Vis descends into the dome’s cavernous hall and immediately asks to take the test. Elia Veranius, a hollow-eyed condemned guide, appears, hands him the control bracer, and activates a miniature overview of the Labyrinth on the floor. When Vis asks her to demonstrate the test, Elia enters the maze; on the model, etched green lights show her position and three Remnants starting near the exit. The Remnants sprint along shortest paths, adjusting instantly to every wall change Vis makes; they catch and extinguish Elia’s light.

Resolving to learn the Remnants’ rules, Vis repeats demonstrations with additional condemned guides, including Dorail Numinus. He confirms the creatures always begin at the far end, move at constant speed, never vary their pursuit, and do not wait at the exit or set traps. Their perfect predictability reframes the test as one of logic and timing. After several runs, Vis identifies a route hinging on precisely timed wall switches.

He commits. Upon entering the Labyrinth, Vis counts seconds and executes his practiced sequence, adjusting passages to redirect each Remnant’s path. Confidence grows—until he rounds a corner and confronts Belli’s body, pinned to a wall and mutilated. The shock breaks his count and nearly ruins his plan as a Remnant surges toward him. He narrowly recovers, sealing a passage behind him and recalculating on the move.

Breath burning, Vis keeps up his cadence of adjustments while the Remnants scrape close on every turn. He finally reaches the exit beneath the bronze pyramid just as Remnants converge from ahead and behind. Trusting the threshold as his only chance, he sprints straight through, tumbling into darkness beyond while the obsidian masses thrash at the archway, unable to cross.

Vis tears off the bracer as the exit lowers and the dim light vanishes, leaving the Remnants sealed inside. Silence returns, and Vis has survived the Labyrinth’s first trial, even as Belli’s death underscores the cost.