The gentle breeze continued to drift through the halls of Sabharangam Castle as the morning sunlight bathed the marble floors in its warm radiance.
Although the Bridge of Rhythm had faded into streams of threadlight, its echoes still lingered within every heart that had crossed it.
Some children smiled proudly. Some quietly reflected upon the moments they had stumbled. Others looked toward the bridge one final time before it completely dissolved into countless golden strands, floating upward like tiny stars returning to the heavens.
The Kazan Trial had not yet ended.
The Headmistress stepped forward once again, the thread-lantern glowing softly in her hands. Beside her stood the Madhabucho with the Inimainashi Sisters, the Kazan Weavers, and the faculty members, all seated in the sabhrangam hall along with the students of the Mounagiri Gakuen.
The great hall slowly fell silent, filled with an eager, excited anticipation to listen to the Headmistress.
The Headmistress smiled gently and continued, "The children of Craft Section A learned how to carry. They discovered that a burden becomes lighter when hearts move together."
She paused, allowing her words to settle as the whole hall listened with intent. "But in the next trial," she said, giving a dramatic pause, "your harmony shall be tested."
A murmur spread throughout Sabharangam with whispers sounding among the students. The tension was almost palpable. The Peak and Forge students, though, looked on with a certain calmness, looking forward to seeing a trial that gave them nostalgic vibes.
The Madhabucho stepped beside her. His calm eyes travelled across every child gathered before him and the whole hall. "A thread woven in peace is beautiful," he said. "But a thread that remains woven during hardship is a thread worthy of the Forge."
The Forge Section B students slowly descended from the eastern gallery. They were only slightly older than the Craft Section A students, yet there was something different about them. Their movements carried confidence rather than excitement. Their expressions held calm instead of nervousness. Their threads shimmered steadily, neither restless nor proud.High above in the gallery, Tamara, Kodo, and Tom watched them quietly.
"The Forge section, huh? Hopefully the craft section A threads remain strong," Kodo murmured.
Tamara said, "Not only should they be stronger, but also learn that every bond is tested."
Tom folded his arms thoughtfully. "So, Forge isn't about making stronger threads."
Tamara smiled. "No, it's about making the bonds even stronger."
A warm silence followed across the whole sabharangam as the Forge Section B students made their way and lined up in order along with their Inimainashi sisters.
The Headmistress raised her lantern once more.
"The students who completed the Bridge of Rhythm shall now undertake the Forge Advancement Trial."
Soft gasps escaped from many of the younger children of Craft Section A. The massive doors behind the podium slowly opened once again.
The Headmistress said with a firm, gentle voice, "I request the Inimainashi sisters to lead the Forge Section B students and the Craft Section A trial-passed students into the chamber."
Unlike the previous arenas, this chamber was simple but enormous. It was just shades of white all over the chamber, with nothing fancy designed over the walls. There were no bridges, puzzles, or floating sculptures. At its center burned a single golden flame that neither flickered nor swayed despite the breeze flowing through the chamber.
Sister Riva stepped forward. "This is the Forge Flame. It does not burn flesh. It tempers threads."
She looked gently toward the Craft Section A students. "You will each be paired with one student from Forge Section B. This is not a battle. It is not a contest. It is a lesson."
The students exchanged puzzled glances, wondering what that meant. Given that this was an active trial, the sister calling it a lesson caught them completely off guard. Anxious and nervous, they began to radiate frantic blue threads all around the arena.
Sister Riva continued with a gentle voice, slowly emanating her green mossy threads. "The Forge student will not oppose you nor support you. They will challenge your understanding."
The golden flame pulsed softly.
"A bond survives only when two people's threads remain forged despite certain disturbances."
Suddenly, a silver thread clock appeared on the far right corner of the arena.
"Each candidate of Craft A passed student will be given a certain period of time, at least 20 minutes, to complete this trial and also should maintain the forge flame in the golden glow with their threads for at least 5 minutes to pass the trial."
Some of the Craft Section A passed trial students began to shake nervously, their threads emanating violent blue waves all around.
Some students felt the thrill and excitement, looking toward conquering the forge flame in the palm of their hands.
Dan, one of the thrilled students, exclaimed with glee, "Ha, the Forge flame is mine to conquer. Those flames can't squish my threads; maybe they can squish the nervous friends of mine, though, hahaha!" His threads of excitement and glee with boastfulness emanated orange-red threads, and that red tinge lit a sense of fire in the nervous students.
The violent blue threads stormed with a maroon storm as they cried back in unison, "As if they can keep dreaming, Dan!" as they all steadied themselves.
The chamber became completely silent.
Above the arena, even the Peak Section students watched with curiosity.
The Kazan Weavers quietly stepped forward, carrying a silver Resonance Loom. Golden strips of woven thread floated gracefully within it. Each strip carried two names—one from Craft Section A, and one from Forge Section B.
The loom shimmered gently before releasing its first pairing.
Reth.Aran.
The two boys stepped into the circular arena. They bowed respectfully to one another. The Forge Flame glowed brighter as golden threads slowly connected the two of them.
"Begin," Sister Riva said gently.
