The world around Thoren continued to tremble.
Yet he remained frozen in his spot, his body completely motionless as he stared at the young man’s corpse lying in the pool of blood.
His eyes blinked repeatedly.
"Dead..."
His lips moved slowly.
"Dead..."
His voice trembled slightly as the same word escaped his mouth again and again, while his heart pounded heavily against his ribs.
"Dead..."
His fingers trembled.
His breathing became increasingly ragged.
The engagement ring inside his pocket suddenly felt unbearably heavy, and the happiness he had felt only moments ago seemed to become distant, almost foreign.
Just then, something rushed through his mind.
Boom!
A massive flood of memories suddenly erupted inside his consciousness.
The office disappeared.
Mabel disappeared.
The street disappeared.
The dead young man disappeared.
Everything was swallowed by an overwhelming torrent of memories that came rushing into his mind with such terrifying speed that Thoren almost collapsed beneath their weight.
Every memory that had been buried beneath the illusion returned at once, crashing against the false memories that had been carefully constructed around him.
Thoren’s body trembled violently.
He closed his eyes.
For several seconds, he did not move.
He simply stood there with his eyes shut, allowing the memories to settle inside his mind while his breathing gradually became more controlled.
Thoren slowly opened his eyes and the warmth that had filled his expression earlier was completely gone.
His deep blue eyes were cold.
Sharp.
Awake.
He took a deep breath and then he whispered.
"Soul Lantern of Eternal Crypt."
The moment those words left his mouth, everything shattered.
Crack!
The entire illusion collapsed.
Boom!
Darkness returned.
Thoren’s feet were once again standing upon the ancient black floor of the massive building.
The gigantic structure surrounded him in complete silence, its towering walls stretching into the darkness while the faint light coming from outside barely reached the entrance.
For several seconds, Thoren remained motionless.
His chest rose and fell heavily while his forehead was covered in cold sweat. Additionally, his breathing was rough, but he did not have time to care about it as he looked downward.
Instantly, his expression changed.
While he was lost in the realistic illusion, a strange mysterious dark liquid had flowed into the chamber and was climbing up to his chest.
It was drawing him in.
Thoren could feel it.
His body was being pulled downward.
Physically.
His soul and his consciousness.
The liquid trembled as though it had become irritated by his awakening. And from within the darkness came a faint sound that resembled countless whispers.
Thoren’s expression became solemn.
"So that’s what you were trying to do."
He immediately raised his hand, and the Soul Lantern of Eternal Crypt appeared.
It floated quietly beside him, its illusory body emitting a pale, ghostly light that spread across the hall.
The moment the light touched the strange liquid...
Screeeeech!
A terrifying sound erupted from the dark liquid. Instantly, it recoiled as though it had been burned by an invisible flame, rapidly retreating from his body
Thoren remained still.
The Soul Lantern continued hovering above him.
The strange liquid writhed violently across the floor, attempting to resist the lantern’s light, but it could not withstand it.
Screeeeech!
Another inhuman shriek echoed through the massive building.
The liquid finally abandoned its attempt to pull him down and rapidly retreated into the darkness, flowing backward across the floor before disappearing into the deepest part of the ancient structure.
Within a few seconds, nothing remained. Thoren stared into the darkness where it had vanished and his breathing became heavy.
"That was close..." He panted, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.
Too close.
Far too close.
He had prepared himself for countless possibilities before entering this place and considering everything he had experienced since entering the Abyss.
He had expected the final trial to involve a terrifying battle against some powerful creature, perhaps an existence capable of forcing him to summon every undead at his disposal.
He had prepared himself for blood.
For a life and death battle.
What he had not prepared himself for was forgetting who he was.
That was what made the illusion so terrifying.
It had not attempted to kill him.
It had attempted to make him willingly surrender.
If he had remained inside that illusion long enough, perhaps he would have completely accepted that life as reality, eventually forgetting everything.
The thought alone sent a cold shiver through his body.
Taking a deep breath, Thoren clenched his fist.
"I nearly lost..." He muttered softly.
Ever since he entered the abyss, this was the first time he had been close to losing. And that experience alone was something he would never forget.
After standing there for several minutes, his breathing finally returned to normal, and the tension that had gripped his body gradually receded as his mind once again became calm.
He looked around the massive building.
The illusion was gone and the darkness had returned.
The silence was once again absolute but this time, something was different.
Thoren could feel it.
The strange presence within the building had disappeared but the feeling of being watched remained.
But Thoren did not care.
He had survived and that was what matters.
Slowly, he raised his gaze and stared at the center of the massive building. And there stood a massive statue.
It was the only structure that appeared untouched by the passage of time, standing proudly in the middle of the enormous chamber while everything around it remained shrouded in darkness.
Thoren squinted and stared at the statue for a second before he slowly walked toward it. The closer he approached, the more ancient the statue appeared.
Its body was carved from an unknown black material that seemed neither stone nor metal, and strange patterns covered its surface from head to toe.
Its face was expressionless.
Its eyes were closed and its hands rested calmly before its chest.
But Thoren’s attention was not on its face but at the center of its chest. There, something was embedded there.
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