Silence preceded the storm, as if the mountain itself had held its breath, watching those small intruders as they approached.
The stone entrance to the "Cave of Truth" looked like an open mouth of a savage beast nothing more than a dark slit amidst cracked rocks, surrounded by ancient carvings, barely visible, warning of "the complete nudity of the soul."
"Remember, nothing inside will hurt you... except yourselves."
Ethan said with a cold smile, then added, "Your test is simple. Enter from this side... and exit from the other. Whoever survives, advances. Whoever falls... we don't need those names."
The students stood in front of the cave, silent, their hearts racing as if they were about to leap into nothingness. Valerian, with his usual expressionless face, looked inside. It wasn't the darkness that frightened him, but his own silence those areas he had long buried behind walls of logic and rigidity.
"Go."
He entered first.
He was followed by Zenith, Evelyn, Selina, then the others, like prisoners being driven toward a fate written before they were born.
Inside the cave, everything changed.
The air itself was heavy… as if truth had weight. The walls shimmered with faint lights green and blue moving, pulsing, breathing. It was as if they were inside the belly of a living creature.
Suddenly, the scream rang out.
"Watch out!" Evelyn shouted.
A monster exploded from the wall, as if the stone had vomited it. A creature resembling a giant spider, its head deformed, blue flames pouring from its eyes, and its hands ending in spiral claws.
The monster was Rathmora.
It roared and charged at Zenith, who blocked it, then shouted, "It doesn't attack the body… it attacks memories! Don't let it touch you!"
Valerian didn't hesitate. He grabbed his long dagger, moved in a straight, swift line, slid under the creature's limbs, then climbed its back, and slowly drew his blade each second feeling like a final decision. He stabbed it at the base of the skull.
Rathmora screamed, arched, then dissolved into ash.
"Not bad," Zenith said without looking at him.
But the cave didn't wait. From the side wall, another creature emerged, crawling on the ground half skeletal, the other half a deformed, pulsing tissue.
Sylvik could only be killed when his victim confessed their greatest shame.
No one knew that… except Valerian. Or maybe the cave itself decided who should face it.
"Valerian, fall back!" Selina cried, but she stopped when she saw his gaze… his eyes were empty, as if he saw something she couldn't.
Suddenly, everything vanished.
The monsters, the companions, the cave… everything.
He stood in a small room. The furniture was worn, the light a pale yellow. The smell of alcohol filled the space. And in the center of the room… was his father. The body he thought he'd left behind in another world.
"Weak," the father said. "You've always been weak."
He raised the belt and struck. The pain wasn't real, but it echoed through the corridors of his soul.
Childhood… loneliness… the desire to disappear.
"I always wished you'd vanish."
"You're the reason your mother died."
Valerian didn't reply. He didn't cry. He didn't flinch. He stared, motionless, as if a part of him watched with cold detachment.
Then the room changed.
Laughter, children in a schoolyard. Valerian was there… younger, weaker, being beaten by three teenagers.
"No one loves you."
"Kill yourself."
Then suddenly...
A tall figure stood in front of him, faceless, with only a blue screen where its face should be. Symbols and mocking texts flickered across it.
"Oh, you're here again, a failure in every universe."
"Even when you moved to another world, you remained the same… no one."
"You'll never be a hero, never get revenge, never love, never be remembered."
Valerian wanted to respond… but the words stuck.
Then a ghost appeared… a young man with sad features, but clearly dead.
"You lived… at my expense."
"I was supposed to be here… not you."
Valerian took a step back.
Inside… his self-image cracked, slowly, like a mirror shattering.
A logical mind… being attacked from within.
Suddenly, he heard another voice.
"Get up, Valerian."
It was Selina.
Her ghost entered the illusion and that was impossible.
"What...?" he murmured.
"Ethan unleashed these illusions to break you mentally. But he forgot something..."
"I don't follow his rules."
She had sneaked in before entry, planted jamming devices, and succeeded in entering the mental dimension.
She extended her hand and pushed the monsters, the entity, the father, the bullies… even the ghost… they all retreated into the shadows.
Valerian murmured, unbelieving:
"How…? Why are you helping me?"
"Because I've seen enough," she whispered. "And maybe… because I'm tired of lying."
The light returned.
The cave returned.
And Valerian stood, drenched in sweat, his face pale… but his eyes blazing. Something inside him had changed.
"Thank you," he said softly, without looking at Selina.
"Don't thank me yet," she said as she turned her back. "The outside… is worse than the inside."
And in the dark corner of the cave, Ethan stood watching, lips tight. He wasn't angry… but surprised.
The darkness in the cave wasn't just deep… it was alive.
Every step Zenith took echoed as if the walls whispered his name. His gaze was fixed, his breaths calculated. He didn't flinch, even when some students broke down, or when one of them screamed while tearing at her arm, imagining bugs crawling on it. His eyes held only that strange clarity close to stillness.
Even when he saw Selina sneaking between rocks, heading toward the cave's center, where Valerian had vanished.
He knew Valerian was facing something different.
More brutal than monsters.
The cave wasn't made of stone it was made of consciousness.
