The chamber had no doors. No windows. Just walls that pulsed faintly, like the interior of a sleeping beast. The Sanctum's Trial Hall shifted around them, stone melting into new configurations with every test. What it lacked in logic, it made up for in menace.
Lucifer Valtros stood at the edge of a newly formed dais, boots scraping against the black-marble floor. Around him, the other candidates eyed one another, tension thick as blood in the air. Shadows cast by blue torchlight stretched long and crooked.
Then the voice returned.
> "Trial Two: Echoes of Intention."
A ripple moved across the room. A sudden pull inside the chest, as though the air itself had teeth.
> "Reveal not your strength, but your truth."
One by one, glowing sigils formed on the candidates' chests — twelve in total. Lucifer glanced down. His mark pulsed dull red, shaped like a broken crown. The same symbol from the glyph in the sky.
A slab of stone ground open from the wall, revealing twelve corridors, each lined with runes.
> "Step forward, candidates. Choose the path that reflects your core. You will not return the same."
---
Lucifer didn't hesitate. He walked into the corridor marked with crimson runes, stone shifting shut behind him.
The silence was immediate.
No whispers. No echoes. Just… breath. His own. The corridor stretched forward, narrowing slightly with each step. On the walls were faded murals — not painted, but burned into the surface. Images of cities in ruin, of chained titans, of men with black stars in their eyes.
He paused at one.
A figure stood atop a mountain of corpses. Cloaked. Crownless. But in his hand, a blade of light… or was it flame?
Lucifer's fingers brushed the mural.
> "You were never meant to kneel."
The voice wasn't his.
His heartbeat jumped, but he said nothing. Instead, he kept moving. One foot in front of the other.
---
After what felt like hours — or seconds — the corridor opened into a circular chamber lit by an unseen glow.
A mirror stood in the center. No frame. Just silver glass floating in the air, held aloft by silent magic.
Lucifer approached cautiously.
In the mirror, he did not see himself.
He saw Judas — bloodied, kneeling.
Then Reth, grinning as fire consumed the Valtros banner.
Then his mother, eyes hollow.
> "This is the cost of hesitation," the mirror said in a voice like his own.
Lucifer didn't flinch. "Illusion."
The mirror flickered.
Now it showed something else — a hand reaching toward him, smaller. Softer. Familiar.
Jessica?
But the image shattered before he could see. The shards floated, rearranged… and became him. His reflection.
Only… older. And darker.
His mirror-self wore armor etched with glowing glyphs, his eyes cold. Dead. On his chest, the symbol had changed — no longer broken, but whole.
> "If you survive," it whispered, "this is what remains."
Lucifer stepped back. "Then I'll change what survival means."
The chamber darkened.
The ground fell away.
---
Lucifer landed hard, rolling into a kneel. Around him: forest.
No — illusion again. He could feel it. The grass smelled too clean. The moon too still.
Movement ahead.
He rose and walked, branches parting for him unnaturally. Something was guiding this.
And then he saw her.
A girl. Red hair. Pale skin. She stood with her back to him, humming. The melody pulled at something in him — like grief in reverse.
She turned.
Jessica.
But not. Younger. Eyes different. Confused.
"Lucifer?" she asked.
He froze.
> This is not real. She's not here.
Still, his breath caught.
The illusion Jessica walked forward. Her hand reached for his cheek. "I looked for you. I tried to—"
"Stop."
The forest bled away like ink in water.
Lucifer stood alone again, breath shallow.
Then the voice returned.
> "You do not yield to comfort. Interesting."
A panel blinked before him.
> [Trial of Echoes – Completed]
Status: Candidate 7 – Passed
Bonus Trait Unlocked: Unshaken Will
> Next Candidate Response: Pending…
He turned — and saw someone stumble into the chamber beside him.
Kael. The noble from House Dreven.
But he was sobbing.
He looked at Lucifer as if he'd seen a ghost.
"You… you didn't feel it?" Kael whispered. "The people? The screaming?"
Lucifer said nothing. His silence was louder than comfort.
Another corridor opened.
Lucifer walked through it.
Kael stayed on his knees.
---
Back in the Sanctum's central hall, the candidates reappeared one by one.
Some trembling.
Some unchanged.
Lucifer stood near the edge, watching.
From a balcony above, cloaked figures whispered.
> "His mark stabilized faster than the others." "Protocol is syncing." "Should we intervene?"
"No," came a voice deeper than thunder. "Let the Reclaimer forge himself."
Lucifer looked up — but the figures vanished.
He turned as Judas stepped beside him, seemingly materialized from nothing.
"You passed."
Lucifer nodded. "Barely."
Judas tilted his head. "And the others?"
"Shaken. Some broken."
Judas's eyes gleamed. "Good."
Lucifer's fingers closed around the hilt of his blade. Not drawn. Not yet.
But soon.
---
That night, he stood at the Sanctum's window, high above the endless trials.
Below, firelight flickered like stars trying to remember themselves.
And in the glass reflection, his mark glowed again.
Whole.
The Protocol wasn't testing him.
It was waking him.
And far beyond the Sanctum, somewhere in a rival duchy under a different name… Jessica stirred in her sleep.
A single tear ran down her cheek.
And in the darkness of her room, her mark began to glow too — not broken, but half-formed.
As if answering something long buried.
Something she no longer remembered… but could never forget.