The fall ended not with impact, but with absence. No ground, no sound, no air. Only a suffocating blackness that pressed against their skin and seeped into their lungs. It was not darkness as they had known it before—it was alive, a living void that swallowed even the memory of light.
For a moment, they thought they had gone blind.
Carlos reached out instinctively, but his hand brushed only empty air. The others were gone. He couldn't see them, couldn't hear them. His chest tightened with panic.
Then the Helm's voice slithered through the dark, cold and infinite:"Welcome to the Realm of Shadows. Here, sight betrays you. Here, you must walk blind. Do you trust your companions enough to walk without proof they are there?"
The words echoed endlessly, until even Carlos wasn't sure if they had been spoken aloud at all.
Alone in the Black
Carlos called out. "Rina? Thalor? Lys? Maren?" His voice felt swallowed before it traveled more than a few feet.
No answer. Only the sound of his own heartbeat.
He gripped the Blade of Ascension tighter, but even its glow was gone. The blade should have burned with light, yet in this place it was smothered, as if the void itself consumed illumination.
"Don't lose it," he whispered to himself. "Don't… don't lose it."
The Whispers
Whispers began, faint at first, then growing. Voices Carlos recognized—his friends'.
"Carlos, I'm here," Lys's voice called, soft and reassuring."Carlos, over this way," Rina's tone hissed, urgent."Carlos, we need to regroup!" Thalor boomed."Carlos, trust me," Maren begged.
But they came from everywhere. Too many. Too close.
And between them, another voice crept in—his own."You can't save them. You'll walk blind into their knives."
Carlos froze.
Lys's Trial
Elsewhere in the void, Lys stumbled forward, bow clenched. She heard her sister calling her name, over and over, the voice breaking with grief.
"Lys… why did you leave me? Follow my voice. Just once, don't fail me."
Her heart ached, her legs shaking as she moved toward the sound. But with every step, the darkness thickened, tugging her deeper.
Another voice cut through: Carlos's."Lys! Don't listen! It's not her!"
But how could she know? She couldn't see him, couldn't touch him. What if this was the lie, and her sister was real?
Rina's Trial
Rina's daggers gleamed faintly, but even they soon dulled. She crouched, every instinct screaming. The void whispered promises.
"You've always been alone," it purred. "They'll turn on you. Strike first. End them before they end you."
She gritted her teeth, sweat dripping down her face. For a heartbeat, she believed it—saw in her mind's eye Carlos raising his blade against her, Lys's arrow pointed at her back, Thalor's shield crushing her skull.
Her fingers tightened on her daggers.
"Not again," she whispered. "I won't—I won't!"
Thalor's Trial
Thalor staggered beneath the weight of his shield, though there was nothing to strike him. In the dark, he heard his brothers' voices, pleading.
"Thalor… why do you live while we lie in the earth?""You promised to protect us. You failed.""Join us in the dark. Be at peace."
The knight dropped to his knees, shield slipping from his grasp. Tears streamed unseen down his face. For the first time, he wanted to surrender.
Maren's Trial
Maren's flames sputtered and died, no spark surviving in the choking black. She hugged her staff, shaking, as the shadows pressed closer.
Then she heard laughter—her own, cruel and fiery.
"You'll burn them all. Here or later, it doesn't matter. That's who you are."
She screamed, trying to summon light, but nothing came. "I'm not— I'm not that!"
But the void smothered her words, turning them into ashes.
A Thread of Sound
Then—faint. A sound.
Carlos heard it first. Not a whisper. Not a lie. A rhythm.
"Tap… tap… tap."
It was Rina, tapping her dagger against her boot. A signal. A habit she'd had since the beginning.
Carlos exhaled in relief. "Rina! Keep tapping!"
The sound grew stronger. Then another joined—Thalor, pounding his shield. Then Lys, knocking an arrow against her bow. Then Maren, striking her staff against the ground.
The rhythm cut through the whispers.
They weren't together yet, but they were real.
Breaking the Darkness
Carlos followed the sound, step by step. His blade dragged against the floor, scraping out his own addition to the rhythm. Slowly, painfully, the group drew nearer, pulled together not by sight, but by trust.
The void hissed, furious. The whispers rose to screams, clawing at their ears:
"They will betray you!""They are lies!""They are already dead!"
But the rhythm didn't break.
And then, at last, they collided—clumsy, desperate, but real. Carlos felt Thalor's hand grip his shoulder, Rina's dagger press against his arm not as a threat but as an anchor, Lys's bow brush his back, Maren's staff clink against his blade.
They had found each other.
The Shadow Behemoth
The void screamed in rage. It condensed, swirling, forming into a colossal shape: a beast made of living shadow, eyes like burning coals, jaws wide enough to swallow mountains.
"This is the heart of shadow," the Helm whispered. "You escaped doubt—but you will not escape death."
The heroes could see nothing of each other, only the glowing eyes of the beast in the void.
But they tightened their formation, backs pressed together.
"Then we fight blind," Carlos said. "But we fight together."
And with that, they charged the behemoth, striking into darkness itself.