Episode 23 – "The Trial of the Unyielding Wind"
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Arrival at Crescent Range
The sky felt different above the Crescent Range—sharper, like a blade poised to strike. Winds howled endlessly across the jagged peaks, and the clouds churned in tight spirals as if the heavens themselves were caught in a struggle.
Zane stood at the foot of the cliffs, the Fourth Astral Fragment still resonating faintly within his chest. The memory of Evelyn lingered like mist—quiet, beautiful, and aching. But there was no time to linger. Not now.
"This is where the Fifth Fragment rests," Raelion said, unrolling an old hunter's map. "But the mountain doesn't give it freely. It demands... something more."
"Not strength?" Kaela asked.
Raelion gave her a sideways look. "Not just strength. Conviction."
Above them loomed the path to the Eye of Galeon, the summit where the Fragment slumbered. But the climb was no ordinary ascent—it was alive, wrapped in elemental magic that tore away falsehood and cowardice.
As they began the climb, wind surged so suddenly that it knocked the breath from their lungs. Not natural wind—judging wind.
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The Voice of the Mountain
Zane heard it first. A whisper in the wind, carried not by sound, but by weight.
> "The winds remember every lie you've told. Every vow broken. Every moment you almost turned back."
He stopped, breath frosting in the air. Around him, the world shimmered—and the mountain itself began to shape visions out of the clouds. Not illusions. Truths.
The wind formed a copy of Zane himself—hollow-eyed, defeated, still clutching Evelyn's butterfly knife.
"You can't protect them," the wind-Zane said. "You couldn't even save one girl. Why do you think you're worthy of saving a world?"
Kaela reached for him—but Zane raised a hand.
"No," he whispered. "Let me face it."
The wind-Zane lunged, and the real Zane drew his blade. But this wasn't a fight of steel—it was soul against shadow.
They clashed amid swirling gusts, blades ringing like bells in a storm. With every strike, the winds cried out names—people Zane had let down, from his old world and this one. Evelyn. Haru, the boy from the refugee camp. The old man from Caer Volneth whose name he never asked.
But Zane didn't back down.
"I carry them all," he growled. "Their regrets. Their hopes. Their faith."
He plunged his blade through the chest of his wind-self.
And the winds parted.
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The Trial of Kaela
Kaela's test came next.
The wind summoned her past—when she was a child, before the soulsteel fused with her spine. Her brother appeared, smiling, whole. The real him. Not the broken, withered shell left after the Soulbrand War.
"Come home, Kaela," he said gently. "Forget the fragments. We can be a family again. Just step away."
Tears burned in her eyes. The warmth of his hand felt real. Too real.
She stepped forward.
And then stopped.
"No," she whispered. "You're a memory. And I made a promise... to the girl who crawled out of the ruin of our village with nothing but a shard of iron and a rage she didn't understand."
She turned her back on the illusion.
And the wind wept—but opened the path.
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The Breathless Ascent
Hours passed. Maybe days. Time became meaningless above the clouds.
Raelion never took the trial.
When Zane asked why, he simply said, "I already failed once. The mountain never forgets."
The summit neared.
The wind turned still.
And then the air shattered—splitting like glass.
Descending from the sky came the Warden of Galeon—a creature of living wind and gleaming obsidian armor, its body shaped like a wyvern with six wings of crystalized storm.
It spoke in a voice that came from all directions:
> "Those who would claim the Fifth Fragment must face the storm within. Let your power burn, and be judged."
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The Battle on the Summit
The fight was blinding.
The Warden moved faster than sight, each wingbeat splitting the air like thunder. Zane barely blocked a talon swipe with his sword, sparks flying from the impact.
Kaela unleashed a volley of soulsteel shards that curved mid-air, but the Warden dissolved into mist—only to reappear behind her, wind blades slashing downward. She rolled aside, barely dodging death.
Raelion summoned a barrier of hexfire, but the Warden's roar shattered it with raw pressure.
They were losing—until Zane stepped forward and activated the Fragment.
Wind poured into him, not to control—but to understand.
He didn't fight the Warden.
He matched it.
Move for move, thought for thought—Zane learned the rhythm of the wind, the language of the skies.
And then, with one final upward slash, he cleaved through the storm, not in strength—but harmony.
The Warden halted.
Then knelt.
> "You have faced the wind without resistance. You have accepted who you are. Take the Fifth Fragment… and rise."
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Aftermath – The Coming Shift
The Fifth Fragment merged into Zane's soul like an old flame returning.
Suddenly, his vision warped. He saw the world from above—Arcanis, broken and vast, the other Fragments pulsing in the far distance.
And beyond that… a gathering.
The Abyss was no longer hiding.
Ten silhouettes stood in black flame, watching him from beyond the veil. Among them was a boy with eyes like galaxies—and a voice Zane somehow recognized.
> "We're coming, Reclaimer."