Cruising through the maze, we managed to get back all the distance I lost. Building this thing was the best decision I’ve ever made. Sure, I may have nearly died a couple of times, but it was worthwhile in the end. Lyanna looking out the small window at the front of the carriage with an expression that’s both interested and bored at the same time,

  “So how far away are we?” She asks.

  “Not even close” I reply in disdain.

  I kind of feel bad she doesn’t know how damn big this thing is.

  Cold air brushes past me, my nose twitches and I finally take note; The temperature here doesn’t climb or fall. It’s just fucking cold as shit all the time.

  We pass through a pathway and enter a much wider area. The walls seem further apart here and feels like the pressure drops for a second. The atmosphere’s the same, but something just very Slightly feels off… Or maybe it’s just me.

  “Lemme guess, there’s another monster here.” I laugh as Lyanna’s expression changes.

  “You just jinxed it didn’t you”

  I mean, maybe.

  “Did I?”

  Our now ‘motorized-cart’ rolls pass the center of the area, but nothing happens.

  “See?”

  Lyanna sighs and leans back on her seat. We pass into the next pathway, yet nothing happens. I really expected something to happen there, guess my judgment was wrong.

  We follow the route I drew out and through my vessel on top, I confirm there’s nothing in our path to obstruct us. But the weird thing is there’s a dome-like structure in the middle of this maze, and let me tell you this, it’s pretty big. I wouldn’t go so far and say massive, but it’s big enough the fit one and a half school’s building. It’ll take us a few days to get there, so there’s time to prepare for what’s there.

  Taking a left, we turn into a path that splits into two pathways with curved walls following their direction.

  That’s fairly odd. We didn’t come across any areas like this, is there something ahead? I can’t be sure.

  I slow down the cart as much as I can while still rolling; What should I do here?

  The sound of wind against my ear goes away as I decide to bring the cart to a stop, and out of options, I hop off the cart to get a better.

  “Wait- A-“

  Lyanna hesitates for a second.

  “Aarius?”

  “You might want to see this”

  The cart tilts as Lyanna opens the door to get out, and as she also gets a better view of what I’m seeing,

  “What’s up- Oh”

  She skips a breath as both paths are completely engulfed in a shadow of some sort. I ran analysis, and from what I could get back, this is a barrier. It’s a one-way barrier with special distortion layered. How the fuck does that even work.

  Lyanna freezes in place as her eyes fixate on the darkness in front of us. It’s almost as if she’s stuck in a trans. What the…

  Her eyes red as she falls into a blank stare, and before her limbs go numb, I catch her by the back.

  “Oi Wake Up!”

  Lyanna slowly turns to reality, and her eyes tear up.

  “Are you ok!?”

  She doesn’t respond, but she does sit down as her body takes control again.

  “I…” She mutters.

  What in the fuck just happened there? There’s something she definitely isn’t telling me, I could tell that for the few hours we were together.

  “I’m fine.” She says stuttering under her breath.

  “I doubt that…”

  “Just don’t worry about it”

  Child just tell me what’s wrong.

  I let her lye down for a bit so she hopefully relaxes and inspect the barrier to get as much intel as I can.

  Analysis activates again, but it’s all the same details again. Mana variety, Barrier type, Activation Spell, Skill… All of them just return null. I’m not getting anything at all. It’s either these barriers aren’t your conventional ones, or they don’t run on any mana; Both seem right in actuality. I don’t even know what to think of these.

  Getting up close to the pathway on the left, I run my hand across the barrier, but it just passes through.

  SHIT.

  I quickly drag my hand back but it still remains intact.

  “What.”

  Wait what. So so, what I’m guessing is the full entity has to pass through in order for it to block you out?

  “Well… That’s interesting”

  I suddenly feel a sensation on my back out of the blue, and my skill activation scatters everywhere.

  “JESUS- Oh it’s you”

  Fucks sake Lyanna.

  “I think we should take this path”

  “Eh? Why do you think that?”

  “Just a feeling” She says with a smile.

  “Uh, Ok?”

  I mean either-which-way we take, we don’t have a clear way of knowing what’s in there, sooo,

  Fuck it.

  I drag Lyanna into the carriage and sit her next to the chair beside me.

