-naïve."
But Kael immediately cut in, his tone icy.
"Unfortunately, I've never intended to hand my dignity to false hands. If this is a second chance, I'll fix things in my own way. If you manage to erase me, then you're the victor. But if you lose— you'll become the dust of my lament, erased from history without even being named."
Suddenly—
The luminous side of the sky erupted with a flash. The ancient dais split in two: one half sinking into light, the other shrouded in black mist that crept along the veins of Aetherial flow.
From the boundary where Kael turned his gaze—between light and darkness that violently repelled one another—that voice rose again.
The woman was no longer merely light. She floated upward, ascending slowly, as though invisible steps formed between the walls of day and night. At the point of division, she stopped and stood upright—not as a witness, but as a judge.
And her voice resounded:
"The space of judgment has been reactivated."
"Welcome… to the Sanctum of Sanctioned Judgment."
Kael was not surprised. Nor did he ask anything. In the silence of his heart, he knew—this was an unavoidable trial.
< Inscriptor >
That was what the ancients called them.
Not goddesses. Not spirits.
But a lineage of cosmic entities created for a single mandate: to preserve the record of the universe. They did not write with ink, but with wounds, law, time, and the very pulse of reality itself—each inscription a testimony that pierced the boundary between life and death. They were known as the Chronicle Inscriptors of the Fourth Sky, each one a fragment of the same root consciousness: the Root of Time.
They did not judge. They did not forgive. Yet under the same mandate, each Inscriptor held a different segment of cosmic law: some guarded the flow of time, some weighed sin, others guided souls at the crossroads of fate. And in this Sanctum, the Inscriptor standing before Kael was the adjudicator who rewrote buried truths—so that time itself could no longer lie. In this place, truth had nowhere left to hide.
But this time, one of them had descended in physical form. Silvery-white light shaped her silhouette, a body that seemed to be formed from fragments of memory—gently trembling, like the reflection of water upon the mirror of time.
The Inscriptor opened her eyes slowly. Within that gaze, Kael saw something unsettlingly familiar—cold, yet burning… like something dormant deep inside himself.
"I am one of those known as an Inscriptor," she said—her voice not merely heard, but penetrating straight into the core of consciousness.
"We are many, yet born of a single awareness. Each of us guards a different page of the universe's law, and my task is to record all that concerns you, Kael Vieron."
"I do not judge, nor do I weigh worth. I write. I remember. And from every wound, I awaken the truth you have hidden."
Her voice did not echo through the air, but within Kael's very soul. The resonance felt like two tones vibrating on the same frequency—separate, yet entwined. And for a brief moment, Kael sensed something beyond sound itself… as though something inside him was answering that call.
"This trial is not merely about honesty. Nor is it about strength. Even those who still possess hope will fail, perish, and be unable to overcome it."
"What you now face is conviction—conviction in the path you have chosen, even when every other road has collapsed."
"That which lies hidden within you will be awakened."
"Confronted. Recorded. And judged… by yourself."
Kael did not respond. Yet his eyes widened slightly, his hands clenched without conscious intent, his body stiffening as his voice caught in his throat. Not from fear—but because he knew: he was no longer in an ordinary world. And this… was not a battlefield that could be crossed with muscle or steel.
This was a trial—and he had become its participant the moment he opened his eyes amid the ruins.
At the boundary, the Inscriptor lowered her head, the movement gentle yet heavy with authority. In that silence, she seemed to be the sole sovereign of that place—though Kael knew that behind her form, many other voices waited within the stillness of the sky.
They were all guardians of the same law of time, Inscriptors scattered across different temporal layers, each watching over a single branch of the entire cosmos. The entity before him now was merely one of them—the adjudicator assigned to evaluate him within the Sanctum.
And yet, as Kael looked upon her, something faint stirred within him: an awareness that beyond that voice and that light, countless other Inscriptors existed out there… watching him from beyond the veil of the world, waiting for their own moment to emerge.
The Inscriptor extended her hand toward the thick tome resting upon the dais. In her right palm, a spell formed—Aetherial symbols spiraling in a faint glow, like light whispered into being by ancient law.
The Aetherial glyphs shimmered in the air, turning in rhythm with her soundless murmur.
The instant the spell touched the air, a sharp cling rang out—the Aetherial chains that had bound the tome began to crack, one by one, before vanishing in a cold burst of bluish-white light. As though nullified by a higher will.
The tome rose, floating serenely above the dais, radiating a crushing presence—as if it bore the entire weight of judgment itself.
And from its parted pages, two massive cards slid free, unfurling slowly in the air behind Kael and his shadow.
The first towered skyward, as though seeking to pierce the very boundary of the heavens. Its surface shone with pure golden brilliance, clear and immaculate like the midday sun that knows no shadow. At its center, sacred letters glowed with radiant clarity:
"Arcana Solaria — The Path of Conviction."
This card was not merely a symbol of victory, but a portrayal of a soul's long journey—one that dares to stand against all doubt. It embodied a destiny attainable only through sacrifice, unyielding faith, and the courage to keep moving forward even when the world rejects your existence.
The light it emitted did not merely illuminate—it burned away all falsehoods, stripping bare the fragile veil of despair. Those who walk beneath the banner of Arcana Solaria must be prepared to bear solitude, for the path of conviction is one rarely chosen—but once taken, it leads to the highest summit of fate.
In contrast, the second card appeared to sink into a boundless abyss. Its surface was a deep bluish-black, like the cold density of night fog swallowing all light that dared draw near. From within its darkness, faint inscriptions emerged, as though time itself sought to erase them:
"Arcana Noctis — The Collapse of the Soul."
