---
Kaelen's mind reeled as the reality of the situation began to settle in. The serene world, the comforting presence of Ariella, the gentle touch on his back—it all felt too perfect. Too easy. The illusion was too well-crafted, too meticulous in its design.
He was still trapped.
*This isn't real. It can't be real.*
His breath hitched as he turned away from Ariella, his eyes darting around the room, his senses alert. The dreamlike quality of everything around him was suffocating. The warm bed, the peaceful landscape outside the window—it was all an elaborate lie. The labyrinth had done this before. It had tricked him, manipulated his thoughts and emotions, and now it was doing it again, wrapping him in an illusion of safety.
But Kaelen wasn't going to fall for it again.
He wasn't the same person he had been when he first entered the labyrinth. He had learned to control his anger, to channel it, to harness it as a weapon. And now, he had to use that strength to break free from the illusion that held him.
---
**Wrath Points: 200 / 20.**
---
The system's prompt flashed in his mind, the familiar surge of power almost too overwhelming to ignore. His Wrath Points were maxed out, yet they felt like they belonged to someone else. It was like the system was mocking him, teasing him with the promise of power that meant nothing in this fake world.
Kaelen clenched his fists, the familiar burn of anger igniting within him once more. It was more than just rage—it was determination. He refused to let this dream control him.
"Kaelen," Ariella's voice was soft again, but there was a strange edge to it now, one that sent a shiver down his spine. "You need to accept that this is where you belong. This is your home. This is where you're meant to be."
"No!" Kaelen shouted, his voice breaking through the illusion like a sword cutting through silk. "I don't belong here. None of this is real!"
Ariella's eyes narrowed, the softness in her expression vanishing. For the first time, he saw something darker flicker in her gaze. "You're just making this harder on yourself, Kaelen."
The world around him began to shift. The edges of the room blurred, the colors of the landscape outside the window began to twist, and the walls seemed to melt away. Kaelen's heart pounded in his chest as he stepped back, realizing that the dream was beginning to collapse around him.
"I know what you're doing," Kaelen growled, his voice low and steady. "And I'm not falling for it. I'm not going to let you control me."
Ariella's face twisted into something unrecognizable. It was no longer the soft, caring expression he had seen before. This… thing was something else—something darker, something that wasn't real.
"You're still not awake, are you?" she hissed, her form flickering like a candle in the wind.
Kaelen felt his anger spike, the Wrath Points surging within him once again. His power was still there, but now, it wasn't just a tool—it was his way out. The dream, the labyrinth, everything was feeding off his emotions, trying to keep him trapped in this twisted world. But he wouldn't give in.
With a roar, Kaelen slammed his fists into the ground. The impact cracked the floor beneath him, sending a ripple through the fabric of the illusion. For a moment, the entire world seemed to freeze, as if the dream was hesitating, unsure of how to proceed.
Kaelen's heart raced, but this time, he didn't back down. He focused on the power surging through him—the raw, uncontrollable anger that had always been his strength. He channeled it, shaping it into a force of will, something more than just a reaction to his circumstances.
The world around him shattered.
---
**Wrath Points: 0 / 20.**
---
Kaelen's vision blurred as the dream world crumbled, the fragments of illusion falling away like dust in the wind. The peaceful room disappeared, replaced by the cold, oppressive darkness of the labyrinth. The stone walls returned, the fog swirling in the air like a living thing. The ground beneath him trembled, and the oppressive sense of weight and pressure returned.
But this time, Kaelen stood firm.
"*This* is real," he muttered to himself, his voice filled with resolve. "I'm awake now. And I'm not letting this labyrinth control me anymore."
Behind him, he could hear a familiar voice—Seraphine's voice—calling to him from the shadows.
"Kaelen," she said, her tone sharp but relieved. "You did it. You broke through."
Kaelen turned to face her, feeling a strange sense of clarity in his chest. Seraphine's expression was one of quiet admiration. "We didn't think you'd make it. Not after all of that."
He smiled weakly, still reeling from the collapse of the dream. "You… you knew?"
Seraphine nodded, her eyes dark with understanding. "The labyrinth preys on your emotions. It twists your desires, your fears, into something you can't escape from. But you broke free. You were the only one who could."
Kaelen's gaze hardened as he realized the full weight of what had just happened. The labyrinth hadn't just been testing him—it had been trying to break him, to make him give in. It had wanted him to surrender to the power of his anger, to lose himself in the illusion of control.
But Kaelen had fought back. He had refused to be manipulated.
"It's not over, though," Kaelen said, his voice steady now. "This is just the beginning. We need to finish what we started."
Seraphine's eyes narrowed as she stepped forward. "And we will. But we need to stay focused. The labyrinth won't stop trying to break us. It's just getting started."
Kaelen nodded, his mind already shifting to the next challenge. He had broken free from the dream. Now, he had to face the labyrinth in full.
But this time, he wasn't afraid.
This time, he was in control.
---