A magnificent gateway stood before Saryn, much larger than the previous two, and much brighter as a result of the dense echoes around it.
Saryn had rested for a while on the warm grass in front of the portal, making sure he was prepared for whatever he would have to face next, not that he could even manage to form a guess of what was waiting for him.
He studied the runes on the sides of the stone portal, which glowed cyan and blue, squinting his eyes, Saryn could see the boundless echoes trapped in each rune, powering them like electricity.
'These runes are similar to the ones on the throne.' He thought, before picking up his new sword, which seemed like a massive azure crystal stabbed into the ground. The obsidian orb from the first room rested in Saryn's left hand as it repulsed him slightly, attempting to pounce away like a frightened cat.
He sighed.
'Here goes nothing.'
Saryn stepped into the portal.
The familiar feeling of walking into a pool of ice cold water assaulted him, but rather than startling him, Saryn marked it as a feeling of success, victory, and triumph.
…
Emerging from the fizzling portal, Saryn arrived at…
'What the…'
A void of darkness surrounded Saryn in every direction, the gateway behind him had also disappeared before he had even noticed, and the floor beneath him felt odd, as if bending to his emotions.
It reminded him of his experience absorbing the lilac echo.
However, Saryn noticed something bad, really bad.
Every second, his internal echoes were slowly being sapped away, there were zero echoes in the surroundings, causing his movements to feel slow and sluggish.
'Not good, is there something wrong with this room?' Saryn thought.
Suddenly, four white glowing lines appeared from the darkness about eight meters away from him in each direction. The lines stretched out and traced out a shape, and before long, a three-dimensional cube made of twelve white lines cased Saryn inside it, the length of each line was about sixteen meters, so the area Saryn had around him was fairly large.
He felt the ground underneath him solidify, its appearance stayed the same, but now Saryn felt he was actually walking on a stable flat surface.
Marduk's voice rang out for the first time in what felt like years.
"Saryn, I shall admit, you have earned my respect, nobody in the history of this place had ever dared to clash with the stalker, let alone kill it and retrieve the lilac echo which I had not intended to place for your consumption."
"However, I'm not petty enough to rid you of the reward you have worked so painstakingly for, but, I do expect you to make good use of that echo, as it will aid you in passing this stage." Marduk's words resounded through the void.
'Huh, that old man can only dream of taking it away from me!' Saryn muttered inwardly, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
"As you must've noticed, this room saps away your echoes, only your lilac echo shall stay, and there are absolutely no ambient echoes to support you. This is intended, and I expect you to pass in these conditions, do not disappoint me, Saryn."
Upon hearing Marduk's final words, Saryn felt all of his internal echoes disappear, not even an ounce left, and the only thing that remained, his lilac echo, which vibrated under the stress of the room.
'This feels like I'm shackled up again, I feel so… slow.' He thought, before placing the obsidian orb down on the floor, which looked extremely peculiar, as the pure void around him looked like there was simply no floor underneath.
'He didn't even explain my objective, what a bastard.' Saryn sighed, before turning and walking toward one of the lines, which he had assumed marked the boundaries of the room.
Saryn slowly raised his hand, placing it against the "barrier" made out by the lines.
His hand stopped cold, as if pressing against a firm wall.
'I can't say that wasn't expected.' Saryn thought, before turning back around.
The floor occasionally rebounded under his feet like trampolines, causing him to stumble forward and backward sometimes.
'Strange.' Saryn thought as he tilted slightly, slipping out of place.
Some steps felt regular, like normal ground, other steps felt off, as if pulling him in, or pushing him away, some felt like trampolines, some felt slippery like ice, and some even felt like he was stepping onto a powder like sand that wasn't even there when he looked down.
'What the hel-'
"You have had sufficient time to explore your surroundings, familiarize yourself, Saryn, for this won't be an easy fight." Marduk cut Saryn off.
'He expects me to fight like this?' Saryn was shocked.
Yes, he does.
"You will have one opponent, and you will not leave this place until you have hit him three times in a row, whether that be with your fist, your palm, or your newfound blade, it doesn't matter, only as long as it is an attack executed with the intention to damage the opponent.'
"However, Saryn, your opponent only needs to hit you once with their weapon in order to eliminate you, but do not worry, as each time you are eliminated, you will return to face a similar opponent again, until you have completed the task."
"The floor underneath your feet is unstable, and you must adapt accordingly in order to have any slight chance at passing to the next stage."
"Do not become complacent knowing that there is no threat of death or injury in this place, for there absolutely is. Echoes sustain your body in place of food, and without them, starvation can creep up, Saryn." Marduk finished explaining, his voice disappearing until, Saryn guessed, he has reached the next room.
'This stupid floor thing is ridiculous, but I doubt this stage can be that difficult.' Saryn thought, before coming to a realisation.
'Echoes sustain me in place of food… will my lilac echo be consumed to sustain me if I take too long?!' This thought struck him, and it struck him harder than the stalker ever did, if this was the case, his hard work and effort would all go down the drain.
But just as he began worrying, a figure materialized on the other side of the room, as if ejecting itself into the room from a ripple in the infinite void.
Saryn raised his obsidian greatblade, its razor tip pointing toward the ominous figure.
'Great, enough panicking, if I clear this stage quick enough, I'll have nothing to worry about.'