I advanced with Neil through the new passage that the maze had opened. The walls moved slowly behind us, as if deliberately sealing the way back. There was no return.
The path didn't last long before leading into another hall, but this one was different… it wasn't empty.
The walls were covered in black reflective surfaces, like mirrors made of poisoned stone. When I looked into them, I saw myself, but it wasn't a natural reflection… it was distorted. My eyes were larger, my mouth stretched, my body tilted as if something was trying to crawl out from inside me.
Neil stood beside me, staring at his own reflection. But his was that of a younger, weaker child, his clothes dirty, his eyes full of tears.
I said calmly:
"Don't stare too long. These aren't mirrors. They're traps."
But he didn't hear me. He stepped toward the reflection, his eyes fixed on it. I quickly reached out and grabbed his shoulder firmly.
"Neil!"
He shuddered, then gasped as if he had been drowning. He turned to me, a tear slipping down his cheek without him realizing it.
"I saw… my father," he whispered.
I was silent for a moment, then said:
"The maze only shows you what weakens you. Remember that. Don't give it what it wants."
We moved forward, but the walls never stopped showing images. Reflections, memories, ghosts of the past. One of them showed me… but not as I am now. It showed me as I was before I lost my power—proud, strong, surrounded by shadows that obeyed me as their master.
I stared at that reflection for a long moment. It smiled back at me… a mocking smile, as if saying: You are nothing but a broken ghost of the past.
I clenched my fist, then struck the wall with my sword. The reflection shattered, but instead of disappearing, it echoed with my old voice:
"You will fail. You will never be what you once were."
I didn't answer. I just kept walking.
But Neil… his endurance wasn't like mine. He began to hear voices from every direction. Whispers repeating the words he had heard in his life: weak… useless… a burden forever…
He stopped suddenly, clutching his head.
"Enough… enough…"
I placed my hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look at me:
"Listen to me carefully. These voices aren't real. The maze wants to break us from the inside. If you give in now… you won't make it out alive."
He trembled, then nodded weakly. We continued until we reached the end of the hall. There, another circle appeared—this time not glowing, but black as ink.
I said:
"This is a choice. I don't know if it will lead to a shorter path… or into an abyss."
Neil looked at me, eyes filled with an unspoken question. I answered before he could ask:
"I won't step through before you. Choose for yourself. This maze is testing you too."
He stayed silent for a moment, then stepped into the circle. Darkness engulfed him instantly, and he vanished.
I hesitated half a second, then followed.
I found myself in a completely different place. Not a stone tunnel, but a dark forest, its trees tangled, their leaves black and shining like metal. The air… was heavy with the scent of old blood.
Neil was beside me, looking around in terror.
"Where are we?"
"We're still in Daimas," I said. "This is just… another image of it."
It wasn't long before we heard footsteps. Between the trees, a woman appeared. Her hair was long and black, her face strangely familiar… then I realized.
It was my mother.
I froze. But soon I noticed that Neil didn't see her as I did. For him, it was an old man—surely his father.
I whispered:
"This is a trap."
But my body didn't move. My eyes were locked on my mother's face. Her eyes were as I remembered, her gaze as I remembered, even her smile. I hadn't seen her in so long, and here she was, standing before me.
She came closer, reaching out her hand. Her voice was warm:
"Come back to me. You're tired."
Every part of me wanted to believe her. To take her hand. To rest.
But Neil… was screaming.
"No! That's not my father! My father has been dead for years! That's not him!"
His cry broke the spell. I looked at the woman again… and her features vanished, melting into a black mass that slithered like living tar. It reached a long arm toward me, but I cut through it with my sword before it could touch me. It vanished like smoke.
I turned to Neil, who was panting. He said, trembling:
"She almost fooled you."
I answered quietly:
"And she almost fooled you too. That's the lesson… never trust what the maze gives you."
Meanwhile, Elenios and his two sons were passing through a narrow corridor. Suddenly, Kaelen was separated from his father and brother. He found himself alone in a round chamber. On the walls were moving images—moments from his life: the first time he killed, the time he betrayed an old friend to survive, the lies he told his father.
And every image spoke:
"This is you. No one else."
Kaelen tried to scream, but no sound came out. He struck the walls, but they didn't break.
Then his reflection appeared before him. It said:
"You don't deserve the amulet. You're just a shadow, a son living in your father's shadow."
Kaelen lunged to strike it, but the reflection split into hundreds of copies of him, each one mocking him with different words.
Elsewhere, Elryas faced his own trial: a vision of himself killing his father in cold blood, a seed of betrayal planted by the maze.
And Elenios himself was staring at a wall etched with a strange symbol: a glowing amulet, surrounded by an inscription in an ancient tongue. He couldn't read it fully, but understood its meaning:
"To seek power… one must lose something irreplaceable."
He smiled faintly, whispering:
"As if I haven't lost enough already."
Neil and I continued through the black forest until we reached a small lake. Its surface was still, but when I approached… the reflection wasn't my face.
