Chapter 329: The Final Test (Part 1)

Bahamut’s eyes ignited crimson.

Kai’s instincts screamed before he understood why. His body tensed, hand moving toward his weapon on pure reflex.

Tiamat’s expression sharpened beside him. "Be careful."

He barely had time to answer.

Bahamut opened his mouth, crimson light gathering deep within it. For one impossible instant, the entire frozen world burned red.

Then—

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A massive beam erupted.

Kai’s eyes widened. He tried to move.

There was nowhere to move to.

The beam didn’t travel toward him. It simply consumed him whole, crimson light swallowing his vision, the city, Bahamut, even Tiamat.

No explosion. No impact. No pain.

One moment he stood before the dragon. The next, there was nothing at all.

He opened his eyes into darkness. Complete darkness. No ground beneath his feet, no sky above, not even his own hands when he raised them.

He turned his head slowly. Nothing changed.

"...Where am I?"

His voice echoed out into the void and got nothing back.

He took one step. Nothing. Another. Still nothing.

He stopped. The silence pressed in wrong, unnatural. No wind. No rustle of his own clothes moving. Not even the sound of his own breath.

Tiamat?

Silence.

His jaw tightened. Tiamat.

Nothing answered. For the first time since this ordeal had started, he couldn’t even sense her presence at all.

He clenched his fist.

Then—

Thump.

He froze. A heartbeat.

Thump.

Another, coming from everywhere at once.

Thump.

Louder now.

Then pain exploded through his mind.

"—!"

He staggered, hand flying to his head, doubling forward. Not physical pain. Something deeper, something forced directly into the space behind his own eyes.

A scene bloomed in front of him. A battlefield. Hundreds of bodies scattered across churned earth, blood soaking into the soil. A warrior stood at the center, armor shattered, sword cracked, his whole body shaking with exhaustion Kai could feel as if it were his own. Fear. Grief. Pressing down like weight.

"I was too late," the warrior whispered.

The words hit Kai’s chest like a physical blow, and he nearly buckled under emotion that wasn’t his own.

The scene vanished. Another replaced it instantly. A burning city, buildings collapsing one after another, people screaming through smoke-filled streets. A man stood frozen before it all, unable to move, and Kai felt his despair, his helplessness, the unbearable weight of knowing he’d failed to protect everyone counting on him.

Gone. Another appeared.

A woman cradling someone she loved, already gone. A soldier watching his comrades fall one by one. A king alone in an empty throne room. A hunter staring at the ruins of his own family. A warrior letting his sword drop because there was nothing left to defend.

Memory after memory, each one crashing into him whole.

Kai stumbled back. "What..."

Another struck him, someone he’d never met, and yet he felt everything, their childhood, their dreams, their fear, their hope, and finally their last breath.

They died.

He gasped, spinning in the featureless dark. "What is this?"

No answer came. Another memory bloomed. Then another. Then another, coming faster now, his breath turning ragged. He tried closing his eyes. It made no difference. The images kept arriving from somewhere inside his own skull.

He felt the pain of people he’d never known. The regret of strangers. The despair of lives that had ended long before he was born.

He grabbed his head. "Stop."

Another memory.

"Stop!"

Another.

"STOP!"

Voices filled the darkness, faint at first, then louder.

"You failed."

He froze.

"You weren’t strong enough."

"You should have saved them."

"Why did you survive?"

He ground his teeth together. "You’re not real."

The voices answered immediately, in perfect unison.

"Neither are you."

His eyes widened. For a moment he couldn’t draw breath at all.

Then the memories surged again, a battlefield, a ruined city, a dying companion, a broken family, a fallen kingdom, an entire civilization dissolving into nothing. Hundreds of lives. Thousands. Maybe more than he could ever count.

He felt every one of them. Their pain. Their anger. Their fear. Their regret. Their failures.

Worst of all, he could no longer tell where one memory ended and the next began.

He dropped to one knee, fingers digging into ground he still couldn’t see.

"These—" His voice shook. "—aren’t my memories."

A voice whispered right beside his ear. "But you can feel them."

His eyes widened.

Another voice came from behind. "You can remember them."

Another, from somewhere directly ahead. "You can suffer with them."

He raised his head slowly. The darkness had begun filling with faces, hundreds of them, then thousands, every one staring straight at him. Some cried. Some burned with anger. Some screamed silently. Others simply stared, hollow and empty.

All of them carried the same single message.

"You will fail."

His breathing came heavier. He clenched his fists.

I’m Kai.

One face dissolved. Another voice screamed.

"You failed!"

I’m Kai.

Another memory tore into him, and this time it was Mythal. His Mythal, burning. Hunters lying scattered across the streets. Voices calling out his name, begging. He saw himself standing in the middle of it, unable to move, unable to reach any of them.

His eyes went wide. "No..."

The image shifted. Lily, gone. Mira, gone. Raze, gone. Elden, gone. Gabriel, gone. Every single person who had fought beside him, every one of them lost.

His breath stopped entirely.

"This is what happens when you fail," a voice whispered.

He stared at the vision, hands trembling violently.

Then he shut his eyes.

I’m Kai.

The voices climbed louder.

"You couldn’t protect them."

I’m Kai.

"You weren’t strong enough."

I’m Kai.

"Everyone you protect will eventually die."

His eyes snapped open, breath ragged, and he forced himself upright anyway.

"These aren’t my memories."

The faces stared, unmoving.

"They aren’t my failures."

The darkness shuddered violently. For one brief, fragile moment, everything vanished at once, the faces, the voices, the endless procession of grief.

Silence returned. Kai stood alone in it, chest heaving.

"...Good."

Then—

BOOOOOOM!

A wave of memory far larger than anything before crashed over him without warning, swallowing the darkness whole.

And this time, he couldn’t even find where his own thoughts ended.