Chapter 155: Endless Trials… When Will It Stop!

Trial of the Echoing Grave

Silence.

When Kranos stepped beyond the shattered threshold of the first trial, an unsettling stillness surrounded him. The wind didn’t howl, the ground didn’t quake and even the pulsating sky of fragmented starlight overhead had gone eerily calm.

He glanced back but saw nothing. The gate had vanished. Kathryn and Kevin had followed through moments before, yet the space had twisted and distorted them away and they were no longer beside him.

Instead, he stood alone on a path made of old bones and skeletal remains compacted into a road stretching endlessly into a dark fog. Crimson mist coiled between the bones like blood turned to vapor.

Kranos gritted his teeth. The first trial had tested his endurance, his pain tolerance. It had pushed his spirit to its limits. But now, this… this was something different.

From the fog ahead, soft whispers reached his ears. Not loud enough to decipher, but heavy enough that they felt like weight on his soul.

He walked forward slowly.

Each step triggered faint echoes, and those echoes seemed to carried voices.

“Why did you leave me behind, Kranos?”

“You could have saved me.”

“You will never escape what you’ve done.”

The voices stabbed deeper than blades. Some were familiar, while others yet they all seemed to carried emotion: betrayal, sorrow, fury. Kranos frowned, not slowing his steps.

He stepped again.

“You abandoned your master…”

“You let her die.”

He gripped his sword, but it felt heavier. Every step forward added weight to his body, not physically, but spiritually. It was as though his guilt was being extracted and woven into gravity causing him to feel slightly more pressure with every step he took

Suddenly, something screamed in his ear—

“MURDERER!”

A figure leapt from the fog, cloaked in tattered robes, eyes hollow but burning with rage. Its body was solid. It struck with a jagged saber, shimmering with corrupted essence.

Fortunately, Kranos sensed the attack and parried just in time. Sparks immediately burst out into the surroundings from the attack. He swept low, retaliating with a precise arc of his blade, severing the figure’s arm.

But no blood came out.

Instead, the figure crumbled into dust, while whispering: “Not yet…”

What did it mean by ’not yet?’ Kranos frowned but since he couldn’t find the answers he needed now he decided to abandon the thought and keep moving forward.

…

Elsewhere.

Kathryn opened her eyes.

She stood at the base of a mountain of shattered mirrors. Each mirror reflected different versions of her. Some younger, some older, some bloody, some cold and dead-eyed.

A mirror cracked as she stepped near it and then a figure emerged from the reflection.

“You still carry it… the curse of the First Light.”

Kathryn narrowed her eyes. “I buried that long ago.”

“Did you? Then why does it still weep when you sleep?”

She didn’t answer after all this concerned certain secrets she wanted to bury, she didn’t want the controller of this world to pry more into her past.

Seeing that she was no longer responsive, the mirror shattered completely, and from the shards rose hundreds of mirrored Kathryns, each carrying blades, bows, and arcane fire. They rushed her, their auras radiating dense killing intent.

Seeing this kathryn sighed, how troublesome, but she didn’t hesitate, as immediately flames began to surface on her body.

…

Kevin faced an endless staircase. Every ten steps, a door appeared. Behind each door, a different illusion surfaced. Some were his parents dying, his village burning, Kathryn bleeding, and Kranos abandoning him, although at that time, they seemed exceptionally close.

He passed through all with some difficulty however, after the fiftieth door, he collapsed.

A child version of himself appeared beside him, whispering: “Why are you so weak?”

Along with the voice faint memories of the past resurfaced in his mind, including memories of the trial of the heart. His expression changed repeatedly as this was similarly a question he was curious about.

For a long time he couldn’t come to an answer, leaving him stuck at the door, but after some time passed Kevin slowly opened his eyes. “Because… I still believe.”

Mumttering these words he rose to his feet and the fiftieth door slowly disappeared. He walked a few steps and the sixtieth step appeared in front of his eyes.

—

Back with Kranos.

The path ended at a shrine built from obsidian bones. Inside was a single bell, cracked down the center, suspended by spiderwebs of light.

He walked closer, and a spectral woman appeared beside it. Her skin was translucent, and her eyes hollow. Yet, she bowed respectfully.

“You’ve passed the Trial of Echoes. Congratulations. ”

Kranos asked curiously, “What was this trial truly about?”

She replied, “The Echoing Grave reflects your guilt. Not the acts you regret—but the acts your soul believes you should regret. You had a strong will and endured them while the others were consumed by their guilt and were unable to pass.”

She gestured towards distant space, and instantly a portal opened before him.

“Beyond this door lies another trial. The Trial of True Sight. Few return with sanity intact.”

He turned to the bell. “What if I ring it?” he was slightly curious, the lady seemed slightly protective of the bell as though she didn’t want anyone to touch it.

The spirit smiled faintly. “Then, from within the graveyard of echoes something older than time may hear your name and emerge into the world.”

Kranos felt a slight chill and ultimately decided not to ring it.

He turned around then quickly walked into the portal.

…

At the same time that kranos stepped through the portal, kathryn and kevin also completed their trials and a similar situation played out and they stepped into their respective portals.

The moment they stepped through the translucent gate of truth, the glass spheres around them shattered into dust, and they felt the air change.

From the cold, isolating emptiness of the Trial of echoeing graves, they were immediately bathed in an overwhelming wave of heat after that a roar echoed and the sky turned crimson as though it was bleeding.

Kranos and the other two glanced around, and they found themselves on a broken bridge of black iron suspended above an endless ocean of molten fire. Chains the size of mountains hung from the burning clouds above, anchoring themselves into the pits of the inferno below.

Each chain released a slight wailful noise which came with pressure, as if ancient beasts were attempting to break free. Just then a shadow passed overhead. It looked vague, monstrous, slightly humanoid.

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