Chapter 273: The Labyrinth of Echoes

The wind howled as Kael, Ashara, and Veyna stood before the mouth of a crumbling canyon—its towering stone walls carved with symbols long lost to time. This was the place. The path to the Forgotten Gate lay beyond, hidden within the Labyrinth of Echoes—a shifting maze said to reflect the memories of all who entered.

"Once we go in," Ashara murmured, eyeing the entrance warily, "it won't be monsters or magic we face. It'll be ourselves."

Kael nodded, feeling the faint hum of the Veil within him stir. The Labyrinth was alive. It breathed, it listened. And it remembered.

They entered together.

Inside, the walls shimmered with illusory images—scenes from lives they had lived… and lives they had left behind.

Ashara was the first to falter. She saw her younger self, dressed in the garb of a noble house, her father's disappointed gaze etched in spectral clarity. She blinked hard, but the illusion did not vanish. "This place knows too much."

Veyna placed a hand on her shoulder. "Then we don't let it control us. We walk through it."

Kael faced his own vision: a younger version of himself, cloaked in white as a student of the Sanctum, turning his back on a mentor who pleaded with him not to seek power in the Veil. "You will lose everything," the ghost said. The words echoed like thunder.

Kael whispered, "I already did."

And they moved on.

Hours passed—or perhaps days. The Labyrinth did not obey time.

Eventually, they reached a chamber unlike any other—circular, with runes etched into the ceiling and floor. At the center stood a glowing mirror of obsidian, rippling like water.

"The Gate," Veyna breathed.

But as they stepped closer, a voice—calm, ancient, and sorrowful—rang out.

"To pass, you must surrender what anchors you most. Only then may the truth be revealed."

Ashara's eyes widened. "What does that mean? What do we have to give up?"

Kael stepped forward, heart pounding. The answer, he feared, was simple.

Their pasts. Their regrets. Their names.