A breath.
Then silence.
Brent's boot touched the shattered edge of the suspended plane, and the crystalline fragments underfoot emitted a ringing chime, not from sound—but memory. All around, the Glassfall Dominion sprawled like a thousand frozen screams of time, suspended in arcs of translucent skyglass. The air shimmered with echoes, each one reflecting a thought or regret lost to the wind of the past.
"We're not alone here," Rae whispered, fingers brushing the air as if listening through her skin. Her eyes glowed faintly with the Harmonic Vein.
Lysa's palm flared gently. "These memories... some aren't ours. But some—some are deeply tied to us."
As Brent stepped further, a translucent platform assembled beneath him, mirroring his own reflection in pieces. Each shard whispered back his doubts, pain, and triumphs. Then came the pulse.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Initiating Resonance Trial—Crystalline Echo]
Objective: Confront the Refraction of Failure. Failure Condition: Denial.
They barely had time to react before the Dominion responded.
The glass erupted into forms—refractions of themselves. Brent faced a flickering image of his lowest point, the version of him cast aside in the academy, mocked and powerless. Rae's reflection wept beneath the weight of her soul's lineage. Lysa's doppelganger burned uncontrollably, screaming for breath amidst endless fire.
But it wasn't a physical battle.
Brent moved, not to strike—but to accept. As he reached out and grasped the hand of his reflected past, the figure hardened into white light and shattered. With it came a memory not his own: a vision of Her, whispering across the ages, her voice resonating like strings of an ethereal instrument.
"You must break to reshape."
One by one, they each faced their echoes. Rae harmonized with her counterpart in a melody that healed both. Lysa embraced the fire within and watched her version fold into a glowing sigil etched onto her skin.
Brent's core pulsed violently as Light and Flame spun into a vortex. His Twilight energies dimmed and deepened, reaching toward something hidden.
[SYSTEM ALERT: Flame Resonance—Perfected][Shadow Resonance—42%] [Core Classification: Ascendant Paladin of the Twilight Flame] [Level Up: 43 → 45]
They stood breathless on the edge of the next platform, the hourglass path unfolding like cascading piano keys into the dark.
Then came the unpredictable twist.
The crystals began singing—but it wasn't the Dominion. It was a song from beyond.
A chorus of voices, one feminine, ethereal, familiar—Her. And the other... a deep, ancient resonance that sent Brent's heart racing.
Rae gasped. "That's the First Sound... the one only Soulbound Heirs can hear."
Before Brent could respond, the ground behind them broke apart. A figure rose—a distorted version of Rae, cloaked in obsidian glass and trailing fragments of the Gate's ancient sigils.
Her eyes were not Rae's, but they held the same pain.
"Return. Reclaim. Or perish."
[NEW OBJECTIVE UNLOCKED: Trial of the Dual Wills]
Brent, Rae, and Lysa stepped into formation—unified not by might, but bond.
The true test of the Soul Core had begun.
Trial of the Dual Wills
The figure before them shimmered like black crystal, a twisted echo of Rae, yet something more—a vessel not only of her pain, but of Her lingering essence.
Brent raised his blade, but Rae reached out, her hand trembling. "She's not just a projection. She's bound to me. A piece of my Soul Core... fragmented."
Lysa's voice sharpened. "She's fused with Her. A broken shard of that ancient power. We're not fighting an enemy—we're fighting Rae's unhealed bond."
The platform shifted. Melodic runes burst from the edges, rearranging the battlefield into a shifting arena of song and memory. Each step triggered a different echo—some painful, some beautiful. The challenge would not be brute force.
[SYSTEM CHALLENGE: Dual Wills Synchronization] Conditions: Soul Core Harmonization at 90% Minimum Penalty: Soul Desync and Core Degradation
The copy moved, not walking—but floating between tones. With every pulse, Rae's movements faltered. Pain etched into her features.
Brent stepped forward. "She's resonating with your inner dissonance. Rae, you need to sing back. Balance it."
"I—don't know how!"
"Then let me help."
Brent gripped Rae's wrist. Light surged between them—Soul Bond glyphs lighting across their skin. Their joined resonance created a thrum in the air, a dual melody that clashed against the corrupted twin's scream.
Lysa stepped between rhythms, channeling her fire into harmonic bursts, breaking shards of discord with calculated explosions.
Rae's eyes snapped open. "Follow my voice."
She sang. Brent followed.
Not words—but emotions. Fear. Hope. Rage. Love.
The battlefield shifted.
The corrupted Rae split into mirrored copies. Each one relived moments Rae had buried: the day her sister vanished, the rejection from her bloodline, the lies she believed about herself.
Brent and Rae fought side by side, weaving sword and light, song and flame. For each fragment shattered, Rae regained a part of herself.
[Soul Core Harmonization: 65% → 82% → 94%]
Then came the final blow—not of strength, but vulnerability. Rae whispered the truth she'd hidden even from herself.
"I was afraid to become her."
She stepped into her own reflection.
The corrupted Rae exploded into harmonic crystal, dissolving into Rae's chest. A glowing sigil formed—an entwined helix of Soul and Flame.
[DUAL CORE RESONANCE UNLOCKED] [RAE + BRENT SYNERGY PATH ACTIVATED: TWILIGHT FLAME CHOIR]
[Lysa Trait Unlocked: Harmonic Ember Manipulation]
Brent's level surged.
[LEVEL UP: 45 → 47] [Shadow Resonance: 52%]
They fell to one knee. The battle was over.
But above them, the sky cracked open—and through it, a red moon blinked.
From the Gate's other side... something had seen them.
And it remembered.