The slap rang out sharply through the dense fog, shattering the suffocating atmosphere that had been choking everything around them.
The force of the slap was so strong that Yuna's hand burned, her fingers trembling from the aftershock. But she didn't care. Her gaze remained fixed on Ren, waiting for a response from him.
Ren flinched.
His breath caught for a moment, as if he had been yanked from an invisible abyss.
A wave of dizziness washed over him, the warmth from the slap still lingering on his skin.
His entire body trembled with each contraction of his chest. But despite the shock to his consciousness, despite reality trying to pull him back...
His eyes didn't change.
Still wide.
Still empty.
Still fixed on the void in front of him, a void only he could see.
Yuna held her breath, her fingers digging into her palms, her heartbeat hammering in her chest as worry surged. She could see that Ren wasn't reacting as she had hoped.
"Ren!" She called again, her voice now trembling, almost pleading.
Nautilus, standing beside her, had lost his composure. He stared at Ren, then turned sharply to Yuna, his voice tight with tension. "Is he still not awake?!"
"No... No, it's not right..." Yuna shook her head, her eyes filled with despair. "He hears us... but he's not really here."
Ren trembled, his breath becoming more rapid, his chest rising and falling erratically. His lips moved slightly, as though he wanted to say something, but no words came.
It was as if there was an invisible curtain between him and this world, thin but impenetrable.
And behind that curtain...
The shadows in the mist were still there.
They didn't disappear.
They didn't leave.
They were still watching him.
Ren felt his throat tighten. A heavy sensation pressed down on his chest, as though an invisible hand was squeezing his heart, tightening so much that he could barely breathe.
Cold sweat ran down his spine, mingling with the chill of the fog enveloping his body.
He knew.
He knew this wasn't reality.
But...
Tarek.
Scholar.
They were there.
They were standing right in front of him.
Right within his sight.
Even though he knew they were dead.
Ren heard the voices of his friends. He had regained control of his body.
But still, Ren stood there, staring into the void, a small flicker of flame in his blue eyes.
This time...
Ren didn't look away anymore.
Even though his body still trembled, even though the fear still clung to his chest, he had made up his mind.
He gathered all his remaining courage, clenched his fist, and kept his gaze steady ahead. No more turning away. No more closing his eyes or pretending not to see, like before. He looked straight at them.
But... something was wrong.
The shadows... they were changing.
At first, they stood still... silent, motionless, just like the people who had once existed.
But then, little by little, they began to tremble. Not like living beings, but in a strange, distorted way, as if the reflection on water was being stirred by a violent wave.
Ren held his breath.
The shapes of the shadows blurred, contorted, as if an invisible hand was molding, stretching, and twisting them into unrecognizable forms.
The head of one shadow suddenly elongated grotesquely, while the body of another shriveled and bent, as if an unseen force was crushing it.
As if... they didn't truly have a fixed form.
As if... they had never been human.
Ren blinked, a chill running down his spine. Those shapes, they weren't Tarek. Not Scholar. Not the people he had known, the ones he had lost.
They weren't them.
They were just illusions.
Illusions created by the very fog.
For the first time, Ren began to see what was hidden beneath the thick fog.
He was no longer caught up in the chaotic emotions, no longer letting fear control his mind. Instead, he looked deeper... and he saw.
Not haunting souls.
Not cursed memories.
But something else, an apparatus. A mechanism. A subtle lie constructed to manipulate the mind of the lost.
This fog... was not merely a veil of obscurity.
It reflected.
It dug through the memories in its victim's mind, searching for their deepest fears, then recreated them, distorted them, turning them into vivid nightmares so real that they could be mistaken for reality.
It made them believe what they saw was real. Trapping them, writhing in the shadows of their own past.
But Ren... had seen through it.
He clenched his fist, took a deep breath. His breath was still a bit hurried, but it was no longer governed by panic. His heartbeat still pounded in his chest, but it was no longer despair or weakness.
It was awareness.
It was clarity.
It was a light breaking through the dense night in his mind.
The shadows... were no longer as frightening as before.
Because he knew.
He knew they weren't real.
He knew these weren't ghosts from the past, not vengeful spirits coming back to haunt him.
