Eclipse Online: The Final Descent-Chapter 43: THE GATEKEEPER’S TRIAL

Kaito’s heart thudded into his chest as the gatekeeper’s voice echoed through the oppressive stillness.

The creature’s presence was suffocating, an enormous weight pressing down on him from every side. Its eyes, with that unsettling violet fire burning within them, locked onto Kaito with an unflinching focus that appeared to pierce through him.

"I am the Gatekeeper of the Abyss," the creature repeated, its voice a scrape of ancient stones, echoing from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

"None go through this gateway without suffering the consequences. You are not the first to go in search of what is beyond. But none have ever returned.".

Kaito’s fist tightened on his sword, his knuckles whitening. His arms ached and his legs trembled, muscles exhausted from the endless battle that had brought him thus far.

The scent of ozone and brimstone burned his nostrils, and the air itself was thick and unnatural, like breathing through a mist of grief.

But there was no turning back now—not after coming so far, not after hearing Nyra’s voice calling to him from the depths. Her voice had been faint, distorted, but unmistakable. That fragile thread of hope was the only thing holding him together.

"None have ever returned?" Kaito’s voice rang out, a mixture of defiance and disbelief. "Then I’ll be the first."

The Gatekeeper tilted its head, a strange, almost amused glint playing in its eye sockets.

"You are courageous, human. But courage will not save you. To go further into the Abyss, you will need to prove yourself."

"I don’t need your permission," Kaito shot back, his voice cold and steeled. "I’m not asking for permission. I’m asking for her."

The creature’s eyes slit, purple light burning brighter, throwing an unearthly glow on the serrated rims of its black glass-like armor.

The air around them seemed to grow cold, temperature dropping like the Abyss’s own cold breath.

"Then you will face the trial," it said, voice full of foreboding certainty. "Only if you survive it will you be allowed to proceed. Fail, and you will be lost forever.".

Before Kaito could respond, the world around him began to distort.

The shadows, once still and silent, now writhed and contorted like serpents. They reached out and attacked him, coiling around his legs, arms, neck—cold, suffocating fingers pulling him down.

His muscles tensed. He tried swinging his sword, but it cut through the shadows like through mist. The ground beneath his feet vanished, crumbling into nothingness.

And then he was falling—plummeting into an endless void. The silence screamed in his ears.

The wind howled about him, yet there was no air. His stomach flipped, and it was as if the very fabric of his soul was being ripped asunder.

Just as suddenly, everything stopped.

Kaito pitched forward, slamming his knees. His hands rasped over rough, fractured stone. He gazed up, gasping, and the world had changed.

The suffocating black emptiness of the Abyss was no more. Instead, he was standing now in a seemingly endless desolate wasteland.

The sky overhead was a sickly green, boiling with storm clouds that writhed with lightning like strands of naked power.

The wind howled through broken canyons and rent mountain peaks, carrying the stench of decay and old blood. The earth was cracked and blackened, dead, like a dead god’s graveyard.

"You stand in the middle of the Abyss now, human," the Gatekeeper’s voice boomed from the skies, from the ground, from within his own mind. "Here, in this realm of shattered dreams, you will face the first trial: the Trial of Your Past.".

Kaito’s chest tightened. He breathed more quickly.

What did it imply? He would be forced to relive his memories that he had buried for so long, wouldn’t he? Was this facility going to convert his pain into weapons?

A low growl rocked the earth under his feet. He turned in time to see the earth rend itself, a jagged tear ripping through the stone.

From the darkness within spiralled a shape—a shadow, dark and formless, writhing and twisting like living smoke. Its shape flowed constantly, never the same for more than a heartbeat. Limbs formed and dissolved. Faces coalesced in the smoke and shrieked silently before melting away.

It had no fixed shape, no constant size. And yet it was very definitely alive.

Its eyes—two glowing embers—fastened onto Kaito. No hunger, no malice. Only judgment.

"You will face your regrets," the Gatekeeper said in a flat tone. "Face the darkness within your own heart, Kaito. Only then will you be worthy of passing on."

