Prologue

Arthur Leywin POV:

Ignoring the prying eyes on me, I looked at Haedrig. "I'll be going inside the relic. Keep a lookout."

He nodded silently and sat next to Regis, who was lying down, his eyes tracking the Grandbehl siblings closely.

Letting out a deep breath, I took out the keystone relic and placed it in my palms. Taking one last look around the mirror room that we were stuck in, I closed my eyes and imbued aether into the relic.

My vision faded into a wall of purple, and I pushed through it, finding myself once again surrounded by the countless floating and spinning geometric shapes.

Using aether, I once again manipulated the shapes, moving and sorting them to try and make sense of their meaning. I felt like an infant playing with alphabet blocks.

I started by collecting similarly shaped symbols and organizing them into groups. Next, since they were geometric and not rune based, I looked for ways in which they fit together, treating it like an abstract puzzle.

This seemed easy at first, as there were enough shapes that I was always able to find a piece to fit. Once I had a couple dozen pieces locked together, however, I realized the problem. Before me, a sprawling, multi-directional fractal had taken shape, but I had run out of pieces that would connect to the shape I had created.

With no other choice, I broke the puzzle down and began again.

Several hours passed inside the realm as I kept switching the pieces to best fit the shape that I needed them to. While some had formed perfect shapes, many pieces ended up being left out. But eitherway, nothing happened. No new insight was gained.

Trying to contain the boiling up frustration from the failures and from over-exertion, I tried to clear out the pieces and start again.

But I was suddenly forced out of the keystone realm... Knowing that I had exhausted my aether reserves, I cursed in my mind, not knowing how to deal with this predicament that I was in.

Expecting to appear back in the mirror room, I slowly opened my eyes to make sense of the surroundings, as how it has always been when I exited the keystone realm.

But— something was different. I was not able to see the familiar room filled with mirrors and my companions.

It took me a moment to realise that I was not in the mirror room. Neither was I back in the keystone realm.

There was only white, bright light surrounding me, with not a single speck of dirt or darkness. Panic overtook me as I tried to shut my eyes and blinked; hoping that I was in some sort of a mental state that had made me "visualise" this— odd scene around me.

'Regis!?', I called out to my companion, hoping he would be able to answer me about this sudden situation.

But I didn't get any reply from the shadow wolf— no, I couldn't even feel his presence.

Dammit! Just what the hell did those bastards do? My mind screamed, thinking whether this was something that had happened due to the Grandbehl siblings. What the heck did Ez—

My thoughts were suddenly over-swept when I felt an overwhelming danger come at me from all directions. My body screamed at me to take cover; to run from this— weird space. But my body wouldn't move an inch as I stood there like a statue, while my mind raced through a plausible explanation for all this.

But all my racing thoughts were cut-off to an halt when an unfamiliar baritone of voice spoke "Greetings, Grey! Do not be alarmed; for I, mean no harm".

I froze, at the voice's words.

It took me several moments to break out of my stupor, as I tried to identify the source of that voice— that presence... The voice had spoken from all around me.

Suddenly, the surroundings around me started to change. The bright white light around me started to move towards my opposite direction like they were carried by the winds to a certain point.

Soon, the white light around the space had cleared to one certain point in space, to finally show the rest of the— room, that I was in.

I couldn't look around the room as my eyes were drawn to the swirling of the white light, which had now started to coalesce together to take some form.

It took me a few moments to understand what was happening.

My mouth opened wide and throat went dry, when the coalescing light slowly formed a white silhouette of a human-like form. Soon, the bright light dimmed to show a— man— who looked to be in his early twenties, floating just above the white mosaic floor.

The man stood ramrod straight with his hands clasped behind his back. His chiseled body covered in a luxurious white robe which loosely hung around him, covering his lower body and parts of his upper body.

His silver hair shone bright as the burning stars itself; his eyes a clear white. He didn't have any pupils, as his eyes looked fully white, giving him a menacing look. With a sharp face and no facial hair, he smiled with his thin lips. Coupled with his fully-white eyes, the smile looked more threatening than amiable.

Despite the decrease of the bright light around his form, it was still hard to directly look at him for long periods. His milky white skin radiated a white tint that pulsed in beats, exuding subtle pressure that visibly traveled across the white room. Yet, the suffocating aura he had emitted a while ago was completely gone. As if he didn't actually exist. As if he was nothing more than an apparition of light and pressure.

"You look like you've seen a ghost", the man spoke with a slight chuckle. Despite having no pupils, I knew that the man was looking at me, which made my body stiffen and clench my fist tightly as warm blood flowed from my palms.

Unable to muster up any words to reply to the man, I simply stared at him with gaze of confusion and fear. Seeing that I was not replying, the man spoke again. "You have all been brought here for a purpose. No need to get defensive, as I mentioned, I mean you no harm"— he slightly shrugged —"everyone here has a role to play, and to react. No lies and deception can be weaved here. For only truth will prevail"

My confusion rose at his words. Did he say 'all'!? And that's when I realised that I— wasn't alone in there... Turning my head around the room, I noticed it's features for the first time since— I was brought here.

It was a blank white room with minimalistic design, with clean walls and ceilings. While the floor was laid in white shining mosaic that seemed to reflect everyone standing on it.

There were around a dozen people here. While some looked familiar, many didn't. It only made my confusion shoot up, as I had previously thought that something has happened in the mirror zone to accidentally bring us to this weird place... But that didn't seem to be the case.

A loud laugh made my head snap back to the man, who looked around and laughed at all the people's reaction that were forcefully brought here. Everyone looked as confused as I was, while some even scared. But, his loud laugh had made everyone snap out of their thoughts to focus on the man.

Gaining everyone's attention, he spoke in an excited tone. "Good. Now that I have all your attention, we shall start the show!"