The portal hurled me into another void, this one tinged with soft pinks and sultry purples. My body felt heavier than ever, the loss of my senses gnawing at my balance. I stumbled as I landed, the air thick with an intoxicating fragrance—a blend of roses, sandalwood, and something darker.
We were in a garden, lush and overgrown. Vines twisted around marble columns; petals carpeted the ground. Statues of impossibly beautiful figures loomed from the mist, their stone gazes almost alive. Beside me, Vyrn staggered to his feet, his armor stained and dulled from the trials. His face was pale, drawn.
The System's cold voice rang out:
Seventh Floor: Lust Trial
Task: Face your desire. Cross the Garden of Illusions.
Reward: Tını Points +200, Ability Upgrade
Penalty: Eternal Entrapment
I braced myself. After the previous floors, I knew better than to trust anything here. Yet even with my dulled senses, I could feel the garden's pull, a siren song humming through my blood.
Vyrn scoffed. "More tricks. I'll carve my way through." He unsheathed his sword, but the moment he moved, the garden responded. The vines around him bloomed with blood-red flowers, and from them stepped figures—women and men both—perfect, ethereal, smiling seductively.
The System flashed another warning:
Obstacle: The Illusions of Want
Tını Points: 650 (Collective)
Warning: Succumb to desire, and lose yourself forever.
One of the illusions approached Vyrn, whispering something I couldn't hear. He hesitated. His blade wavered. Then, to my horror, he dropped it entirely, his expression slackening into one of awe. The vines crept up his legs, binding him gently but firmly.
I tried to move, but the garden wasn't attacking me with force—it was attacking with memory. Mira's face appeared among the flowers. Not the forgotten memory I struggled to recall, but a perfect version, smiling, arms outstretched.
"Kael," she whispered, her voice like a balm on my broken mind. "Come home."
Tears burned my eyes. Part of me wanted to run to her, to collapse into her arms and forget everything—the pain, the System, the endless trials. But deep down, I knew: this wasn't real. Mira was gone. The System had taken her, and now it twisted my grief into chains.
I activated Starve Pulse, my newly earned ability. A shockwave pulsed from me, gray and sharp, tearing through the illusions. The false Mira shrieked and dissolved into mist. The garden recoiled, but only slightly.
Starving the garden of my longing weakened it, but not enough. I needed more.
From the mist stepped Syl, or at least her illusion. "You don't have to fight, Kael," she purred, her voice laced with temptation. "We can rebuild everything you lost. Together."
I clenched my fists. Every part of this place was built to seduce, to drown me in what I most desired. But I wasn't here to reclaim my past. I was here to survive. To defy the System's cruelty.
I moved forward, refusing to look at the illusions, even as they multiplied—faces from half-remembered childhood friends, visions of a peaceful life I barely recalled. Each step was a war against myself.
Vyrn cried out behind me. I glanced back—he was almost completely cocooned by vines, his sword forgotten. He was lost, unless I intervened.
Despite everything he'd done, some fractured piece of my fading humanity wouldn't let me leave him. I activated Apathy Bind, chaining the illusions that bound him. They shrieked, withering into ash. Vyrn collapsed, gasping for breath, but alive.
He looked at me with something approaching gratitude—then buried it beneath a scowl. "Don't think this makes us allies," he spat.
"I wouldn't dream of it," I muttered, forging ahead.
At the heart of the garden, a massive, rose-shaped structure pulsed with light. The System marked it:
Target: Heart of the Garden
Tını Points: 700
I gathered everything I had left—Humble Strike, Starve Pulse, Apathy Bind—and unleashed them together. The rose screamed, a sound like shattering glass, and exploded in a blast of crimson mist.
Task Completed
Reward: Tını Points +200, Ability Upgrade: Starve Pulse (Enhanced)
Total Tını Points: 910
The garden withered around us, the illusions fading into dust. The fragrance vanished, replaced by the sterile scent of the void.
But the System, ever cruel, wasn't finished:
Warning: A new price paid. Emotional processing impaired.
A numbness spread through me, deeper than anything before. Not just despair, but a hollowing out. Anger, sadness, even joy—they all dulled, distant echoes. I staggered, barely able to feel the victory I'd earned.
Syl's real voice—taunting, distant—echoed through the void: "You're almost there, Sacrifice. But what will be left of you when you reach the top?"
A new portal opened, swirling with cold blue light.
The System's voice, mechanical and merciless, declared:
"Eighth Floor: Wrath Trial awaits."
Without a word, I stepped into the portal.
I wasn't fighting to feel anymore.
I was fighting because there was no other choice.