I seem to hover in nothingness but I can't feel my body I can't move it I can't hear anything and this void I can't even see anything all I have is my haunting conscious without anything to hear see or feel all I can do I think about the my ruined house and my brother lying there dead I don't even know where my mother is neither do I know where Leo is and it haunts me knowing they are either dead or in there with those priests who killed me and Elara. "You should've been ready to face the trial, instead, you were in shock when we saw your brother, and you let us both die." Elara's voice taunts me in my mind."If you had just been faster and gotten to the last trial earlier, you could have saved me from the falling rocks. It's all your fault, all of this happened." My brother's voice just adds fuel to the fire that is burning my mind as I float or lie or stand, I don't even know where my own head is.My head feels like it's spinning, even though I can't feel it. I feel like I could puke any second now, but how am I supposed to puke with no mouth? Will my body move instinctively, but the last thing I remember is being killed by those priests, so how and why do I feel like I am going to throw up?A sudden sharp pain shoots through my mind, interrupting my thought process, and there in front of me is a small shimmering light, almost like the end of a tunnel, but I can't move to get there, my body is still just as immobile as it was moments before. The light grows bigger and bigger except it doesn't it just gets closer but I am not moving somehow the light is moving towards me and the closer it gets the more afraid of it I become inside there are brighter pieces of light shinning off the other light creating a beautiful sight but a horrifying one for this should not be possible and as they reflect off of themselves more and more the light becomes stronger even blinding because it is still moving towards me.The light engulfs me, and it continues to become stronger and stronger to the point that it just looks like instead of an endless dark abyss. I am in a never-ending room where all the walls are white.But then, for just a small amount of time, barely three seconds, I can feel my fingers. It is one of the greatest feelings I have ever felt, it's the first time I actually felt something since God knows how much time has passed since I was trapped here.But soon after I can feel my fingers again and this time more of my hands as well and the feeling stays for longer than the previous one then I can feel it again and this time it doesn't disappear and the light starts to change color instead of being only white blinding light it starts gaining color they are still a mix of random colors swirled together but it's better than just seeing white.Soon enough, the colors start making things instead of being a random swirl, it starts looking like a room with people in it, but those people are not alive, for it is the very same room in which I had my throat slit.Even though I somewhat regained the ability to see, I can still not move, but now I can feel, and I am slowly starting to hear noises as well. I can hear in the distance someone mumbling, but I can't figure out what he is saying. At the corner of my eye, I can see Elara lying there on the floor, her throat sliced through and blood gushing out. It must not have been as long as I thought since I was in that void.But then I regain feeling in my entire body and pain flushes over me I can feel a warm substance on my neck flowing down my body that feeling sends chills through my body but as it flows lower and lower I can see the substance and I am not sure why I did not expect it probably because if I am alive then it shouldn't be there but it is blood and it is flowing out of my neck in immense amounts enough to flow all the way to my legs and continue gushing out.I panic trying to move my body, trying to do anything to stop the blood, but I cannot move, all I can do is sit there while I bleed. My vision starts to blur, I feel like puking, but I can't even do that, this is even worse than being trapped in the void because at least there I didn't have to deal with the pain of reality that I am in.My mom starts walking towards me. I do not know how because mere moments ago, she was not there, but now she is here, walking towards me through the room filled with blood and bodies of our chamber. She kneels in front of me, bringing her hand to my head. She takes off my eye cloth and brushes my hair behind my ear, letting my head rest on her hand. I break down crying, and I can hear her voice whispering."You mustn't give up yet, Airoh, you need to wake up from your daze. You still have time to fix this". Her voice is barely a whisper. I could barely make out what she was saying, but it was loud enough for me to hear my mother one more time.Suddenly, air fills my lungs, and I regain the ability to move. The first thing I do is bring my hand to my throat, but there is no cut, all the blood that was gushing out of my throat is gone. I take off the eye cloth, throwing it on one of the bodies lying here dead.I kneel beside Elara. She is still alive, but her throat is indeed cut, unlike mine. I try to stop the bleeding with anything I can find, but nothing works. It looks like time has slowed down around me. I search around the entire room, but there is nothing here to help Elara, no way to save her.I fall to my knees and scream, I scream so hard my throat starts to hurt but I continue I scream until I have no more air in my lungs and I collapse on the ground, but it feels different for some reason the ground is cold and I cant feel the blood on it and the surface isn't flat anymore I look beneath me and I am lying on chains and they are moving towards Elara