  “Eh?” Lyanna looks in shock

  “Just sit there child”

  “Ok” with a slight chuckle.

  I start the engine back up, and we take the left path. I take a slow breath as I stop fiddling with the steering wheel and hit the accelerator. We rumble to a start, and I yank the wheel left so we can fit through. We roll right in front of the barrier, and the tip of what I can see in the engine passes through.

  I push the accelerator just a bit more, and as the barrier passes over us, I can see a tablet on right in front of a wall.

  “What’s that?” Lyanna asks while I press my head against the wheel in relief.

  Getting to the tablet near our turn, I stop the engine and hop off.

  Let us see what se- what the ee- I can’t rhyme damn it.

  Lyanna gets off from the left and I jump off of the right. I get closer to inspect the tablet and find, Writing?

  There’s some writing on it, but I don’t understand the language on it. I glide my thumb against the tablet and find that there’s specs of what seem like granite on the stone tablet.

  Brushing the dust off to get a clearer view, but I still can’t understand what’s written on it.

  Lyanna scooches next to me, and observes the writing as she suddenly has a revelation,

  “I know this”

  Confused and shocked I reply,

  “What… How? I haven’t even seen writing like this anywhere”

  Lyanna tilting her head, starts analyzing the text written on it.

  “It was sort of o- a language my parents taught us, they kind of made us”

  Huh.

  This language is definitely not native to earth. Analyze can’t even get a read on this text, but she knows?

  “It says [To those who wish to pass Ascension, you must first overcome the shackles this verse bounds the mind to]”

  Even more confusion layers on me and I’m left wondering what I’m supposed to do, what we’re supposed to do.

  Ignoring how she even knows this language, ‘Overcome your biggest fear’? And ‘Ascension’? Where the hell did I end up. This is all just disorienting to me.

  Lyanna taps me on the shoulder, and I’m brought back to my senses.

  “There’s a trial of sorts here. Whatever you do, Don’t Stay In The Cart when we eventually encounter this”

  My mind races with all the information I’m getting now, and focusing on the main point, It’s too much of a hazard keeping Lyanna in the cart if we have to fight against something; she’s too vulnerable in there if that’s the case. That’s a huge if because I don’t think we’ll be doing much fighting if we do enter this trial.

  Lyanna jumps back onto the carriage, and I start the engine.

  As we start moving again, I look through our path ahead to see if there’s any area’s that look like a trial area, but find nothing. There’s nothing out of the ordinary here.

  It all looks normal to me, excluding the dome in the center. We turn right from the tablet and move through the pathways. I keep a close eye from above and stay on high alert. All the noises around me amplify, almost like staying in an overly silent room and I start becoming more hyperaware. I can hear everything around me from the tires moving to the beating of my heart. My eye’s jolt everywhere in case of danger, the cart hits a small bump and bounces.

  A pressure suddenly hits the cart from above. The air booms as the pressure pulsates, and I’m completely taken off guard.

  “JESUS CHRIS-”

  The space above us morphs into a long corridor as shadows overlap revealing lamps that appear, lighting up our way.

  The hell did this come from?

  The carriage shakes a bit after the pressure disappeared and I hurry to check on Lyanna; She’s Lyanna curled up into a ball.

  From Lyanna’s perspective, she perceived it as the lights flashing out in a burn and walls caving in as shadows warp her. Complete darkness spreads over the carriage for a second, but for her, time runs slower. Her eyes widen as she starts remembering, memories she doesn’t want to have, events she wished had never occurred, hallucinations envelop her sight; The absolute horror of a creature she had the fate of seeing sends shivers down her body. Fear overwhelms her, they get closer, and panic runs throughout her entirety. Tears scream as the faces grow closer and she reaches her breaking point.

  I run to the back and swing open the door. Lyanna in literal tears, I run to her side as I kneel down in front of her. She looks like the life was ripped out of her and on top of all the damn feelings I’m going through, I start to feel worry.

  “Lyanna!” Tears bleed out of her.

  She’s breathing heavily and her face looks pale. Her voice stutters, and I pat her on the head, but she turns away.

  “Lyanna.. Are you ok?”

