The shattered remnants of the throne room lay in eerie silence, glass and magic dust floating midair like suspended tears. Everything was still, too still—until a soft hum filled the void.
A golden light pierced the darkness.
Arabella turned first, her breath catching in her throat. "No… it can't be."
From the center of the light, barefoot and cloaked in threads of glowing stardust, Seraphina stepped forward.
Her eyes shimmered like morning dew. Her presence felt like the first breath after drowning.
"Mason…" she whispered, her voice trembling as if she were learning to speak again. "Arabella…"
Arabella dropped her weapon and ran, catching Seraphina in her arms just as her knees gave out.
"I thought we lost you forever," Arabella choked, tears streaking her cheeks.
"You didn't," Seraphina whispered back. "You brought me home."
Mason knelt beside them, his voice tight with emotion. "Is it really you?"
Seraphina touched his cheek. "Yes. The real me."
Behind them, Mira and Elaris approached cautiously. Seraphina's gaze met theirs, and though weakened, she smiled.
"We don't have much time," she said suddenly, straightening with urgency in her voice. "The Soul Keeper has awakened. The false soul was only the beginning."
Elaris frowned. "The Soul Keeper?"
Seraphina nodded. "He waits beyond the three gates. If we don't stop him, our world will fall."
As if summoned by her words, the back wall of the chamber groaned and split open, revealing a swirling portal inscribed with glowing runes. The air shifted—denser, heavier.
Arabella looked at Seraphina. "Are you strong enough to fight?"
Seraphina's golden eyes hardened. "I don't have to be strong. I just have to finish this."
Together, the five stepped into the portal.
---
Level One – The Realm of Illusions
They landed on soft earth, surrounded by whispering trees and silver mist.
But then… they were alone.
Seraphina blinked. Arabella was gone.
Mira spun around. "Where is everyone?!"
Each of them had been pulled into a personal illusion.
Arabella stood alone in a blood-soaked ballroom, Seraphina's lifeless body in her arms. "No… no, I didn't…" she gasped. "I didn't kill her—I didn't—!"
Mason stood before a mirror showing him wearing the black crest of the enemy army. "This isn't me," he whispered. "I'd never betray them. Never."
Mira watched her parents walk away without looking back, again and again. "Please... please come back," she sobbed.
Elaris ran through an endless hallway of doors, each opening to a future where Seraphina died no matter what she did.
Seraphina stood before her father's funeral pyre, alone, her mother blaming her.
"You weren't enough," the illusion hissed.
"No," Seraphina muttered, fists clenched. "This isn't real. You're not real!"
Suddenly, across the illusions, a voice broke through—a soft whisper, full of courage.
"Fight it… We're still together…"
The illusion shattered like cracked glass. One by one, they fell to their knees in the mist, reunited, breathless, sweaty, and pale.
Arabella crawled to Seraphina and grabbed her hand. "You came back for us. We'll keep going for you."
---
Level Two – The Fighter Beasts
Before they could catch their breath, the ground trembled and split apart.
An arena rose from the mist, black stone and shadow flame. Monstrous beasts with bone masks and metal claws snarled from the darkness.
"They want blood," Mason growled, raising his sword.
"Then they'll taste ours only if they earn it," Mira hissed, already dodging a beast's charge.
They fought like one body.
Arabella spun with deadly grace, her blades gleaming.
Mason shielded Mira as she darted through the battlefield, throwing daggers and setting traps.
Seraphina summoned a wall of light, freezing time just long enough for Elaris to heal Arabella's slashed leg.
The fight dragged on, the beasts never-ending.
Finally, Seraphina raised her hand and screamed, unleashing a burst of divine energy that turned the remaining monsters to ash.
They fell together, gasping, covered in sweat and blood. The arena melted around them.
---
Level Three – The Ring of Vision
Now, they stood in an ancient ruin, overgrown with blue ivy and glowing stones.
Statues watched them with hollow eyes. The air buzzed with riddles.
"Only the seeker who bleeds may see the ring."
They searched, solving riddles, avoiding hidden traps, fighting the occasional lurking shade.
Finally, Mira stopped near a still pool. Floating above it, casting no reflection—the Ring of Vision.
She stepped forward, breath caught.
"I'll get it," she said.
Seraphina reached out. "Wait—!"
But it was too late.
Mira touched the ring—and it burned.
She cried out, dropping to her knees. The ring pulsed once—and vanished.
