The gunshot echoed once.
Then silence.
Not the kind that follows music —the kind that swallows it.
The masquerade hall didn't explode into chaos.It unraveled.
Chandeliers flickered, their golden light bleeding like molten veins. Mirrors lining the walls fractured, reflections bending into impossible shapes. Masks fell to the floor, hollow, abandoned — as if the people wearing them had never existed.
Screams dissolved into whispers.Whispers into nothing.
When the dust settled, the vast ballroom stood empty.
Almost.
Three figures remained on the shattered marble floor.
Elaris.Kael.Xyren.
Elaris's breath came sharp. Her fingers tightened instinctively around Kael's sleeve — not out of fear, but grounding.
"This… isn't real," she whispered.
Xyren's eyes glowed faintly, scanning the space with machine precision. His voice stayed calm, too calm.
"Real enough to kill us, sister."
The air rippled.
From the balcony where the threat had begun, a silver-masked phantom emerged — floating, untouchable, its presence bending the space around it. Its voice boomed, layered, ancient and cruel.
"Welcome, survivors… to the Hall of Broken Truths."
The floor beneath them pulsed crimson.
"Three trials. Three souls," the phantom continued."Survive together… or be erased as shadows."
Kael's jaw tightened. His hand found Elaris's again — not possessive. Protective.
"Looks like the party favors just turned lethal," he muttered.
Before she could reply, the walls around them shifted.
Mirrors rose — hundreds, thousands — forming a labyrinth of reflections.
But none of them reflected reality.
Elaris froze.
Her reflection stared back with torn wings, exposed circuits, eyes stripped of warmth.
A whisper slid into her mind.
You're just a machine pretending to be alive.
Kael's reflection stood shackled, wearing his father's crest, face empty with obedience.
A blade doesn't choose, it sneered. It obeys.
Xyren's mirror smiled.
Too wide.Too wrong.
The reflection raised a dagger — aimed at Elaris's back.
I was built to betray you.
The mirrors pressed closer. The air thinned.
Elaris staggered, wings trembling.
"No," she breathed.
Xyren stepped forward sharply. "They're not us. They're fear. Accept it — or it kills us."
Silence stretched.
Then Elaris pressed her palm to the glass.
"I am machine," she said, voice steady now."And fairy. Both. That's what makes me dangerous."
Her reflection cracked.
Kael exhaled, bitter smile flashing. "If I'm my father's blade… then I'll carve my own path with it."
His mirror shattered.
Xyren hesitated — then whispered, "Even if I was built to betray… I choose not to."
Glass exploded into crimson light.
The labyrinth collapsed.
The phantom's voice echoed once more, colder now.
"First trial… passed."
The floor beneath them ignited red.
Chains erupted from the ground.
And the real test began.
End Hook :Truth was the only weapon left — and lies tightened the chains.