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  She sits up covering her face and doesn’t react. Something happened here, but what? Did something appear back here? No that can’t be it, I didn’t feel anything. Her curly dark hair hides her face and she looks in pieces.

  Taking a deep breath, she replies,

  “Yeah”

  …

  “Be honest with me, what did you see?”

  Through her hair I can see her biting her lips.

  I don’t want to be a total dumbass, but I have a small theory,

  “Was it your pa-”

  Her body tenses.

  “Oh.”

  What should I do here. I don’t.. know how to comfort a child.

  I get closer shouldering her head on mine and pat her back.

  “I’m... sorry that happened to you.”

  I don’t know what to say next, fuck I’m useless when it comes to these. I’m not experienced in things like this, I don’t know how to make her feel better.

  She grips her hands around me and calms herself down.

  “It’s fine.” Her voice so quite she almost whispers.

  I... Fuck. (Sends me back huh).

  “Come on, you can come with me on the front. I don’t want to leave you here”

  The best I can offer her is this; In the very least. I don’t know why I think this is the best decision, but it’s just a feeling. If my moronic ass can’t even comfort her properly, this is the least I can do for her.

  I slide my hands under her and lift her carefully. Her gaze jolts everywhere, but her body is completely frozen.

  I carry her to the front and sit her next to me.

  “Want this?”

  I hand her a Switchblade I created that moves like a fidget toy. I made it in plastic so she won’t end up hurting herself. Or should I have made a toy of some kind? I mean she’s not that small ri-

  Lyanna grabs the blade off my hand and replies in a soft tone,

  “Sure.”

  Hm.

  I kickstart the engine back up and hit the acceleration. Roaming through the corridors, I repeatedly check from my vessel above but I can’t locate where we are. With my unoccupied right eye, I scan for danger.

  “I can see the ending of this corridor” I say in hopes Lyanna responds.

  With a few meters right in front of us, I can clearly see an opening. Looks to be leading to a darker area.

  Confirming Lyanna is strapped in properly, I hit the pedal and we start picking up speed.

  The engine’s rumbling grows louder for some reason, and as the distance between us and opening shrinks, the space around us starts bending in. Not the walls, but the very space itself. Ah shit.

  My body suddenly feels like it’s being pulled from my head, my vision distorts even more and grab Lyanna on the shoulder.

  The engine’s rumbling grows into a scratch and before my ears blow, everything fades to pitch black with my eye’s still open.

  I can’t feel Lyanna anymore. There’s something wrong here.

  I feel like I’m floating for a second and it’s like my body is doing backflips as my back curves in an arc. My arms and legs fly as my body rotates, but my head oddly feels stable.

  White streaks of light appear as my body flips and I suddenly land on my feet creating a ripple in whatever I’m standing on. The light streaks collide with the ground under me with some dissolving into it with some streaks running along it. Some streaks on the ground run past me, illuminating my skin.

  Where am I this time? It’s completely dark here, I can barely see anything, but one thing is clear, this is likely the start of the trial. Most likely Lyanna was sent to the same place.

  I take a step forward and a sudden bright light blinds me. Covering my eyes, I let some light bleed in and my eyes adjust.

  “what the fuck.”

  My eyes widen and my heart skips a beat. Chains curl around my body as I’m restrained and a celestial body, the moon, crumbles as glowing magma fly. But one thing wants to make my body run for it; Everything is upside down, down side up, right and left switches, copies- no reflections of me in different points of time, scatters absolutely everywhere.

  I don’t even take the time to formulate words, and my skills instinctually trigger.

  Analysis and Creation both trigger out of the blue, and without me even visualizing anything, my emotions drive Creation, and the chains phase out?

  Finally free, my eyes jump everywhere to get a better sense of the situation, and before I can make a conclusion, not even think in fact, Spacial awareness triggers and my body dodges as a something attacks right next to me.

  SHIT!

  I catch my step and as I turn my head, I’m left with more questions than answers as I face a copy of myself, but more uncannily morphed and distorted. Its eyes don’t glow, but it embodies darkness. HUH!?

  The copy of me booms at me, and I try to assess the situation to make an attack. I dodge right again, and I think of a strategy.