The threads emanated from Reth and the threads from Aran as they slowly moved towards the Forge Flame at the center.
At first, Reth instinctively tried to synchronize with Aran, but Aran suddenly changed his rhythm. His threads slowed, then quickened, then drifted sideways.
This frequent rhythm change made Reth's threads frown."What are you doing? I can't match you like this."
Aran remained calm. "I know."Their threads trembled. Reth attempted to force the rhythm back into place, but the connection immediately became unstable. The Forge Flame dimmed.
The timer kept running fast, displaying 10 minutes remaining.A quiet gasp spread through the arena.
Aran looked at him gently. "Why must I become your rhythm?"
The question caught Reth completely off guard. He fell silent. For a long moment, he remembered Ena. He remembered Luma. He remembered the grueling path of the Bridge of Rhythm.
Slowly, his shoulders relaxed. Instead of forcing Aran's rhythm to become his own, he steadied his threads. He slowly drifted his threads and tried to listen to Aran's threads.
Little by little, their different rhythms began flowing beside one another.
The clock ticked along, showing 7 minutes remaining now.The threads' connection was not identical or perfectly synchronized, but something connected.
The Forge Flame suddenly blossomed with radiant golden light.
"Yes, I made it now; I just need to maintain it," Reth thought to himself as he looked at the clock and saw it read 5 minutes.
A soft murmur filled Sabharangam.But Aran now slightly changed his thread rhythm, making it a bit more violent this time. Reth, however, had Aran's rhythm all worked out as his threads perfectly synchronized now.
The clock ticked to 0, and the forge flame burned and glowed golden yellow for the required 5 minutes.
Sister Riva smiled warmly. "The bond has been tempered."
Reth blinked. "Tempered?"
Aran nodded. "A forged bond isn't one where two people become the same. It's one where two different people choose to understand each other."
Warm applause echoed throughout the chamber.
High above, Kodo smiled faintly. "He has changed from the Bridge of Rhythm."
Tamara's golden threads shimmered quietly. "He has, hasn't he? He just needed that little guidance and his threads found their path."
The advancement trials continued. Some children adapted quickly. Some hesitated before finding confidence. Some students' threads wobbled under the intense time pressure.
Then stepped forward Jane from Craft Section A. Her threads were calm and still, yet mysterious. From Forge Section B stepped forward Chris.
His amber threads steadied and gathered in his hands.
They stepped into the arena and bowed, facing each other and Sister Riva.
Sister Riva signaled, "Begin."
Jane let her calm yet mysterious threads drift outward. They glided so gracefully that everyone watched in absolute awe. A deep sense of comfort and warmth swept through the hall, causing the whole sabharangam to smile at the profound gentleness it carried.
Tom said with a little side-eye, "Tamara, you got competition, heh?" as he let a sly smile slip.
Tamara said, "Well, my golden threads are never mine alone. Everyone possesses this light; it's more about figuring it out and manifesting it to the world."
Jane's threads were so gentle that her rhythm immediately synchronized with Chris. Rather, Chris's threads aligned like the rats behind the piper with Jane's threads.
But alas, suddenly, her gentle threads underwent a massive change. A faint crimson strand slipped between her threads. It was so incredibly subtle that almost no one noticed it.
High above the gallery, Kodo felt an immediate chill. His white threads pulsed with sudden vigor, and Tamara's threads pulsed and throbbed violently.
"Kodo."
"I saw it."
Kodo's expression hardened. The crimson thread did not attack. It lingered; it whispered directly into Jane's mind.
You were never the problem.
They simply failed to understand you.
They think you are a failure.
Jane's eyes widened. She remembered how she almost cost her team the Bridge of Rhythm.
The phantom voices of her past failures began to echo violently in her mind:
"Jane, you almost cost our team the loss."
"But guys, please listen to me—"
"No, Jane, how could you?"
"But we overcame the odds and reached the next round, didn't we?"
"Yeah, thanks to our threads carrying your pity threads; you didn't do anything."
This internal torment caused her threads to pulse and throb violently all of a sudden. Her breathing became uneven. Her threads roared with crimson, and their sheer instability violently shook the whole arena.
Deep beneath Sabharangam, the Resonance Chamber Sanctum reacted instantly. Crystal monitors flashed an aggressive crimson.
"Crimson resonance detected!" the readers shouted.
The Resonance Readers immediately began tracing the disturbance, tracking the precise origin of the dark energy.
Sister Naemi looked toward the glowing display, her eyes locking onto the data stream. "It has appeared again! This time, surely, we will trace that crimson back to its source!"
Meanwhile, Jane was completely starting to lose control of her threads.
Kodo clutched the rails of the balcony. "Oh no, she is losing herself. I am going there now."
Tamara realized Kodo wanted to act, but she remembered how he himself had lost control of his threads before.
"Wait, Kodo! Your threads can't handle a thread wave of that intensity! Your white threads at this moment, right now, can't wage war against that!"
"Then what should we do? Let her lose herself and get branded as a Varkh?!"
"No, Kodo, wait. Sister Riva is trying to do something!"
