Chapter 9: The Ghost in the Glass
The silence of the Old Archive was heavy, a thick, physical thing that tasted of dust and static. For the first few hours, the only sound was the rhythmic hum of the ancient air filtration system and the soft clack-clack of Elena's boots as she paced around the central stone table.
Ren sat on the edge of the circular dais, his head in his hands. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the flickering red timer of the System.
[TRIAL OF THE BLOODLINE: 18:42:11 REMAINING]
"I found it," Mia called out from a dark corner of the hall. She emerged from between two towering shelves of books, her face streaked with soot and a strange, glowing blue grease. "In the back, behind the history section. There's a pneumatic forge. It's old technology—pre-System—but someone has retrofitted it with a mana-capacitor. I can repair our basic gear there without spending credits."
"Good," Ren said, standing up and stretching his stiff muscles. "Elena, what about the displays? Have you gotten anything out of the 'Spire' console?"
Elena didn't look up from the holographic screen she was manipulating. Her violet eyes reflected the scrolling lines of ancient code. "This Archive isn't just a library, Ren. It's a mirror. It's been recording the 'vibrations' of the world for a century. But it's locked behind a synchronization gate."
She swiped her hand, and the central table began to glow with a soft, amber light.
[SYNC RATE: 2.10%]
[SYSTEM NOTE: MINIMUM 5.0% SYNC REQUIRED FOR DATA ACCESS]
"We don't have enough," Elena said, her voice tight with frustration. "The 'Trial' is going to start, and we're going into it blind because we haven't 'bonded' enough to satisfy a machine."
"Maybe we don't need the machine to tell us what a trial is," Ren said, walking over to her. He looked at the golden cord. It was thinner now, almost translucent, but the pull was stronger. "Every time we fought in that dungeon, the Sync went up. The Trial isn't just a test of strength. It's a test of the Tether."
Suddenly, the lights in the Archive flickered. The warm, electric glow of the bulbs died, replaced by a harsh, flickering crimson.
[WARNING: TRIAL INITIALIZATION TRIGGERED BY PROXIMITY]
[PHANTOM PROTOCOL: ACTIVE]
"Proximity?" Mia gasped, running to join them at the table. "Silas said we had twenty-four hours!"
"The System doesn't follow the clock; it follows the heart," a voice echoed through the chamber. It wasn't Silas. It was a cold, distorted version of the System's own chime.
From the shadows of the book stacks, three figures began to materialize. They weren't monsters. They were human. Or rather, they looked like humans made of smoke and shattered glass.
Ren's breath hitched. He recognized the figure in the lead. It was a man in a tattered District 9 worker's uniform, his face obscured by shadow, but his stance—the way he tilted his head—was unmistakable. It was the man Ren had watched die in a workshop accident five years ago. His father.
Beside him, another figure took shape. A woman in a regal, white combat suit, her silver hair identical to Elena's. The legendary S-Rank hunter, Clara Valentine—Elena's mother, who had disappeared into a Black Gate a decade ago.
And for Mia, a hulking man holding a broken hammer, his chest caved in by a blow that looked all too familiar.
[TRIAL PHASE 1: THE WEIGHT OF THE PAST]
Objective: Confront and Defeat the 'Phantoms of Regret.'
Condition: Damage is shared across the Tether.
"No," Mia whispered, her hammer appearing in her hand with a shower of orange sparks. "That's... that's not him. It can't be."
"It's a projection, Mia! Don't look at his face!" Ren roared, but his own voice lacked conviction. The phantom of his father was walking toward him, holding a rusted wrench like a dagger. It wasn't just a ghost; it was the personification of Ren's guilt—the boy who survived while the man died.
Elena stood frozen. The 'Ice Princess' was gone. She was just a girl staring at the mother she thought she'd forgotten. The phantom of Clara Valentine raised a hand, and a storm of violet mana, identical to Elena's but infinitely more refined, began to swirl around her.
"Elena! Move!" Ren lunged toward her, but his father's phantom was faster. The wrench swung, catching Ren in the ribs.
He didn't just feel the pain in his side. Through the golden cord, Elena and Mia both let out a strangled cry as the impact rippled through them.
[TOTAL HP: 82%]
"The damage is shared," Elena gasped, her hands shaking as she summoned her staff. "If one of us falls... we all die."
The phantom of Clara Valentine spoke, her voice a hollow echo. "You think you can lead, Elena? You, who can't even stand without the help of a commoner and a smith? You are a disappointment to the bloodline."
"Shut up," Elena hissed, her violet mana flaring with a violent, jagged edge. "You aren't her. You're a ghost in a machine!"
She fired a bolt of lightning, but the phantom mother simply swiped it away with a flick of her wrist. The phantom father lunged at Ren again, and the blacksmith phantom raised his broken hammer toward Mia.
They were being picked apart. The phantoms knew exactly where their psychological armor was thinnest.
"We can't fight them separately!" Ren shouted, parrying a blow that made his Sovereign's Edge hum with a mournful tone. "They're feeding on our individual guilt! We have to sync! Now!"
"How?" Mia cried, dodging a blow that shattered a nearby bookshelf. "I can't even look at him!"
"Look at me then!" Ren grabbed the golden cord with his bare hand. The light seared his palm, but he didn't let go. He forced his [TETHERED SENSE] to expand, not outward to the room, but inward to them.
He didn't just show them a map. He showed them his own shame—the nights he spent hungry, the anger he felt toward a world that forgot him. And in return, he felt Mia's fear of being useless and Elena's crushing loneliness behind her silver walls.
The three emotions collided in the center of the Tether. The gold light turned from a soft amber to a blinding, pure white.
[SYNC RATE INCREASING: 3.5%... 4.2%... 5.0%!]
[DATA ACCESS GRANTED: THE TRINITY SOUL-MERGE]
"Now!" Ren commanded.
They didn't attack their own ghosts. Ren spun, his blade cutting through the phantom of Elena's mother. Elena's lightning struck the man who looked like Mia's father. And Mia's hammer came down on the shade of Ren's father.
Because they shared the burden, the ghosts had no power over them. The phantoms shattered like glass, their forms dissolving into golden particles that were instantly absorbed by the Archive's central table.
The crimson lights faded. The warm, yellow bulbs flickered back to life.
[TRIAL PHASE 1: COMPLETE]
[REWARD: 10,000 CREDITS DEPOSITED]
[ARCANE ARCHIVE UNLOCKED: 'HISTORY OF THE FIRST SOVEREIGNS']
Ren fell to his knees, gasping for air. The golden cord was pulsing with a rhythmic, soothing warmth. He looked at Elena and Mia. They were both crying, but they were standing closer to him than they ever had before.
The 'Harmonious Proximity' wasn't a distance anymore. It was a feeling.
"The machine is talking," Mia whispered, pointing at the central table.
The holographic display had changed. It was no longer a list of credits and levels. It was an image—a drawing of three people from a thousand years ago, standing exactly where they were standing now.
And beneath the image, a single line of text appeared in a language they could all suddenly read:
"The true power is not the crown you wear, but the weight you are willing to carry for those beside you."
Ren looked at the girls. "I think we just found out why we're here."
The Archive began to hum, as if the walls themselves were breathing. In the corner, a new passage had opened, leading deeper into the dark.