CHAPTER 189: THE TRIAL ROOM OPENS

The corridor that unfurled before Arios, Lucy, and Liza felt nothing like the preceding chambers. The earlier rooms—amphitheaters of ancient stone, spiraling runes, resonant cores—held the weight of history, of ritual, of dormant purpose. But this... this hallway felt awake.

Alive.

The moment the trio stepped onto the polished black floor, the runes woven into the stone flickered softly, as if acknowledging their presence. The light that streamed from the walls wasn’t steady—there was a pulse to it, a faint rhythmic fluctuation that mimicked breathing. Every few seconds, the air warmed faintly, as though the corridor exhaled.

Lucy, gripping Arios’ arm tightly but discreetly, whispered, "This place is wrong."

Liza walked beside them, her staff lowered but her senses at full alert. "Not wrong," she murmured, voice calm but taut. "Purposeful. Intentional." Her gaze drifted along the walls, tracing the geometric patterns etched into the stone. "This entire structure is an extension of a single system—every part reacts to the other."

Arios didn’t answer immediately.

He felt the corridor—not just saw it.

The steady pulse in the air resonated faintly with the fragment lodged somewhere deep inside him. The memory transfer—those flashes of starlit architecture and radiant silhouettes—linger like embers behind his eyes. Whatever had been imprinted into him, it hadn’t faded. If anything, it was now a quiet whisper echoing deep inside his chest.

Lucy glanced up at him. "You’re spacing out."

"I’m fine," he said softly.

She didn’t believe him, but she didn’t push.

They continued forward.

With each step, the corridor’s pulse grew faintly stronger—never threatening, never aggressive, but undeniably focused. The light shifted color gradually, starting from pale blue, transitioning through deeper cobalt, and finally settling into a soft, haunting violet as the hallway curved gently rightward.

Then the curve opened into a circular room.

A smaller chamber—no grand amphitheater, no spiraling pillars. Instead, it resembled an antechamber: modest, simple, the floor smooth and black, the walls lined with a single continuous band of runes that shimmered faintly.

At the center stood a pedestal.

On it, a square panel of translucent crystal flickered.

Lucy eyed it warily. "Another core?"

"No." Liza stepped closer. "This one feels... mechanical."

Arios approached the pedestal.

The crystal surface glowed as he neared, shifting from dormant opacity to a semi-translucent screen. Patterns formed—lines, circles, spirals—and then merged into recognizable symbols.

A message.

Not written in any known language.

But he understood it.

As if the meaning had always been inside his mind.

"TRIAL PARAMETERS—INITIALIZATION PENDING."

Lucy stiffened. "Trial?!"

The screen pulsed again.

Symbols shifted.

"AWAITING CANDIDATE AUTHORIZATION."

Liza inhaled sharply. "It wants a response. It’s waiting for you."

Arios felt a soft pressure at the center of his chest—like a heartbeat not his own, urging him forward.

He placed his hand on the surface.

The crystal warmed beneath his palm.

Light spread outward from where he touched it, filling the pedestal with a faint hum. The runes around the room ignited in synchrony, forming a continuous loop of violet light circling the chamber.

Then the pedestal spoke—not in the ancient mechanical cadence of the core, nor the booming resonance of the amphitheater system, but in a smooth synthesized voice that echoed clearly.

"Candidate recognized."

A pulse ran through the floor.

Lucy grabbed Arios’ wrist. Liza raised her staff instinctively.

A ring of bright violet light etched itself across the floor, forming a boundary that encompassed the trio.

Arios tensed.

Lucy moved closer.

Liza whispered, "This room is configuring itself..."

The violet ring flashed—

And the floor sank.

Not physically—there was no drop, no physical descent. But the room seemed to stretch downward, expanding in impossible dimensions. The walls elongated, rippling outward like water disturbed by a falling stone. Runes shifted, doubling, tripling, rearranging into patterns that spiraled endlessly.

The chamber transformed.

In seconds, the simple antechamber had become a vast, open arena.

A seamless dome overhead, shimmering with constellations—moving constellations. Stars streaked across the ceiling like living projections. The air grew crisp, the temperature slightly cooler. The violet ring beneath their feet expanded into a full platform.

And then—

A voice filled the dome.

"TRIAL ONE — RESONANCE EVALUATION."

Lucy tightened her grip on Arios’ sleeve. "Resonance?! With what?"

Liza’s lips pressed into a thin line. "With the structure. Or with Arios." She turned to him. "Be ready. This might be—"

A wave of energy cut her off.

The air shifted sharply.

Space in front of them distorted—like ripples forming across an invisible pool.

Then a shape emerged.

