Step into the Unknown
Rina took a step forward.
And the world shattered.
She expected another battlefield, another enemy. Instead, she was falling—not through space, but through time itself.
Fragments of her own life flickered past her, blurring into streaks of light. Memories twisted and merged—some she remembered, others that hadn't happened yet.
Then—impact.
She wasn't on solid ground, yet she wasn't falling. She was somewhere else.
A whisper.
"The trial begins."
---
The First Fracture – The Burden of Time
The world around her split.
She saw herself, standing just ahead. No, many versions of herself.
One was older, scarred and weary, standing in an endless battlefield.
Another was younger, full of unbroken confidence.
A third was her, but different—with eyes that had seen far too much.
They all turned to face her at once.
"Which one is real?" the voice whispered.
Then, they attacked.
She barely dodged as her older self moved with terrifying efficiency, her movements honed by years of experience. The younger version was reckless but fast, while the third…
The third version didn't move.
It simply watched.
And Rina's mind screamed in warning.
---
The Second Fracture – The Labyrinth of No Escape
She fought—dodging, countering, trying to survive.
But no matter how hard she fought, the walls of the labyrinth shifted around her.
She ran forward, only to find herself back at the start.
No.
Not the start.
Time had reset.
She was trapped in an endless cycle.
She attacked again. She ran again. She chose a different path.
Again. Again. Again.
Each time, she failed.
Each time, she watched herself die.
---
The Third Fracture – The Observer's Truth
Finally, Rina stopped.
Her breathing was ragged. Her body was exhausted.
But her mind…
Her mind was breaking.
She turned to the third version of herself. The one that had never moved. The one that had only watched.
"You understand now, don't you?" it whispered.
Rina's fingers twitched.
This was never about winning. This was never about escaping.
This was about accepting time itself.
She closed her eyes.
She stopped resisting.
And suddenly—she saw everything.
Not just the trial. Not just the labyrinth.
She saw every version of herself, across infinite possibilities.
The one who succeeded.
The one who failed.
The one who never even made it to this trial.
All of them, existing at once.
Her mind screamed at the sheer weight of it, but she didn't turn away.
She reached out—
And shattered the illusion.
---
Trial Complete – The Cost of Perception
Rina gasped as the labyrinth collapsed.
The walls faded. The echoes of her other selves disappeared.
She was alone.
But she had changed.
She had seen what she could become—both her greatest triumphs and her deepest failures.
And she knew, with absolute certainty…
Time was not her ally.
It was a weight. A burden. A curse.
And now, she carried it.
---
End of Chapter 38