Echoes of the Chained Fortress
Akihiko, Lirea, and Yoru arrive at a forgotten sector of Edenfall: a fortress sealed with obsidian shackles. Each chain vibrates with ancient war oaths. The steel doors, carved with forbidding runes, respond only to the touch of someone who has killed in cold blood out of conviction. Akihiko, without speaking, places his hand, and the entrance opens with creaking and a metallic wail.
The Threshold of Fractured Judgment
Inside, the air is thick. Columns filled with symbolic markings tell the story of the Damned of the Last Shadow, a mafia whose existence was erased from the records. Lirea stumbles upon a stone with hidden inscriptions. Reading them aloud, she triggers a dimensional trap: the group is pulled into a courtroom, frozen in time.
III. The Verdict of the Forgotten
In the room, there are twelve petrified figures with expressions of pain. Suddenly, a disembodied voice declares the beginning of the "Final Verdict." Each member must justify their existence or be absorbed into the judgment stone. Yoru breaks protocol by throwing a dagger at the main statue, which releases the specters. A battle ensues.
The Dance of the Damned
The specters of the Damned manifest: faceless warriors wielding weapons forged from their traumas. One casts chains that project the remorse of past murders; another creates mirrors of judgment that force one to confront one's own mistakes. Akihiko fights in silence, channeling his Void to devour his projected emotions.
Resonance of Ancestral Pain
Lirea, trapped in an illusion, relives the moment she murdered her mother to escape the mafia's yoke. The pain is real. Yoru manages to break her trance by shouting her true name aloud, invoking an ancient ancestral rule: "What has been named with truth cannot be enslaved by the past."
Crimson Chain: Forbidden Technique
Akihiko unlocks a forgotten technique by absorbing the energy of a greater specter: Crimson Chain . This technique traps the enemy soul in a time loop of accumulated pain. He uses it against the spectral leader, who dies reliving his worst decision: betraying his own children for power.
VII. The Legacy of the Chained
After the battle, the fortress is reconfigured. The names of the Damned are now inscribed on the walls, as a warning. A new mural appears: it shows Akihiko with broken chains around him… and behind him, a dark figure whose eyes seem to contain constellations: the Herald of the Perennial Shadow.
VIII. The Awakening of the Sleeping Herald
A crack opens in the ceiling, and from it falls a fragment of black stone with moving inscriptions. Upon touching it, Yoru enters a trance-like state. He sees a future where Edenfall is ruled by an immortal mafia that has learned to control the flow of time. The name of the leader: Zarvok the Eternal .
The Escape from Unchained Time
The group attempts to escape, but the space collapses. The corridors shift, and shackles begin to drag as if seeking to capture the living. Lirea uses one of the Damned's inscriptions to open a hidden door to Edenfall's underground. They flee, but Yoru has changed. He now speaks with pauses, as if measuring time with supernatural precision.
Echoes of the Broken Future
As they step outside, the city seems different: the clocks are out of sync, the inhabitants walk in loops, and a strange symbol appears engraved in every alley: a chain entwined with an hourglass. Akihiko observes it and murmurs, "Time has broken loose… and something is crawling from its prison."