Darkness folded into shapes.
When Stark opened his eyes, he was no longer in the chamber of echoes.
Instead, he stood on a narrow bridge of light suspended above a sea of whispering faces—faint, flickering visages stacked like pages in a ruined book. Each face mouthed a single word: Remember. Choose. Break. Bind.
A cold wind moved along the bridge, carrying the reek of lost names. The mark along his wrist burned hot, flaring silver and black as if the chains inside it were straining to be recognized.
[System Notice]
Instance Entered: Echo Trial — Personalization Layer.
Duration: Unknown.
Objective: Survive the Echo Trial. Learn the Summoners' truth.
Warning: Mental integrity at risk.
A voice—half a memory, half a whisper—grew near him.
"Welcome, child of the chain."
The lost Summoner stood at the bridge's far end, his cracked mark flickering. Around him, echoes drifted like slow fish in ink: failed summoners, broken-making sequences, faces Stark had not seen but suddenly knew.
"You brought me permission," Stark said, holding his breath. "What is this trial?"
The man's smile was thin. "The only test a Summoner must face when the Architect will no longer teach him: whether you carry his will—or your own."
He snapped his fingers. The bridge shuddered. From the sea below, hands of light reached up, clawing. Each hand wore a memory: a summoner's last thought, a command loop, a lost name that snapped like a thread.
[Trial Mechanic: Memory Assault — Incoming]
Effect: Each memory-claw reduces synchronization by 6% and attempts to overwrite free will.
Counter: Anchor Chords / Chain Memory usage.
Stark's chest tightened. The Ash Phantom swelled beside him, but in this place even it flickered—fragile against so many layered memories.
"Do not let them touch you," the phantom warned. "They will graft their end upon you."
He could feel them—each reaching memory like a cold finger. One brushed his shoulder. Pain flared and with it a vision: a hand raising rune-ink over a screaming throat; a child begging a master to stop; a code line that read, Obey. For a moment Stark's lips shaped the word without consent.
[Sync Drop: -6%]
Stark — Sync: 92% → 86%
His knees buckled.
"Anchor!" he gasped.
He remembered the First Summoner's link—how it taught him to offer a tone rather than respond to a command. He drew a steady breath, feeling the Chain Memory's faint echo in his chest.
[Skill Activated: Chain Tune — Anchor Script Lv.1]
[Effect: Stabilizes mind; +12% Sync resistance for 10s.]
[Cost: 10 SE]
A ribbon of warm sound wrapped around his head like a hand. The memory-claws recoiled, hissing as if burned. Stark planted his feet and forced the chord deeper, humming the lullaby the old man had shown him.
The lost Summoner watched with something like relief. "Good. You learned."
The bridge shifted. New shards of memory rose—this time not hands but full scenes: a summoner sacrificing a spirit, a village burning under a blue sun, a child watching the sky fold. Each scene demanded an answer: Bind them. Consume them. Make them obey.
Stark realized the trial's cruel logic. It put before him the moments when Summoners chose power over mercy. It wanted him to repeat the pattern.
He understood then the lost Summoner's final truth: these echoes remained because someone once used them as lessons, not warnings.
The first scene spilled forward—an entire battlefield: figures in chains commanded to light the sky. The echoes screamed, the wind reeked of smoke. The trial pushed the memory toward him.
"Do not obey," the lost Summoner said softly. "Let them show you what they were so you can become what they weren't."
Stark steadied. He could feel the Ash Phantom's will: This is not your voice. Take what you need. Then return it.
He raised his hands.
[Action: Soul Reap — Redirect]
[Effect: Convert incoming memory energy into SE and neutralize overwrite attempt.]
[Cost: 0 SE (Absorbs memory energy)]
The battlefield's scream tore into him and came back as cold SE, filling him. The memory unfurled and then folded into itself, becoming small and quiet.
[SE Gain: +30]
[Sync Stabilized: +4%]
Stark — Sync: 86% → 90%
Small victories stacked into a steadier rhythm.
The lost Summoner nodded approvingly. "You can fight what was done to us. Now decide what to keep."
Another vision: a stone circle with spirits bound into cages of light, their faces pleading. The memory pushed—bind them; they are dangerous; they will destroy the living unless you enslave them.
The Ash Phantom's voice trembled. "Bind, and you feed the Architect. Heal, and the world will judge you."
Stark felt the weight of choice like a physical thing. In the Academy, choices had been abstract—ranks, trials, no-life-or-death. Here the option was raw: command a song that would enslave spirits for safety, or refuse and risk unleashing chaos.
He thought of Lira's wolf that had fought beside him without chains. He thought of Aiden who challenged him not to control but to be better. He thought of the First Summoner's link—a lullaby instead of a leash.
His hand moved, not to bind.
[Skill: Chain Tune — Harmonize Lv.2]
[Effect: Rewrites local memory into a restoration chord; converts 'bind' commands into soothing commands; restores a fragment of spirit autonomy.]
[Cost: 22 SE | Risk: Sync Spike]
The harmonize tone poured from him like poured light. The imprisoned spirits in the vision trembled, their cages dissolving into threads that wove into gentle ribbons of song. The memory's demand softened into a story of reunion rather than domination.
[Effect: Memory Rewritten — Retains as Lesson, Not Law]
[SE Cost Paid. Sync +6%]
Stark — Sync: 90% → 96%
Around him, the echo-sea stilled. Faces in the whispering ocean quieted their mouths. The bridge stopped shaking.
The lost Summoner smiled, a rare unbroken expression. "You chose. That is the test."
Stark felt drained, but unbroken. A new line of light traced itself across his mark—faint, like a fresh stitch.
[System Notice]
Trial Complete — Phase One
Reward: Chain Memory Lv.2 — Harmonize (Unlocked)
New Trait: Echo Empathy — Allows partial restoration of corrupted spirits.
Warning: Architect Influence Increased — Monitoring Required.
The lost Summoner stepped forward, placing a palm over Stark's hand. For a moment, the broken mark on the man pulsed in sympathy with Stark's.
"You did not become the Architect's voice," he said. "You learned to sing differently. That may save us."
Stark swallowed. "What now?"
Outside the echo-scape, muffled, he heard distant shouts—Lira, Aiden, Vale calling his name, fighting in the real chamber as the echoes tried to push through. The trial had been a gateway: pass it, and his mind could help anchor them outside. Fail it, and it would unmake everything.
The lost Summoner's gaze hardened. "Soon the Architect will send more than a whisper. You must be ready to bind—not with chains, but with songs."
Stark nodded, feeling the new trait settle like a cool stone in his chest.
[Mission Update]
Echo Trial — Phase One Passed
Next Objective: Return to the Chamber of Echoes. Use new Echo Empathy to stabilize captured proto-Summoners and lead the extraction.
Warning: Architect response time decreasing.
He opened his eyes and the bridge dissolved. The world snapped back to the chamber—Lira bracing him, Aiden's spear at the ready, Vale's face pale but fierce.
"You okay?" Lira panted.
He flexed his fingers. The mark on his wrist glowed with the new stitch. "I'm ready."
Outside, the echoes stirred again—angrier now, but quieter when he sang.
He had learned to choose. Now he had to teach the world to listen.