Midnight settled over the Ember Academy.
The ebon towers stood like spectral silhouettes beneath a sky stained deep crimson.
The stars were hidden behind a curtain of storm-heavy clouds.
It was June 16, 2025, and the clock read 09:28 PM -04 when I entered the underground crypt.
An oval chamber carved from black stone.
Its walls were covered in glowing glyphs that pulsed dimly.
The air reeked of mold and raw energy.
My body still bore the consequences of the last training session.
A sharp pain in my ribs forced each breath to be measured.
A latent wound throbbed beneath the torn fabric of my thigh.
And the dark veins of Aether slithered under my skin like living poison.
Lirien's amulet hung cold around my neck, a distant echo of a past fading into mist.
Dren's relic, hidden in my robes, pulsed with a violet glow that resonated with the carved symbols.
A mystery begging to be unraveled.
Nyra walked beside me.
Her dagger rested tensely in her grip.
Her eyes avoided mine after our last argument—an abyss slowly widening between us.
The Threshold whispered in my mind.
Its voice was a chilling murmur that pierced my calm:
"The shadow stalks you, Echo. Face it, or the throne will consume you."
Lysara stood at the center of the crypt.
Her cloak burned with white flames, drifting like lost souls.
She radiated an authority that silenced the whispers of the gathered apprentices.
"Tonight you will undergo the Trial of the Shadow," she declared.
Her voice echoed like a deep tremor, shaking the runes on the walls.
"Vaelis and Nyra, you will enter an illusion bound to the Threshold. Your unity and strength will be judged. May the flames guide your path."
Her eyes, lit like eternal beacons, locked onto us.
A command that throbbed in my chest.
Kaelith watched from a corner.
His crimson gaze burned with barely contained spite.
A constant threat cloaked in silence.
Nyra threw me a cautious look.
Her voice was low, but steady.
"If we're going to survive, we have to trust each other."
The doubt in her eyes was still there.
I nodded and gripped my weapon.
Lysara raised her hand.
The glyphs flared to life, and a violet portal opened.
It dragged us into a realm of dusk, where the ground crumbled beneath our feet.
We fell.
Into a shadowed landscape.
An obsidian throne rose from the center of a wasteland of black ash.
The sky above was fractured by silent lightning.
The air vibrated with an oppressive hum.
Before we could move, a horde of Threshold thralls surged from the mist.
Their ethereal forms had red eyes and razor-sharp claws.
A test that struck straight at our will.
"Move!" I shouted, lunging forward.
My blade sliced through one of them.
Its chest burst into violet dust.
Nyra responded instantly.
Her dagger unleashed a swirling wind that scattered ash and halted two enemies.
Her movements were like a river in fury—fast and relentless.
My aura ignited.
Violet light entangled with golden fire flowed from my hands.
Aether burned under unstable control.
The ground trembled beneath me.
The ashes swirled around us.
A moment of aura lit the world with my resolve.
A challenge thrown at the darkness.
Nyra's essence responded.
A graceful whirlwind danced through her, her moment of aura joining mine.
Together, we held the line.
They attacked in waves.
One pounced—its claws tore into my leg, leaving a burning slash that made me growl.
I rolled, barely dodging a second strike, and conjured a flare Lysara had taught me.
Flames roared.
The attacker turned to smoke and vanished.
Nyra unleashed a windstorm.
Her dagger pierced the heart of another with lethal precision.
But the horde only grew.
A massive thrall emerged, shrouded in thick fog.
Its eyes glowed with twisted malice.
"Flank it on the right!" I ordered.
I ran at it.
My weapon clashed against its claws, sparks erupting from the impact.
The blow rattled my bones.
Nyra summoned a whirlwind that staggered the beast.
I climbed its back.
Drove my blade into the back of its neck.
The monster howled, staggered, and collapsed in a burst of violet dust.
I turned, panting, but more thralls appeared.
Their movements—synchronized, inhuman.
Dren's relic pulsed violently.
A violet rift opened beside the throne.
Envy emerged.
Her form surrounded by a realm of mirrors.
Her eyes reflected twisted versions of my own face.
