The spectral guardians surged forward—beings of energy and memory, their forms flickering between shapes human and alien.
Titan raised his blade, parrying a strike that shimmered with plasma light. Kaela flanked him, her shots phasing through one guardian before ricocheting off another's shield.
"They're not attacking to kill," Merek observed, eyes scanning a terminal buried beneath the stone. "This is a test."
Lira's voice broke through the comms. "Confirmed. These constructs are responding to patterns—matching your combat style and choices. It's a trial, designed by the ancient race."
Titan's mind raced. "Then we prove ourselves."
The battle shifted from brute strength to precision and restraint. Titan disabled his opponent without fatal force, Kaela adapted her tactics, and Merek triggered a sequence of glyphs on the terminal.
The guardians paused—then dissipated into streams of light.
In their place, a hologram appeared: an alien figure, cloaked in flowing energy.
"You who face the dark, hear this: the Void was not born. It was summoned. And it remembers who called it first."
Titan stepped forward. "Tell us how to stop it."
The hologram flickered.
"To seal the Void, you must awaken what was left behind… in the Core."