The moment Orin, Nyron, and Kai stepped through the gates, they were swallowed by a blinding light. The air shimmered around them, and suddenly, they were no longer standing in the castle courtyard. The world had changed.
Before them stretched an endless desert, the sky a brilliant shade of gold, with no signs of life. The silence was oppressive, heavy, as though the very air was holding its breath.
"What is this place?" Kai asked, looking around. His fists were clenched, ready for anything.
"This is the Trial of Light," Aurelius' voice echoed from somewhere behind them. "You will each face your personal fears in this place. The desert will show you the darkness hidden within."
Orin's stomach tightened. He had no idea what was coming, but something deep within him stirred a sense of dread he couldn't shake.
Without warning, the ground beneath them cracked open, and figures emerged from the depths of the desert, dragging themselves up from the sand. Orin's heart skipped a beat when he recognized them.
It was his family.
His mother and father, his younger sister all of them, standing before him, their faces twisted in agony, their eyes hollow. Their bodies were ashen, their limbs contorted in unnatural positions.
"Orin," his mother's voice called, weak but insistent. "Come home. We need you."
Orin's breath caught in his throat. He hadn't seen them in years hadn't even thought about them. But now, standing before him, they were impossible to ignore.
"No," he whispered, stepping back. "This isn't real."
But the figures didn't relent. His father's voice was cold and accusing. "You left us to die, Orin. You abandoned us."
His heart pounded in his chest as the memories of that fateful day the day he had left the World of Light came flooding back. The guilt, the regret, the sense of helplessness.
"Don't listen to them," Nyron's voice cut through the growing panic. Orin turned to see his friend's dark eyes focused on him. "It's not real. They're illusions, created by the World of Light."
But Orin couldn't shake the weight of the words. His parents' faces, their accusatory stares, haunted him.
"You can't keep running," his father's voice echoed in the desert.
"Face your past, Orin," his sister's voice added, softer but no less piercing.
Orin staggered back, his breath ragged, his mind struggling to push through the haze of doubt. He couldn't face them again not like this.
Nyron stepped forward, his shadow powers swirling around him like a cloak. "Orin. Focus. You have to break free of this illusion. Don't let the past control you."
But it was easier said than done. The voices of his family the people he had loved and lost continued to taunt him, dragging him deeper into despair.
Orin clenched his fists, his resolve hardening. He wouldn't let the past define him.
With a roar, he thrust his sword forward, cutting through the air. The illusion shattered like glass, and the figures before him crumbled into dust. The desert around them began to fade, the golden light returning.
Aurelius' voice echoed in their ears once more. "One trial down. Many more to come. The next will be harder."
Orin, his heart still racing, took a deep breath. He had passed the first trial but the path ahead was far from over.