  I create acceleration circles, and it

  COPIES ME? WHAT THE FU-

  We both get a boost in speed, and I’m left in confusion as it exactly, perfectly copies what I did. H-HOW?

  That won’t work then, Oh I’m fucked. I think and think, but with my mind runs haywire, even the slightest thought I had becomes unreachable.

  I’ll just brute force this then.

  I flash towards the copy of me with another acceleration circle and it copies me. I meet with its stomach, and right as I go for a blow, it still reads me perfectly. Already knowing this, I curve my body away and using all of the force I can, land a blow on its back sending a shockwave rippling out of this space.

  The copy of me flies for a second, and using even more acceleration circles layered on anti-gravity like the cocaine to my circles, I bounce up and crash it downwards.

  This body its copied of me stays resilient and within a blink, he’s suddenly gone. AH FOR FUCKS SAKE.

  My back crunches against my lungs, and I face plant onto the stone ground. My lower jaw fractures, and IT HURTS LIKE FUCKING HELL. I regret to not use healing circles knowing, he’ll be reflecting me, and thus without anymore options left, “Fuck it!”.

  Its silhouette releases an aura equivalent to me against the light of the fractured moon behind it, and I start again.

  I grip onto the ground and sling shot myself using circles. I lunge my foot at it, and it dodges as I just barely miss it. But, “FUCK YOU”, I drag it with me as I get thrown into an inverted plane where right is up.

  I boost my speed again as I zoom around it, and using creation, I create sharp astralite swords right next to it, knowing full well the risks, but it slides under and before it attempts to do the same to me, I create myself a sword. Using all the strength I have, I slice around the sword remembering what I’ve seen other soldiers do, and it does the same, but attempts to parry.

  Swords materialize as I create more next to its neck and dash in the opposite direction so I don’t behead myself.

  I spin my body in a twirl and swing the sword to its neck.

  My sword collides with its neck, but it just stays stationary. A barrier keeps me from landing a blow, and before I can register it, the copy of me replicates my movements, and a sword swings my way. FUCK

  I redirect my swords and parry as I jump away from this damn one-to-one of me.

  I take deep breaths as my jaw bleeds and I can feel my nose blocking up.

  What do I do here?! I’m completely fucked whatever I do. Is there a way I can stop it from copying me? Because whatever the hell skill I use, or circle, its just going to do the same. It’s going to copy everything I do, everything I do huh.

  My special awareness activates and my vision switches.

  Wait a damn minute.

  I’m revealed to the traces of mana around me, and I’m left in absolute shock as thread like connections run from my body to the ground and… everywhere, all leading to him…

  WHAT IN THE LIVING NAME OF ALL I LOVE AM I LOOKING AT HERE??

  They’re all mana based somehow, and I think I have a plan.

  My gaze jumps everywhere as my eyes lock onto connection points where threads cluster up, and circles appear under me as the replica of me stares blankly at me.

  Ripples of hot air spread out under me, and within a single flick, my body thrusts away.

  My trajectory locks onto a cluster I noted down before, and in less than a second I zoom through the inverted and distorted planes as I come in a meter of the cluster on the upside-down reflection of the previous area.

  All of my skills trigger at the same time, more specifically, all the damn skills I have for attack. Circles-upon-circles overlap each other, and still without any mana, this turns into the only skill I can use.

  Aero, Glacio, Aquant, Gravity, Disruption, every single mother-fucking circle I know activates.

  A loud pounding blare explodes out of the cluster, and lucky for me, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT FUCKING WORKS!!.

  All of this happens within the span of a few milli seconds, and with all the acceleration layered, on me, time is basically just non-existent.

  My broken jaw flexes as I spin in the opposite direction facing other clusters I see, and like the flash, my body crashes around at nearly lightning speed, and in a second or so, all the connections that previously had existed are just, well kaboom.

  Acceleration completely dissipates, and I grab onto myself as I land on the ‘proper’ ground again. My head is literally spinning from all the perspective changes I just went through, and I catch my breathe.

  Oh thank god that’s done with, just a little bit… more.

  My brain wants to take a rest, and the nausea from the acceleration is actually threatening me to pass out. My vision starts to blur as I get more distorted, I hold my body up from the pain, and blood still pours out of my mouth.