The shadow sprang into action.

Kaito’s instincts took over. He sidestepped, rolling across the coarse soil even as claws of pure darkness ripped through the air where he had been. They did not slash the ground, but the air itself bubbled and hissed in their trajectory.

He swung his sword at the creature’s torso—if it had one—but the sword passed through with little resistance. The shadow shrieked, a scraping sound that grated on his skull.

The creature attacked in a flurry. Kaito parried, dodged, weaved—just barely. Every hit drained him. Every movement chipped away at his strength.

And then, as if spurred by the shadow’s attack, memories surged.

The dojo.

His sister laughing as they wrestled in the garden under cherry blossoms.

The brightness of her smile. The pride in her eyes when he’d won his first tournament. The soft humming of her lullabies when their parents fought behind closed doors.

And then—Nyra screaming, pulled into the dark. The Abyss taking her completely.

His arms too slow. His reach too short.

The moment everything had shattered.

"I should have saved her."

The notion rang through him like a bell. He stumbled as though he’d been struck, and the shadow pressed the attack. Its claws tore through the air, shrieking across his sword in a shower of sparks.

"Do you see it now?" whispered the Gatekeeper. "You wear your regrets like chains. You are bound by your failures, by your fear.".

"I don’t have time for this!" Kaito growled, trying to shake the memories off, but they clung like tar.

Every time he blinked, he saw her face.

Every time he moved, he felt the tug of the chains the Gatekeeper had spoken of—not physical, yet no less binding.

And yet... the more he fought, the clearer something was.

The shadow didn’t just mimic his movements. It anticipated them. It knew him. It wasn’t a monster. It was him.

A twisted mirror image of the pain he endured.

He tripped again—this time intentionally—and the shadow hesitated.

Kaito’s eyes narrowed.

With a wild, abrupt bellow, he leapt forward. His sword sang as it bit into the heart of the shadow. At the point of impact, there was a searing flash of white light, and the creature shrieked, pulling back in pain.

"You are strong, human," the Gatekeeper said. "But strength will not save you. You must accept your past. Only then can you move forward.".

"I don’t have to accept it," Kaito spat through gritted teeth, sweat running down his face. "I have to learn from it."

The form of the shadow started to take shape once more, to become more solid.

He saw himself—his face, his eyes, his blood-stained hands. All the people he had murdered in the Abyss. All the lines he had crossed.

He remembered the choice he made to become the Eclipse Reaver.

The sacrifices.

The destruction.

"Learning," the Gatekeeper rumbled, "is the first step. But understanding... that is the path to strength."

Kaito gritted his teeth. "Then I’ll walk it. Even if it kills me."

With that, he struck again. No longer were his actions wild—they were deliberate. Each strike was for a memory, a wound in the body of the shadow that corresponded to the scars in his heart.

The day he lost his sister. The friends he had abandoned. The mercy he had denied.

He took them. One by one.

Not to linger in guilt—but to rise above it.

The shadow screamed again, louder this time. Its form began to unravel, tearing into black streamers that whipped through the air and then dissipated.

Kaito straightened, his chest heaving, as the rest of it dissolved into vapor.

There was silence.

Then the desolation around him began to transform. The skies grew lighter, the storm clouds rending to reveal slivers of a pale, starless sky. The cracks in the earth glowed weakly, as if something beneath was slowly stirring to life.

"You have passed the first trial," said the Gatekeeper, its voice softer now. "You have not overcome your past, Kaito. But you have faced it.

Kaito let his sword fall, his body trembling. "What’s next?"

The wind whispered.

"In the room that lies ahead," the Gatekeeper replied, "you will face the Trial of the Present. And there, you will not be tested for what you used to be... but for what you’ve become." frёeωebɳovel.com

A path of light stretched before him, cut from glowing runes in the darkened stone.

Kaito sheathed his sword. The ache in his legs and arms remained. The shame in his heart had not left. But the weight on his shoulders now felt lighter.

He breathed. And took a step forward.