Sister Riva stepped forward into the raging storm.
She first guided Chris and the nearby onlookers to safety. Turning back to the center, she focused her spirit, her pink threads swirling upward like a blooming cherry blossom.
"Thread Hymn: Symphony of the Moss Rose!" Sister Riva commanded.
The pink and green strands shot forward, weaving into a dense, glowing dome around Jane to suppress the outbreak.
She attempted to communicate with the girl's fracturing soul. But the malicious crimson strands thrashed her defenses violently, turning into jagged, dark-red blades that shredded the melody.
Sister Riva was thrown backward, gripping her chest as a backlash of dark energy rattled her aura. "Such intensity and power! She is completely crimson-bound!"
"Let me go, Tamara! I don't care anymore! Look, Sister Riva is writhing in pain!" Kodo yelled, his eyes flashing open as a blinding, ancient light ignited within his pupils. "I can't look any longer!"Stomping his foot forward, Kodo shattered the stone footing beneath him.
"Unsealed Awakening: Origin Wave!" Kodo roared. An enormous, blinding golden shockwave erupted from his chest, ripping through the gallery and cascading into the arena like a descending sun.
The primordial Forge Flame reacted violently to his pure presence, rising fifty feet into the air as it transformed into a roaring, golden-green column of fire.
The sheer spiritual pressure forced Tamara to cross arms, sliding backward across the stone floor as her own energy cracked from the wind. The golden-green wave of the forge flame and Kodo's massive energy surge slammed directly into the crimson barrier with a deafening, thunderous boom.
Within the spiritual link, Kodo focused his mind, channeling his thoughts directly into the ancient elemental fire.
"Wait, flame! Hold back your burning wrath! First, let's cut Jane free, or the crimson binds will destroy her soul!"
Responding to his iron will, the golden light and green fire compressed into sharp, laser-like streams. They pierced straight into the heart of the tempest, bypassing the dark, thrashing thorns. Deep within the core of the corruption, they located Jane's true, mysterious threads—submerged and gasping beneath the dark red sea.
Jane was completely trapped in the hallucination of her past, but the overwhelming warmth of Kodo's presence suddenly shattered the isolation.
Through the Origin Wave, she didn't just feel energy— she felt Kodo's own hidden scars, his past failures, and his absolute refusal to leave her behind.
"I'm not... alone?" Jane whispered internally.
A spark of pure, unadulterated defiance ignited in her eyes.
"Mysterious Thread: Flowing River Awakening!" Jane cried out in the physical world.
Her eyes snapped open, glowing with a brilliant iridescent sheen. Her repressed threads burst outward like a tidal wave from the inside out, perfectly catching the crimson strands in a pincer movement while Kodo's golden wave and the Forge Flame crushed them from the exterior.
CRACK-SHATTER!A sound like a thousand mirrors breaking simultaneously echoed through the chamber.
The crimson threads snapped into thousands of pieces, dissolving into a foul, black smoke that evaporated instantly into the white ceiling. The dark corruption was gone, as a slight shriek came from the eastern gallery. Eiroh gave a little disappointed look.
The residual energy was now expanding wildly out of control, threatening to blow the roof off the chamber.
"Kazan Art: Resonance Grid Lock!"
Two elite Kazan Weavers leaped from the high podium, their silver cloaks billowing. In mid-air, they hurled four massive silver conduits into the corners of the arena. Slamming their hands onto the silver Resonance Loom, a geometric barrier of absolute containment materialized over the ring, catching and absorbing the expanding golden-green shockwave with a heavy, metallic thrum.
The air instantly cleared. The pressure vanished. Jane collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily, her iridescent threads safely pooling around her like a protective blanket of starlight. Her mind was entirely at peace.
Up in the gallery, Kodo's golden aura vanished instantly, and his white threads flickered weakly. His vision spun, his legs giving out completely.
Tamara leaped forward, catching his falling frame in her arms, while Tom stepped over them defensively.
"Kodo, hang on!" Tamara whispered urgently, fueling her own threads to stabilize his crashing core.
Tom kept his eyes locked on the arena below. "The adults are keeping the crowd contained. We need to stay low. If they see his state right now..."
Down on the main floor, the absolute silence was broken by the Headmistress. She stepped up to the podium, her gentle voice amplified to echo through every corner of the massive chamber.
"The resonance of the Forge Flame can often amplify the hidden depths of a candidate's inner heart," the Headmistress declared smoothly, calming the panicking audience.
"The trial has been secured. Jane of Craft Section A, your bond has been successfully tempered. You have passed."
An Inimainashi Decree was sounded aloud in the Sabhrangam Hall. The Decree echoed through the Mounagiri gakuen as Medical acolytes from The Shizumanam quickly rushed into the ring, gently lifting Jane and guiding her to the recovery alcoves.
Sister Riva, shaking off her exhaustion, stepped back to the center of the ring. Her mossy green threads returned to a steady hum, though she cast a long, calculating look up toward the balcony where Kodo lay hidden.
"The Advancement Trial," Sister Riva called out, raising her hand to reset the glowing silver thread clock, "will now proceed."