The Final Deception

Elias stood before the ancient seal, his hands trembling as he traced the runes on the stone surface. Sweat dripped from his brow, his breath ragged, knowing that this was his final chance to prevent the darkness from consuming everything. The air around him felt thick with the weight of the ancient magic, and the power of the seal pulsed beneath his fingers.

But as he finished the last incantation, the seal did not respond as he had hoped. Instead, the ground beneath him trembled, and a sharp, cold breeze blew across the room, as though mocking his efforts.

"No..." Elias whispered in disbelief. The seal had failed. The very thing he had fought for, the thing that had been his only hope, had crumbled in his hands.

Before he could even react, a figure appeared behind him—Leira, his closest ally and friend. She stood there, her expression unreadable, her eyes devoid of warmth.

"Elias..." she spoke his name softly, yet there was something chilling about the way she said it.

"Elias, I told you it was too dangerous," she continued, her voice laced with something darker. "You never understood... you never truly understood the price of your actions."

"Elias, we—" Her words were cut off suddenly as she drew a sharp dagger from beneath her cloak. In one fluid motion, she lunged at him, the blade plunging into his chest with a sickening force.

The pain was immediate and overwhelming. Elias gasped, his body going cold as he stumbled backward, his vision blurring. His hand instinctively reached for the dagger lodged deep within his chest, but his strength was fading fast.

"Liara..." he managed to whisper, the name coming out as a strangled breath.

But Leira only stood there, her eyes filled with something far more sinister than he had ever seen in her. "You were never meant to succeed," she said coldly. "The seal was a lie, Elias. And so were we."

His mind struggled to comprehend her words as he crumbled to the ground, blood pouring from the wound. The world seemed to slow as his consciousness began to slip away. "No... This can't be real... You..." He gasped for air, his hand trembling as it touched the ground. "You were my... friend... my ally."

But Leira's face shifted, contorting into something unrecognizable, something far darker. The figure before him was no longer her—it was the darkness itself, taking her form to deceive him all along.

"Did you really think you could save this world, Elias?" the darkness mocked, its voice dripping with malice. "You were a fool from the start."

His vision continued to fade, but in his final moments, he could only focus on one thing—the twisted, broken face of Liara, the friend he had trusted. It was now a cruel mask, a perfect illusion designed to torment him until the very end.

With his heart pounding, Elias felt the warmth of his blood fading as his body grew numb. As the world around him blurred, his mind clouded by darkness, he collapsed completely. His consciousness slipped into the abyss.

He felt weightless, his body floating in a vast, starry expanse. His senses came alive once more, but this time, everything was different. He opened his eyes slowly, blinking against the overwhelming beauty before him.

The world around him was full of colors, breathtakingly vibrant, swirling in every direction. The stars glowed with a soft, ethereal light, their radiance pulsating in time with his own heartbeat. It was a place that felt detached from time itself, a tranquil void of endless possibility.

But then, a voice broke through the silence, a voice that reverberated through the very fabric of this strange realm.

"Elias Corvin," the voice echoed, deep and commanding.

Elias did not answer. He remained silent, staring at the endless stars above him. His mind was far from the peaceful beauty of the place. Instead, his thoughts were consumed by the heavy weight of everything that had happened—the betrayal, the failure, the realization that his journey had led him to this tragic end.

The voice called out again, louder this time, but Elias didn't speak. He simply stared, lost in his thoughts. He could feel the unbearable sadness and regret suffocating him.

"Elias Corvin," the voice repeated, but now Elias's thoughts were clouded by something else. Something darker.

"I am not Elias Corvin," he thought bitterly. "I was never meant to be him."

His mind wandered back to a distant time, to a life he had tried to forget. "My name... was Lucas Knight," he muttered under his breath, his voice filled with exhaustion. "I never belonged to this world. I never asked to be a part of this war. I only wanted to survive... but I was chosen. Chosen to be the so-called 'savior' of a world that was never mine to begin with."

He clenched his fists, frustration building. "What a farce. I should never have tried... I never wanted this."

The voice boomed again, this time with a certain finality.

"It doesn't matter whether you are Lucas or Elias," the voice declared, its tone reverberating with an ominous power. "The next station is your last."

Elias's heart skipped a beat. His eyes narrowed in confusion and dread. "What do you mean?" he muttered, his voice trembling.

The stars above him flickered, and for a moment, it felt as if the entire universe itself was shifting. The pressure of this unknown place, the weight of the voice's words, was becoming unbearable.

Before he could gather his thoughts, the feeling of falling took over him once more. The peaceful void around him began to crack, and he felt himself slipping away into an infinite, endless sleep.

His mind became clouded, and his body felt as if it were sinking deeper and deeper, as though he were lost in a never-ending slumber.

The darkness swallowed him once more.