The air within the dungeon grew colder as Daniel pushed deeper, the lingering heat of the Ember Core fading behind him. Cracked stone passages gave way to obsidian walls veined with pale silver light—like frozen lightning trapped beneath the surface. Every breath he took misted in the air.
The deeper he walked, the more he felt it:a pull, ancient and patient, calling to him.
Not the fire of Scarlune.Not the hunger of Vorrath.Something colder. Older.A blade that watched from the edge of existence.
THE VOID STORAGE SPACE
Daniel paused as the corridor opened into a narrow chamber. The walls here were smooth, perfectly carved, and completely silent. Even his footsteps made no echo.
His heart pounded as a sudden realization struck him—this space wasn't part of the dungeon.
It wasn't built.It wasn't carved.It simply… was.
A rift shimmered before him, a thin vertical line of darkness suspended in the air. It rippled like water yet radiated no energy, no heat, no cold. Pure nothingness.
Scarlune and Vorrath vibrated on his back—not with danger, but recognition.
Daniel reached his hand forward. The void bent inward, curling like smoke, and pulled him gently. The moment his fingers touched the surface, the rift widened.
A whisper brushed his mind.
"You have earned the right to store what you cannot yet control."
Daniel felt a rush of knowledge—instinctive, wordless—flood into him:
The Void Storage Space.
A pocket dimension linked to his soul.Invisible. Intangible. Infinite in potential.A place where objects could be stored and summoned instantly with a thought.
He experimented cautiously.
One thought.One pulse of intent.
—Scarlune vanished from his hand.—Another thought. Vorrath returned to his palm.
His breath caught.
This was no ordinary spatial ring, no common mage's pocket space.This was a living void, bound to the Ten Swords themselves.
He smiled despite the cold. With this, he could summon any blade in an instant—no matter where he was, no matter the danger.
THE ICE THAT WATCHES
The rift shimmered again, then closed, leaving Daniel standing in the silent chamber—but the dungeon trembled. Frost crawled across the floor, racing toward him. The temperature plummeted.
From the far end of the chamber, a second archway appeared—this one forged of blue crystal and crackling frost.
A whisper escaped into the air:
"Blade Four… seeks its bearer."
Daniel's eyes widened.
Inside the archway, suspended in a cyclone of swirling ice and snow, hovered a longsword of pure frost. Its blade was pale blue, semi-transparent, yet brimming with lethal serenity. Snow danced around it like small spirits.
The Book of Ten Swords glowed on Daniel's chest, flipping violently until a new page revealed itself:
BLADE FOUR — GLACIEN
The Frozen Silence.The Winter That Judges All.Level Zero — Unlocked.Enter the Trial of Stillness.
Daniel stepped toward the archway—and the temperature dropped so sharply he felt his breath freeze against his teeth.
A voice boomed from within the storm:
"To claim the blade of frost, you must endure silence deeper than death."
The blizzard exploded outward.
THE TRIAL OF STILLNESS
Daniel raised Vorrath and Scarlune, but the storm instantly smothered their flames and hunger. The world turned white.Sound vanished. Even his heartbeat fell silent.
He stood alone in an endless field of snow.
No monsters.No path.No direction.Just cold.
Cold that wanted to seep into his bones and erase him.
This was the trial.
Not battle.Not strength.Not power.
Endurance.Control.Stillness.
Daniel stood firm, refusing to be swallowed. Minutes passed. Then hours—or what felt like it.
He closed his eyes, focused on the warmth of Mimi's handkerchief against his chest, the memory of Scarlune's fire, and the promise he made:
"I will return. I must grow stronger."
The storm slowed.The cold receded.And the world shattered like ice.
Daniel gasped as he fell back into the chamber, frost steaming from his skin.
The ice blade hovered before him.
He reached out—and it accepted him.
A crystalline tone rang through the dungeon as the blade dissolved into light and shot into his Void Storage Space, settling beside Scarlune and Vorrath like a third heartbeat.
A new power stirred in his veins—cold, sharp, calculating.
THE SHADOW THAT SMILES
As he caught his breath, the same unseen presence from earlier whispered through the frost:
"Three blades awakened… and yet Daniel Bellhem still knows so little of the war that awaits him."
Daniel's eyes sharpened.
He summoned all three blades in a flash—fire, darkness, and frost forming a tri-colored aura around him.
Whatever watched him…
He was ready now.