---
The silence in the chamber stretched on, heavy and oppressive. Kaelen stood alone amidst the shattered remnants of the creature that had once haunted the labyrinth. The anger that had fueled him through the last battle had faded, replaced by an eerie calm. He felt… strange, almost disconnected from his own body.
Seraphine and Ariella exchanged uneasy glances, unsure whether the worst had truly passed.
"Is it really over?" Seraphine asked, her voice uncertain as she slowly approached Kaelen.
Kaelen didn't respond immediately. He was too focused on the space around him. The walls no longer shimmered with the malevolent energy of the labyrinth. The room was still. But it didn't feel like freedom.
Ariella looked up, squinting at the swirling air above them. "Look at the ceiling," she murmured, pointing. "It's… shifting?"
Indeed, the air above them was no longer solid. It seemed to ripple, as though reality itself was flickering, shifting between different states of being. Kaelen could feel something moving, like an invisible force tugging at him, pulling him away from this world. It wasn't the labyrinth anymore—it was something deeper, something beyond.
The ground beneath them began to tremble once more, but this time, it wasn't a natural quake. It was as if the very fabric of the world was unraveling.
"What's happening?" Seraphine demanded, her staff raised in defense, the crystal at its tip glowing faintly.
Kaelen clenched his fists, trying to steady himself. His Wrath Points were fluctuating erratically, as though they were being drawn toward some invisible force. He could feel the system reacting to something, but the sensation was different from before. His power felt… distant.
"Stay close," Kaelen said, though he didn't know exactly why. Something was wrong—this didn't feel like victory.
The air around them began to shimmer violently, warping in strange, almost nonsensical ways. The world flickered again, and for a heartbeat, Kaelen saw a vast, endless sky filled with swirling colors—a realm far different from this one.
---
**Wrath Points: 130 / 20.**
---
A sudden, sharp pain stabbed through Kaelen's head, like an electric shock. His knees buckled, and he gasped, clutching his skull in an attempt to stave off the overwhelming sensation. The edges of his vision blurred, the world twisting unnaturally.
"Kaelen!" Ariella's voice reached him through the haze, but it was distorted, as though coming from a great distance.
A flash of blinding light erupted before his eyes.
---
---
---
When Kaelen's vision cleared, he was no longer standing in the labyrinth. The room he had been in—the strange, shifting chamber—was gone. He stood instead in a vast, open field. The sky above him was clear and blue, stretching endlessly in every direction. Birds flew overhead, their song serene and peaceful.
"Wha—?" Kaelen blinked, stunned, trying to make sense of the sudden change in scenery.
The ground was solid beneath him, but it didn't feel like the same world. The air was lighter, freer. He looked around, expecting to see Seraphine and Ariella—but there was no sign of them. His heart began to race.
"Where are they?" he muttered, his voice hoarse as he took a step forward.
He was alone.
A soft rustling of the grass behind him made Kaelen whirl around, but he was met with only the emptiness of the field. There was no sign of the labyrinth. No sign of the creature. No sign of anything but this peaceful landscape.
Kaelen gritted his teeth. He couldn't let this disorienting scene fool him. Something was still wrong. The labyrinth was destroyed, the creature was vanquished—but this wasn't supposed to be the end. He had to find Seraphine and Ariella. He had to find a way back to the world they had come from.
But the longer he stood there, the more unsettled he felt. His Wrath Points were fluctuating wildly, as though the very fabric of the world was being rewritten. And then he felt it—a presence. A shadow just beyond the edge of his perception.
He turned, instinctively reaching for the power inside him. But the moment his hand moved, the world around him twisted.
The sky dimmed, and the once peaceful field began to wither, the grass turning brittle and dry, the air heavy with a sudden, oppressive weight.
And then, standing before him, was a figure.
---
It was a woman, tall and imposing, with dark, flowing hair that seemed to absorb the light around her. Her eyes glowed with an unsettling intensity, like two burning stars in the middle of an endless void.
"You…" Kaelen began, his voice catching in his throat as he recognized the presence. "Who are you?"
The woman smiled, but there was no warmth in it. Her expression was cold, calculating. "*I am the one who controls the dream.*"
Kaelen's heart skipped a beat. "Dream?"
"Yes," she said softly, stepping closer. "*The labyrinth was never real. You've been asleep this whole time, trapped in a dream.*"
Kaelen's world tilted on its axis. The labyrinth, the battles, the chaos, the struggles—they had all been nothing but illusions. It had all been a dream?
He gritted his teeth. "No. This… this can't be true."
The woman tilted her head, her smile never wavering. "*You've done well to fight through it all. But now, it's time to wake up.*"
Kaelen's mind reeled, the implications of her words crashing over him like a wave. He had spent so long in the labyrinth, so long struggling with his anger and fears, that he had forgotten one crucial thing: *What if it was all just a dream?*
His heart pounded in his chest as he took a step back, but the woman's voice stopped him.
"*You're not free yet, Kaelen.*" Her words were a whisper in the wind, but they carried an unbearable weight. "*This is not your world. You are a dreamer, and dreams always end.*"
The world around him began to fade, the once-verdant field disintegrating into mist. Kaelen could feel the edges of his consciousness unraveling, the dream slipping away from his grasp.
"*Wake up…*" the woman's voice echoed, the words growing distant.
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