CHAPTER 21 – CORE CHAMBER – THE SLEEPING MAW – NIGHT

CORE CHAMBER – THE SLEEPING MAW – NIGHT

The walls no longer trembled.

They breathed.

Molten veins pulsed along the obsidian like a living organism, rhythmically syncing to the thrum of Arvan's heartbeat. Or was it Rāvaṇa's?

Arvan knelt before the glaive embedded in the ground, its silver-black shaft whispering curses in a language that made the air colder around it.

He wasn't shivering.

He was… listening.

"Take it," the voice said. Not in command—in invitation.

And Arvan did.

The moment his fingers curled around the glaive's handle, the room imploded in silence.

A silence so total it deafened him.

Then—

Requiem… initiate.

His eyes burned Golden.

His body was not just moving—it was re-learning. Each swing of the glaive was instinct. Not training. Not muscle memory.

Ancestral combat.

God-slayer finesse.

A dancer of death returned to his stage.

From the shadows, the Second Trial emerged: a war beast sculpted from the regrets of a thousand slain kings—stitched together with the bones of those who dared forget their names.

It roared.

And Arvan moved.

First swing—Whispered Requiem [1st Echo]: Silence The Name.

—The glaive carved through air. The beast's mouth froze open, mid-roar, the sound stolen from its throat.

Second strike—[2nd Echo]: Sins peak

Severance.

—A cut across the leg. Not physical—spiritual. The monster stumbled as history unspooled from its core, unraveling its bloodline.

Arvan's breathing deepened.

His hair, once neatly tied, now flared behind him in dark strands, flickering with a deep crimson light at the tips. Veins on his neck pulsed black.

And his face?

Still Arvan.

But now with a shadow behind his smile.

[OBSERVATION DECK – BUREAU – NIGHT]

Reina gripped the rail so hard her knuckles turned white.

She could no longer watch through the monitors—they had all burst. Every magical recording seal had fried simultaneously.

But she could feel it.

He's changing faster than he should. The trial should've taken hours, maybe days… but this…

The divine sigils in her eyes rotated slightly, revealing deeper inscriptions.

Ancient identifiers. Forgotten warnings.

"Do not wake the Tenth Flame…"

"If he remembers, the skies will burn again…"

She shook the thought away.

This wasn't about fear.

It was about balance. If Arvan truly waw Rāvaṇa reborn, and she… was who she suspected she was… then their fates were chained again, and the universe had already rolled the dice.

"Let's see if you're still arrogant enough to burn it all down," she whispered.

[FINAL PHASE OF TRIAL – DUNGEON CORE ALTAR]

The beast lunged for Arvan's throat.

He didn't dodge.

He stepped into the blow, blade reversing mid-swing—

[Final Echo: Requiem Ascendant]

"They called me demon. But I sang death like a lullaby."

The glaive burst with flame—not orange, not red. Violet. Ethereal. Hungry.

It didn't just cut.

It burned the memory of the beast from the world.

When the ashes fell, Arvan stood in the center. Alone.

Chest rising.

Eyes dulling.

The whisper inside him… finally silent.

For the first time since entering the dungeon—He was truly awake.

And he didn't smile.

[BUREAU – NIGHT – AFTERMATH]

"Doors slammed open. Rigved strode in.

What the hell just happened down there?" he demanded.

Reina didn't answer. Her eyes were still on the broken screens.

Instead, she said one sentence.

One name.

"Rāvaṇa…. He had awakened"

Rigved blinked. "You sure it's not just a system glitch again." Rigven didn't wanted to face what was about to come

No," she whispered. "He's real. And he's here."

They both turned toward the sealed gate to the Sleeping Maw.

A siren suddenly blared.

[DUNGEON CLEARED – HOST SURVIVAL CONFIRMED

[EMERGENCE IMMINENT]

And then.

The gate creaked open.

A figure stepped out.

Blade on his back. Clothes torn. Gaze distant.

Arvan.

But even the air bent differently around him now.

And in the distance—

Three foreign guild emblems lit up simultaneously on satellite scans.

They had all marked him.

Recruit or kill.