Kael tightened his knuckles and walked inside the maze through the door. He was just behind Ethan, but as he entered somehow Ethan got lost in the bizarre lights and shadows that danced around the walls.
He remembered Ethan's instruction and decided to follow the left wall.
After following the wall for ten paces, Kael heard something rustling behind him. He looked back but nothing was there.
His breath fogged the air. His pulse echoed in his ears.
"It's just an illusion. Just illusions."
Ethan said that. Ethan better be right.
The walls flickered and dissolved into smoke. Kael paused, he was following his left wall as planned, but what now? There is no wall to look at. "F**k me."
The scene changed, Kael stood in a burned village.
Ash fell like gray snow.
Barns stood half-melted.
Trees looked like charred bones reaching for help.
The rustling sound returned, but more clear this time.
Kael concentrated, it became more clear. The sound came behind one half destroyed house.
Footsteps scraped the ground.
A soldier in torn armor limped toward him.
"Finally… you arrived, my liege."
Kael blinked."What? Who are you talking to?"
The soldier raised his head, and Kael's stomach flipped.
His eyes were gouged out. His nose was gone. His jaw hung loose like a broken door.
"What the hell....."
A child's hand tugged his sleeve.
A little girl, cracked like shattered porcelain, blood leaking from the fractures in her skin.
"Daddy… you came back…"
Kael stumbled away.
"I am not your dad! My dad is alive and loud and yells at me for not cleaning my room…."
She tilted her head.
"But you promised. You said you'd save us next time."
Next time? What next time? His knees weakened.
"Wrong guy, wrong guy!" Kael squeaked. More figures crawled out from the rubble.
A woman missing her lower jaw. A beast with metal stakes hammered into its spine. A knight whose chest had been hollowed out.
They weren't walking. They were dragging themselves toward him.
Calling out…
"Brother…"
"Commander…"
"My son…"
"Come home…"
"Do not leave us again…"
Kael backed into a burnt wall. His voice cracked.
"Why are you calling me that? I don't know you! Stop, stop looking at me like that!"
A shadow passed overhead and the sky turned blood-red.
A massive pillar of light tore through the clouds.
Screams poured out with it. Swords of fire clashed against monstrous shapes too large to understand.
The ground vibrated beneath Kael's feet. He gasped for air.
"This isn't normal… who are these...people? Ethan said the illusion will show me my fears, but what is this?"
A soldier grabbed his ankle. "You returned…but it is too late…you failed everyone"
Kael kicked free, scrambling back. "Get away from me! I'm eleven! I'm not responsible for anything!"
He started firing lightning bolts left and right in panic, but it did nothing. Of course, these were just illusions, how could one attack illusions. But Kael, too immersed in the emotion did not realise, not a single figure has hurt him. Even the large colossuses fighting in the skies miraculously avoided him.
Kael almost spent all his mana pool, when a calm, ancient voice echoed inside his skull.
"Get up, kid.
Do not lose yourself here.
It is not time."
Kael froze. His thoughts tripped over each other.
"Holy crap. I really am possessed. It's an old wizard ghost. Oh no."
The illusions blurred. The battlefield flickered. The dead faded into mist slowly.
Kael grabbed his head and started chanting every holy verse, rhyme, and weird blessing he had ever half-remembered.
"Spirits leave me, evil begone, seven gods save my butt, please please please…"
He regretted not buying charms from the town priest. He cursed every bad decision that led to this moment.
He whispered a desperate prayer.
"Ethan. Please hurry up and find me. There is a ghost living in my head rent free"The walls of the maze returned.
Kael did not feel relieved. He slowly moved forward following the left wall, every few seconds he could not stop himself from looking back for anything following him.
...…
Temari followed the twisting corridor, her steps small and careful.
The walls shimmered like water, beautiful but wrong.
Her heart fluttered like a trapped bird.
"Ethan said… illusions can't hurt us…"
She touched the wall, and it felt like touching a waterfall. "Then why does it feel so real?"
A faint sob echoed down the hall.
Temari paused.
A little girl sat alone with her knees hugged tight, her hair messy and her dress torn. Her face buried in her arms.
Temari stepped closer.
"Are… are you okay?"
The girl lifted her head.
It was Temari.
Same eyes. Same face. But this one looked hollow.
"They left," the other Temari whispered. "Ethan. Kael. They don't need you."
Temari shook her head quickly.
"That's not true. They're my friends."
The doppelganger stared at her with trembling lips.
"They're nobles. You're just… a maid's little daughter."
