The Glass Labyrinth rose from the desert like a mirage, its crystalline walls refracting the dying sun into a thousand fractured rainbows. To approach it was to feel the air shift hot wind carried whispers in languages long dead, and each step seemed to echo twice, as though the desert itself was watching.
"This place…" Elyon murmured, shading his eyes. "It's alive."
They stepped inside, and the world changed. The labyrinth's corridors were a kaleidoscope, each pane of glass bending reality. Sometimes the path ahead appeared endless, sometimes it curved back on itself, leading them to reflections of their own faces older, younger, distorted beyond recognition.
Aloysius reached to touch one wall, only for the glass to ripple like water. His reflection reached back, but the eyes were wrong cold, calculating.
Kaelis kept his sword drawn, but here, steel felt useless. Danger was not lurking in the shadows but in the light itself.
The deeper they went, the more the labyrinth turned against them. The reflections began speaking, their voices identical to the real ones but laced with venomous truths:"You can't save them all, Aloysius.""She'll leave you when she finds her answer, Elyon.""You'll fail him again, Kaelis."
Each word dug into their thoughts like thorns.
At the heart of the maze, they found it the shard, suspended in a spire of twisting glass. But as Aloysius reached for it, his reflection stepped free of the wall, a perfect copy save for the crimson glow in its eyes.
The copy smiled."You've taken too much already. Now, I take your place."