The desolate wasteland behind Kaito slowly faded into mist as he pressed forward, following the pulse he now recognized not just in the ground, but in his own chest.
Each step he took felt heavier, like he was being pulled deeper into a gravity that went beyond physical force—like he was descending into the truth of the world, the truth of himself.
Ahead, a rift opened.
Not like the violent tears the Abyss had carved across the land, but something quieter—more ancient. It shimmered like a curtain made of shadows and starlight, revealing a path lined with obsidian pillars that twisted into the void above.
The sky here was no longer violet. It was black, but alive with patterns of glowing symbols that drifted like constellations across a cosmic sea.
Kaito exhaled sharply.
He wasn't in the world anymore. Not entirely.
He had stepped into the Abyssal Core—the heart of the void where time, thought, and memory bled into one another. Here, even his footsteps didn't echo. It was as if the world refused to acknowledge sound.
Suddenly, the silence shattered.
"Welcome, Kaito."
The voice came from nowhere and everywhere all at once. It wasn't Nyra's. It wasn't the Guardian's. It wasn't even the whispers he had come to understand.
No, this voice was older. It was the Abyss itself.
A massive construct began to emerge ahead of him—a temple suspended in midair by chains made of light and shadow intertwined.
The walls of the temple were covered in ever-shifting runes, alive with an eerie glow. Inside, a staircase spiraled downward endlessly into a chasm that seemed to pierce through the very fabric of existence.
Kaito stepped forward, his body trembling, not from fear, but from something deeper—a sense that this was the place where destinies were either reforged or obliterated.
The moment his foot touched the first step, the world shifted again.
Suddenly, he was no longer standing in the temple. He was standing in a memory. His own.
A narrow street. A familiar one. Rain pouring, soft and cold. His younger self, maybe ten years old, stood alone beneath a flickering streetlamp, his hands clenched, his face bruised.
Kaito watched the scene unfold, unable to move, unable to stop what came next.
The voices echoed.
"You're weak."
"Always getting in the way."
"Why are you even here?"
The figures around the young Kaito blurred like smudged charcoal drawings. Their words stung with clarity though.
Every insult, every moment of shame he had buried deep down—resurfacing in this place where there were no walls left to hide behind.
He wanted to scream, to step forward and protect the child he once was.
But the Abyss wouldn't let him.
"This is the truth of you, Kaito." the voice said. "Every hero is built upon broken bones and shattered hearts. But some… never rebuild. Some let the cracks define them. Which one are you?"
The scene vanished.
Now he stood in a vast plain, and in front of him—Nyra.
Not the twisted figure he had seen before. Not the Abyssal incarnation. This was the real her. Bright eyes. A soft smile. Her silver hair glowed under a sky filled with stars. She looked exactly as she had in the last memory before the Abyss took her.
She was laughing. And for a moment, he forgot everything.
Until she looked at him, her expression suddenly solemn.
"You remember this day, don't you?"
He nodded. "The night you disappeared."
She took a step forward, her voice softer than ever.
"Kaito… you have no idea what you're walking into. The Core doesn't just test your strength. It consumes everything you are. Every regret. Every betrayal. Every hidden truth. You've opened the door, but that doesn't mean you'll walk out."
He swallowed. "Then tell me what I have to do."
Her eyes flickered. "You have to let go."
Kaito blinked. "Let go of what?"
But she didn't answer. Because she was gone again.
The stars went out. One by one. The sky collapsed inward, and he was falling again—this time into himself.
His body crashed against a floor of glass, and beneath it, memories swirled like ink in water. He could see every version of himself reflected—angry, lost, broken, hopeful.
He saw the faces of everyone he had failed. His parents. The Guardian. Nyra. Even strangers—people he couldn't save when the Abyss struck.
A single voice cut through.
"Why do you want to save the world?"
Kaito's fists clenched. "Because no one else will."
"Wrong answer."
A dark version of him stepped from the shadows—identical in form, but with eyes pitch black and veins glowing like molten lava.
"You want to save the world so you don't feel like a failure. You think saving it will make up for all the things you couldn't do. The people you couldn't protect."
Kaito's voice cracked. "That's not true…"
The doppelgänger sneered. "Isn't it? You wear your guilt like armor and call it justice. But what happens when it breaks?"
They clashed.
The fight was unlike anything before. This wasn't a battle of weapons or elements. This was soul against soul—every punch a memory, every block a refusal to accept the pain. Kaito fought with desperation, with rage, with sorrow.
But his shadow was just as strong. Every move he made was mirrored. Every emotion used against him. Until—he stopped.
Kaito lowered his arms. "You're right."
The shadow froze.
"I am angry. I am broken. And maybe I do want redemption more than anything. But that doesn't mean I can't do what's right."
He stepped forward, pressing his hand to the shadow's chest.
"You're part of me. But you don't define me."
The shadow cracked. And then—Shattered.
Light burst from the glass floor, surging upward like a geyser of hope. The Core responded.
Chains unlatched. Walls shifted. A hidden staircase emerged before him—one leading to a chamber pulsing with pure energy.
The Abyss whispered again, not cruel this time, but curious.
"So… you've chosen to accept all of you. Even the broken parts."
Kaito stood tall, breathing deeply.
"I'm not afraid anymore."
And as he stepped toward the final gate, a glowing sigil ignited across his chest—a mark of balance, of shadow and light intertwined.
The true trial was just beginning.
But for the first time, Kaito walked forward not as a lost soul.
But as the one who would rewrite fate.