  I’m… bleeding out. This might be… the end for me…

  I can barely breathe, and after all I’ve done, the replica of me is perfectly fine.

  The roots… are gone… Just need to… execute…

  I try to push my body to stand, but the pain from every part of my body and the exhaustion might be too much for me.

  My heart thumps louder than ever before, and body quivers from the terror that,

  I might ac… actually… die.

  The replica still does nothing, but I’m at the verge of blacking out.

  Breathe… Ar…. Breathe…I can’t…die here

  I gasp as my lungs fill with fluid, and I think I’m at the end of my road…

  My legs give out, and I fall to the floor. The rips in my skin finally open, and I start bleeding even more. I lose energy by the second, and I come to a point where, I start finally believing,

  This is… the end of my road.

  My body relaxes, I start to feel at peace, my eye lids give out slowly and I’m about to fall into a deep sleep, that I probably won’t be waking up from.

  …

  I take a deep breath.

  “FUCK NO”

  My body twirls in a spin as I zoom around the ground, blood spills everywhere from all crevices of my body, and I’LL PUT THIS DAMN SKILL TO USE.

  Monsters I’ve seen in the damn maze and in the overworld, all form as husks as I imagine them around, pushing through the pain, but this time, YO BITCH ASS CAN’T COPY NOW HUH.

  They form as lone husks without a soul, but using the mana I collected from extracting off of the threads, I materialize mana crystals, and within mere seconds, I give life to the creatures, and within a single soul bond,

  “YOUR FUCKING MINE”

  I gasp again as I try to take a breathe while dashing around the grounds, and before the replica can react, all the monsters I gave life to, jolt at it.

  Swords materialize all around it as it tries to dodge, but the creatures lunge at it. The replica’s skin is ripped off by them, and one manages to take an arm with it. Its eyes widen, and before it even has the chance to tilt its body, swords materialize around the damn thing, and within a second, all of the crush inwards, and pierce the flesh of the replica.

  Its mouth opens in pain, but not a sound reverberates. The monsters cover up over it, a celestial sized sword materializes over its prison, Gravity circle passes through the sword, and as final move in this giant game of chess I have to endure,

  “See you in hell.”

  The sword crushes down, and its body is crushed. Blood splatters like a mosquito, and I finally sit down.

  I’m finally… done…

  I completely pass out on the floor and my body rests on the ground as the world glitches.

  Sensitivity returns and I can feel grass under me. I can feel grass under me- I CAN FEEL-

  My body jolts up in shock that I’m, ALIVE!!??

  “HOLY SHIT I’M ALIVE-”

  Why am I back in our garden…

  I look around in confusion, and painless from the injuries I just suffered, and realizing this is where I activated the circle, my eyes jolt, and

  “Holy fucking shit…”

  Kida’s body rests lifeless on the ground with burns everywhere. For a fraction of a second I could feel my blood pressure go up. My nerves pop as I stare at this horrific sight, and only the sounds of vehicles passing fill the air. Everything I thought, completely breaks, and I finally start to realize why she might’ve not ended up me. She might actually be… Her body couldn’t handle mana and I don’t think CrimsonBloom planted on her properly. But no, no, that can’t be. I made sure to create an open spot in her soul core for the skill. Or was it not enough. Did she actually..

  I cover my mouth before I can throw up and I’m brought to my knees. The afternoon sky shines on her face and the guilt and fear I feel…

  My pupil shrinks, tears drain out of my eyes and I’m left in shock.

  My entire body goes cold, as I ironically start remembering the time we spent together without thinking of an actual answer.

  She might actually be.. dead.

  My body trembles as the realization hits.

  Fuck this, Fuck This. I have to know if she’s alive… or not.

  A complex magic circle appears over our house and more spawn over it. They turn on opposite directions to each other and debris start floating. I create a slit in my hand as blood floats up before my hand heals. The circle’s turn dark red and a boom emanates out.

  A beam of red-light crashes down. Small sparks appear on top and the beam turns black. A hollow crystal starts to form in front of me and the beam ends.

  Grabbing the crystal onto my hands, a fog appears in the crystal and it turns… black.