Then… everything changed.
His feet stopped.
In front of him, stretching across the path, they stood. One after another.
Dead people… he knew them, fought beside them. Some died screaming, others were never found. They looked at him now. Without blame, without screams… just silent gazes.
Then he heard small footsteps behind him.
He turned.
A small boy, barely five years old, looked up at him with hollow eyes. In his arms… a broken doll.
"Do you remember me?" the child asked, in a voice that did not resemble that of children.
Zenith didn't answer. His eyes didn't move, as if something inside him refused to react.
Then the woman appeared.
Her long hair swayed behind her, and her face had no features.
"You were the reason, Zenith."
"If you had arrived on time, we wouldn't have died."
"You… kill slowly, silently. Your cruelty. It's selfishness."
Dozens of voices began to fill his head, not screams, but whispers. As if his mind had become a mad beehive.
And finally... his parents appeared.
In the same training outfits he had known them in since childhood.
"You're still slow."
"You still don't understand. Lessen your mercy or increase your strength. Don't combine fragility with hesitation."
They stood before him, but something inside him did not react.
He remained standing.
Still.
Then the child collapsed dead at his feet.
Everything went quiet.
The faces, the voices, even his parents... melted into the light.
Zenith closed his eyes.
All that he saw, heard, and faced... left no trace.
"This is not my problem."
He said it, then raised his hand, and tore through the very air with his sword.
A wave of light burst from his body, as if consciousness had rejected the lie. All the illusions shattered around him, like glass crashing onto a floor of steel.
He returned to reality.
Selena's voice on the other side.
The groans of students collapsing around him.
But his eyes were fixed forward.
"Valerian... he's there," he murmured.
He ran, not with haste... but with precision. His steps were light, calm, yet they outran the wind.
He found one of the students on the ground, trapped inside an illusion. His body was trembling, screaming, and his eyes were bleeding.
Zenith didn't speak. He just held the boy's head gently, then stabbed the ground with a special dagger he pulled from his coat. Light poured out as if a mirror had shattered.
"Wake up."
The student looked around, then collapsed in tears.
Zenith continued forward. He wasn't seeking glory, nor did he expect thanks. He moved as he had been taught: from point to point, without chaos. He killed the monsters, severed the illusions, and didn't look back. Every emotion the cave tried to inject into him slammed against an invincible wall... its strength was silence.
And finally… he reached the source of it all.
On a circular platform in the center of the cave, Valerian stood, his breath heavy, his eyes tired. And Selena beside him, protecting him, her sweat visible on her face, her hands trembling. As if she had fought something that couldn't be seen.
In the northern area of the cave
The monsters had become rare, as if they understood that illusions were harsher than claws. And those students who remained... walked slowly, their feet heavy, their breaths echoing in a space with no real air.
Evelyn was walking alone.
Her eyes searching for points where the past and future intersected. She wasn't like the others... she saw what hadn't yet come, but here, she no longer trusted her visions.
The walls around her became smooth, like mirror walls. As she approached, her reflection appeared, but altered. Her features were softer, her hair loose, a smile free from the shadow of pain.
She stopped.
Then the woman stepped out of the mirror.
It was her... but not her.
She looked at her confidently, stepped closer, then whispered:
"Evelyn… look at me."
But Evelyn didn't reply.
The woman reached out, placed her fingers on Evelyn's cheek, and said in a warm tone:
"I am you… as you should be. No visions. No burdens. No sorrow. Just an ordinary life."
The student flinched for a moment. That life... seemed tempting.
But Evelyn closed her eyes.
Illusion.
Everything in this cave... was a lie trying to sneak inside.
"If you are me… then you already know the answer."
She said it calmly.
Then she slowly raised her hand, and instead of touching the woman's face, her hand passed through it.
The reflection shattered… like a wave struck by a stone of truth.
The woman crumbled into ash, and the walls retreated.
Evelyn opened her eyes and whispered:
"I know who I am. And I will not be your fantasy."
On the opposite side...
Alistair was gasping, his face dripping with sweat, his eyes fixated on a scene repeating endlessly.
The sword.
The flash.
Then the fall.
Every time, he saw the same memory: Zenith attacking him with a long sword, a single move... slicing through him like a dry twig.
"Why?" Alistair whispered to himself, "Why is it so easy?"
He had seen that memory repeat before him.
And in every repetition, Zenith killed him without anger, without expression… just a calculated decision.
"Is this my fate?"
Then the scene changed.
He saw himself standing on a stage, everyone mocking him.
He saw his mother, crying in shame.
He saw himself returning home alone, taking off the cloak of hope, and trembling.
But then he realized.
This... was different from the cave.
Everything he saw? Was about himself… not Zenith.
It wasn't the sword that scared him.
It was helplessness.
"The only failure… is my fear." he murmured.
Then he stood firm.
He stepped forward into the repeating scene.
Zenith raised his sword.
And Alistair, this time, didn't move.
He didn't resist.
He simply smiled.
"Strike me, if what you see is weakness."
He said it aloud.
But Zenith vanished.
The scenes faded.
And he remained… alone.