POV: Sunny / Rias / Akeno (third-person limited, rotating)
The staircase did not lead downward.
It spiraled inward.
What appeared at first glance to be a descending path was something far more insidious — a compression of space itself. Each step didn't lower them in elevation so much as fold them deeper into the spire's design.
Sunny felt it with every breath. The pull. Like a pressure against his bones that whispered: You are not outside anymore.
Behind him, Rias kept her hand extended slightly, fingers glowing faintly with contained power. The stone around them wasn't just stone — it was aware. Carved with symbols that changed if you stared too long. Some resembled runes. Others resembled… eyes.
Akeno walked in silence, wings hidden, her expression unreadable. Occasionally, her eyes darted to the edges of the stairwell, as if catching the tail-end of movement that disappeared before it could be seen directly.
They walked.
Minutes passed.
Or maybe hours.
There were no markings. No turns. Just downward spiral after spiral, until the walls became more bone than stone. The colors dulled to grayscale. Their footsteps no longer echoed. Sound seemed to avoid this place.
And then the staircase ended.
No threshold. No warning.
Just a round chamber — flat, wide, lit from beneath with a soft amber glow. In its center sat a circular dais, etched with the same seven-loop spiral sigil they had seen above.
But this one was active.
Six rings dim.
One still glowing faint.
Sunny stepped onto the floor first.
Nothing exploded.
But the chamber watched.
The etchings on the walls reacted to their presence, shifting faintly, as though preparing for a verdict. A judgment.
Akeno knelt by the edge of the dais, eyes narrowing.
"This isn't just a seal. It's a—"
"Test," Sunny finished.
He didn't know how he knew.
But he did.
Rias stepped beside him, eyes on the spiral.
"Then what happens if we pass?"
Sunny's voice was flat.
"We go deeper."
From the far wall, a sound emerged.
Not loud. Not threatening.
Just a whisper of movement — the sound of something waking up.
Not out of sleep.
Out of patience.
Then came the voice.
It didn't echo.
It didn't shout.
It simply arrived — in their heads. In their bones.
"One enters, alone."
Akeno stiffened. "What?"
"One. Not three. The seal tests the soul, not the shield."
The glow from the spiral flared.
The chamber responded to presence.
Rias looked to Sunny.
He didn't hesitate.
He stepped forward onto the center of the sigil.
A wall of translucent black flame erupted between him and the girls — silent, immovable.
Akeno slammed her fist into it. Nothing gave.
Sunny didn't turn around.
The chamber darkened.
Then reshaped.
He was alone.
The floor beneath his feet became mirrored shadow. The walls twisted inward. His shadow bent the wrong direction.
And in front of him, a second version of himself stepped forward.
Not flesh.
Not illusion.
A mimic — built from his shadow and mistakes.
It didn't speak.
It just smiled.
And attacked.
----
POV: Sunny / Rias / Akeno (third-person limited, rotating)
The chamber had collapsed into a mirror.
Not literally. But the floor reflected everything. Every movement. Every shift of his feet. It distorted at the edges—too smooth, too sharp. The light was ambient, without a source. No sound. No scent. Just that low vibration in the air that told Sunny the Dream had taken his measure again.
And now it was testing what it found.
Across from him, the mimic stood.
His height. His posture. Same stance. Same breathing rhythm.
But not right.
The lines were exaggerated. Shoulders slightly too square. The weapon too long. Movements overly rigid.
It lacked instinct.
Sunny moved first.
Two steps, deliberate. He didn't summon a weapon.
He picked up a shard of mirror from the floor.
The mimic hesitated.
That was mistake one.
Sunny spun the shard once, reversed his grip, and charged.
The mimic countered with a textbook parry — too clean. Too slow.
Sunny ducked low, rolled beneath the strike, and slashed the back of its leg with the broken shard. Not deep. Enough to disrupt the stance.
The mimic stumbled. Regained balance.
Sunny didn't pause. He grabbed a loose chunk of flooring, flattened like a tile. In his hands, it became a weighted bludgeon.
He threw it.
The mimic blocked — but clumsily. Its form cracked. It didn't understand the improvised trajectory.
Sunny was already moving. Grabbed a longer shard — dagger-length.
Flicked it in the air, caught it reverse grip, then side-armed it low.
The mimic twisted away. But not fast enough.
The blade scored its ribs.
It retaliated — conjured a dark spear and hurled it. Too slow.
Sunny caught it.
His fingers closed around the shaft, twisted the alignment, flipped it into an underhand grip.
He used the mimic's own weapon against it.
Step forward. Drop stance. Upward thrust.
Pierced the mimic's gut.
Cracks formed across its body.
Inside — not blood. Not muscle. Just cables of shadow and unstable light.
Sunny wrenched the weapon free.
Dropped it.
Caught a broken plate of flooring — edge sharp enough.
One clean arc.
The mimic's head severed.
It collapsed instantly. No scream. No flare. Just silence.
The mirrored floor dimmed.
Sunny stood alone, surrounded by broken pieces — none of them weapons until he chose them.
Behind him, the black flame peeled away.
Rias paced.
Not idly. Not in thought.
Like a blade being honed with every step.
The wall of black fire that had sealed Sunny in pulsed once, then twice—and still didn't open.
Akeno stood with her arms folded, fingers twitching every few seconds, eyes locked on the sigil.
They'd tried shouting. Pounding. Even pulsing their aura at the flame. Nothing had responded.
"He's not coming back," Rias said tightly.
Akeno's gaze didn't shift. "He wouldn't abandon us."
"Wouldn't he?" Rias snapped. "We don't know anything about him. He's lied before. What if this was all—"
The fire cracked.
Akeno spun toward it.
The sigil flared. The wall peeled back like layers of ash curling inward.
Sunny stepped through.
His left sleeve torn. Right hand cut. Blood dried at his jawline.
He didn't speak.
He passed them both.
Past the pedestal.
Toward the new spiral stair opening in the floor.
Another loop on the seal dimmed.
Another one began to glow.
Akeno exhaled slowly.
Rias didn't speak.
But this time, she followed without hesitation.