🌌 Chapter 41
"To fight monsters, you must understand the one inside you first."
🌫️ Scene: Aeren's Mind Trial — The Arena of Echoes
The air inside the Echo Field was thick — not with mist, but with memory.
Aeren faced his three doppelgängers:
Coward had trembling hands, backing away at every threat.
Useless dragged broken chains, whispering every failure Aeren had ever made.
Burden was silent but stared with cold, accusing eyes.
Aeren clenched his fists.
"You're not real."
"We are more real than you," they answered in perfect sync.
Suddenly, Coward rushed first — fast, despite his name — with a scream echoing from Aeren's childhood.
🥊 Scene: Battle of the Self
Aeren dodged clumsily, barely avoiding the blow.
Useless slammed a mental memory into his mind — the time he failed to save a classmate during a mock hunt.
"You ran, remember?""You always run."
Burden lifted a mirror and forced Aeren to look into it.
In it, Aeren saw Anshi bleeding… calling his name.
"Because of you, she suffers."
Aeren screamed. The pressure made him fall to one knee.
But then… the dream world glitched.
The mirror cracked.
A new voice whispered.
"Control your breath. Slow your thoughts. You already know them — so own them."
💥 Scene: The First Awakening
Aeren's eyes began to glow dimly — not light, but a swirling storm of colors.
The clones faltered.
Coward blinked. Useless staggered. Burden turned his head.
Aeren stood.
"I was scared — but I stayed.""I failed — but I tried again.""I'm a burden — only if I stop walking."
A ripple pulsed through the Echo Field.
In that moment, Aeren's latent powers began responding — not to rage, but to clarity.
He struck Coward with nothing but willpower.
Aeren whispered to Useless — and it vanished like fog.
And as he stared at Burden…
Burden bowed.
"You're ready," it said… and dissolved.
🧠 Scene: Outside the Trial Chamber
"Sir! The glyphs around Aeren's pod… they've changed!""They've… rewritten themselves.""Impossible! No student can override the Echo Field system!"
But someone — or something — was helping him.
Far away, Karnyx smirked.
"Oh? So the little bug is starting to awaken. Good… that means I'll find what I need soon enough."
🧬 Scene: Aeren Awakens
Aeren opened his eyes.
He was back in the real world, sweating, breath heavy — but changed.
His hands felt lighter.
His mind… calmer.
But deep inside, the new power stirred again.
A strange mark glowed faintly beneath his shirt — a symbol of an ancient clan long lost to history.
Aeren didn't see it.
But the instructors did.
"That's…""No… it can't be."
🕯️ Closing Note:
Anshi stood beside him, holding his shoulder.
"You did great," she whispered.
He smiled faintly, unaware of the magnitude of what had just begun.
⚔️ Chapter 42 Preview:
"The Dungeon Gate – Where Blood Writes Rank"The final qualification trial begins — the dungeon test. Traps, monsters, betrayal… and something else waiting deep within the ruins, something even Karnyx didn't expect.