The shards of glass rose like storm-tossed waves, forming walls, towers, entire landscapes in an instant—then dissolving as quickly as they appeared. The Realm of Illusions had shed its pleasant mask. Now it writhed, alive, chaotic, reshaping itself with every heartbeat.
At its center, Mirith floated above the shattered throne, veils of shifting light cascading from its body. Its form changed constantly—Carlos's face, then Lys's, then Kael's, then Rina's, then a stranger's. Each change whispered with a different voice.
"You fight shadows," Mirith cooed, its words like silk threads tightening around their throats. "But how do you fight when shadows are reality?"
The ground beneath them rippled. The courtyard was gone. They stood on a battlefield drenched in blood. Then a frozen tundra. Then a desert of bone. Then a sunlit field where laughter carried on the wind.
Each shift was so sudden their balance faltered, their senses screaming against the madness.
The First Assault
Mirith raised a hand, and a legion of enemies poured forth from the changing terrain: soldiers in black armor, creatures of claw and fang, spectral archers whose arrows split into dozens midflight.
The heroes raised their weapons instinctively. Carlos led the charge, Blade of Ascension glowing against the tide. Thalor's shield rang with the impact of countless blows, his roars echoing across shifting landscapes. Lys's arrows struck fast and true, piercing illusions before they could overwhelm.
But every foe they cut down burst into fragments of glass—then reformed into something worse. A slain soldier became a shadow of one of their loved ones. A destroyed beast became a twisted version of themselves.
"Every strike," Mirith mocked, "every victory you think you claim—only feeds me."
The Splintering of Perception
The battle intensified.
Carlos turned to warn Rina—only to see two Rinas. One fought at his side, blades flashing. The other appeared behind him, dagger raised to strike his back. His heart lurched. Which one was real?
Lys aimed her bow at a swarm of enemies—until they all took on her sister's face. Her hands trembled, unable to release the string.
Thalor's enemies became his brothers, one by one, each time forcing him to hesitate. He swung too slowly, too gently, and was nearly cut down.
Maren unleashed a wall of flame, only to see her fire twist midair, turning back toward her allies. She screamed, twisting her staff, desperate to contain the surge.
Reality had no rules.
The Fracture of Trust
The illusions dug deeper. Carlos looked at Thalor—and for a moment, saw Kael's burning eyes staring back. He faltered.
Rina saw Lys's bow shift toward her chest.Lys saw Maren's fire curling in her direction.Maren saw Carlos lift his blade, the edge gleaming too close.
"Do you trust them?" Mirith purred, its veils flickering between all their faces. "Can you? Do you even know who they are anymore?"
Doubt infected their movements. Their formation broke. They fought scattered, frantic, afraid of one another as much as the illusions.
Carlos's Resolve
Carlos felt his pulse hammer in his skull. The battlefield spun with too many enemies, too many faces, too much noise. His reflection's words from the nightmare realm echoed: You are me. This is how it ends.
No. Not again.
He gritted his teeth, drove his blade into the ground, and screamed:"Listen to me! They want us to doubt each other—but doubt is the illusion! What's real is what we've already proven: we fight, we bleed, we survive together!"
His voice cut through the storm. For a heartbeat, the battlefield wavered.
Thalor raised his shield high, rallying to Carlos's side. "Together."Lys lowered her bow, tears burning her eyes. "I see you."Rina snarled, spinning her daggers. "Then let's make these lies bleed."Maren lifted her staff, fire curling around her like a halo. "Illusion or not—I choose you."
The tide shifted.
Breaking the Illusions
They fought not by focusing on the battlefield, but by anchoring themselves in one another.
When Carlos hesitated before a false Rina, the real Rina shouted, "Left side, idiot!" and her voice grounded him.When Lys saw her sister's face among enemies, Thalor shouted her name, steady and strong, and she fired true.When Maren's fire threatened to spiral, Rina tapped her shoulder—quick, sharp, real—and she regained control.When Thalor faltered before a phantom brother, Carlos slammed his blade into the ground beside him. "They're not here. We are."
The illusions shrieked and cracked, shattering with every strike grounded in trust.
The Keeper Unveiled
Mirith's laughter turned ragged, its veils fraying. "Impossible. No one resists this long. No one trusts so completely."
The veils burst apart, revealing its true form: a shifting mass of glass and shadow, a face never settling, always changing. Its body pulsed with stolen fragments of their memories, their fears, their hopes.
The heroes stood side by side, weapons ready.
Carlos pointed his blade. "You're not truth. You're not even lies. You're just noise."
Mirith screamed, the sound like glass grinding on glass.
The final battle began.
The Shattering of Illusion
Mirith lashed out with a thousand shards of glass, each one carrying a different face. The battlefield twisted between nightmare and dream: sometimes a battlefield, sometimes their homes, sometimes places they'd never seen.
But the heroes held formation, fighting not the visions but the source.Rina's daggers found cracks in its shifting body.Lys's arrows struck the core of its veils.Thalor's shield absorbed the storm of glass, protecting the others.Maren's fire burned brighter than the illusions, revealing the truth beneath.And Carlos drove the Blade of Ascension into Mirith's core, light exploding outward.
The Illusion Keeper shattered. Its scream echoed as shards fell like rain, dissolving before they touched the ground.
The Realm of Illusions collapsed, leaving only silence.
The Next Descent
The heroes stood panting, bodies battered but unbroken.
The Helm's voice returned, sharper now, angrier."You resist again. But how many more realms before you break? The deeper you go, the less of you returns."
The ground dissolved beneath their feet, pulling them downward once more.