Unlike Solaria, which carried the promise of triumph, this card was a bitter warning of ruin. It spoke of a journey that never finds its end, of a soul fractured and scattered by doubt.
Arcana Noctis did not merely signify failure in a worldly sense, but the disintegration of one's deepest essence—when conviction crumbles into dust, and the path meant to be walked transforms into a chasm that devours existence itself.
The mist coiling around the card resembled countless murmuring voices, endlessly whispering despair—reminding that once one falls into this darkness, one may never again remember the meaning of light.
And between the two—Solaria's searing radiance and Noctis's freezing shadow—Kael stood, as though forced to face a mirror revealing the branching realities of his own fate.
Around them, the very air of the Sanctum changed its tone. The walls, once silent, began to tremble faintly, producing a background rhythm that cut through the stillness.
THUD… THUD… THUD…
Not the sound of a heart… but the echo of an inner chamber long sealed away. A pulse that could only be heard when a soul was confronted with its most painful truth.
The Inscriptor gazed upon Kael and his shadow at once, her voice calm—yet leaving not the slightest room for denial.
"The choice of fate's paths now lies revealed. Arcana Solaria and Arcana Noctis have descended upon the existence of you both. This is not mere divination… but a mantle of destiny bound to the soul. You cannot reject it. You can only walk it."
She raised her fingers, pointing toward the two colossal cards still unfurled across the sky of the Sanctum. Daylight shimmered. Night mist crept and coiled.
"Those cards are not free choices, nor are they simple talismans or blessings. They are mirrors of the soul. The road you walk will determine which of them consumes you whole. Will you become Solaria—one who shines by conviction alone—or fall into Noctis, the void born of doubt?"
"And within this tome…" Her hand lifted toward the floating manuscript, heavy with light.
"…a question will emerge. A question that can be answered with only one currency: honesty."
She paused. Her fingers spread, igniting five ancient icons in the air:
< Arrow. Stasis. Conflagration. Virus. Fracture. >
They rotated slowly above Kael's head, emitting a dry rasping sound, like bones cracking.
"If you attempt to lie… four of these five punishments will descend upon you. And the wounds they leave will not heal. Not by time. Not by law. Not by Aetherial Logic."
Silence pressed down upon the Sanctum. Yet the echo of that inner pulse still thudded… slow and heavy, like an unseen hammer forever waiting to fall.
"Do not rely on courage alone. Play with your mind. For courage without logic… is nothing but a road to ruin. All pain in this world is merely a brief rhythm. If you manage to pass through it all, then that pain will have never truly existed."
She bowed her head slowly, her hands of light clasped before her chest. Her voice lowered, yet rang like a final verdict:
"And if you fail… the shadow will take over your entire being."
Kael lifted his face, standing straight even as the pressure seemed to weigh down on his shoulders.
"I understand… there's no need to drag this out. Let's begin the game. No matter what you intend to bequeath to me… I will choose my own path. Without bowing to either light or darkness."
Shadow Kael laughed—long and bitter, like shards of glass shattering in a vacuum.
"Hahah… haha… hahahahaha! Your path is nothing but my shadow, delayed. And living souls… have always been my feast."
The Sanctum trembled.
The light around them pulsed faintly. From the floor, two symbolic circles emerged: one silver-blue encircling Shadow Kael, the other a deep violet trailing Kael's steps, dripping like ink from a wound that never dried.
The Inscriptor spoke once more, her voice steeped in grandeur:
"The first phase of the Judgment of Meaning… begins."
As if in answer, the glowing circle beneath Kael's feet pulsed, releasing Aetherial lines that crawled into the air. From within that radiance, another voice resonated—not merely loud, but echoing within the mind like an ancient law that could not be defied.
For a moment, the chamber was once again swallowed by a suffocating silence. The two towering cards before Kael were not illusions, but laws of destiny arranged long before he ever set foot in this place. They were merely the first doors of a far greater trial—the opening gates to a long road leading toward the core of judgment itself.
< First Phase — The Trial of Meaning >
Here, a soul is confronted with its own reflection. Arcana Solaria and Arcana Noctis do not stand as lifeless objects; they are scales that weigh the direction of a human's steps. Solaria tests the strength of conviction—the ability to stand firm upon a chosen path even as everything collapses around it. Noctis, meanwhile, is the shadow that claims those who fail, embodying the fragility of a soul unable to bear the weight of fate.
< Second Phase — The Trial of Sin >
Should one pass through the gate of meaning, what awaits next is a far crueler mirror: sins that cannot be denied. No matter how resolute a person may be, the shadow of sin always settles at the bottom of every human soul—and in this phase, every stain will be forced to rise to the surface. This trial is no longer about conviction, but about the courage to face the darkness one has given birth to with their own hands.
< Third Phase — The Trial of the Battle of Honor >
And in the end, only two forms will remain—the true Kael, and the Kael forged from his strongest shadow. The final confrontation is not merely a clash of weapons, but a judgment of who is most worthy to inherit the honor of the name Kael Vieron. If the shadow prevails, the original soul will vanish, replaced by a reflection without doubt. If the true Kael endures, he will be granted the right to choose his own path—the path of Solaria, or the path of Noctis.
This trial is not a game of chance. It is an ancient ritual, a law inscribed into the world's manuscript long before this civilization ever fell. And now, Kael stands at its very center, facing three phases that will judge not only his strength—but the very core of his existence as a human being.
***