It was another face… Caster's.
The enemy whose spear I had shattered in the previous world. But now he stared at me with a mocking smile, as if he had never died.
Neil didn't see Caster. He saw something else, perhaps from his past. But he asked me:
"Why do these faces appear to us?"
"Because the maze doesn't test our strength alone," I answered, placing a hand on my chest.
"It tests what we carry here. Our burdens. Our sins. What we fear to face."
As I spoke, the lake stirred. From its surface rose a massive black hand, made of water itself, dragging us down into its depths.
We fell into darkness, and the water became an endless void. We plummeted without end, voices echoing in my ears—voices of the past, the present, the future.
Then… a single voice rose above all others:
"To reach the amulet… you must face yourselves."
I opened my eyes. No more void. Solid ground beneath my feet, but colorless… just a gray surface stretching endlessly, with no sky, no walls.
I turned quickly, searching for Neil. He was there, collapsed on his knees, gasping as if he had fallen from thousands of meters.
I helped him up.
"Are you alright?"
He nodded weakly but didn't speak.
Then we heard another sound. Slow, confident footsteps.
From the gray fog ahead… I emerged.
Not a twisted reflection, not a faded image. A complete copy, standing before me. Same face, same body—but the eyes… black, deep as if they were gates to another abyss.
The shadow advanced steadily, speaking in my voice, but heavier:
"Weak. Broken. You search for the power you lost, but you know… you'll never have it again."
I tightened my grip on my sword.
"If you're only a shadow, you won't stand in my way."
It smiled coldly.
"A shadow? No. I am you. The version you were meant to be. The power you lost… I kept it."
In an instant, darkness burst from its body, thick and vast, like an ocean exploding from within. Swords of shadow formed around it, swirling like whirlpools.
Neil trembled, stepping back.
"He's… stronger than you."
"Maybe," I answered quickly. "But that's what the maze wants us to believe."
The shadow charged, faster than I expected. Our swords clashed with a thunderous crash, the force of his strike nearly knocking me down.
I felt it instantly. This wasn't just a test of strength—he knew every move I had, every trick. Because he was me.
I retreated a step, trying a different angle, but he blocked before I even moved fully. Then he countered, nearly slicing my shoulder if I hadn't ducked at the last second.
Neil shouted from afar:
"He's reading you! Because he knows you!"
Yes… he was right.
The shadow smirked, speaking in my voice:
"There's no point fighting. Surrender. Give me your body… and I'll restore everything we lost. Your power. Your glory. Your dominion over the thirty realms."
I didn't reply.
For the first time, I didn't attack. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath.
I heard his steps rushing toward me, his strike descending on my head. At the last moment, I ducked, letting it pass over me.
I opened my eyes, looking straight at him.
"You know me, yes. But you're not me. You're just remnants of the past… and I've chosen to move forward without you."
The shadow faltered, then attacked with greater fury. We exchanged blow after blow, ten, twenty, each more vicious. But something was changing: he wasn't reading me as precisely anymore. The more I ignored his voice within me, the weaker he became.
I shouted, driving my blade into his chest:
"I am not a prisoner of the past!"
The sword pierced him.
He froze, eyes black and endless, then shattered into dust that dissolved in the air.
I fell to my knees, gasping.
Neil ran to me, eyes wide:
"You… you beat him!"
Smiling faintly through exhaustion, I said:
"No. I didn't beat him. I only faced him. The difference is… I chose to keep going."
But the maze wasn't finished. Suddenly, the ground split beneath Neil, swallowing the boy into darkness.
I shouted his name, but the earth sealed quickly. I was alone again.
Neil awoke in a different place. A small room, cracked walls, the stench of rot. And in the center… stood a man. Not just any man.
His father.
But this time, not a ghost, not an illusion. He looked alive, weary features, tired eyes.
"Neil," he said softly.
"Why did you leave me?"
Tears filled Neil's eyes at once.
"I didn't leave you… you're the one who left."
The father's eyes hardened.
"You could have stopped my death. You could have been stronger. But you were a coward."
Neil collapsed to his knees, crying out:
"No! It wasn't my fault!"
But his father grabbed his shoulder, squeezing hard. His face melted into black mass, bones cracking in the sound of his grip.
"You are the reason. You are the disgrace."
Neil closed his eyes, taking a trembling breath. Then he spoke, voice shaking but firm:
"No. I'm not the reason. Your death wasn't my fault. I… am not as weak as you think."
The moment he said it, the father vanished, the darkness shattering around him.
I found myself again in the gray hall, Neil standing before me, panting, tears on his cheeks—but steady.
I approached and placed my hand on his shoulder.
"The maze didn't spare you."
He shook his head, his voice hoarse:
"But I… didn't spare it either."
I smiled.
Suddenly, the walls shifted once more. The ground cracked open, and before us a gate of dark red light formed.
The maze had given us the path.
But I knew one thing: every step after this… would be harsher.