They met in the dusklit basin where ruined amphitheaters sloped beneath fractured sky panels—Training Hall Theta, nicknamed The Vaultmouth.
Wind spiraled with grainy warmth. The spire above flickered with frequency scaffolds, barely holding the structure upright. This place wasn't part of the official trial circuit.
Too unstable.
Which made it perfect for this.
Kaiden Wildfire didn't smile when he briefed them.
"First Chorus. You've been fused into a squad. But harmony can't be tested in a vacuum. It needs dissonance. Welcome your sparring cohort—Second Descent."
From the shadows, they stepped in: polished, poised, armored in matching sync.
Lucien El-Azhar, already trailing sand sigils behind each step, his smirk as sharp as the ink curled across his cheekbone.Xiaoling Qiu, hands at her sides, Qi-crystals cycling calmly across her knuckles.Helena Ruzicka, mask of civility—until she turned her eyes toward Izel.Mazin Djerbi, barefoot on cracked stone, arms folded, air around him humid and sour.
"Are we sure this is a trial," Lucien said, loud enough for Kai, "or a rehabilitation clinic?"
Jian stepped forward, but Kai stopped him with a glance. "Let it ride."
Kaiden nodded to both groups.
"Mixed-team Relay: Echo-Control Format."
"Objective: Harmonize three unstable echo-nodes with your sparring unit partner."
"No substitutions. No relics. No handlers. Just voices."
Pairs locked.
Fate spun.
Kai and Xiaoling.Sarika and Mazin.Amara and Lucien.Izel and Helena.Nandi and Jian. (Wildfire snorted when the field assigned them together.)
The simulation node activated. Three spheres rose—unstable magic orbs humming slightly out of sync with the world.
"Begin."
—
The first ten seconds?
Hell.
Sarika's field flooded early—Mazin didn't modulate the hydrosphere, causing partial resonance lashback. Her shield cracked. So did her patience.
"Do not counterwave me!" she snapped.
"Then pulse like someone born of storm, not tradition," he replied, smirking.
Amara and Lucien never spoke.
They danced in competing calligraphy, his spell layers refining hers like he'd read her family's handbook backward.
When he whispered, "Beautiful brushwork—shame your echo's unworthy," her sigils exploded midcast.
Izel froze mid-pulse.
Helena's glyph sequence realigned without her. "We'll never bridge this if your bloodline isn't calibrated."
"I never knew my calibration," Izel whispered. "Only the memory that came after."
Her sphere cracked open—not in failure, but in grief.
Helena pulled away.
—
Only Kai and Xiaoling succeeded.
Barely.
Qi met raw Hybrid surge in a controlled explosion that rang across the basin. When it cleared, they were standing, breathless—but intact.
Xiaoling muttered, "That should not have worked."
Kai exhaled fire through clenched teeth. "Nothing I do should."
—
At the end, Kaiden reviewed the data slate. Looked up.
"Three fractures. One stabilization. Two… unknowns."
"That's a pass. Barely."
Then he added, without turning,
"Next time, you'll all be paired with someone from your Order."
And looked at Izel.
But she was no longer standing.
She had stepped to the crumbling edge of the basin wall. Staring at an old glyph—the kind that bleeds when no one touches it.
She whispered a name.
Not hers.
But it wore her voice.