Location: Red Blade Ship – Five Days After the Frost Encounter
The ocean heat returned—but this time, it brought no comfort.
After defeating the Pale Judge, Ankit's flames burned steadier, more controlled, but exhaustion lingered in his bones. Each trial was like peeling back a layer of himself—revealing something raw, and not always human.
Now, the Red Blade approached the southern edge of the Grand Line's dry belt: a stretch of desert isles known only in whispers.
Sandorun Kingdom – Ruins of Lir Azar.
A place long lost, drowned by time, where even maps carried silence.
System Notification – Ancient Relic Detected
Stormmark Fragment Location Acquired
Desert Temple Signature: Lir Azar's Sunken Heart
Trial Trigger Status: Dormant – Will activate upon proximity to cursed seal.
Environmental Warning: Sandorun Isles experience daily sandstorms and possess residual "Hollow Presence."
Note: Hollow Presence – Spirits that never passed into the afterlife. Mental effect risk: Moderate to High.
Suggested Combat State: Full Mental Fortitude. Soulflame Training Recommended.
Ankit closed the panel with a slow breath.
This next trial wasn't just about blades or flame.
It was about memory.
Ship Briefing – Strategy Before Arrival
Inside the ship's war room, Shanks laid out the map—charred, marked by claw-like red ink over a set of coordinates. The others leaned in around the table.
Makino adjusted her scarf. "This place isn't natural. Even the Log Pose glitches around it."
Benn Beckman nodded. "The magnetic field's warped. But that's not the threat."
He pointed to the word Lir Azar on the map.
"This place disappeared 200 years ago. Overnight. Every inhabitant gone. And the sand still sings at night."
Ankit looked up. "Sings?"
Makino answered, "Voices of the hollowed. People who died so fast, their souls never moved on."
Silence fell.
Then Shanks stood up.
"Then let's go meet the ghosts."
Landfall – The Cursed Shoreline of Lir Azar
The moment their boots hit the sand, the crew could feel it.
Warm winds howled like mourning mothers. The dunes shifted like they breathed. Shadows danced just beyond reach.
Even sunlight here felt pale.
The ruins lay ahead—towers half-buried in sand, crumbling walls covered in carvings of eyes, flame, and swords.
Ankit stared at one etching—seven stars connected by chains.
System Sync Reacting…
Stormmark Thread Resonance Detected – 3rd Gate Nearby.
Emotional Alert: Pressure spike detected. Suggest caution.
He pressed forward.
Inside the Temple – Echoes of the Forgotten
They descended down winding stone steps into the buried heart of the temple.
Each level deeper, the air grew colder—not in temperature, but in presence.
Whispers clung to the walls.
Help me.
Where is the sun?
We burned so brightly… then we fell.
Makino gripped her rifle tighter.
"Something's watching."
Shanks didn't draw his blade. He didn't need to. The air told him a fight was coming.
They reached a wide antechamber lit only by an orb of flickering sunstone in the center.
Benn frowned. "This place was built to house something. Not worship it."
And at the far end—
A sealed gate. Covered in glyphs that glowed faintly.
Ankit walked forward alone.
The glyphs flared.
Trial of the Stormmarked – 3rd Gate: Sunken Flame Memory
Commencing in: 60 seconds
All others will be repelled. Only the marked may enter.
The walls shook.
Makino tried to step forward—an invisible force stopped her.
"Ankit—!"
But he turned, smiling faintly. "I'll be back. Watch my back until then."
The gate opened.
He stepped through.
And it closed.
Stormmark Trial – Lir Azar's Lost Memory
This time, Ankit awoke not in a void—but in a city.
Whole. Alive.
He was barefoot, dressed like a Lir Azar citizen. Children ran past. Markets bustled.
It was the past—the day before the fall.
Trial Directive: Witness. Protect. Survive.
Do not alter the memory's outcome, or your own will be rewritten.
The system voice was cold.
Ankit watched the people—laughing, breathing, living. A mother sang. A father carried tools. A boy practiced swordplay with a stick.
Then the sky cracked.
And the Hollow Sand Hands descended.
Hollow Sand Hands – Memory Echo
They appeared as wind first—carrying dust and sorrow.
Then they manifested—shapeless robes made of sand and shadow, faces hidden, arms impossibly long and gaunt.
One touched a man.
He collapsed. His body remained. But his soul…
…was pulled screaming into the figure's chest.
Panic erupted.
People ran. Screamed. Burned their homes in vain.
Ankit unsheathed his blades—somehow still real in the memory—and faced one of the Hollow.
It turned to him.
"You are not from this time," it hissed. "You wear the mark."
Mini-Boss: Hollow Sand Echo (Guardian of the Trial)
Soul Devourer – Mid-Level Threat
Weakness: Soulflame only
Ankit activated his soulfire.
And fought.
Trial Combat – Sand vs. Flame
The Hollow moved like smoke. Strikes passed through its robes—but the soulflame bit deep.
Ankit struck once, twice—ducked, slashed across its midsection—
The Hollow's scream was silent, but the walls vibrated.
It launched sand-formed chains from its fingers, wrapping Ankit's leg and pulling him to the ground.
He stabbed into the sand, spun, and sliced upward with an explosive soulflare, severing the chains.
He leapt into the air, twisted, and—
CRACK!
Twin blades impaled the creature through its core.
Light exploded.
Memory Ends – Aftermath of the Fall
But the people were already dead.
The city burned. Not from fire, but from sorrow. The sun above shattered. And darkness swallowed everything.
The trial dissolved.
And Ankit stood once more in a room of ash and ruins.
The gate behind him was gone.
But in his hand—he held a piece of sunstone, glowing like a heartbeat.
Stormmark Fragment Acquired: Sunfire Core (3 / 7)
Trait Gained: Hollow Resistance
Immune to soul-drain effects for 30 seconds after direct combat begins.
New Skill: Sunfire Pulse (Active)
Emit a pulse of flame that clears spiritual afflictions and weakens cursed enemies.
Cooldown: 20 min.
System Sync Increased: +3.3% → Current: 55.2%
Reunion – Outside the Temple
Makino hugged him the moment the ash cleared.
"You were gone for two hours."
Shanks studied the sunstone shard in Ankit's hand.
"That thing called the Hollow… it's part of something bigger, isn't it?"
Ankit nodded, exhausted.
"They're not just spirits. They're collectors. And someone is using them."
Benn looked up at the sky.
"Then let's find out who. Because this? This was just a test run."
Final Scene – Unknown Desert Camp
A shadowed figure knelt before a fire of black sand.
A whisper reached them from far away.
"The boy holds three now."
The figure smiled beneath the veil.
"Then I'll take the fourth."