and spreading throughout the entire room grabbing pieces of cloth from the dead people around us and bringing them to Elara pilling them on her.Soon enough, marks start to appear on Elara, glowing in a bright neon green color, and then she gasps for air, her wound healed. I rush to her, bringing her to my body and hugging her while crying my eyes out.I get out of my daze when Elara suddenly spins around and hushes me, and then I can also hear people walking towards us. We go to stand on the sides of the door, both of us ready to strike anyone who comes in, but no one does. Eventually, they walk away, and we slip out of the room unnoticed.Once we step out, we are hit by a bright light that takes time getting used to, but once we do, we can see that the chamber looks entirely different, there is no more roof to the chamber, and for the first time in my life, I can see the stars. They are beautiful, shining, lighting up the chamber. In front of us is a large staircase leading towards a big building with statues of the Ancients.We start climbing the stairs, and as we do, guards start walking down them, creating a wall on our sides and behind us, leading us up the stairs, blocking any means of escape, but neither of us means to escape.We get to the top of the stairs, where more guards open the big doors for us, and we enter the building and pass through a large hall, where we end up in a lush room with plants and trees. The Ancients are sitting there waiting for us."Thou hast made it to the final trial," they speak at the same time, their voices echoing around the room as the room expands and we move forward."The final trial will now commence. It is the trial of judgment. Ready yourselves". The Ancients start flying in front of us, leading us into a new room.The room is filled with pillars and a burning house. One of the pillars has fallen and is now on the ground. There are screams in the room, and as we get closer, I recognize the voices of the screams they are those of my brother and mother.I run to them. My brother is being crushed by rubble in front of the burning house, and my mother is being crushed by the pillar.I run to my mother, hoping to save her and then save my brother."Only one shalt be saved, the other will die." I stop in my tracks when I hear the words come out of the Ancients' mouths.I don't even cry, the shock is stopping me. How am I supposed to choose between the most important people in my life? No matter who I choose, I would not be able to live with the guilt of killing one of them."Time is running out, we suggest thou make thy move quickly." Their voices bring me nothing but suffering. Elara comes and kneels beside me, helping me stand up I stumble towards my mother as I hear my brother scream for help, but I ignore it. I know what I must do, and I have decided who I will choose.I get to my mother, and Elara starts lifting the pillar. I help my mother get out, but before I grab her hand, I pass out.I wake up my mother is lying dead, crushed beneath the pillar. Elara is next to me, trying to wake me up."Thou hast been very disappointing, we had much expectation for the one with judgment and the one with life, but thou hast failed again, pathetic." They summon spears made of light, and then they kill me.I wake up, my mother crushed. I stumble back because this is the exact scenery I saw just now, but I died. I am not supposed to be alive right now. Elara is next to me, trying to get me to wake up from my daze."Thou hast been very disappointing, we had much expectation for the one with judgment and the one with life, but thou hast failed again, pathetic." They say the same words as they said before, everything is the same, they summon the spears, but this time I move out of the way, and the spears do not hit me."Airoh, are you alright? Can you fight because I think we need all of our power to get out of this one?" Elara helps me straighten up as we both get ready to fight six gods."Yes, I'm fine. More importantly, let's kill these false gods." All of my hope that we might get through this with no more pain gone, the hope drained from my body by force.I grab one of the spears on the ground for a moment; my hand burns, but then the weapon changes; it becomes a sort of sword, but with only one sharp edge, and it is very light, unlike a real sword.We dash towards them I cut one of them with my sword killing him in one fell swoop every time I swing my sword chains emit from it catching the ones I am aiming for letting me cut them without fail all the while Elara is bashing their heads in with her bare fists every time she punches she gets faster and stronger and then we kill the last one and he falls to the ground for some reason I feel no satisfaction killing those we brought so much pain upon me and Elara.They didn't fight back, it's as if they just let us kill them. I am not sure why, but it made me lose the revenge I wished to get. I take a broken mask that fell off one of the Ancients. Only the right part of the mask remains. I wear it on the mask changes size to fit my head better."The last trial has been completed. You may now leave the chamber." A new voice speaks, suddenly one far softer and kinder than those of the Ancients. A path opens in the room in front of us we follow it. After walking for about ten minutes, we reach the exit where we can finally see outside the chamber. The ground is missing, and the entire world is just the night sky with stars. The chamber we were in is part of a mountain floating in space.Suddenly, the floor beneath us tears open, and we fall into a new place that we have never seen before. We are in front of a building a lot of other people are also falling from the sky, and all of them do not seem to know what is going on.
