Chapter 7: The Threshold of the Forgotten

The door yawned open, revealing a void of absolute darkness. No light escaped from within—only an unnatural silence that swallowed every sound. It wasn't just emptiness; it was an abyss, something that had no right to exist in this world.

Raphael felt his resonance recoil, an instinctual warning thrumming through his bones.

Something inside that place remembered him.

Kieran's voice was hushed, cautious. "I don't like this."

Raphael stepped forward. "I don't either."

Yet he moved anyway.

The chains that had once bound the door rattled softly, as if whispering in defiance. Whatever this place had been designed to contain—it had failed.

Kieran's footsteps were light behind him, her presence reassuring in its quiet tension. She wasn't the type to flee when things turned dangerous.

Inside, the air changed.

It wasn't cold. It wasn't hot. It was simply wrong.

Then—

A whisper.

Not words. Not thoughts. Just… something pressing against the edges of his mind.

A memory trying to resurface.

He closed his eyes, letting his resonance stretch outward. And then—

---

Echoes of the Past

Raphael saw himself.

Not as he was now—but something else.

He stood at the heart of a battlefield, corpses littered at his feet, weapons shattered, the sky torn open by a power beyond comprehension. And in his hand, he held something impossible—

A blade forged from pure resonance.

The moment he saw it, pain lanced through his skull, forcing him back into the present. His breath came out sharp, uneven.

Kieran grabbed his arm. "What the hell just happened?"

Raphael exhaled. "A memory."

Her gaze sharpened. "Yours?"

He hesitated. "...Maybe."

The whisper returned, stronger now. Not just an echo, but a presence. Something was still here.

Something that knew him.

Then, from the abyss, a figure stepped forward.

It had no face. No body. Just a shifting, pulsating mass of resonance.

And it spoke.

"You left us behind."

The words were not heard. They were felt. A vibration that sent fractures through Raphael's mind, threatening to drag him deeper.

The figure reached out—

And suddenly, his resonance reacted.

A pulse exploded outward, forcing the entity back. The very space around them rippled, the unnatural darkness retreating like mist.

Kieran tightened her grip on her weapon, eyes darting between Raphael and the thing in front of them. "We fighting that?"

Raphael rolled his shoulders, his resonance swirling like a storm around him. "Looks like it."

The entity lunged—

And the first trial began.