Yuki steps past the threshold, reality bends. What he and the group find is not a vault or a chamber, but a twisted realm made entirely of memory. Echoes of the past flicker like shadows across burning walls—familiar faces long gone, laughter warped into cries.
But deep within the heart of the illusion, behind the eighth flame, something shifts.
The Eidolon watches.
Not from malice—but from longing. And now that Yuki is here, the rewriting may finally begin.
The moment Yuki's foot crosses the final glyph, the eighth flame pulses—silent, yet thunderous. The world around them shudders like a breath being held too long.
The group emerges into a massive chamber of light and shadow. The floor is water, but they do not sink. Instead, reflections of their pasts ripple at their feet: Ren's lonely childhood in the mountains, Aiko's tears under moonlight, Himari holding Haru's hand in a collapsing shrine, and Yuki—standing alone in a burning house, the image glitching like broken data.
Yuki blinks.
And the flame speaks.
"You came... not as a thief, but as a key."
The voice is not one—it is many. Whispers from every moment Yuki has ever doubted himself. Every voice that's ever questioned who he truly is.
Suddenly, everything freezes. The water hardens like glass. The shadows scatter.
A form begins to take shape behind the flame—something tall, shifting, cloaked in ash and memory. Eyes that change with each blink: old, young, kind, cruel.
The Eidolon has seen enough.
"You carry the threads of reality and void," it says, "but do you know what was unraveled to make you whole?"
The flame flares—showing the group something impossible: A world that existed before the mythic balance. One Yuki was never meant to see.
Yuki steps forward, fists trembling. "Why me?"
A pause. Then…
"Because you remember what the world forgot."
The chamber flickers again—like a heartbeat skipping. The image of the forgotten world vanishes, leaving behind only the eighth flame and the being behind it.
The Eidolon lowers its head, and the light around them folds inward.
"This is only the beginning," it murmurs. "The rewrite starts with a name."
A long silence.
Yuki's breath catches as the name echoes—not aloud, but in every cell of his body.
His.
Not the one he knows.
The one buried beneath the fire, the void, the lie.
And as the flame dims, and the water beneath them begins to crack—
Ren yells, "Yuki, move!"
Too late.
The world shatters.
And they fall.
---
The room shifts again.
The glassy floor splinters like ice under pressure, not breaking—but bending. The reflections rise as figures, illusions of memory given form. Not shadows. Not tricks.
Echoes.
Yuki stands frozen as a younger version of himself walks past—eyes blank, aura fractured, a faint tail trailing behind. The illusion pauses, stares at him.
"You were never just human," the echo whispers, then vanishes.
Suddenly, the group is pulled apart—not by force, but by resonance. Each is drawn to a part of the chamber tied to their soul.
Ren finds himself facing old spirits of the mountain he left behind.
Himari stares into a shrine overrun with vines—half-ruined, half-restored.
Aiko sees her old self alone on a cliff, speaking to someone only she could see.
Kai stands inside a kitchen, smoke rising—not from cooking, but destruction.
And Haru sees a mirror that doesn't reflect him—but Yuki.
But Yuki—he's gone.
Dragged into a corridor of living memory, where time folds and breathes. The Eidolon waits there, in shifting form.
"You seek power, but you carry weight," it says, circling him. "You were made from what the world cast aside."
Yuki stands tall. "Then I'll carry it all. I'm done running."
The flame behind him surges.
The Eidolon lifts a finger—and Yuki's power fractures for a second. Reality Warping and Void Manipulation pull in opposite directions.
"Fuse them... or be destroyed by them."
While Yuki is pulled into the corridor of living memory, Nogitsune remains behind, standing in the chamber with the flickering eighth flame. At first, it seems quiet.
But then... the flame shifts shape. And from within it, a second figure steps out.
A mirror.
Not of Yuki.
But of Nogitsune himself.
This doppelgänger carries the same calm smirk, but his eyes burn with the wrong kind of energy. It speaks with Nogitsune's voice—but something is twisted.
> "You taught the boy everything you knew... but not everything you feared."
Nogitsune doesn't flinch. He steps forward.
> "You're not real."
The entity circles him.
> "I'm what you left behind. Every lie, every shadow, every part of you that made that clone to keep Yuki safe. You buried me. But this place remembers."
This is Nogitsune's trial.
While Yuki faces memory and burden, Nogitsune must face his own reflection—every decision, every manipulation, every secret. Only by overcoming his darker self can he keep Yuki from collapsing under the truth.
---
"If you're enjoying the ride, don't forget to leave a power stone or a comment—it really helps this grow!"