Not a creature.

Not a construct.

A silhouette.

A humanoid figure composed entirely of dense violet energy. Its form flickered like a projection, limbs elongated, its face smooth and featureless. It stood as tall as an adult man, its posture neutral but its presence undeniably resonant—Arios felt it in his bones.

Lucy lifted her fists.

Liza’s mana flared faintly around her fingertips.

Arios stood still.

The figure tilted its head.

Its chest lit with a deep violet glow.

Then a single word echoed, not spoken but imprinted directly into their minds:

"Sync."

The air trembled.

A beam of force shot from the figure’s chest, not at Arios—at the floor around him.

A shockwave radiated outward.

Lucy and Liza staggered back.

Arios remained unmoved.

The figure extended its hand.

A thread of violet light stretched across the room—and struck Arios in the center of his chest.

Lucy lunged forward in panic.

Liza reached for her staff.

But they both stopped when the thread didn’t harm him.

It vibrated.

It resonated.

Matching something inside him.

Liza’s breath caught. "It’s matching your frequency. It’s not attacking—it’s measuring you."

Lucy frowned. "That doesn’t make it better."

The figure’s hand lowered.

The thread tightened.

And all at once, Arios felt it.

A connection.

A pressure.

A pull.

The trial wasn’t about physical combat—not yet. It was about alignment. Recognition. Calibration. The system was testing whether he could synchronize with it, whether the fragment lodged inside him truly belonged here.

He closed his eyes.

The resonance grew sharper.

Inside him, the faint imprint from the astral core pulsed.

A symbol flashed behind his eyelids—the spiral.

The same spiral woven through the structure.

The same spiral that glowed in the pedestal.

He exhaled slowly.

The violet thread pulsed—

And synced with his heartbeat.

BUUM.

BUUM.

BUUM.

The dome’s constellations flickered in time.

Lucy felt the vibration under her feet.

Liza placed a hand on her chest, eyes wide. "I can feel it. The whole chamber is adjusting to him."

The silhouette moved its arm to the left.

Arios felt a tug.

He stepped left.

Lucy panicked, but Liza grabbed her wrist. "Don’t interrupt."

The silhouette raised its arm—

Arios raised his arm.

It lowered its head—

He lowered his head.

It placed its hands together—

He mirrored the movement.

Lucy whispered, "It’s copying him."

Liza shook her head, voice trembling. "No. He’s copying it."

The resonance peaked.

Violet light danced across Arios’ skin in thin, branching lines, like luminous veins. He felt his mana stir—not wildly, not chaotically, but guided, directed by a frequency older than magic systems the Academy taught.

And then—

The silhouette stopped moving.

Arios froze.

The violet light around them dimmed.

The figure lowered its arm, stepping back.

A single tone echoed.

"Resonance—Stable."

Lucy exhaled in relief.

Liza lowered her staff, her shoulders easing.

The voice continued:

"Candidate—Compatible."

A second pulse filled the room.

The silhouette vanished.

The dome shifted.

Constellations rearranged themselves, forming new patterns—triangles, spirals, shifting runic bands.

The pedestal reformed at the center of the arena floor, the screen flickering with new symbols.

Arios approached.

Lucy and Liza flanked him.

The message reassembled itself, glowing in steady, soft violet.

"TRIAL ONE COMPLETE."

Lucy rested a hand on Arios’ back. "You passed."

Liza didn’t smile, but her voice softened. "Barely. And not without cost."

Arios nodded once.

He didn’t feel weak.

But he felt changed.

The resonance lingered inside him.

And the room knew it.

The pedestal pulsed again.

A new line appeared.

"Proceed to Trial Two?"

Lucy tensed. "Already?!"

Liza inhaled. "The system is continuous. It won’t pause unless forced."

Arios placed his hand on the pedestal.

Not in recklessness.

But in inevitability.

The moment he touched the surface, the room darkened again, shifting, bending, reconfiguring.

A new chamber forming.

A new trial waiting.

And Phase Three moved one step deeper into the unknown.

Author’s Note:

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to genuinely thank you for reading, supporting, and staying with this story from the very beginning. Your comments, reactions, and simple presence have meant more than I can properly express.

That’s why it isn’t easy for me to say this, but the book will be coming to an end soon.

Over the last few Chapters, I’ve felt the story slowing down in a way that doesn’t sit right with me. It’s become stagnant, and it hasn’t been performing as well as I hoped. Rather than force it to continue and lose the heart it started with, I’d rather give it a proper, intentional ending.

Thank you again for sticking with me and these characters all this time. I want to honor that support by giving the story a conclusion that feels meaningful and true.

Your support means everything.