The Shinsei Market stretched endlessly in every direction, alive with quiet hums and shifting colors. When the brothers stepped through their doors, the air thickened and expanded, folding space into new forms. Each found himself alone, standing at the beginning of a path that belonged to no other.
Kevin and the Hall of Shadows
The door closed behind Kevin with a ripple of black mist. The air grew cool, almost weightless, and the light dimmed to nothing but soft gray outlines.
He moved forward cautiously, guided only by sound—the echo of his own heartbeat. Then came the whispering, faint but constant, repeating fragments of his thoughts back to him.
"You hide because you fear," the voices said. "You obey because you doubt."
He reached instinctively for his Ryuma, summoning shadow to cloak his form, but under this strange light, the darkness refused to obey. Instead, it melted away from him, gathering into shapes that mirrored his movement moments before—a dozen versions of himself, each formed of pure black.
They spoke together, every tone his own: "Can you master what you don't accept?"
Kevin steadied his breathing. His father's words returned to him—Feel before you move.
He grounded himself, drew energy inward, and let the fear come. The shadows flared brighter for a moment, then steadied. The duplicates froze, waiting. He moved deliberately, hands weaving signs through the air until his essence bent and the copies merged back into him.
The hall brightened faintly, revealing the carved door ahead. A single line traced itself into the wall above:
Shadow yields when it is owned.
Kevin walked forward. For the first time, the dark did not follow him—it moved with him.
Kris and the Forge of Stone
The room beyond Kris's door roared with vibration. He stood upon a platform suspended above an endless sea of magma. Great columns of crystal and molten rock jutted upward, shifting as if alive.
A deep voice rolled through the air, ancient and steady. "Strength is not born in the strike, but in what bears it."
He grinned. "Fine by me."
A boulder the size of a house tore from the ceiling and fell toward him. He didn't flinch—his Ryuma surged through his limbs, turning skin to stone as he caught the weight in both hands. The impact cracked the ground beneath him but didn't crush him.
More stones followed—ten, twenty, each heavier. His breath grew ragged. The voice laughed softly, echoing through the chamber.
"Endurance is not strength. Will is."
The rocks melted together, forming a single giant golem of living stone. It attacked, every blow resonating with his exhaustion. Kris braced himself, blocking, each strike forcing him to his knees.
Then he remembered Kevin's words from training: "Strength without patience is just destruction."
Kris stopped resisting. Instead of clashing head‑on, he rooted himself and let the strikes pass through, absorbing their rhythm. Slowly the golem's motion mirrored his stance, its blows weakening until it bowed its head before collapsing into dust.
The floor hardened beneath him, forming a path forward. The voice whispered:
The earth does not fight— it endures.
Dylan and the Shrine of Storms
When Dylan entered the Shrine, the air shattered with a crash of thunder. Lightning coiled endlessly through dark clouds circling the pillars around him.
He grinned despite the chaos. "Now this feels right."
Every pulse of his Ryuma synchronized with the storm around him until the barrier between his body and the lightning blurred. The energy inside him danced wild, and every heartbeat made the air hum.
A figure appeared within the storm—luminous, fluid, and made entirely of electricity. It spoke in a crackle of static: "To master speed is to become still within motion. Can you?"
Dylan darted forward, moving faster than thought. The figure matched him, every move mirrored perfectly. No matter how fast he ran, he could not outpace his reflection.
He slowed for a heartbeat and realized the truth—the figure wasn't his enemy; it was his rhythm. Trying to outrun it only made it faster.
He inhaled, held the energy instead of releasing it, and felt his own heartbeat slow until the world's motion aligned with his. The storm calmed, lightning spiraling inward like breath returning to the lungs.
Light gathered before him, shaping into a corridor of pure electricity leading outward.
True speed begins with stillness, the storm whispered as he stepped forward.
The Reunion
Moments—or years—passed before the brothers emerged again at the Market's center. Time had no order here.
The doors reopened together, and the brothers stepped out, each visibly changed. Kevin's aura flickered between darkness and soft silver, Kris's skin glimmered faintly with veins of gold running just beneath, and Dylan's movement left quiet arcs of light as if the air bent to him.
They stared at each other, realizing instinctively that something shared connected them through their separate journeys.
Then the Market itself responded. The floor rippled, and a figure descended from above—radiant and serene.
Maiko.
Her voice carried through the hall like wind across water. "You have taken your first steps toward the truth of balance. But remember—every path of strength carries a shadow, and every shadow carries light."
She raised her hand, and the symbol of five elements ignited above her head. "Now you must see what your father buried to protect you."
The world bent again. Light became shadow and shadow became sky.
Their next trial would reveal not what they could do—but where they came from.