The ceiling exploded. Chunks of concrete crashed down like hail. Kenji rolled behind a pillar as a steel beam slammed where he'd been standing.
"They broke through!" Boulder's voice cracked. Stone fragments fell from his shoulders. "Multiple spots!"
Yuki's eyes flashed silver, then went dim. She stumbled. Blood ran from her nose.
"Shit." She wiped her face with the back of her hand. "I can't... the anchors are screwing everything up."
Heavy footsteps echoed above them. Lots of them.
"Move!" Akira opened a spatial rift. It flickered like a broken TV screen. "Can't hold this."
They dove through just as tactical boots hit the floor behind them. Kenji heard shouting, but Akira's portal snapped shut.
They tumbled onto cold stone. Another staircase going down.
"How many more?" Kenji's void energy crackled weakly around his hands.
"One." Mei's voice was steady, but her hands shook. "Then we get to the big one."
The walls shook. More explosions above.
"They're not being careful anymore." Boulder touched a new crack in his stone face. "Gonna bring the whole place down."
"How long we got?"
"Minutes." Yuki tried to stand and almost fell. "Maybe less."
A plain black door waited ahead. No symbols. No decorations. Just a handle.
"That's it?" Kenji stared at it.
"The worst ones look boring." Akira reached for the handle, then stopped. "Kid."
"What?"
"This trial's different. Doesn't test your power or whatever. Tests what you'll give up."
"Like what?"
"Like choosing who dies."
Mei opened the door before anyone could stop her. "No more waiting. They're coming."
Beyond was a circular room with five platforms. Each held a glowing orb. As they stepped inside, pictures formed in the orbs.
The first showed Kenji's house. His parents and sister are eating dinner. Laughing.
The second showed Akira, but younger. With people Kenji didn't know. All smiling.
The third showed Yuki as a kid, playing in a park.
The fourth showed Boulder as a human, working construction.
The fifth showed Mei, older, standing by a house with flowers.
"What the hell is this?"
"Your lives. The ones you could have had."
A figure appeared in the center. Not quite human. Just a shape that looked like a person.
"I guard the trial of sacrifice. You want the Core? Pay the price."
"What price?"
"Choose one."
The orbs pulsed brighter. Kenji could see his sister doing homework. His mom is cooking.
"Pick one life to save. The others die when you try to merge dimensions."
"That's bullshit." Akira's jaw clenched. "Merging doesn't kill people."
"Doesn't it? Seven billion people getting shredded when reality breaks. You think everyone survives that?"
Yuki dropped to her knees. Her time magic ate at her, aging her in fast bursts. For a moment, her face looked decades older.
"I can't..." She whispered through gritted teeth. "It's killing me."
"Then stop." Boulder knelt beside her, stone hands surprisingly gentle. "Just let them come."
"If I stop, we all die anyway."
The ceiling shook. Dust fell like snow.
"Choose. Or I choose for you."
Kenji stared at the orbs. At his family. At versions of his friends who'd never known pain.
"This is wrong."
"Power costs. Question is what you'll pay."
Akira's rifts flickered out completely. He staggered against the wall.
"Fuck. Magic's just... gone." His face was pale. "Anchors are everywhere now."
"How long?" Mei's voice was small.
"Ten minutes. Less if they bring the big guns."
The Core's pulse echoed through the floor. Stronger now.
"I won't choose."
"Then everyone dies. Your friends. Your family. Both worlds. Because you're too weak to decide."
"There's gotta be another way."
"There isn't."
The door exploded inward. Council operatives poured through, weapons up. They stopped when they saw the orbs, the Guardian.
"End of the line, freak." The lead operative's voice was distorted by his helmet.
"Real original." Kenji didn't turn around.
"Ten seconds to surrender before we turn you into paste."
Kenji looked at his friends. Yuki could barely stay conscious. Akira leaned against the wall, sweating. Boulder's stone skin showed cracks everywhere. Mei was just a scared kid trying to be brave.
"I won't choose between them."
"Then choose between them and everyone else."
The operative's weapon whined as it charged.
Kenji closed his eyes. The void energy inside him surged.
"What if I pick myself?"
The Guardian paused. "Explain."
"I sacrifice my old life. Not theirs. Mine."
"Your old life is gone already."
"No." Kenji opened his eyes. "Part of me still wants to run home and pretend this never happened."
Yuki's time field collapsed completely. She aged ten years in two seconds, snapped back, aged again. Her body convulsed.
"Choose now!" the operative yelled.
The void energy around Kenji stabilized. Different now. Not destructive.
"I give up the person I was. The one who ran away. The one who wanted someone else to fix everything."
The orbs changed. Instead of possible lives, they showed possible futures. All the ways he could fail. All the people who might die because of his choices.
"And I'll take it all. The failures. The responsibility. The chance I'll make everything worse."
The Guardian nodded slowly. "That is sacrifice. Giving up the comfort of not knowing."
DING.
[Trial Complete: Trial of Sacrifice] [Lesson Learned: Leadership means accepting all possible outcomes] [Reward: Void Affinity +0.4] [Current Void Affinity: 5.1] [New Skill Unlocked: Burden Bearer - Level 1]
The orbs vanished. The platforms sank into the floor. A new staircase opened, leading into darkness that pulsed with ancient power.
"The Core." Mei breathed the words.
The operatives opened fire. Their energy bolts passed through the Guardian like it wasn't there.
"This room exists outside normal space. But not for long. Minutes before the anchors lock it down."
"Can you walk?" Kenji asked Yuki.
She tried to stand. Her legs shook like leaves.
Boulder scooped her up. "Got her."
More operatives flooded in. The Guardian was already fading.
"Remember. The Core will offer you everything you think you want. Power to fix every problem, prevent every tragedy. But that path leads to tyranny."
"Then what do I pick?"
"The hard path. Where you trust others to make their own choices."
The Guardian vanished. The operatives rushed forward, but the staircase sealed itself.
"Move!" Akira shouted.
They ran down the final stairs. The air got warmer with each step. Power hummed in the walls, the floor, the air itself.
"How you feeling?" Mei asked as they descended.
"Scared." Kenji's hands shook. "And ready."
"Good mix."
The Core's pulse was everywhere now. Not just sound, but light, heat, presence. Like walking toward the heart of a sleeping god.
"Last chance to run." Boulder kept walking as he said it.
"Where would we go?" Yuki's voice was weak but steady. "This is it. Win or die."
Light appeared ahead. Not electric light. Something older. Something that had waited thirty years.
"The Core chamber." Akira's voice was quiet. "Whatever happens... it's been good."
"Save the speeches. We're not dead yet."
He stepped into a cavern that made no sense. The Core floated in the center—a sphere of crystallized possibility that held entire universes. Power radiated from it in waves that made his bones ache.
Five figures waited for them. The Guardians of all the previous trials.
"Welcome, void walker. Ready to become one with the Core? To gain power to reshape reality?"
Kenji looked at his friends. Beaten, exhausted, barely alive. But still standing.
"I'm ready."
The chamber sealed itself. Above, the Council pounded against barriers already beginning to crack.
The final trial was about to begin.
And this time, there would be no second chances.