Witchbound: My Power Grows With Every Trial

Ren drew a slow breath, trying to readjust himself as the last traces of the vision dissolved behind his thoughts. He rubbed his eyes and temples in an attempt to get rid of the pressure, but it stubbornly persisted, as if making sure his mind stayed on the importance of what he had just seen.

The bandage was still wrapped around his left arm, but soon began to unwind on its own. As it did, it lifted into the air and small flames covered its surface, eating away at it, bit by bit, until nothing of it remained but ashes that fell on Ren's palm like snow.

Ren's gaze was fixed on it, but his thoughts were somewhere else.

Takuma.

It was clear now. The bandaged stranger was Takuma, no doubt about it. They had the same aura, the same presence. Even the blade was easily recognizable now. Only, in the vision, Takuma had looked whole. Here in Naraku, or better yet, now, in the current version of Naraku, he was nothing but layers of bandages wrapped over burned flesh. Whatever happened between then and now had turned him into something unrecognizable.

Kagami moved beside Ren, analyzing the remains of the cloth in his palm.

"This might be more serious than I thought..."

Ren let out a subtle laugh.

"Really? I've been in the 'serious' phase since we entered this place."

She didn't answer him or even glance at him, for that matter. Instead, her focus suddenly went into something else so quickly that it made Ren jolt as he wasn't expecting such an abrupt reaction.

"Ren... if the Sanctum above isn't too altered, you have one trial left before the final rite."

Her words worried him, but what unsettled him more was knowing how much of this place was now foreign even to Kagami. He knew little about her history here, yet it was clear that parts of it still managed to catch her off guard. Anything could happen in this place, and that was the only conclusion he trusted.

"And Shiori? Wasn't she part of the trials, too?" he asked her directly.

Kagami paused for a while, looking for her words.

"In a way, I think she was, yes. Fusing her into Naraku was Reiji's idea for sure. He always had this firm belief that we witches were weapons and needed to be wielded properly to become efficient. Shiori was a weapon to him, just as I was in my time. And he made her into one of the trials because it was the logical approach. A trial is a filter of sorts. A shield, if you will."

"A shield?"

"He's there, on the last level, cowering under the might of a witch he captured. It's pathetic, really," she replied with her expression darkening.

Ren exhaled, taking in the weight of that.

"I think the logical thing for us now is to find Takuma. Step one is getting out of here, though," he then said.

"We do that in the morning," Kagami replied. "You need your rest, and I need to think."

Kagami was right. Even here at the Respite, a place meant for rest, Naraku and, by extension, Reiji, refused to grant them any of it. If she was correct that the last of the trials waited just ahead, then rest was the one thing he knew he could do.

Or so he thought.

Because as the night went on, Ren's thoughts turned against each other, figuring out scenarios and attempting to break through questions that still weighed him down. It was a long night indeed.

----

When Ren woke, the warm glow of the paper lanterns was gone. They stood as plain objects now, devoid of the magical flames he had seen the previous night. Perhaps it was the Respite's way of telling them it had done all it could, and the moment of rest was over.

They left its sanctuary soon after.

The underground level's fake sky stretched overhead with a color of blue that was too uniform. Even the clouds were fixed in place, and no matter how much time passed, they never moved with the wind in any direction.

They passed the atrium area again, and much to Ren's surprise, all the remains, the ruins, and the destruction were gone. The structure was just as intact as when Ren first encountered it. He stared at it for a long while before Kagami finally decided to explain, before he even had a chance to ask.

"This is how the Sanctum works its trials. Once a trial ends, it will reset back to its original state. And to you, the Pact Bearer who has crossed it, it will only be just another part of the environment. It will not speak to you again."

"Right... Let's move out then..." he said with a low tone in his voice, as he still remembered vividly everything that had taken place there one day prior.

He tried to stay ahead of their path as they moved, aiming to find the tunnels they had arrived from. But after a while of walking in circles, Ren began to notice something was off. The surroundings were changing every once in a while. Not by much, but enough for him to see. A path he swore had been on their left was now in front of them.

Kagami gazed at the fake sky as her eyes flared golden for a moment before she turned and touched with her paw the tree standing right next to her.

"It's an Illusion Lock. You even saw it before I did, that's impressive," she said, slightly smiling at him.

Ren stepped onto a raised stone platform, hoping the height would give him a clear view of the stairs pathway they had previously used to enter the atrium. They should have been visible from there, he thought, as they would have been too large and distinct to be hidden by any illusion this place might try to pull. Besides, he had seen them just before the Respite.

"It's constantly changing, not unlike the maze we've been through during Shiori's trial," Kagami added. "She was creating it through the trial's energy, so it makes sense that this place still preserves that same law. The door out is here somewhere, but it's well hidden... or it moves every time we get close to it."

Ren jumped down from the stone platform and then rested his hands on his hips, visibly frustrated.

"So what now? Do we just stand here until the exit just decides to reveal itself?" he asked in a rhetorical and somewhat irritated tone, even though he did realize deep down that the joke was actually on him.

"That would be counterproductive. But there is another way you're not considering."

Ren looked at her, asking without words.

"You're attempting to find your way through something that has already been laid out," she added, after which she made a pause to let him assimilate it. "Try reshaping it."

"Reshaping…?"

"Use the Pact you have with me. Look at the surroundings... not with the eyes you're used to watch mundane things with, but with the ones that can see through the fabric of magic."

Ren tilted his head slightly, letting her words sink in. He took a step forward and a deep breath in. He closed his eyes. Minutes passed in silence during which Kagami didn't interrupt at all and was determined not to either, regardless of how long Ren chose to remain like that.

He focused on his own heartbeat and the pattern it created. As he listened to it, that pattern rippled across his body until it disappeared in its extremities. Another wave followed, more powerful this time. And then another. When the waves became so powerful that he needed to steady himself better onto the ground to keep his balance, he opened his eyes. He saw everything around him covered in glowing glyphs and markings much similar to those he had seen spread throughout the city on his first day, when he sealed his Pact with Kagami.

"That's it," Kagami almost whispered. "But don't lose focus."

Ren crouched, pressing his palm lightly against the ground. His Glyph Sense worked in pulses, like a sonar of sorts, triggering new waves every few seconds, which returned to him soon after. He followed it without overthinking, tracing the vibration in the air, until his hand settled over a spot that seemed to vibrate differently from the rest.

"It feels like it's burning," he said.

"Good," Kagami replied. "Now claim it."

Ren inhaled slowly once again, trying to keep his hand steady over the patch of ground. He pictured his Kindling Glyph in his mind, but this time, instead of filling it with flame, he bent it, drawing in the air lines in a much different pattern. The shape resisted him at first, trembling as though it was about to snap if Ren lost focus for even one instant. But in the end, he steadied the Pact's energy, and the symbol grew stronger as he drew it.

A thin crack opened in the air, branching out slowly. Shards peeled away like glass from it until Ren could finally see a familiar scene on the other side of it. It was the garden level, the same one they had found Shiori in.

His arms trembled under the strain in an attempt to keep the spell together.

"I think it's working," he mumbled through clenched teeth.