  “Wait wait no FUCK FUCK. HOW? FUCK IT ALL”

  I can’t find any sign of her. NOTHING, NOT EVEN A HINT OF HER EXISTANCE DAMN IT. THAT CAN’T BE.

  Complete despair starts to fill every cervice of me as a sudden flash of the last moments I saw Kida surface in my mind.

  I crash onto the floor in front of this replica of her, which ironically is also the only thing left her.

  My emotions turn and I find myself laughing at my own failure.

  I couldn’t protect her, I’m the reason she died, I fucked up.

  Facing this lifeless replica of her face-first like this, opens a flood gate of memories I shared with her. One memory stands above all, that day in the infirmary. My vision switches between that day and this, shivers run my body wild as I fucking realize I’ll never get to see her again, I took her future away from her.

  Holding onto the dead cold hand of the Kida in front of me, my emotions mix together and the only thing left is a forced smile as tears keep flowing.

  “I’m sorry”

  My body feels like it’s lying down on a shallow pool as it’s slowly freezing over, my body refuses to leave. I don’t want to leave.

  Letting the remaining breath in my lungs out,

  “Damn it all”

  My eyes close shut as the afternoon sun roams in the sky and the only thing I want in life, is for it all to end. I’m just tired of it all, failure after failure, loss after loss, what’s even the point. There was absolutely nothing going for me, and now there’s nothing for me. I just want to sleep forever, get rid of all the pains I have, let it all go.

  Light bleeds through my eye lids, but the darkness oddly comforts me. The nostalgia of sleeping a day off knowing I can just put the rest of my worries for tomorrow finally hit me. I have no more energy in me to keep moving, there’s no point in moving…

  A woman with dark hair and eyes as white as the glare of a star wearing a black dress spawns under a spotlight in my vision.

  …

  Her expression remains stale.

  << Come on, get up. You still have things to do >>

  My eyes remain shut even though I can see, and I just stare as I see a smile curving similar to a grin plasters on her face.

  << Get up Aarius. Don’t you dare fail me now>>

  I’m knocked up back to my senses, but I can barely remember what happened.

  I take a deep breathe and try to process what the hell just happened. I’m in despair, terror and shock, but the only thing I feel on my face, is a curved smile.

  I have to continue don’t I. I can’t spend here all day withering away, I still… have to move on.

  Fuck it if she’s dead because of me, let the universe fuck me over anyhow much it wants, I’ll just have to push through; It’s done this to me a million times already hasn’t it?

  My head lands on this Kida and make up my mind.

  My forehead tightens with hers,

  “Sorry I have to leave again, I’ll make it up to you some other way”

  Maybe we’ll finally meet when I really do fuck it all up, but for now, I can only but patiently wait.

  “Till that day comes,-”

  Damn it all.

  A single tear sheds from me,

  “Wait for me.”

  I reach my hand out one last time hoping to feel her just one more time, but the space breaks as cracks appear and everything goes white.

  I’m returned to our cart and my body flops against my seat. Staring at the ceiling of the corridor, I can’t help but let out my pain.

  “Damn it”

  The tears start flowing again as a grin cries on my face as my entire body want to jump out and punch a wall, but I start to feel light headed.

  My head falls sideways and Analyze jumps active; A barrier surrounds Lyanna as her essence starts to dwindle.

  “Heh”

  I lose all sense of self and I sub-consciously break the barrier.

  Fragments of the barrier fly off like glass and Lyanna’s eyes twitch. Her chest heaves and she jolts up awake. Her eyes stay wide open as her pupils start shrinking. Her dry mouth stutters and her body freezes.

  “Hahaha, you saw it too”

  Lyanna’s body shivers as she wraps her arms around herself. A loud scream releases from the fucking bullshit she witnessed and echoes throughout the empty corridors. She has that face of despair I had.

  With my brain fogging and emotions completely dissolved into each other, a sense of joy spreads throughout me. I chuckle as the back of my mind just wants to pass out again. A migraine slams on me after all the crying and the back of my head suddenly feels heavy. My eyelids start to give out and I feel tired all of a sudden. The adrenaline vanishes and I fall asleep on the seat.

  “Kill me already”