Kael stood at the edge of the Emberfall Crucible.
This wasn't the courtyard or the Spiral Gate. This was different. Older. Deeper.
A domed arena built directly over a natural Core fracture—where raw resonance bled into the air like mist. It clung to the walls, shimmered in the torches, and hummed underfoot. It was as if the world itself was whispering.
"You ready?" Sarai asked beside him, tightening the band around her wrist. It pulsed with soft crimson—her focus limiter.
"No," Kael said honestly.
She smiled faintly. "Good. Fear means your instincts are listening."
Above them, in a crow's nest of stone and sigils, Ysel raised her hand.
"This test has no timer. No score. No end," she called. "You survive it, or you don't. Begin."
A chime rang out.
The Crucible lit up.
The world shifted.
Stone walls peeled away to reveal fractured platforms suspended in space—half-illusions powered by projection glyphs. Between them, lava simmered, wind screamed, and shadowy constructs formed—shaped from raw resonance.
The test had begun.
Kael felt the Core stir immediately. The environment pulled at him—his energy reacting to the unstable magic all around. If he didn't control it, he'd burn through everything in seconds.
"Don't rely on your shaping too soon," Sarai shouted as she dashed ahead, leaping across a narrow platform toward one of the figures forming from smoke. "Let your body do the work first!"
Kael followed. The first construct lunged—a beast of black ember, eyes glowing blue-white.
He ducked, rolled, and slashed upward with a half-formed blade of heat.
The strike passed through it.
No effect.
Wrong shape. Wrong intent.
He pivoted, calling up a shield just in time to absorb a second strike. The feedback flared up his arm, but he stayed standing.
"Match its frequency!" Sarai yelled, slicing her own blade through another creature, which shattered in a burst of white fire. "They're built from resonant mimicry—they respond only to keyed intent!"
Kael gritted his teeth. He focused—not on fire, or energy, or force—but clarity.
He visualized the beast's shape. Its rhythm. He let his Core align with its hum—then sharpened his will into a spike of piercing intent.
His next strike landed.
The construct exploded.
Two more emerged from the air.
Then four.
Then six.
Kael's breath grew ragged. His shaping faltered. He formed a barrier, but it was shallow—barely catching the next barrage of claws and flame.
Sarai leapt to cover him. "Don't lose pace! You have to move!"
But the pressure was building.
Kael's Core was boiling now. Not just reacting—but surging. Wanting out. Every second he suppressed it, it pushed harder.
Then one of the constructs hit him square in the chest.
He flew back—slammed into a jagged stone pillar.
Pain exploded across his ribs. The shield cracked. He felt blood in his mouth.
I'm done.
No.
No, he wasn't.
Because something inside him shifted.
It wasn't rage. Not panic either.
It was precision.
He stood.
And then he stopped thinking.
Kael let go of the shape he'd been forcing. Let the Core guide the shaping instead of fighting it.
Light flared around him—not flame, not blade.
Chains.
Seven radiant links coiled out from his chest, spiraling with rune-light. They latched onto the nearest construct, bound it, compressed it—
—and ripped it apart.
The others paused.
Even Sarai did.
Kael breathed once, deep and clear.
The Core wasn't just power. It was a language. And this was the first time he'd spoken in full sentences.
The Crucible shut down minutes later.
The arena returned to stone.
Sarai approached slowly, eyes scanning him like she didn't quite recognize him. "That technique… wasn't taught here."
Kael's voice was hoarse. "I didn't mean to do it."
Ysel descended from the observation platform. "You shaped Chains of Intent. That's pre-Sundering. Old Corework."
"I didn't know what I was doing," Kael admitted.
"No," Ysel said. "You didn't. Which is exactly why it worked."
She crouched beside him, narrowed her eyes.
"That shaping wasn't yours. Not fully. You drew from something ancient—deep."
Kael's Core still pulsed gently, echoing with strange whispers only he could hear.
"You'll rest now," Ysel said. "Because what you unlocked today… the Cartel would kill entire cities to steal."