The mist thinned as Kael and his Echo crossed into the second ring of the Labyrinth.
Above them, the sky had changed.
No longer crimson, it was now ink-black, speckled with drifting sigils—massive, glowing runes that floated like constellations. They pulsed in rhythm, as if beating in time with something slumbering beneath the ground.
Kael felt it immediately.
Pressure.
Like unseen eyes were locked onto him—not hostile, not yet—but probing, curious… ancient.
His Echo stepped ahead without prompting, placing its hand on a hovering rune. The symbol flickered, rotated, and vanished.
"You understand that?" Kael asked.
The Echo shook its head. "Not yet. But it feels… familiar."
Kael nodded. The Labyrinth was shifting. Testing not just strength—but memory.
And what if those memories weren't truly his?
A few paces deeper, they found the first structure—a tower of bones and crystal, spiraling up into the sky like a helix. Its base was guarded by a creature like nothing Kael had seen before: a serpentine beast with six arms, each holding a sigil-carved weapon, and a head covered in ritual cloths.
[Trial Guardian: Sigil Custodian Lv. 3]
It didn't roar. It sang.
A haunting, low hymn that reverberated inside Kael's chest. His mana core stirred in response—no, not stirred… resisted. Like the song was trying to reshape his core from the outside.
"We can't brute force this," Kael muttered.
The Echo raised its hand, weaving mana into the air. Kael watched as glowing threads formed a counter-harmony—not to attack, but to neutralize the Custodian's song.
The Custodian tilted its head. And smiled.
It rushed forward.
Six blades spun like whirlwinds, each one etched with moving symbols. Kael parried one—barely—his arms trembling as raw force cracked the air around him.
The Echo blocked the second with a mirrored blade of pure mana, ducked under a third, and retaliated with a blast of focused energy.
Kael saw it now. The Echo wasn't just following instinct—it was learning. Adapting faster than he could.
Together, they began to push back.
A twin-dance of mirrored strikes, with Kael anchoring the rhythm and the Echo exploiting the gaps. Their synergy wasn't perfect—but it was evolving.
At the final clash, Kael and the Echo unleashed a combined burst from both cores—converging into a spiraling bolt that pierced the Guardian's chest.
It fell. Still singing, even as it crumbled into dust.
[Sigil Custodian Defeated]
Partial Core Fragment Obtained
New Sigil Sequence Unlocked: Veilbreaker Script I
As Kael picked up the fragment, it melted into his palm, searing a glowing rune across the back of his hand. The same happened to the Echo—though the rune was different.
"Why aren't they the same?" Kael asked aloud.
The Echo didn't respond right away. Then, it said:
"Because we're not the same anymore."
A silence settled between them.
Kael looked up at the sky again. One of the glowing runes had changed. It now pulsed in sync with the mark on his hand.
The Labyrinth… wasn't just a place.
It was watching. Marking him.
Each choice, each fight—it wasn't just a test. It was building something around him.
Or maybe… inside him.
As they climbed the spiral tower, Kael glanced sideways at his Echo.
"Why are you helping me?" he asked.
"I don't know," it replied. "But I want to."
"Even if you become… someone else?"
"Maybe that's what I want to find out."
At the top of the tower, a gate of stone awaited—shaped like an open eye.
A new voice echoed from behind it. Not mechanical. Not the Watcher.
But human. Warm. Familiar.
"Kael… it's time you remembered."
Kael froze.
It was the voice of his father.
But Kael never remembered having a father.