Soren waited for the Cosmic Vagrant's guidance for some sort of hint into his next trial, and as if on cue, it came.
"It's just as you have heard. Your second reward is something that can help you walk the Dao of Change to its true absolution."
The Cosmic Vagrant revealed just as the phoenix lifted its wings to reveal the entrance to the trial grounds: The Labyrinth of Lost Souls.
"To claim what you seek, you must undergo the Trial of Perception by navigating the labyrinth of lost souls, where reality lies veiled beneath layers of illusions."
Hearing this, Soren's eyes rippled briefly, as he realized that this trial was going to pose a totally different kind of difficulty compared to his first.
"The trial of perception is a test designed to challenge the depths of one's insight and intuition.
You will have to navigate through a mind-looping maze, layered with various illusions that are intent on keeping you within the maze until the end of time." The Phoenix explained.
Soren nodded, realizing why there was 'Lost Souls' in the name of the trial ground.
He steeled his courage and approached the Phoenix with a palpable aura of curiosity anticipation rippling forth from his presence.
Unlike the Mirror of Truth which tested his beliefs and resolve, this Labyrinth of Lost Souls was intent on testing his ability to perceive beyond the surface and discern truth from deception.
The moment Soren stepped into the labyrinth, the air around him shimmered with an otherworldly light, as he found himself standing before the entrance of a winding corridor.
One of many that were veiled in shifting mists that obscured one's senses.
Upon taking a step in, Soren's entire vision was suddenly transformed into one of a serene forest.
Here, the sunlight filtered through the canopies, casting dappled shadows on the forest floor, swarming Soren's senses with a foreign yet nostalgic sensation.
'This forest... why does it seem so... familiar?' Soren thought to himself, curiously observing his surroundings.
His frown deepened as he wracked his brain, trying to figure out what exactly the forest was trying to remind him of.
The sizes of trees, the colors of the fallen leaves and the serene sound of the flowing stream in the distance all culminated into scene that tugged at his senses and instincts.
It was almost as if mother nature was calling out to one of her own. However, the more he tried to answer, the more he felt like he was grabbing at fleeting mists.
Then all of a sudden, the atmosphere changed, as the air began to smell and taste differently.
Soren looked around, trying to detect the source of the change, but everything was just as they were before.
The shadows on the ground, the colors of the area and the sound water trickling in echoes; everything seemed normal.
However, despite his other physical senses not picking up anything different, his instincts kept warning him that something was dangerously amiss.
Soren seemed to enter the same state of hyperawareness he frequented back when he was surviving in the wastelands.
His pupils flickered as his 3D Energy vision returned to him in QHD.
Soren paused, his senses on high alert. He was no longer the little boy who just entered the wastelands for the first time.
Now, every information he perceived through his 3D Vision was analysed through the lens of his new mindset, giving him access to new conclusions he wouldn't have normally arrived at.
He unleashed every possible form of his senses, trying to search for the existent but invisible threat.
Then as if entering a strange state of alignment with the nature all around him; Soren entered a trance of some sort; and in that moment, the nature around him seemed to momentarily hold its breath.
This quietness allowed Soren's senses heighten, reaching a higher spectrum than he had reached at his peak when battling the Envoy and Sentient Emerald Core.
Then his span of perception seemed to shatter through a barrier and began to expand in span, covering a radius of fifty yards from him.
Instantly, Soren began to hear heartbeats; several of them, dotted over random locations within his fifty-yard perceptive radius.
For a moment, time seemed to bleed into a slow blur as Soren peered even deeper with his senses.
The very skin of his Soul Body began to itch in response to the changes in the environment, reminding him of his Hematite-Silt Skin.
Then came the nigh-imperceptible seismic tremors that pulsed into his very core, allowing him to sense any movement.
Then all of his senses came together and mapped out a new 3D version of the area, and then he saw it!
The source of the threat that had been making the skin of his soul body crawl with fear.
It appeared in a blur, striking out from the dense foliage without warning.
Soren felt all his senses tingle in danger all at once.
He instinctively leapt to the side as he narrowly evaded the massive maws of what appeared to be a giant anaconda.
The massive serpent loomed large; its thickness, exactly the same as the width of a school bus, and its length, longer than a dozen school buses, lined into a train.
Soren's heart pounded heavily, as a torrent of adrenaline flooded his entire being.
He burst into a violent sprint, his mind predicting and calculating his steps in the most efficient way possible; it was a feeling that felt familiar and yet foreign.
It was almost as if his Master Builder Gene was once again accompanying through his deadly encounters.
He bolted into the thick foliage, his instincts warning him to only move within the shadows provided by the tree canopies.
Nevertheless, chasing from behind, and in hot pursuit was the anaconda whose heat detecting snout and chemical probing forked tongue had long locked onto his trail.
In no time at all, Ryujin swiftly realized that the giant anaconda was significantly faster than he was, the rate at which it shortened the distance between them was both awe-inspiring and horrifying.
