Trial of the Echoing Grave
Silence.
When Kranos stepped beyond the shattered threshold of the first trial, an unsettling stillness surrounded him. The wind didn't howl, the ground didn't quake and even the pulsating sky of fragmented starlight overhead had gone eerily calm.
He glanced back but saw nothing. The gate had vanished. Kathryn and Kevin had followed through moments before, yet the space had twisted and distorted them away and they were no longer beside him.
Instead, he stood alone on a path made of old bones and skeletal remains compacted into a road stretching endlessly into a dark fog. Crimson mist coiled between the bones like blood turned to vapor.
Kranos gritted his teeth. The first trial had tested his endurance, his pain tolerance. It had pushed his spirit to its limits. But now, this... this was something different.
From the fog ahead, soft whispers reached his ears. Not loud enough to decipher, but heavy enough that they felt like weight on his soul.
