The forest around the grove did resolve into the unknown as we continued our march toward the Nexus. The air thickened after every step taken,almost palpably thick with oppression, as if the system itself was clamping down on us the closer we ventured. Of course, this feeling would hardly be more solid than after the trial with the Beast of Shadows: we were walking into the trap the system had set-most likely for which there wasn't even a chance for escape.
Ember, bruised and battered from the fight, forged ahead; her ears were cocked, and she moved warily. I'd managed to patch us up with what little we had, but neither of us had the luxury of time to recover. The system wasn't going to give us the time to lick our wounds.
The path ahead was a curving, narrow passage hedged around by twisted trees soaring high into the sky. As we pressed deeper into the forest, I had the strongest sensation that the trees watched us, shifting weight when I looked at them sideways. Shadows danced and leapt upon each other unnaturally, taking forms that disappeared in a blink.
Suddenly, a familiar sound came into my head.
[System Notification: Trial Two – The Veil of Illusions]
The path ahead is treacherous, filled with illusions and lies
Uncover the truth or be consumed by the falsehoods
Reward: Access to the inner Nexus gates.
"Here it goes again," I growled, wheeling on Ember. "This time, hallucinations."
She quivered her tail. "Illusions are more dangerous than any beast: they get in your head. Once we are caught in an illusion, we may never know it until it's too late.
I nodded, bracing myself. The system wasn't only to batter our physical skills but also our perception, our belief in reality. My heart was racing where my pulse was. Whatever the waiting illusions were, they were going to be deadlier than anything so far thrown our way.
We went on with caution, our feet tracing a winding way. Thick with every step went the air, a heavy fog rolled, concealing the road. Trees that had been so familiar now stood specter-like, barely visible across the murk. It seemed as though the whole world was warping around us, and this feeling of unease in my chest grew.
Then, out of nowhere, a voice came to me. A soft, familiar voice.
"Lei… Shen…"
I froze, my heart missing a beat completely. That voice-it could not be.
"Lei Shen…" it was calling again, this time more insistently.
Slowly, I turned-my eyes went sweeping through the fog-and there she was: my sister, older sister Hana, standing there as if plucked from my memories. Her hair streamed down her back, and her eyes, those soft eyes I hadn't seen in such a very long time, were fixed on me all warm. My breath caught in my throat.
"Hana?" I whispered, unable to believe what I was seeing.
"Lei, I've been looking for you," she said, her voice low but with urgency in it. "Come with me. I can take you home. This place… you don't belong here."
Home. The word cut like a blade through me. Could it be? Had the system contrived somehow of returning her to me?
I stepped forward, but Ember's voice cut through the fog. "Lei Shen! No!" She darted in front of me, her golden eyes ablaze. "It's not real! She's not real!
I demurred, my head spinning in bewilderment. But it was real even the tiniest detail, even the faintest shadow of her presence, rang true to my memory. How could it be an illusion?
Don't listen to her, Lei," Hana said softly, almost as though begging. "You're in danger here. You need to come with me.".
Ember growled, her posture riddled with tension. "It's a trick, the system messing with your head; you have to look through it.
My fists were clenched, my head a muddle of jumbled attempts at clear thought. It was a battleground in my skull, torn between the worn love of my sister and the brutal reality Ember was trying to push upon me. Something, though. was off. The more I focused on Hana, the more her form seemed to fade out toward the distance, like being swallowed up by the fog. I blinked, and in that instant, her bright, warm smile flickered and was replaced by an icy, vacant stare.
It was a trick.
I shook my head, and my heart weighed heavy. "You're not real," I mouthed, stepping backward. "You're not my sister."
The image of Hana distorted, her figure contorting to a grotesque shape. Her once warm eyes sank into dark, hollow cavities as her skin lost its color, stretching as if it had all life sucked from it. A guttural hiss was let out, and the illusion ruptured, the figure dissolved into mist. I let out a shaking breath, my heart still racing. Ember set a comforting paw on my shoulder. "That's how it works," she said, her voice gentling. "It'll show you what you want to see, what you fear, anything to get you off track. You have to trust what's real.
I nodded, trying to steady myself. Yet the system wasn't through with me.
The fog wrapped around us again, and this time it wasn't some lonesome voice; it was chaos-voices of friends and family, of enemies, all rising and falling within that mist, faces coming and disappearing like phantoms. Every illusion now seemed more actual to me, for each pulled on my memories, played on my deepest fears and desires. For a moment, even I saw myself-apparently older, scarred, and weary-warning me against this path.
"It's endless," I muttered through gritted teeth, pushing forward. "How do we fight this?"
Ember shook her head. "We don't fight. We focus on what's real. What's true."
I breathed in deeply, ordering myself to filter out the maddening, swirling illusions as best I could. My mind fastened onto one constant in all of this chaos: Ember. She was real. The system couldn't fabricate her presence, the sound of her voice, or what we'd created between us.
"I am not buying any of this," I growled, pressing ahead. "We leave, now."
We became desperate with the illusions: vicious, yet we would not turn back. It was as if with every step the fog was losing its hold, the voices receding to a distant whisper. Then, in an instant, the fog broke and a narrow way opened up ahead of them, lit by some weird, faint luminescence.
[System Notification: Trial Two – Complete]
The Veil of Illusions has been dispelled
Proceed to the inner gates of the Nexus
Relief washed over me as I read the notification. We had made it through the second trial, the weight of what I'd seen still resting deep within my chest. The system had dug deep, tugging out the memories and emotions that hadn't bothered me in a long time.
But I had survived, and that was what mattered.
"Well done, Lei Shen," Ember said quietly but firmly. "That was… not as easy as I'd thought it would be."
I had looked at her, flashing a small, worn smile. "Thanks for pulling me out of that." She nodded, her gaze still fixed on the path ahead.
"We're almost there. The next one is bound to be worse, I'm sure, but at least we know we will be able to manage it. I took a deep breath, my resolve hardening. "Whatever the system throws at us, we'll face it together."
Now the illusions gone, with the tall spire of the Nexus right before us, we plunged forward. The final test lay beyond, with the answers that I had been in pursuit of since my first breath.
But inside my head, I knew very well that the price I was paying might be on the higher side for those answers.