The timer hit zero, and the meadow began to dissolve around them like morning mist. The artificial sky faded, the lake shimmered out of existence, and the grass beneath their feet transformed back into cold stone.
They found themselves standing once again in the main chamber, the familiar platform rising before them with its three archways.
There were only two symbols this time: two serpents and a two-faced profile. The eye was nowhere to be seen.
"The options are narrowing." Sam observed. "I'm voting spirit trial."
Victor spoke. "I agree. The tower's guidance isn't very subtle."
"Could be limiting our choices for a reason," Lily added quietly.
They approached one of the archways marked with the two-faced symbol. The door opened without resistance, revealing a corridor that seemed to stretch infinitely.
"Stay close," AJ warned from Lily's shoulder, his form rippling with unease. "Something about this place feels... invasive."
The walls were mirrors, but they didn't only reflect their own appearances. Spirits or ghosts seemed to be trapped in the mirrors.
They floated about, most doing their own thing but a few stared in their direction, watching their every move.
"What the hell are those?" Ethan asked, stopping abruptly as one of the spectral figures pressed its face against the glass, conveying a desperate hunger.
Lily instinctively stepped closer to the centre of the team, her hand moving to her bow. "They... they look like people." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "They might have even been human."
Sam leaned forward cautiously as he studied the ethereal forms. "Fascinating and terrifying. They seem aware of us but trapped. Are they previous challengers who failed?"
"Don't get too close," Victor warned sharply as Sam took another step forward. "We don't know what they're capable of."
One of the spirits—a woman in tattered robes—began following them along the mirror's surface, her mouth moving soundlessly as if trying to communicate. Others drifted closer, drawn by their passage like moths to flame.
"They want something," Lily observed, her voice tight with unease. "The way they're looking at us..."
Ethan quickened his pace, clearly uncomfortable with the ghostly audience. "Can they get out? Because I really don't want to find out what happens if they do."
"The mirrors seem to be holding them," Sam spoke, as he moved towards the center of the path. "But the fact that they can see us, react to us... that suggests some form of connection between our reality and theirs."
As they progressed down the corridor, more spirits gathered, creating an eerie procession of the dead following their movement.
Some appeared to be warriors, scholars, others looked like ordinary people.
"How many people has this tower claimed?" Victor asked quietly, his usual composure shaken by the sheer number of trapped souls.
Walter tapped his cane against the stone floor, the sound echoing strangely in the corridor. "There are so many of them... How did all these people find this place and reach this stage?" He murmured, his weathered face grave.
The corridor led to a circular chamber unlike any they had encountered. Six alcoves were carved into the walls, each only big enough for one person.
In the centre, a pillar of swirling energy rose from floor to ceiling, its surface crackling with otherworldly power.
Words materialised in the air above the pillar:
Enter the alcoves.
The space around Victor transformed into his old office—not the corporate illusion from before, but something more intimate.
His personal study from the apartment he'd once called home. The silence was broken by a voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
"Victor Langley."
He tensed, recognising something familiar yet alien in the tone.
"You've come so far from the man you once were. But strength demands sacrifice. Power requires... difficult choices."
The air shimmered, and Victor saw his companions arranged before him like chess pieces on a board.
Each one glowed faintly, but one light pulsed brighter than the others—Walter, leaning heavily on his cane, his weathered face peaceful in the strange luminescence.
"The old man holds you back. His wisdom is the wisdom of a world that doesn't exist anymore. Give him to me and I will grant you power beyond imagining. The strength to protect the others. The ability to keep them safe for all eternity."
Victor's breath caught. The offer hung in the air like poison honey. He could see it—mana flowing through him, enough to shield his found family from any threat. All for the price of...
"No," he said quietly.
"You haven't heard the full offer. Think of what you could become. Think of how many you could save."
"I said no." Victor's voice was steady. "I've spent enough of my life trading people for profit. I won't start again now."
The vision flickered, showing him the consequences of refusal—his companions falling to future threats he was too weak to stop. But Victor closed his eyes, centring himself on a simple truth.
"They've become my family," he said. "All of them. Even the old man."
---
Sam found himself in a laboratory—not any real place, but the idealised workspace he'd always dreamed of.
Equipment hummed around him, and holographic displays showed secrets of the universe laid bare.
"Samuel Keaton. Seeker of knowledge."
The voice carried the weight of vast knowledge.
"You hunger for understanding. I can grant it. The true nature of the wish event. The location of your wife, Eleanor. The secrets of cultivation that could reshape this broken world."
Before him, his companions appeared as before, but this time it was AJ who pulsed with brighter light—the strange slime creature who defied every law of biology Sam had ever learned.
"The aberration. It doesn't belong in this reality. Give me its life, and I will give you answers to every question you've ever asked."
Sam's hands trembled as he reached towards the vision of knowledge. He could see Eleanor's face in the swirling data. But then he remembered AJ's gentle presence, the way he had risked everything to save Lily.
"Gaining knowledge at the cost of others... that's not me anymore." Sam whispered, backing away from the displays. "I won't sacrifice a friend for facts."
"Even if those facts could save millions?"
"Even then." Sam's voice grew firmer.
---
The space became a battlefield—not from his past, but from possible futures. Bodies lay scattered, and in the distance, something vast and terrible approached.
"Ethan Carter. You understand strength."
The voice rumbled like a thunderstorm.