"Your throne awaits, Echo," she whispered.
One mirror shattered.
Glass shards rained down like lethal blades.
I dodged—barely.
A sliver cut my arm.
I retaliated with a burst of flame.
The shards vaporized into smoke.
Nyra summoned a gust that slowed Envy down.
But she laughed.
Her mirror aura grew darker—a moment of aura that drowned the wasteland.
Then Kaelith appeared.
By the throne.
Sword of fire unsheathed.
His aura wrapped him in living flame—a moment of aura that defied our alliance.
"The relic is mine!" he roared, charging me.
I blocked his strike.
Sparks erupted.
We clashed, my strength giving under his assault.
Nyra struck with a whirlwind, pushing him back.
But Kaelith conjured a dragon of fire.
Its roar split the void.
"Together!" Nyra shouted.
We combined forces.
My fire and her wind intertwined into a flaming cyclone.
It crashed into the dragon, consuming it in a burst of ash and light.
Kaelith snarled.
His blade slashed through the air.
I dodged—barely.
A burn licked my back.
Envy struck.
Her mirrors shattered again.
Nyra raised a wind shield, but it cracked.
We rolled away as debris rained down.
The throne pulsed darkly.
A second colossal thrall rose.
Its presence made the world shudder.
"Cover me!" I yelled, charging it.
My blade struck its claws.
The blow sent me flying.
Nyra destabilized it with a gust.
I climbed a rock.
Leapt.
Buried my weapon in its skull.
The beast collapsed.
But a third attacked—its claws tore my shoulder open.
I screamed.
Nyra rushed forward.
Her dagger drove into the creature's heart.
Her breath ragged.
"Don't give in!" she shouted, her aura surging into a savage whirlwind.
We struck together.
My flames and her wind merged into a burning sphere.
It exploded, incinerating the enemy in blinding light.
Kaelith charged once more.
His dragon reborn in fire.
I dodged a torrent of flame.
Rolled as Nyra met it with a swirling wall of air.
Then the throne pulsed harder.
A new figure emerged.
The Shadow King.
Crowned in night.
Eyes void and empty.
An aura of darkness wrapped him in a mantle of despair.
A moment of aura that froze the air around us.
"Your fate is the throne, Echo," he whispered.
A beam of darkness struck the ground.
A rift opened.
Envy laughed.
Her mirrors amplified the blow.
Nyra raised a barrier.
It shattered.
We were forced apart.
Aether screamed inside me.
A maelstrom begging to be unleashed.
I let it out for a heartbeat.
My eyes glowed violet.
The wasteland lit up.
An explosion of raw power surged out.
Kaelith.
Envy.
The Shadow King.
All were hurled against the throne.
The earth shook.
The remaining thralls vanished.
The rift snapped shut with a thunderclap.
I fell to my knees.
Blood spilled from my mouth.
My veins blackened—spreading like living roots.
Nyra caught me.
Her face hard and trembling.
"Again the Aether," she said, hurt cracking her voice.
Kaelith rose, barely standing.
His aura flickering.
"This isn't over," he growled, disappearing into mist.
The Shadow King vanished.
Only a whisper of laughter remained.
Lysara stepped from the portal.
Her white flame aura cloaked her in harsh serenity.
"The shadow has marked you," she said.
"Control your power, Vaelis, or you will lose your soul."
Then came the vision.
The obsidian throne.
Drenched in blood like weeping tears.
Nyra unmoving.
Lirien vanishing.
Envy's voice whispered again:
"The shadow claims you."
Other Sins appeared.
The ice queen with her frozen scepter.
The chained beast.
The golden specter.
The figure wrapped in mist.
The winged warrior bathed in blood.
The shadow with crystal eyes.
The ashborn colossus.
"The throne draws near," the Threshold thundered.
"Choose, Echo... or become its shadow."
Nyra helped me up.
Her hand trembled on my shoulder.
"If you don't let me in, this will break," she murmured, her voice heavy with pain.
The crypt stabilized.
The runes dimmed.
But I knew...
This trial had cast a shadow that would haunt the rest of this stage.