Chapter Three: Emberhold

The city loomed through the morning fog like a half-forgotten dream.

Emberhold was a fortress swallowed by vines, its stone walls cracked and blackened from centuries of fire and leaving only the broken remains of what must have been an thriving human establishment.

As we passed beneath the massive gates, a chill crawled up my spine as the temperature dropped and the air felt heavy as though under the effects of invisible ghosts around us, watching our every move with muffled breathes as we entered their domain.

"Few come here and leave unchanged. The Trial zone inside is…unstable." Lysia whispered to the party as we cautiously walked deeper into the ruins covered in an ire fog. "Magic twists, time and space are fractured. Be on your guard."

The entrance path of the former fortress was lined with crumbling statues and passing by one of this statues caught my eye, a warrior with a sword raised high, face worn but fierce.

A strange pulse originating from the soulbrand etched onto my right hand, made me question the identity of this figure...

And just as I was about to brush off the feeling to rejoin the advancing party. The world around me blurred as an echoing voice softly whispered inside the back my head.

"You're the blade that breaks time itself…"

And just as sudden as it came the feeling subsided, leaving my an tight sensation in my chest.

Visions at this early into the quest? Not a hopeful sign.

Shaking off the nausea, I closely followed the party lead by Lysia as we marched deeper into Emberhold's shattered streets, where time seemed...lost. Desperate to be found.

Shadows stretched in the wrong ways ignoring the laws of light. An massive ancient clock placed at the top of an collapsing tower turned in the opposite direction as the cold breezes carried indistinguishable murmurs to our ears.

My right hand slightly burned seemingly reacting to my unease...

Just then the groud trembled as a rippling distortion teared open in the air a couple feet ahead of us, giving life to a portal of swirling light and shadows from which came forth, a tall figure, cloaked and hooded.

His sudden appearance causing everyone present to prepare for battle out of reflex yet no one dared to strike first, instead choosing to observe the figure.

The man slowly pulled back his hood, Gazing at the entire party with sharp sliver eyes and a mane of messy sliver hair tied behind his head emphasising his manly facial features.

After briefly making eye contact with everyone present—his gaze studyed mine for the longest before he spread out his left arm and with no warnings or dramatical introduction speeches, attacked.

A swift barrage of razor sharp ethereal blades materialized around him before slicing towards us but thankfully having already activated my soulbrand, my body felt weightless allowing me to dove into the vanguard parrying all the blades just in time.

Knocking them off course midair.

Profiting from my cover, Freddy slipped past the me, coated in an dark lucid aura as he closed the distance between him and the adversary in an flash!

Slicing at him with his daggers causing the sliver haired man to jump back to avoid the fast assault.

But Freddy don't stop there. After all as the party's reliable rogue, he might as well be the fastest combatant currently present.

And just as the cloaked man fell back, Freddy gave chase as four identical clones of himself sprouted from his body, coming to live beside him.

They ran in circles around the man likely attempting to cause confusion but he remained still within the circle, oddly calm. Only his eyes moving to follow Freddy's movements.

"...!" And just as one of the Freddys leaped from behind the man's dead angle his dagger aimed at his defenseless back only to have the man slightly shift to one side, sidestepping the attack before countering with an powerful roundhouse kick dissipating the false Freddy upon impact.

"Got you." A cold smile found it's way to Fritz's lips as kneeled on one knee with his left hand covered in a massive gauntlet, aiming palm opened at the cloaked man.

Within the gauntlet's center a pale blue gem that shined an bright blue before sending a laser beam as fast as a bullet crashing to where the man stood unsettling the dirt and fog temporary, forming a dust cloud temporary obscuring our view for a couple of seconds.

Jumping out of the dust cloud was the man seemingly untouched by explosion or the lazer beam.

Not giving him a chance to regroup, Lysia who had left my side during the battle. Appeared in front of the man, thrusting her white spear at him while both of them were airborne with blurring speed but even so the adversary managed to dodge every strike from Lysia.

But as they both fall back down to the ground, Lysia broke from her assault landing a distance away as shadow–like whip suddenly broke through the still lingering dust clouds wrapping around the man's upper body pulling him up into the air before throwing him towards...Vivi!

"Stonebond Fist..." Vivi muttered under her breathe as a faint green glow covered her hands, surrounding her iron gauntlets as she charged forward throwing an punch at the man thrown at her—!!!

But instead of being met with the cloaked man's body, Vivi's fist clashed with an rupture cut through space. Swallowing the man whole before shattering like glass, under the impact of Vivi's punch that sent shockwaves across the ruins, unsettling the fog around us.

"Everyone his over there, prepare for another chained attack!" Lysia yelled as she dashed towards where the man reappeared, her spear in tow as we all prepare to join provide support.

The fight got really chaotic, the unstable terrain serving as a disadvantage to us as strange man swept across the cracked spaces in the air like a ghost, dodging our assaults with grace while shooting out his ethereal blades from our dead angles.

And by the time his assaults ceased, everyone is visibly frustrated, panting but not exhausted yet.

If it wasn't for the soulbrand's phyical boost I might of not been able to keep up with the pace of the fight!

Now standing atop an old monument, the cloaked man's sliver eyes locked onto mine. It's sliver glint matching my own as he coldly spoke.

"You cannot run from what you were...what you are." His voice washed over us like a cold water, carrying an strange sort of familiarity to it.

Then in the same fashion as he appeared, with a sudden leap, he vanished into a swirl of broken space and time.

Foreign words echoed inside my mind as a flood of images invade my brain, jumping from memory to memory.

An battlefield bathed in twilight, where I seem to be fighting alongside a man with sliver eyes that mirror my own.

His name—Arin.

An bond of sliver seven heros shattered.

A terrible mistake, one that shattered time itself and cursed us all for eternity.

The memories stop, leaving me staggering back slightly as I clutched my head from the sudden simulation.

Where those my memories?

Lysia with an rare expression of concern helped me steady on my feet as everyone seemed to relax a little having confirmed that the man was gone...for the time being.

"Who was that man?" Freddy ask narrowing his eyes at where he had vanished. The broken space was now stitched back together like normal, showing no scars of ever been torn apart.

Taking a deep inhale I couldn't help but exhale with a sigh. "Someone…from my past." There was more to my reincarnation then I had originally thought it seemed.

"It's an echo, an illusion created by the Trial. Taking the appearance of those from the past." Vivi explained with an thoughtful expression on her face. "This unstable trial seemed to be playing mind games on us..."

Tighten my grip on the halt of my sword I glare into the fog that obscured that only seemed to get thicker deeper inside the inner zone of the distorted trial. "Let's put a end to this Trial, Leader." I said to Lysia who responded with an nod.

The Trial of Emberhold had just begun.

And I was going to uncover the truth that begged for attention.

---