The portal sizzled and popped behind him, in front of Saryn lay a similar stone room to the last, except without the towering obsidian throne in the middle.
The four mirrors also were set up evenly at each corner, the pull of the lanterns above them had dimmed down prior to his consumption of the lights.
A voice boomed throughout the room from his left.
"I can sense your hunger for the echoes."
In the mirror was Marduk, inhabiting Saryn's reflection, yet speaking his own dialogue.
"Echoes? Are you talking about the lanterns?" Saryn responded.
"No, I am talking about the particles that reside in them, look carefully around you, Saryn."
Saryn squinted his eyes, and suddenly, all around him, the exact same mixture of either deep blue or sharp cyan particles surrounded him, the entire room was full of these motes of light, although quite scarce in density in comparison to the lanterns.
"Are they… echoes?" Saryn turned toward the mirror.
"Yes, Saryn, these particles you see are echoes. They are the building blocks of this world, they make up every object or existence you see, and they come in three forms."
Saying so, Marduk pointed up toward the ceiling, where a tiny white shining orb had penetrated the stone, entering the room slowly. The sphere glowed brightly, as if beckoning Saryn to take it.
Once the orb reached eye-level with him, He spoke to Marduk, while eyeing the sphere with a confused expression.
"Is that supposed to be an echo too?" Saryn's voice left his mouth quietly, carrying with it a sense of unease.
"No." Marduk's loud voice resounded, before the white orb shot toward Saryn's forehead, piercing it and entering his mind.
After a short delay, Saryn jumped back slightly as the obsidian orb slipped out of his hand, terrified, but unharmed. A warm sensation spread from his brain to his neck, then toward every end of his body, before he entered a daze, his blank eyes stared at the ground in front of him.
A flood of memories introduced themselves in his mind.
A heartbeat, a monster's silhouette, a distant scream, and most of all, a whispered warning.
It was eerily similar to before, but with one key difference.
'These memories aren't mine.'
Saryn noticed. The memories were of other people, dozens of them, who had survived the first room. The orb contained the knowledge and thoughts of these people while they cleared each floor and trial.
And now, all of it came washing down upon Saryn's weak will.
A mix of emotions collided in his heart like a geyser, he didn't know how to feel, what to feel.
Fear. Nostalgia. Sadness. Rage. Resolve. Hope. Insanity.
A sharp and loud, almost predatory voice erupted from Saryn's left.
"Do not resist, Saryn. Let their failures become your foundation."
Saryn snapped back to reality, turning to his left and facing Marduk.
"I'll try my best." His tone had slightly changed.
Saying so, Saryn stepped forward energetically, stopping at the center of the room.
His mind twitched, as several relevant memories flashed past, seemingly instructing him, ordering him to prepare the ritual circle.
"I shall leave you to it, it seems you know your next moves." Marduk's voice boomed one final time, before the mirror at the bottom left of the room shattered.
'That noise irritates me more than it should.'
Saryn thought, before planting his hand on the ground in the middle of the room, he injected his will into the ground, a skill he learnt after his receival of the memories.
Upon his action, a large circle, spanning 5 meters in diameter, appeared around the center of the room, where Saryn was crouched down, his eyes closed, seemingly visualising the patterns being drawn in the circle on the ground.
Saryn was constructing a ritual circle, similar to the one in the first room, these ritual circles are used for a wide variety of purposes, and each different pattern on the ritual circle instructs it to execute a different task.
The one Saryn was constructing now, was the most basic of circles, being used for constructing semblances.
Each time Saryn moved during the construction of the circle, it was with utmost precision, until he had finished drawing the patterns. In comparison to the circle in the first room, this circle looked way more simplified and basic.
'This is only the first step.'
Saryn looked toward one of the remaining mirrors that was stationed in the top right corner of the room, on the right of an unlit portal which most likely was used to transport candidates to the next floor.
His gaze was almost as if he was expecting something, and he was.
The surface of the mirror rippled violently in response to Saryn's threatening look, before his reflection appeared, arms crossed behind its back.
"Whats the look for? There was none of that in the previous room." Marduk gazed back at Saryn, before a perfect white cube dropped into the room from a dispenser stuck in the wall.
'My apologies, oh-so-great Marduk.'
Saryn scoffed inwardly, before picking up the cube, and injecting his will into it.
During the injection of his will, Saryn noticed the attraction effect the cube had, countless echoes of both colours seemed attracted to the cube, being pulled toward it during its use.
After activation of the cube, it glowed slightly, unfolding, and multiple materials appeared out of thin air around it, almost as if pulled from a different space.
'Just like it did in the memories, I see.'
The cube was a storage artifact, artifacts are constructs that are designed to use the ambient echoes in order to execute a specific task, sort of like ritual circles, but they serve many more purposes on a smaller scale.
Various materials, ranging from crystals, to rocks, to organic items, and so forth, were scattered on the floor in front of Saryn.
The memories guided his hands like muscle memory, he grabbed materials in quick succession, placing them in specific areas, before absorbing the ambient echoes and ejecting them where the materials were placed.
Mere moments later, a basic ritual circle was constructed, the materials floated quietly around Saryn while the spare materials were placed right next to him.
'This seems right.'
Saryn thought, before placing his hand down once again in the middle of the circle, injecting his will.
The patterns of the ritual circle bloomed to life, releasing a bright lilac glow that pulsed like a beating heart, bringing a warm sense of comfort to the empty room while also emitting a faint pressure.
Marduk's voice and Saryn's thoughts spoke in tandem.
"Success."
Success.