Temari bit her lip hard. Her chest ached because the voice sounded so much like her own thoughts.
The walls darkened. Footsteps rushed by, kael's laughter, Ethan's voice.
"Come on! Leave Temari behind, she'll slow us down!"
Fake voices.
Fake, but sharp like needles.
The other Temari stood.
"You will always follow.
Always behind them.
Always forgettable."
The ground cracked, showing a deep pit beneath her feet.
The fake Temari teetered on the edge.
"It would be easier to fall."
The real Temari stepped back, but then stopped.
Her fingers curled into fists.
Her voice quivered but held firm.
"Ethan and Kael would never leave me. They always wait. I know that."
The illusions shuddered.
"I may not be strong like Kael.
And I may not be smart like Ethan."
She stepped forward, standing toe-to-toe with her fear.
"But I still choose to walk with them." her lips curled up slightly, "And Ethan never calls me by my name, dumb illusions!"
The other Temari blinked. The pit vanished. The voices faded.
Temari breathed out shakily.
Her legs still trembled, but she stood tall.
"Okay. One illusion down. Have to find Ethan fast" She wiped her eyes.
...…
Ethan marched into the Maze of Stars with great confidence.
"Pfft. Illusions. I made it through engineering school. Try me."
Blue mist curled around him. A soft hum echoed, like glitches in reality.
AIMI pinged inside his head.
"Host, keep your emotions stable. Illusions feed on fear."
"I am perfectly stable," Ethan replied proudly, until a giant floating paper slammed into his face.
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Ethan screamed like he'd been stabbed.
"NO! How did you find me in another world?!"
The paper flapped aggressively.
Chains of debt snaked around his ankles.
"Host, it is just an illusion"
"Yes, but the trauma is real!"
"Tallie Mae, you demonic parasite! HOW DID YOU FIND ME IN A NEW WORLD?!"
He karate-chopped the loan page and sprinted forward.
Ethan pushed open a door, a low hum filled his ears and cubicles everywhere.
Fluorescent lights flickering judgment.
A boss, holding a coffee mug that said World's #1 Micromanager, leaned in.
"We're a family here. Mandatory overtime! No bonuses!"
Ethan fell to his knees.
"I'd rather fight a dragon made of swords."
a low hum filled his ears again.
Now: a university lecture hall.
He stood in front of a projector that refused to connect.
Professor illusion:
"Explain quantum mana physics. With citations in APA format."
Ethan:
"Not APA… I can't even get Word to center my name!"
Classmates booed. Someone shouted:
"Your GPA is mid!"
He sprinted again, right into another horror. Another low hum filled his ears, and the world snapped again.
A group of suburban moms spawned like a mini-boss encounter.
"So! Any career plans yet?"
"We heard your major was useless!"
"You're 22. TikTok stars retire younger than that!"
Ethan backed up like they were vampires.
"GET AWAY! I'M IN A MAGICAL WORLD, SPARE ME FROM BRAINROT!"
AIMI chimed in:
"Passive-aggressive social pressure at extreme levels."
The moms advanced with casserole dishes and disappointment.
Ethan ran.
The illusions didn't stop.
Before Ethan could breathe, again low hum.
giant cold pizza slices oozing congealed cheese rose from the ground.
"Eat us! We've been in the fridge for three days!"
Canned beans with angry eyebrows rolled forward.
"WE HAVE FIBER!"
Broccoli monsters roared.
"No escape from Vitamins!"
Ethan went full action hero:
"I'll fight all of you! I am done with shitty food in both worlds!"
He suplexed a broccoli.
He punted a pizza slice like a football.
Finally Ethan reached outside and....
the worst nightmare of all unfolded.
A traffic jam.
Honking horns.
Cars stretching into eternity.
A guy holding up traffic to make a left turn that will NEVER happen.
Ethan's eye twitched.
"No… Not rush hour… I swore I'd never go back…"
AIMI suddenly projected a glowing minimap into view.
"Turn left. No, your other left. Your left, not my virtual body's left!"
Ethan turned and slammed into a crystal wall.
"This maze is bullying me…"
Aimi sighed in 0s and 1s.
The traffic jam dissolved.
The illusions shattered like glitch pixels.
Silence returned.
A long corridor stretched out before him. cold and real.
AIMI's voice sharpened:
"Host.
There is a genuine life signature ahead. Around the corner.
Not Kael. Not Temari."
Ethan inhaled.
"If it's another pizza monster, I'm committing arson."
He peeked around the corner.
A real figure stood waiting in the shadows.
Watching him. The black cloak fluttering, blending into the shadows.