The moment they stepped onto the path of jagged crystal, the temperature dropped. Shards of light refracted in every direction, distorting vision, bending sound. It was like walking inside a living prism, where reality itself fractured and danced.
"This place messes with more than sight," Kael muttered, gripping his sword tightly. "I feel… echoes of myself. From different times."
"Don't lose focus," Lysara warned. "This labyrinth is said to feed on memory. If we forget who we are, we're trapped here forever."
As they moved deeper, the group encountered illusions so real they could smell and touch them — old friends, fallen comrades, moments from the past twisted just slightly wrong.
Then came the test.
A crystalline figure stepped from a mirrored wall. It looked exactly like Riven, but its eyes glowed with an unnatural blue. It spoke in his voice.
"Do you still believe your cause is worth the blood it demands?"
Riven froze.
"I do," he finally said, though his voice wavered. "I carry their names so I never forget."
The doppelgänger dissolved into a swirl of mist.
One by one, each of them faced a reflection of their doubts. And one by one, they overcame them — until they stood before a towering crystal obelisk, humming with a strange melody.
"This is it," Seraphine whispered. "A memory core. Ancient knowledge, locked away."
As Lysara touched it, a pulse of light surged through the labyrinth — and visions rushed into their minds: glimpses of a world before the gods vanished, of a cataclysm no one remembered… and a name.
"Elyndor."
A god forgotten, sealed by time itself.
The labyrinth shifted, the exit opening ahead.
Their journey had just expanded — and a new mystery had emerged.