The chamber breathed like a beast. Symbols along the walls glowed faintly, pulsing in time with the Sayuri's presence.
Daiken stepped forward first, silver hair stark against the torchlight. His voice was stone breaking.
"You've faced us each alone. But fragments mean nothing. Endure us all, or fall."
Kazumi's shadow curled across the floor, smoke coiling like a predator. Her scar tightened.
"Stand, or be swallowed."
Tetsuya's grin split like lightning. Sparks danced lazy and sharp over his skin.
"I'll make this quick."
The Silent Elder did not move. The void itself thickened anyway. Rei's Enso wavered in his chest, flickering as if it wanted to abandon him.
Rei raised the Blade of Resolve. His hands trembled. He breathed once, twice, steadying the wild flame inside.
Then the chamber erupted.
Gravity crushed him down, Kazumi's abyss clawed upward, storms lashed sideways, and the void pressed in from everywhere at once. Rei staggered, drowning. His knees hit the stone, his ribs screamed, his blade shook.
The old Rei would have lashed out wildly, desperate to cut through the chaos.
But memory returned. Shira's whisper.
"Step, don't strike. Flow, don't force. Let the rhythm guide you."
His foot slid. Flash Step. The ground blurred under him.
His Enso pulsed....not wild, but controlled. A steady beat.
Daiken's gravity pulled....Rei bent with it, turning the weight aside.
Kazumi's shadows lashed—his blade parted them in arcs of borrowed rhythm.
Tetsuya's lightning fell....his arm moved to meet it, not blocking, but echoing.
The Silent Elder's void threatened to erase him....but Rei pulsed his Enso like a heartbeat, refusing to vanish.
And in that crucible, something new broke through.
Not imitation. Not theft. Reflection.
Gravity bent inside his pulse. Shadows coiled around his breath. Storms cracked faintly in his blood. Even silence curled at the edge of his blade.
The Mimicry Pulse.
His veins bulged, blood ran hot from his nose, his lungs burned. Every thread of Enso screamed. But he stood.
The Sayuri pressed harder. Gravity to crush, abyss to consume, storm to shatter, void to erase.
Rei's vision blurred red. His body buckled. His Enso spiraled close to collapse.
Unless....
He slid. Flash Step, light and desperate. The Blade of Resolve hummed, carrying not only his rhythm but fragments of theirs. His pulse surged outward....gravity split, shadows staggered, lightning cracked apart, even the void wavered.
For a single breath, he carved space to exist.
Silence crashed down.
Rei collapsed to his knees, panting, drenched in sweat. The blade slipped from his shaking hands.
The Black Stone in his pack pulsed. Once. Then again. A faint, deep resonance....like it had been waiting for this moment. The sigils along the wall flared brighter, answering it.
The Sayuri froze. Even the Silent Elder shifted, just slightly, their gaze heavy on Rei.
Daiken's voice was iron.
"That stone… it reacts to your rhythm."
Kazumi's eyes narrowed, shadow curling tight.
"Not just his rhythm. Etherfall's call."
Rei's head snapped up. "Etherfall…?"
For the first time, the Silent Elder spoke, their voice quiet and absolute.
"The place where Enso meets its origin. If you wish to master what you carry, you must go there."
Tetsuya spat out a laugh, though unease flickered under it.
"Etherfall'll chew him apart before he even touches it."
Daiken didn't flinch. His gaze pinned Rei.
"What you did here.....it is a spark. Nothing more. Against the High Dark Elders, even full Mimicry would be nothing. If you want fire… take the stone to Etherfall."
The words sank heavier than any blow. Rei bowed his head, chest heaving. He had no strength left. No answers.
But he had a path.
And for now...that was enough.