Aden's boots scuffed against the stone floor as he moved through the dimly lit corridor. The weight of exhaustion clung to him, but he forced himself forward. The temple had given him a brief moment of rest, but he knew better than to trust it.
It was always watching.
The mural's image of the thriving city still lingered in his mind. A world beyond these walls. People. Civilization. Maybe even answers.
Or… maybe just another lie.
He tightened his grip on the worn strap of his backpack. Thinking about it was pointless until he actually got out. First, he had to survive whatever the temple threw at him next.
And the temple was never done.
The corridor led into another chamber, and the moment he stepped inside, the air changed.
It was subtle at first—like a shift in pressure, an invisible weight settling on his shoulders. Then, it became deafening silence. The kind that made his ears ring.
Aden exhaled slowly.
This was new.
The room was massive, its ceiling lost in the darkness above. Unlike the previous trials, this one had no obvious traps, no flickering torches, no aggressive statues waiting to kill him in perfect tempo. Just a single pedestal at the center, bathed in a soft blue glow.
Aden approached cautiously, his instincts screaming at him to turn back.
As he got closer, he realized what sat atop the pedestal.
A book.
Not just any book—a pristine, leather-bound tome, untouched by time. Its cover bore no title, only an embossed emblem: a ring of symbols encircling a single, staring eye.
Aden hesitated.
A book. In a place designed to kill him.
His mind immediately ran through the possibilities. A trap? A test? A trick?
Unfortunately, the only way to know was to turn the page.
He sighed. "I hate this place."
Still, he reached forward.
The moment his fingers brushed against the cover, the world shattered.
Aden gasped as something seized his mind, a force latching onto his very thoughts and pulling. His vision blurred, his breath caught, and for a split second, he wasn't standing in the temple anymore.
He was somewhere else.
The sky overhead was crimson, swirling like an open wound. The ground beneath his feet was black stone, cracked and pulsing faintly, like the temple itself was breathing. And before him—
A city in ruins.
The same city from the mural.
Except this one wasn't thriving.
It was burning.
Aden's heart pounded as the vision engulfed him. Towering structures lay in ruins, floating platforms collapsed, the once-glowing veins of energy now dim and broken. In the distance, the great pillar of light flickered, struggling against the darkness swallowing the city whole.
And in the center of it all, standing among the wreckage, was a lone figure.
Not a shadow this time.
A man.
Aden couldn't see his face, but he could feel something radiating from him—something ancient, something that didn't belong. The figure turned, as if sensing his presence, and though Aden couldn't make out any details, he knew.
This was the same person from the mural.
But before he could process anything else—
The vision snapped.
Aden stumbled back, gasping for breath, his surroundings returning to the temple's stone walls. His pulse thundered in his ears, his body still trembling from the sheer wrongness of what he had seen.
The book was still in his hands.
The city wasn't a promise.
It was a warning.
Aden swallowed hard, staring down at the eye on the book's cover.
And for the first time since entering the temple, he wondered if making it out was really the best idea.
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