Three hours later, Jin and Arin stood before a set of stone doors deep beneath Kaizen Academy—far below even the oldest vaults. The air was cold, dense, and humming with spiritual pressure.
The doors bore no keyhole. Only seven chained sigils glowed faintly across the stone, matching the ones Jin had seen in his visions.
Kael placed a hand on the center seal. It responded to his touch, sliding open with a rumble that echoed like a whisper from the grave.
"Welcome," Kael said, "to the Chamber of Echoes."
Inside, the room curved inwards like an ancient amphitheater, lined with ghostly statues. Each one was broken—cracked or missing a face. But at the center was a crystal pedestal.
Resting atop it: an obsidian shard, pulsing with a familiar, black light.
Jin felt Noctis stir.
"This… is where I was bound."
Arin looked around, eyes sharp. "What is this place?"
Kael answered, voice low. "A remnant of the Old Order. Before the Spirit Rankings. Before the academies. When those who tampered with the Abyss were hunted down and sealed."
He turned to Jin. "Your spirit—Noctis—was the last. The one they couldn't destroy."
Jin stepped forward, reaching for the shard.
As his fingers brushed it—
his mind was pulled inward.
He stood in an ancient battlefield.
Ashes fell like snow.
Seven colossal spirits—each wreathed in terrifying power—faced a burning sky. Soldiers in glowing armor fought beneath them, wielding spirit weapons now lost to history.
And among them, rising from the smoke, a winged figure bound in chains—Noctis, screaming against the sky.
Above him, a Council of cloaked figures chanted.
"Seal the seventh. Break the cycle. Bind the Abyss."
The chain locks forged themselves in real-time, snapping into place across Noctis's form as the world cracked apart.
"You are the final gate," a voice echoed.
"The vessel who will decide what rises next."
Jin gasped, yanked back into the present.
His hands trembled.
Kael was watching closely. "You saw it, didn't you?"
"I was there," Jin said, eyes wide. "In the war."
"You saw the truth," Kael confirmed. "The Spirit Rankings, the Ceremonies… all created to bury that history. To stop anyone from awakening what you now carry."
Arin stepped closer to him, her expression unreadable. "Then what happens if all the chains break?"
Jin looked at her.
Then at the shard.
And for the first time… he felt ready.
"Then I stop running. And I fight."
But far from the Academy, in the ruined temple once more, the crimson-robed summoner knelt before a massive, dormant statue. Its eyes opened—briefly—glowing like molten silver.
"One chain broken… then two," the statue said.
The summoner bowed deeper. "Shall we act?"
The statue nodded.
"Send the Hollow Legion. Let's test his will… before he remembers what he truly is."