"No!" Mason shouted.
Arabella rushed to Mira, who clutched her wrist in pain.
"The ring…" Mira whispered. "It didn't want me."
A silence fell.
Then a low voice whispered through the ruin.
"You were never meant to find me. You were meant to awaken me."
The floor cracked beneath them.
A shadow passed across the room—but there was no figure.
"Where are you?!" Mason shouted.
No response.
Seraphina turned in a slow circle. "He's watching us. He's learning us."
Suddenly, a scream rang out.
They all turned.
Mira was gone.
Vanished into the shadows.
"MIRA!" Arabella screamed, running toward where she stood just seconds before.
There was only cold silence.
And then the whisper came again, chilling their bones—
"One soul down… four to go."
Arabella stood frozen, staring at the empty space where Mira had been only moments before. Her chest heaved, and her heart pounded so violently it drowned out the world around her.
"Mira…" she whispered, a tremor in her voice.
No answer.
"MIRA!" she screamed, stumbling forward, her hands digging into the cracked floor. "Bring her back! Give her back to us!"
Elaris knelt beside her, her voice cracking. "She didn't even scream… she didn't even get a chance to fight…"
Seraphina's fingers were clenched into trembling fists. Her knees threatened to buckle beneath the weight of guilt.
"I told her to wait," she whispered, hollow. "I felt it… I felt the danger, and I still let her—"
"This isn't your fault," Mason said sharply, his voice rough with unshed tears. "None of this is your fault."
But even as he spoke, his eyes burned. He turned away and punched the wall, blood dripping from his knuckles.
"She was just a kid," he whispered, voice breaking. "She was just a kid…"
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Arabella slowly stood, brushing her tear-streaked face with the back of her hand. "We're going to find her. We're going to bring her back. No matter what it takes."
The floor beneath them rumbled again. The whisper returned.
"You may seek, but you will not find. You may fight, but you will not win."
Arabella's eyes flared with fire. "Watch me."
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew through the ruin, and in its center, a torn piece of Mira's cloak floated down like a falling feather.
Seraphina caught it, holding it to her chest like a lifeline.
"I will not lose anyone else," she murmured. "Not again."
She stepped forward to the center of the room, the shattered stone beneath her glowing faintly.
"There's another level," she said. "Something hidden—beneath all of this."
Elaris frowned. "But there were only supposed to be three levels."
"No," Seraphina whispered. "Three was a lie. That ring... it wasn't the end. It was a test. The real path... starts now."
As if responding to her voice, the ground split open beneath their feet, revealing a spiraling staircase of bone-white stone descending into darkness.
Arabella helped Mason up. "We go together."
Seraphina nodded, her voice trembling but resolute. "And we don't stop until we find her. Until we find Mira."
They descended one by one, swallowed by shadows.
But as the last of their footsteps echoed and faded, the whisper came again—quieter this time, but more cruel.
"You've already failed."
---
Meanwhile…
Mira awoke in darkness.
She lay on cold stone, her limbs aching and her throat raw. Every breath felt like fire.
But worse than the pain was the silence.
Until a figure stepped forward—a man-shaped void with no face, only a hollow glow where eyes should be.
The Soul Keeper.
"You don't belong here," Mira croaked, trying to sit up.
"I disagree," the Soul Keeper said in a voice that sounded like broken glass and wind. "You've always belonged to the shadows. You just didn't know it."
He held out his hand, and a chain of golden light slithered around her wrist, binding her to the floor.
"You see," he whispered, kneeling before her, "the others are fighting their way toward me. But they will never reach you."
Mira's eyes burned with defiance, even through her tears. "They will. Seraphina… she always finds the light."
The Soul Keeper smiled—a cruel, empty thing.
"Let them try," he said softly. "Let them break. One by one."
He leaned closer, and the golden chains tightened.
"And when they do… you'll be the only one left to remember."
---
Back in the ruin, Seraphina stopped mid-step, her hand to her chest.
"She's still alive," she whispered.
"How do you know?" Elaris asked, breathless.
"Because I heard her heart call mine."
But just as hope stirred in their souls, the ground split violently once more—and the path behind them collapsed.
They were trapped in the darkness. And ahead, something stirred—something ancient, something waiting.
Arabella looked back, eyes wild.
"Mira…" she breathed, tears brimming again. "Please hold on."
And far below them, in the black, Mira whispered back through the bond only Seraphina could feel—
"Hurry."