Inside the Tower — Trial Two: Break the Illusion
Jayden's breath echoed strangely.
He stood in a chamber entirely unlike the one before — no fire, no heat. Only endless mirrors, stretching in every direction like a boundless hall of glass.
Each reflection showed a version of him: younger, older, injured, twisted, emotionless, screaming, smiling.
The walls whispered.
"What are you without pain?"
"Who are you if you never fought back?"
"What if the legacy you carry is a lie?"
Jayden touched the fragment inside his chest. The pulsing had grown faint, as if afraid.
"Trial Two begins. Break the illusion… or lose yourself within it forever."
The Mirror That Lies
Jayden took a step forward.
Instantly, one of the mirrors shimmered — a scene appeared within it: his childhood home, perfectly intact. He saw his mother, young and full of life, standing in the kitchen. His father walked in, laughing.
He was home. Whole. Normal.
"Jay," his mother said through the mirror, "Come eat. You've been out in the streets again."
Jayden stepped back.
"No."
But a warmth filled him. For a second, he wanted to stay — to pretend that version of life was real.
He closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and drove his fist forward.
Shatter!
The mirror cracked.
The vision vanished. More whispers followed.
"Why destroy what you want most?"
"You could have had peace."
He pressed forward. Mirror after mirror, illusion after illusion: his father returning; the girl he never got to love in middle school; a life without gangs, without pain, without destiny.
Each one broke as he struck them down.
But then came the mirror that fought back.
The Dark Jayden
This mirror didn't show illusion. It showed him, in full — but cloaked in darkness, his eyes burning red, holding a sword dripping with blood.
Jayden stared at the reflection.
The reflection smiled.
And stepped out of the mirror.
"Been waiting," it said.
Jayden raised his fists.
Dark Jayden moved faster than anything so far — a blur of violence and fury. Fists clashed, kicks shattered glass, waves of corrupted chi sent ripples through the room.
"You kill to protect," Dark Jayden said between strikes, "but part of you likes it."
Jayden spun, countered, and unleashed a chi burst.
Dark Jayden absorbed it.
"Power feeds on hunger. You've tasted it now, haven't you? The rise. The fear you put in their eyes."
Jayden roared and drove his elbow into Dark Jayden's chest — but it was like striking smoke.
Dark Jayden's hand gripped his neck.
"Face it. You'll become me."
Jayden grinned through the choke.
"No… I'll become more."
He opened his palm — a single acupuncture needle infused with purified chi — and drove it into the side of Dark Jayden's neck.
BOOM.
The shadow exploded.
A Voice in the Glass
Only one mirror remained.
Jayden approached slowly.
But this one didn't reflect anything. Just light — pure, golden light that pulsed with the same rhythm as the fragments inside his chest.
"You have broken the illusion," the tower's voice echoed.
"But truth has many faces."
The mirror cracked on its own… revealing a new rune, glowing with draconic symbols — the second Dragon Mark.
Jayden reached forward.
The mark burned onto his arm, swirling with red-gold fire.
He collapsed to one knee, breathing hard.
Behind him, the door to the next floor opened.
Trial Two was complete.
Outside the Tower — Meanwhile
Isla meditated outside the tower, her palm resting on her blade.
She had kept count — it had taken Jayden nearly a full day to pass Trial Two. And the energy that surged from the top of the tower now… it was different.
He was changing.
Lian approached.
"There's movement," he said. "From the south. A woman in crimson robes. She carries a halberd and walks like the wind."
Isla stood instantly.
"I've heard of her. Mei of the Storm Crown Sect. She's an inheritor."
"Another heir?"
"Possibly. Or a challenger."
The skies rumbled again.
The tower had awoken others.
The Third Floor — A Glimpse Ahead
Jayden reached the entrance of Trial Three.
But this floor was sealed by golden chains.
A stone tablet waited at the threshold.
It read:
"To enter Trial Three, one must first learn to speak with bone. A dead language. A forgotten rite. Seek the tomb that breathes fire."
Jayden stepped back.
"The tomb…" he whispered.
He remembered the sky shattering two chapters ago. The blast. The collapse.
The tomb that had risen, just outside the city. The one the old clans were afraid to speak of.
It was no ordinary tomb.
It was alive.
Final Scene — A Warning From the Shadows
That night, as Jayden exited the tower to recover, a figure watched him from a far rooftop.
Dressed in black armor with a silver serpent mask, the figure muttered something into a small communication crystal.
"He's reached the second mark. Confirmed purity of Dragon Chi."
"Prepare the next test. We send the Reaper of Five Peaks."
The voice on the other end crackled.
"And if he survives that?"
The masked man stared as Jayden walked across the courtyard.
"Then he's truly the heir."