Chapter 10 - The Echo Trial (5)

Iver was the first to break. I still remember how his voice cracked, how desperation dripped from every word like poison. "Please," he begged, raw and trembling. "Please, just leave us be! Let us out of this nightmare. We don't want to fight anymore. Just... let us go." His eyes were wet, a mixture of tears and sweat that caught the dim light. He fell to his knees, hands clenching the cracked earth beneath us as if he could tear through reality itself and escape.

It wasn't like him to be so broken. Iver was someone who'd matter—someone powerful someday. I knew that. But right then, all I saw was a scared man begging for mercy.

Rachel looked over, her face a mask of calm that barely hid the tension in her jaw. "I can try to distract it again," she said quietly, but even she sounded unsure.

We all knew the truth. Last time, we barely scraped through. This monster had grown since then—smarter, crueler, more relentless. We didn't stand a chance.

I shook my head, frustration burning hot in my chest. "No. Running tricks won't work. We need something else." I threw out ideas—flashes of hope—but none of them felt real. The creature toyed with us, pushing us further, its presence a suffocating weight.

Then came the whispers—faint at first, then crashing like waves in my mind. Death, violence, greed... the echoes of what it had been, and what it had become after the transformation. The memories weren't mine, but they flooded my thoughts, dragging me down into a dark, cold abyss. I felt my spirit weaken, just a little, poisoned by the history it bled into me.

The creature circled us slowly, a predator savoring its meal. Our defenses cracked. Rachel's sword hand shook. Iver barely breathed. Even I felt hollow, hollow and exhausted.

Time blurred.

A sudden loud noise entered the room.

[The Trial Ended]

A voice—metallic, distant—echoed through the clearing: "The two-day echo trial has ended. Please make your way out."

Relief burst in us like a sudden storm. Hope. The chance to leave this hell.

We moved quickly, backs to the creature, eyes locked on the gate where we had entered. Step by step, inch by inch, we edged toward freedom.

Rachel was the first to slip through the gate. I saw her silhouette disappear into the shadowed trees beyond, but before she vanished completely, she glanced back once—her eyes sharp and in distraught, full of warning and doubt. There was no relief in that look, only the cold knowledge that we weren't safe yet.

The moment she crossed over, I forced myself to move. Every step was agony, my ribs aching from the creature's cruel throw, each breath a razor slicing through my lungs. My legs burned, but I forced myself forward, limping toward the flickering gateway that promised escape.

Behind me, the creature's breath was a wet, heavy thunder, a monstrous growl vibrating the air. I didn't dare look back. The fear clawed at my throat like a beast of its own, pushing me faster despite the pain.

The gate pulsed faintly, a flickering shimmer of light that felt so close, yet impossibly distant. Its edges rippled, like a curtain waving in a storm. My heart hammered as I reached out—almost there—just a few more steps.

But then, the air shifted. A sudden, sickening silence fell.

"RAYNE!" Rachel yelled atop her lungs.

I slowed, the creature's breath vanished behind me. A cold dread settled deep in my bones.

I glanced back—just a fraction—and saw it: the monster, crouched low, muscles coiled, eyes burning with a predatory gleam. It was waiting.

Before I could react, it sprang.

It's claws dug into my side, jagged talons ripping through muscle and skin. The agony was immediate and overwhelming—white-hot fire exploding behind my ribs. I cried out, a raw sound torn from the depths of my soul, but it was swallowed by the dense, choking air.

The monster flung me like a discarded doll against the jagged rock face. Pain exploded in my shoulder and back, breath knocked out in a brutal gasp. The gate, that fragile line to safety, began to dissolve, its glowing frame flickering like a dying star. Panic flooded me—why? Why was it closing? The trial was supposed to be over.

I scrambled to my feet, every movement a fresh stab of agony. The world wavered—edges bleeding into darkness, colors smearing like spilled ink. Rachel's scream echoed faintly, sharp and desperate, slipping through the haze like a lifeline.

The gate's glow faded faster now, the doorway disappearing piece by piece, swallowed by shadow. I lunged forward, fingers scrabbling at the empty space, nails scraping uselessly against cold air.

"No! No! No!" The scream tore from my throat—raw, hopeless. I clawed the earth beneath me, desperate for anything solid, anything real.

Behind me, the creature advanced, slow and deliberate. Its gaze bored into me—hungry, amused, merciless.

Then the fourtheenth spoke. The voice was a rasp inside my skull, cold and hollow as a tomb.

[You truly are pitiful to look at... On death's door, and not like last time.]

The world around me began to fray—edges blurring like wet ink bleeding on parchment. My thoughts slipped, fragmented and jagged, as if the very fabric of my mind was tearing apart thread by thread.

My vision wavered, fading to a hazy blur. Colors bled into one another—red and black twisting, folding like smoke in a restless wind. Shapes distorted, twisting into grotesque parodies of reality. The sharp lines of the world softened until everything melted into a shifting, unsteady haze.

I blinked, but the darkness only deepened, swallowing the edges of sight until the world was nothing but a spinning void of muted tones and wavering light.

The echoes—those haunting whispers of death and greed—echoed louder inside my skull, pounding like a relentless drumbeat. They clawed at my thoughts, dragging me down into a chasm where time lost meaning, and memories bled into nightmares.

Aelric's face flickered before my eyes—his familiar shape warping and dissolving into nothingness. Was he real? Was he gone? The uncertainty twisted deep in my gut, a cold pit of despair.

A rush of vertigo seized me, the world spinning faster and faster—colors streaking past like stars.

Was Aelric alive? Dead? Somewhere between the fractures of reality?

A burning pulse surged in my chest, a white and dark blue light flickering beneath my skin. Agony blossomed in every nerve ending, a searing fire that threatened to consume me from within.

I screamed, a sound swallowed by the void that enveloped me.

Suddenly, claws sank deep into my side, anchoring me to the merciless present. I arched backward, breath ragged and shallow, trying to wrench free.

The creature snarled, fury igniting in its eyes—but something inside me shattered, something cold and fierce.

My vision blazed white and dark blue, icy and relentless.

Blood dripped from my clenched teeth as I gritted them, muscles coiling like a spring.

With everything I had left, I seized its claws—fingers locking around its talons, refusing to let go.

The monster hissed in rage, whipping its tail with brutal force and sending me crashing into the stone wall.

Pain lanced through my body, but I forced myself forward, crawling, burning with a strange new power.

Then the fourtheenth returned yet again, sharper now, triumphant and cruel.

[There you go! Your void core has been established—brutally!]

Through the haze, I glimpsed the entity's faint smile—twisted, victorious.

[End of Chapter 10 - The Echo Trial (5)]

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