The moment Elias stepped forward, the white void tightened around him—not like a room,not like a memory,but like a boundary resisting being crossed.
The pressure hit him first.
No wind.No sound.Just force.
It folded against his skin and bones like a second body pushing back.
He kept walking.
Each step felt heavier, as if the void itself wanted him on his knees.
A low hum rose behind his ears.Steady.Cold.Almost… rhythmic.
He recognized it.
His pulse.Amplified.Echoing through a place that should not have had echoes.
Then another sound emerged—a softer heartbeat, slower, deeper—not his.
It approached.
The white haze rippled.
A shape formed.
Not the golden-eyed creature.Something else.
Its outline was humanoid—but stretched, distorted, as though carved from light that refused to settle.
As it came closer, Elias realized:
It moved exactly like him.
Not mirroring.Not copying.
Matching.
Speed.Pace.Breath.
It stopped a few steps away.
The white fog bent around it.
Elias felt the temperature drop.
His voice echoed strangely when he spoke.
"What are you?"
The being tilted its head—his head—slightly.
Its voice layered over itself, quiet and sharp at the same time:
"I am your threshold."
Elias exhaled slowly.
"And if I refuse you?"
The figure stepped closer.
"Then your body collapses in the waking world.Your mind dissolves here."
No threat.No emotion.
Just fact.
Elias squared his shoulders.
"What do you want?"
The figure's eyes—featureless white voids—brightened slightly.
"You."
Elias clenched his fist.
"Be specific."
Another step.
Close enough that Elias could sense the weight behind the gaze.
"You carry power meant to awaken slowly," it said."You were not meant to be touched.Not yet."
Elias' pulse sharpened.
"You mean the creature."
"Yes."
The white fog cracked at the word—like a thin layer of glass stressed by heat.
Its voice deepened.
"It accelerated you.It opened a door you were not prepared to see."
"And now?"
"Now you must choose how far you open it."
Elias stared at the figure.
"And if I open it all the way?"
"Then you become something else."
"And if I don't?"
"Then you die."
The void trembled around them—a muted rumble, like distant thunder wrapped in cotton.
Elias took one more step forward.
"I don't bow to threats."
The figure didn't move.
"You're not being threatened," it said."You're being given truth."
A pulse of pain shot through Elias' skull—sharp enough that he staggered.
The figure raised its hand.
White tendrils shot outward and wrapped around Elias' wrist.Not solid.Not liquid.
Something between.
"Let go," Elias snarled.
"I can't," the figure whispered.
And then Elias saw it:
The tendrils weren't pulling him.
He was pulling them.
His own body reacted to it—wanting it,reaching for it,recognizing it.
The figure tilted his head.
"You are already opening."
Elias gritted his teeth.
"Then I'll control it."
"You can't."
The figure's hand touched his sternum.
Cold flooded into him—a burst of clarity mixed with raw strength and something dangerously close to hunger.
"No threshold opens cleanly," it murmured."Something always breaks."
Elias pushed back—physically pushing the figure away with every ounce of force he had in the void.
For the first time, the figure staggered.
Elias breathed hard.
"I don't care what breaks," he said quietly."I'm not dying here."
The figure stood still for a moment.Then nodded.
"You won't die."
It lifted its hand again.
"But you will change."
White light surged.
A violent wave tore through the void—through Elias—through the thing that was him and not him—cracking the space open like a shell.
He fell.
Through the white.
Through himself.
Outside — Aria's Choice
Elias' body jerked on the metal floor.
Aria grabbed him immediately, forcing him flat.
"Kellan! Hold his shoulders!"
Kellan pressed his weight down without question.
Elias convulsed—once, violently—then went still.
Aria slapped his face lightly.
"Ward—Elias—breathe!"
Nothing.
Then—
A breath.
Sharp.Cold.Not like before.
Aria froze.
Jarek whimpered behind her.
"What's happening now?!"
Kellan didn't speak.He looked at Elias' eyes.
They opened.
But not fully.
Only halfway.
His gaze was unfocused—but dangerous.
Something old had entered the way he looked at them.
Aria leaned in.
"Ward?"
His eyes shifted toward her—slowly, deliberately.
"Aria," he whispered.
But his voice…
…his voice wasn't the same.
Aria felt her heartbeat stumble.
Before she could speak—
Metal screeched.
The second hunter—the one with molten eyes—was not dead.
It rose, dragging its broken body toward them, hunger twisting its limbs.
Jarek screamed.
Kellan reached for his staff—
—but someone moved faster.
Elias.
He sat up in one sharp motion, eyes locking onto the creature like a blade finding its mark.
Aria felt it immediately—
That wasn't the Elias she had known.Not entirely.
Something inside him had gone quiet.
Too quiet.
The creature lunged.
Elias didn't flinch.
He whispered a single word:
"Down."
The hunter collapsed mid-charge—its limbs buckling as if the world had just increased its weight tenfold.
Aria stared.
Jarek froze.
Kellan whispered to himself:
"…that wasn't strength."
He swallowed.
"That was authority."
Elias rose to his feet slowly.
Every movement precise.
Controlled.
But not human in the same way anymore.
Aria stepped forward.
"Ward… what did you do?"
Elias blinked once.
The intensity faded—barely—enough to resemble something familiar.
"I opened just enough," he said.
Aria didn't breathe.
"Enough for what?"
Elias looked into the dark corridor ahead.
His eyes, still half-awake, still trembling with something raw, focused on the moving shadows deeper in the maze.
The next threat.
The next test.
"Enough to survive," he said.
Then he stepped forward.
Toward danger.
Toward something waiting for him.
Toward the threshold that wasn't done with him yet.
Aria followed him.
Not out of trust.
Out of necessity.
Kellan supported Jarek and came last.
And deep in the fog—far behind them—two golden eyes opened again.
Watching.
Approving.
Waiting for the next break.