They were just distorted images created by his own fear.
He understood.
And this time, he would not let himself be swallowed again.
"The mist... is just mist..."
Ren muttered softly, his voice barely above a whisper, as if it was meant only for himself.
His eyes widened, reflecting a sudden glimmer of light, as though an invisible door had just cracked open in his mind.
The shattered pieces of his thoughts, once scattered and jumbled, began to fall into place. His heart raced, but it was no longer from fear.
It was something else, a realization, a truth that flashed through the thick fog like a lightning strike in the night sky.
"They reflect everything..."
His lips barely moved, the words barely audible, but his breath quickened. Not from panic, but from excitement. Because now, he understood.
"They make us believe..."
Ren blinked, his mind spinning between a whirlwind of thoughts. This time, he no longer looked at the shadows with the deep fear that had once rooted itself in his heart.
He stared directly at them, twisted figures, unreal faces, illusions hanging in the mist. They were no longer ghosts from the past. No longer the pains that haunted him.
They were just the deception of this place.
"This place..."
He raised his head, his eyes shining brightly, piercing through the fog.
He took a deep breath.
And then he shouted, not only to confirm with himself, but to tear through the suffocating silence that had surrounded him.
"...IT'S A NATURAL MAZE OF ILLUSIONS!"
His scream echoed, overpowering the soft sound of wind rustling through the dense trees.
It tore through the mist like a sharp sword, a beam of light cutting through the darkness, sweeping away the doubts, the fears, the chains that had held him captive in this nightmare.
Ren gasped for air, each breath feeling like a new burst of life. A sense of lightness coursed through his chest. Not from exhaustion, but because...
He had seen the truth.
And this time, he wouldn't let himself be trapped for even another second.
...
Ren sorted through everything in his mind.
At first, they had thought that the trees around them were moving on their own, as if they had a consciousness, as if the forest wasn't just a quiet place, but a living entity observing and surrounding them.
The twisted roots that rose from the ground surrounded their steps, creating the illusion that they were crawling closer, tightening their grip, ready to swallow the intruders.
The faint shadows drifted through the mist, constantly shifting and changing shape every time they blinked, as if the trees were secretly swapping positions, creating a closed circle that they would never escape from.
But no... they had never moved.
Ren froze, then realized the truth. A thought flashed in his mind, making his heart race faster.
He blinked and looked again, this time not letting fear control him, but focusing on what truly existed. And when his gaze pierced through the dense fog, he saw clearly.
The trees were still standing in their original positions.
There was no movement. No circle to trap them.
It was the mist that had created the illusion.
It reflected the images of the trees around them, distorting and warping them with every slightest movement of the observer.
It was their panic that had trapped them in an endless loop of illusions, convincing themselves that the forest was changing, that it was blocking their way, that they had no way out.
Ren laughed, a sudden sound that echoed in the stillness, almost unfamiliar even to himself.
A true laugh, not mocking, not bitter, but a release, a feeling of pure relief. A joy that came from finally finding the answer.
"Yuna! Nautilus!"
He spun around, his eyes blazing like a small flame amidst the gray mist, burning with excitement, with the awareness that had just awakened.
"I get it now!" His voice was firm, without hesitation. "This isn't just an ordinary forest. It's a maze of illusions!"
"This mist doesn't just cover our vision, it reflects everything around us, creating things that aren't real!"
"It makes us believe the trees are moving, that they're blocking our way, but it's all just a trick of our own minds!"
He spoke quickly, almost out of breath, but every word carried a powerful energy, as if he had truly stepped out of the darkness at last.
"In other words..." He raised his hand, pointing at the distorted figures still flickering in the mist.
"They're not moving. They're not real. If we stop believing in them, if we stop letting fear control us, these illusions will disappear!"
A light breeze swept past, stirring the white mist before him, and in that moment, Ren felt as though he had just severed an invisible chain that had bound his mind for so long.
Yuna's eyes widened, her lips moved, but she couldn't find the words. Nautilus stood stunned, his hands instinctively tightening around his weapon, clearly still trying to keep pace with Ren. But even so...
Even so, both of them could feel the change in him.
Ren was no longer standing there, trembling from fear.
This time, he was truly facing it head-on.