The final week was here.
The three weeks that Bayu had given me were now down to seven days. I counted them every morning when I woke up every night before I went to sleep. There was not time left. Bayu did not seem to care. The training did not stop. It did not slow down. Instead, it got even tougher.
That day Bayu took me to a place I had never seen before. At the end of the training building, behind an iron door that was always locked, there was a room that was different from the others. The walls of this room were not made of stone or dark wood. They were made of metal. It was cold and shiny like the inside of a submarine.
"This is your test," Bayu said. His voice echoed in the room. "It is not to see how strong you are. It is not to see how long you can keep going… To see if you can survive in a place with no light, no air and nothing. You and something else waiting for you."
He pressed a button on the wall. The iron door behind me closed. The room went dark.
"Feel the pressure," Bayu said from the darkness. "It is like being at the bottom of the sea. Feel it."
I felt it. It was not like water pressure. It was like something was pushing me from all sides. It was like my lungs wanted to collapse. It was like my bones wanted to break.
"It is cold," Bayu's voice said again. "It is as cold as the Mariana Trench. Feel it."
The cold hit me all at once. It was like being dropped into ice water. I shivered. My teeth chattered. I did not fall down.
"It is dark," he said. "It is darker than you have ever seen. It is so dark that you cannot see anything. It is so dark that you do not know which way is up and which way is down."
I opened my eyes. I could not see anything. It was pitch black. It was like my eyes were closed even though they were wide open. I did not know where the floor was. I did not know where the ceiling was. I did not know which way was up.
"Now survive," Bayu's voice said. It was away. It was like he was talking to me from the end of a tunnel.
---
I do not know how long I stood there.
Maybe it was minutes. Maybe it was hours. Time felt different in a place with no light. My heartbeat was loud in my head. My breath went in and out in and out. It was never enough.
Then I felt something in the darkness.
It was not light. It was not movement. It was like someone was standing in front of me watching me.
"You are getting close," a voice said.
It was not Bayu's voice. It was not the Ember Core's voice. It was a voice. It was a voice. It was like something that had been around for a time. It was like something that was getting impatient.
"That door has been waiting for you," the voice said. "It waited for your grandfather too."
I tried to see. I tried to feel my way through the darkness. I could not see anything. I knew someone was there though. I could feel it. It was like a cold that did not come from the temperature. It was like a pressure that did not come from the water.
"Who are you?" I asked.
There was no answer. The presence disappeared. It was like it had never been there.
Then the darkness started to go away.
---
I opened my eyes. I did not remember closing them.
I was kneeling on the cold metal floor. My shirt was wet with sweat. Maybe it was water. I did not know. My hands were shaking. The Ouroboros scar on my hand was pulsing hard. It was like it had just been used.
Bayu was standing in front of me. His face was pale. His yellow eyes were dim. They were almost gone.
"You saw it," he said. It was not a question.
I nodded. I could not speak. My mouth was too dry.
Bayu knelt down in front of me. His eyes looked at me with something I had never seen before. It was not a concern. It was not fear.
It was recognition.
"What was it?" I asked finally. My voice was hoarse.
Bayu did not answer. He stood up. He walked to the metal wall. Leaned against it. His hands, which were always strong, were now hanging at his sides. He looked tired.
"That is what is waiting for you there," he said. "It is what your grandfather tried to run from for twenty years."
"What did he run from?" I asked.
Bayu looked at me. His dim eyes started to glow. It was not bright. It was just enough.
"He ran from himself," Bayu said. ". What he saw in the mirror after he came back from the Mariana Trench."
He walked to the door. Opened it. The light from outside was blinding after being in the dark for long.
"Tomorrow you have your training," he said. "The day you leave." He stopped at the door. "Rest. You will need all your energy."
Then he left me. He left me kneeling on the cold metal floor.
---
I found Lina in the garden.
The sun was almost setting. The sky was orange and red like it was on fire. She was sitting under the tree, the same tree, with a book in her lap. She was not reading.
I sat down beside her. I did not say anything. She did not say anything either.
Her warm hand reached for my hand. She did not ask me anything. She just held my hand.
"I saw something in the simulation today," I said finally.
She turned to me. Her eyes were dark brown and warm. They were not glowing. I saw something in them. I saw resolve.
"What was it?" she asked.
"A figure," I said. "In the darkness. It spoke to me. It talked about the door. It talked about my grandfather."
Lina held my hand tighter.
"Are you scared?" she asked.
I looked at the sky. It was orange and red, like colours that were not ordinary. It was like something was ending. Something was beginning.
"I do not know," I said honestly. "I am too tired to be scared."
Lina did not say anything. She just sat beside me, holding my hand, watching the sun set.