The scene collapsed around Elrya, dissolving like fragments of a dream.
When she opened her eyes, she stood before the shattered veil mark, and beyond it, an ancient gate creaked open as if beckoning her forward.
She stepped through.
The moment she crossed the threshold, a crimson aura surged around her, writhing like a living entity. It coiled around her body, caressing her skin, seeping into her very being. A heat unlike anything she had ever felt spread through her, sinking into her blood, muscles, nerves, even her soul.
Her body trembled as the energy tempered her, reforging her from within. The crimson aura then gathered behind her neck, just below her hairline, condensing into an intricate pattern, one she did not recognize.
As the last traces of the phenomenon faded, her breath came sharp. She snapped her eyes toward Levi, her voice edged with disbelief.
"What just happened?" she demanded.
Her fingers brushed against the mark at her nape, unease creeping through her.
"How did I pass?"She knew, with absolute certainty, that she had done nothing, nothing that should have allowed her to succeed. And yet, here she stood.
Levi glanced toward Dorian, who was lounging with his hands behind his head, watching the scene unfold with lazy amusement. At that moment, Dorian was lost in his own daydreams, imagining himself as an Order 1 Anchor, standing victorious in a grand arena, locked in combat against nobles, their cheers echoing in his ears.
Levi shook his head, exhaling a quiet sigh before turning back to Elrya. "Lady Elrya," he said, his voice calm yet firm. "The Shattered Veil has chosen its protector. You… are now an Anchor without a domain."
Elrya's brows knitted together. "How is that possible?" Levi studied her expression for a moment before explaining.
"You didn't realize it, did you? To survive this trial, you needed third-spirit sense, mindfulness, a level of awareness that allows complete control over your aura. Only when you can seamlessly manipulate it throughout your entire body can you transfer it to another person."
He paused, letting the words sink in before adding, "Which, in your case, I did for you when I awakened your aura earlier. In the trial, the Shattered Veil manipulated you. It forced you to believe that the block of ice was your only means of survival and, just as it predicted, you followed that path. But that was never the real solution. The true test was to manifest your aura outside your body to shield the two of them, wrapping them in your energy and protecting them from the cold depths of the ocean.
That was all it ever required."
"But you didn't even know about your third spirit sense in the first place," Lei continued. "So how could you have even considered that possibility? The Shattered Veil knew that you were unaware. That's why it exploited this weakness to its advantage. But you never learned how to manifest your aura externally," he said. "And yet, during the trial, you projected it surrounding both your sister and the child."
His voice carried an edge of curiosity. "So maybe we should be asking you how you did it. But instead, you're the one asking us."
"I… I…" She faltered, unsure of how to respond.
She searched for an answer but found none.
After a moment, she murmured, "I just wanted to protect them… That's all."
He studied her for a long moment before nodding. "Maybe the Shattered Veil recognized that, Maybe, seeing your true will to protect them, your instinct to shield others instead of thinking of yourself, it granted you the ability to manifest your aura outside your body."
He exhaled. "That's the only possibility." Then, after a pause, he asked, "Did a mark appear on your body, an old hammer engulfed in pain?"
She instinctively reached behind her neck, fingers brushing against something beneath her red hair. A strange, foreign presence tingled under her touch. "Yes," she whispered. "Something did appear…"
Levi's expression shifted, his lips curling slightly. "Then congratulations, Lady Elrya," he said. "You have become the Protector of the Shattered Veil, the Anchor of the Pain Domain in the Dream Realm."
She shook her head, her thoughts spiraling."Why me?" she muttered. "What does it want from me?"
Her instincts took over, analyzing the situation with razor-sharp precision. Was this a threat? Was it something that could endanger her sister? Could it jeopardize their survival?
It wasn't that she lacked the ability to grasp the meaning behind Levi's words. She understood. But understanding didn't mean acceptance. She had spent her entire life expecting nothing from the world, from anyone.She had learned that hope was a cruel thing that wanting something too much only led to disappointment.
And yet, out of nowhere, she had become something far beyond what she ever dared dream, an Archon. It was absurd. It was terrifying. She had once longed to become an Echo, believing it was the peak she could ever reach. But this… this was a thousand times greater. Now, without warning, it had become a part of her. As if fate had twisted back on itself.
It was human nature to doubt the impossible, to question when the very thing one had once craved suddenly appeared, unearned, as if the universe were playing a cruel joke. She was naive, she didn't yet understand the price she had paid to be chosen by the Shattered Veil. Not just anyone could endure what she had.
The Veil had not chosen her out of kindness. It had chosen her because of the suffering she had endured, the pain that had shaped her. She had lost the roof over her head, despite knowing she had a home, had felt the gnawing ache of hunger, forced to pick through discarded scraps just to survive.
She had lived with the anxiety of her book never being sold, clinging to a hope that never bore fruit. She had endured the lecherous gazes of beasts wearing human faces, the silent humiliations she could never voice out of shame.
And all because she was born into a world where power and authority were the only truths. Where nothing else mattered. Her fingers curled into fists, nails biting into her palms. "All I ever wanted," she whispered, voice trembling with emotion, "was for me and my sister to grow up in peace. But in this cruel society… if I exist, how many more must there be?" Her teeth clenched, a bitter taste rising in her throat as her thoughts drifted to them, the couple who had been the greatest architects of her suffering.
Every human carried a story, a tale of pain, loss, and struggle. No matter the world they were born into, suffering was inevitable. Some took that pain and turned it into fuel, feeding the flames of their ambition, driving them toward something greater. Others reached heights so high that they forgot they had ever suffered, numbed by their own success.
And then there were those who merely existed, moving through life in endless, meaningless circles. Creatures of habit, untouched by ambition, seeking comfort at every turn. Puppets who never let themselves burn, never let the flames of their pain forge them into something more.
He thought about Anderson and shook his head. "This boy… he still doesn't understand the world he's about to become a part of." He respected Anderson, not for who he was now, but for the man he would become in the future. But even so, he knew the dangers of unearned power.
"If I let him become an Echo now, he won't grasp the true weight of it. He won't recognize the opportunity placed before him, one he never even paid the price for."
He understood something most people ignored: wealth, power, and status meant nothing if they came too easily. Give a man a thousand Solari as a gift, and he would squander it in days. But the coin earned through sweat, struggle, and sacrifice that was the kind that lasted. That was the kind that shaped a person.