I angled myself toward the strongest cluster of familiar echoes, the place where multiple presences overlapped, tangled together in conflict and revelation.
Toward them.
As I walked, the corridor adjusted, reshaping itself to guide me forward. The faint sounds of combat drifted through the stone—metal striking metal, explosions of energy, reality itself groaning under stress.
They're close.
My fingers curled reflexively.
This time, I wouldn't arrive late.
This time, I wouldn't be the weakest one in the room, well, I never was, but still.
The path brightened ahead, the air thickening as it transitioned back into the heart of the cave's domain. I felt the boundary press against me, testing, measuring.
It yielded.
I stepped through without slowing.
Whatever waited on the other side—monsters, illusions, broken reflections of the people I cared about—it didn't matter.
I was done being shaped by trials.
Now it was my turn to carve a way forward.
