The world around Li Shen blurred as he staggered away from the aftermath of the creature's demise. The ground beneath him felt unstable, shifting like a living thing, as though the very environment was reacting to his victory—or perhaps to the challenges that lay ahead. His body screamed for rest, but there was no time to recover. The trial was relentless, its pace unforgiving.
From the depths of the abyss, a new voice rose, a low whisper that seemed to seep into his very bones. It was a voice that carried the weight of millennia of suffering.
"You have defeated the first, but the path does not end there. The Trial of Flesh is a mere prelude to what awaits you. Now, you will face the Trial of Mind."
Li Shen's heart skipped a beat. The Trial of Mind? He had heard of such things—visions, illusions, manipulations of the senses—but he had never truly understood the magnitude of such a trial.
"Flesh can be repaired. But the mind? The mind is a fragile thing. Can you endure what awaits you, Li Shen?"
The darkness around him thickened, coiling like smoke, wrapping itself around his body and squeezing the air from his lungs. His vision blurred further, and a faint dizziness overcame him, as if he were being pulled into the very fabric of his mind. He staggered, feeling as though the ground itself had disappeared.
And then, as quickly as the darkness came, it was gone.
Li Shen blinked, finding himself no longer standing on the shifting ground of the trial but within a strange, desolate landscape. The sky was a sickly shade of green, a twisted storm swirling above. The air smelled of decay and rot, but there was no sign of the creature he had slain. Instead, towering structures rose around him—black obelisks, their surfaces slick and jagged like broken bones.
The silence was suffocating, broken only by the occasional creaking of the obsidian spires.
Li Shen took a step forward, his mind still reeling from the sudden shift in reality. He tried to focus, drawing in a breath to steady himself. But when he exhaled, it was not his breath he felt—no, it was the chill of death itself, crawling up his spine.
"Welcome to your trial," a voice whispered again, but this time it wasn't from the air. It was from inside his head.
His chest tightened. He had heard of such things—minds being breached by external forces, by otherworldly entities who could worm their way into thoughts and emotions. But this was no ordinary invasion. It felt… personal.
Suddenly, the ground before him cracked open, and out of it, a figure emerged. It was a familiar one—familiar but twisted.
Li Shen's heart stopped.
It was him.
A mirror image of himself, but darker, more twisted—his features distorted in a grotesque mockery of who he was. The creature's eyes were hollow, black pits that seemed to draw in the light around them.
Li Shen stepped back, his breath shallow. The figure—his reflection—smiled, revealing sharp, serrated teeth that seemed to glisten in the unnatural light.
"You've come far, Li Shen. But how long can you survive when your worst fears are made flesh?" the creature mocked, its voice an eerie reflection of his own.
The Trial of Mind had begun.
Li Shen's pulse quickened as the creature before him began to move. Each step it took echoed through the desolate landscape, its every movement synchronized with his own. The reflection, the twisted version of himself, was him in every way—but in a much darker, more horrific form.
"You are nothing but a shadow of the true power that lies within you," the reflection snarled, its hands reaching up to touch its own face as if pulling at the skin. "You've always been weak. Always feared the dark. But the dark is what defines you."
Li Shen gritted his teeth, clenching his fists. This isn't real. This is all in my mind.
But even as the thought crossed his mind, the reflection's words began to crawl beneath his skin. Doubt. Fear. Self-loathing. The darkest parts of his soul were now manifesting before him, pulling at the fragile thread of his sanity.
"Are you even worthy of the power you seek?" the reflection continued, its voice now a low hiss. "You think you can wield this strength, but you are no different than the monsters you slay. You are cursed, Li Shen, and no matter how hard you fight, the darkness will always be with you."
With a snap of its fingers, the reflection dissolved into shadows and reappeared before him in an instant, faster than Li Shen could react. It swung a clawed hand at him, a strike filled with an impossible speed.
Li Shen barely managed to dodge, the claws grazing his side and tearing through his armor. Blood spurted from the wound, but he didn't falter. No more hesitation. No more fear.
He retaliated, his blade flashing out in a series of calculated strikes. But his reflection matched each movement with ease. Every slash, every strike, was countered.
It's not real, he repeated to himself. It's not real. This is my mind, my trial.
But the reflection's attacks grew fiercer, and the darkness around him seemed to pulse in time with the strikes, amplifying the fear that clawed at his chest. Each time the blade met flesh, his own wounds seemed to deepen, as if the fight were becoming his own self-inflicted torment.
Li Shen's breaths came faster as the reflection taunted him, pushing him to his limits.
"You're weak. You've always been weak. You'll never escape the curse of your blood. You'll never escape what you've done."
The words cut deeper than any physical wound.
With a roar, Li Shen gathered his remaining strength and summoned his dark power—the same power that had brought him this far. He let the shadows envelope him, his form blending with the dark energy that swirled around him. His senses sharpened, and his body moved with newfound precision.
The reflection lunged at him once more, but this time, Li Shen's movements were different. He was no longer fighting to survive—he was fighting to destroy.
The clash of their blades rang out like thunder, and the reflection's snarls turned into screams as Li Shen's dark energy ripped through the illusions, tearing at the very fabric of his trial.
The reflection began to fade, its form dissolving into nothingness as Li Shen's blade struck true.
And then, there was silence.
For a long moment, Li Shen stood alone, bloodied and broken, but alive. His heart pounded in his chest, and his mind screamed in agony as the trial's impact continued to reverberate within him. The shadows that had once whispered now retreated, leaving him in a moment of eerie stillness.
He had faced himself—and he had won.
But this was only the beginning. The Trial of Mind had tested his resolve, his darkest fears, and now, Li Shen knew with certainty that the true horrors of this world were far from over.
With a deep breath, he stepped forward, knowing that the next trial would be worse than anything he had faced before.