With a single thought, he abandoned his camouflage and darted through the forest in a straight line.
Soren knew that he could -by virtue of his current form- run through the forest in a straight line; however, the anaconda whose head was more sensitive would have to weave its way through.
As a result, Soren was able to increase and maintain the distance between them by a single yard, and that yard, bought his mind a brief moment of respite.
But, as if the heavens were intent on killing him, Soren suddenly found himself within a part of the forest where lots of fallen tree trunks and boulders were scattered everywhere.
If not for the brief moment of respite he bought his mind, he would have most definitely missed and trip over a trunk or boulder.
In the blink of an eye, the little respite he had gained abruptly vanished.
Realizing that he now had to maneuver his way around, Soren's mind used its brief recovery to overclock itself into finding a solution.
Soren's predator on the other hand, seemed to have been thrown straight in the middle of its favorite sport, a Spartan Race.
It glided and weaved its way through the tree trunks and boulders like a fish in the open seas.
Her prowess shone forth in all its glory, as she closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds.
~ SNAP! ~
The first bite came, missing Soren by the fraction of a hair's breadth; leaving him with a palpable reminder that he had now fallen within the striking range of his predator.
~ SNAP! SNAP! SNAP! ~
Soren dodged three more, as every single one of his steps became a calculated risk, and a potential trap in his dance with death.
His pursuer was relentless; her massive form morphing into a looming specter in the green; a silent wave of destruction.
He couldn't see, but only feel the pressure of her presence, and the dreadful threat it posed to his life.
'Is this the test?
Am I meant to simply survive this hunt and avoid death?
Why does this seem like a test of physical prowess?'
Soren thought mid-chase as he avoided another snap that sent a ringing noise prickling at his eardrums.
He had recklessly calculated his escape in response to the situation, and now it had led them to the edge of the forest.
At the edge lay a precipice overlooking a raging waterfall and a violently churning river below.
With no path left to tread, Soren was left with only one chance at survival. The very same one that was staring him in the face.
Soren had zeroed his mind on jumping off, but just as he was about to leap and surrender himself to air and gravity, his eyes flashed with a hint of craziness, and he began to decelerate rapidly.
He knew he was taking a gamble, and would most likely fail the test, but something within him was telling him that; should he jumped, he would most undoubtedly die.
Thus, since the road ahead leads to certain death, then he would have to go the way of probable death.
And with that, he ground himself to an abrupt skidding halt.
However, upon turning to face his predator, he was only met with the open maws of the latter; wide and locked-in for the kill.
The sight of hundreds of gleaming, serrated, sickle-looking teeth, carrying the sheen of brutal savagery, and an abyssal throat that beckoned at one's soul, made Soren's mind blank out.
He felt like his soul had been plunged into a tank of nitrogen gas, and before his reflexes could recover, it was already too late.
With a thundering snap that echoed across the forest, the giant anaconda took a massive bite, and sundered Soren in half.
~ ARGHH! ~
Soren screamed in anticipated horror, but the pain he had expected never came. instead, he only got a chuckle in response.
He opened his eyes.
The deepest core of his very soul trembled in fear as his legs turned to jelly.
He fell to his knees, trying his best to keep his erratic breath under control.
His eyes widened as he realized he was now back within the first tunnel of the labyrinth.
He frantically checked out his body, tying to confirm to himself that he was still completely whole.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't find any missing body part.
"Fork!" Soren yelled in frustration.
To think his entire experience was no more than a mere illusion?!
To think he had basked in, feared, and fled every single minute of it?
Soren knelt within the corridor of shifting mist; the dim otherworldly ambience casting a long shadow of his slumped visage across the maze walls.
He knew there was no one to blame but himself.
He had prided himself on his sharp instincts, and his ability to assess and navigate the trickiest of situations with an almost animalistic sense.
However, the trial of perception had proven to be a different beast altogether.
He let out a heavy sigh, his mind replaying the entire trial, as he began to search for the moment where he had confused his instincts for intuition.
'It was the ambience... the scents... the trees.. the rustling leaves... the trickling stream...
Heck, even the anaconda's presence had given me goosebumps!'
"How could I have been so blind?" He berated himself, his words laced with self-reproach.
The illusions were designed to deceive, to blur the lines between reality and perception, and he had fallen for it; hook, line, and sinker.
He remembered when his instincts had told him to run beneath the shadows...
When it had convinced him that he had the physical agility to maneuver through the forest foliage with blinding speed...
He had truly felt unchained back then... Prideful in the attributes that made up the very fibers of his physical nature...
But to think they were all lies... To think his instincts and thoughts were all part of the illusion.
'Unacceptable!' Soren reprimanded himself seriously; his hands clenching into fists.
"You're better than this, Soren.
You know you are!"
He scolded, the disappointment in his voice echoing through the tunnel-like corridor.
This wasn't a test about fight or flight, it was a dance of discernment, a challenge to separate the visceral gut reactions from the whispers of subconscious wisdom.