"But your strength isn't enough. It will never be enough. Accept my gift, and become truly powerful. Strong enough to crush any threat before it can harm those you protect."
The vision showed his companions, with Victor glowing brightest this time.
"The businessman. His caution will get them all killed. Sacrifice him, and I will make you unstoppable. A warrior who never falls."
Ethan felt the offer like a physical weight, the promise of power singing in his blood. He could be the shield they needed, the sword that cut down their enemies. All he had to do was...
"Shut up," he growled.
"You would refuse power? Refuse the chance to truly protect them?"
"I don't need your fake shortcuts." Ethan's hands clenched into fists.
The battlefield wavered as Ethan turned his back on the offer.
---
Lily stood in a garden—the one from her childhood home, before everything had gone wrong. Flowers bloomed in impossible colours, and the air smelled of safety and love.
"Lily Everett. You seek belonging."
The voice was warm, it reminded her of her mother's voice.
"But belonging requires sacrifice. Sometimes we must choose who deserves our loyalty most."
Her companions appeared, this time it was Sam that glowed. The researcher who saw everything as a puzzle to solve.
"The scholar. His curiosity endangers them all. He would dissect the universe itself if it meant gaining knowledge. Leave his life in my hands, and I will give you what you truly want—a place where you are needed, valued, irreplaceable."
This was what she had always wanted, what she had been seeking. It was tempting her with her greatest desire.
She thought of Sam's gentle corrections when she misidentified plants, his patient explanations of the world's new mysteries.
She remembered AJ's words, how she was one of them simply because she was Lily, nothing more, nothing less.
"No," she whispered, then louder: "No! I won't buy belonging with blood. If I'm not wanted as I am, then I don't want to belong."
---
Walter stood in a schoolroom filled with eager young faces—students he'd never had the chance to teach, wisdom he'd never been able to pass on.
"Walter. You fear irrelevance."
The voice carried the weight of ages, of knowledge gathering dust.
"Your time is nearing. Accept my offer, and you will be able to pass on your wisdom to the future generations."
His companions appeared, with Ethan glowing brightest—the young man who acted before thinking, who might lead the others into danger with his recklessness.
"The warrior. His impulsiveness will destroy them. Hand over his life, and I will make you young again. Strong again. Able to guide them properly."
Walter closed his eyes, feeling the years he had spent fearing that he would be forgotten, that his knowledge wouldn't help the next generation.
The offer was seductive—he could matter again, to be the teacher he'd always wanted to be. But when he opened his eyes, he saw not just Ethan's potential for destruction, but his capacity for growth.
"My legacy is already taking shape," Walter said quietly. "Ethan... and the others, they're already on their way to becoming something remarkable."
---
AJ found himself in a void—not empty, but full of potential, of forms he could take, lives he could live.
"Atlas Jovan. You are an anomaly."
The voice was like his own, but older and deeper.
"You don't belong. But you could. Choose one of them—any of them—and I will make you human. So that you may truly belong."
His companions appeared, Lily glowed brightest—the young girl who cared for him like a brother, despite his changed appearance.
"She wastes her compassion on what you are. Give me her life, and I will give you a form worthy of her memory. You could honour her properly as a human being."
AJ's form rippled with ridicule. The voice didn't understand his desires at all—he chose this path for himself and he already gained the ability to take on a human form.
His potential was vast, virtually limitless. He wouldn't sacrifice the opportunity granted to him, especially not if he had to also sacrifice one of them.
"I belong," he said. "I chose this body for myself and you won't take it from me."
---
The alcoves dissolved simultaneously, depositing them back in the central chamber. They had experienced their own temptations but they all knew where their priorities lay.
"Did anyone else..." Lily began, then stopped.
"The offers," Sam said. "We all heard them."
"Does this place really think we'll sacrifice one of our own just for a shortcut to strength." Victor spoke with contempt.
**No one fell to temptation, you have passed.**
**As a reward you are granted a token.**
A soft chime echoed through the chamber as something materialised in the air before them, dropping with a thunk onto the stone floor.
Ethan stepped forward and picked it up, his eyebrows rising in surprise at its unexpected weight.
"Heavy little thing," he muttered, turning it over in his palm. The token appeared to be made of copper, its surface bearing the greenish colouring of great age, yet it felt far too dense for copper. The metal was warm to the touch, pulsing with a faint rhythm that seemed to match his heartbeat.
On one side, etched deep into the copper surface, was the tilted scale symbol that had led them to fight that incredibly strong nightmare creature. The other side was completely blank—not just unmarked, but also incredibly smooth.
"What do you think it does?" Lily asked, leaning in to examine the artifact more closely.
Sam pondered briefly before speaking. "It's likely some form of currency or key. "
Walter tapped his cane thoughtfully. "The weight feels... significant. Maybe its physical mass somehow relates to its importance."
The chamber's exit opened, revealing the familiar passage back to the main area. As they walked through it together, an unspoken understanding passed between them.
Each had faced their deepest desires, their greatest temptations, and found the promise rather lacking compared to what they had built together.
The passage opened into the main chamber where three archways once again stood before them. The familiar three symbols once again made an appearance: the serpent, the eye and the two-faced profile.
"Back to the standard formula," Sam observed. "What should we pick this ti—"
Ethan, still absently turning the token over in his palm, flipped it upward in a casual gesture—the kind of idle motion someone might make with a coin.