The absolute void lasted only a moment. When Richard opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the temple, but in a familiar environment that startled him.
He found himself in his old university apartment, that small space where everything had begun. The walls were exactly as he remembered, covered with maps and papers with annotations. Books formed the same unstable towers on every available surface. Even the cold coffee mug rested in the same place next to his laptop.
And sitting in front of the screen was someone. His own image.
Richard held his breath, observing this other "self" absorbed in the study of the Sumerian tablet. He could see the same obsessive gleam in his eyes, the same tense posture. It was like watching a recording of himself from weeks ago, but with impossible clarity, as if time had folded in on itself.
"What is this?" he whispered, more to himself than expecting an answer.
To his surprise, the other Richard looked up directly at him, although he didn't seem to really see him.
"You don't understand, do you?" said his double with a voice that sounded strangely hollow. "You think you're chasing answers, but it's the questions that are chasing you. It's always been that way."
Richard tried to approach, but discovered he couldn't move. His feet seemed anchored to the floor, as if they were part of the apartment's structure itself.
"This isn't real," he said firmly. "It's an illusion of the temple."
The other Richard smiled, an expression he had never seen on his own face. It was a knowing smile, almost condescending.
"Are you sure? Maybe this is what's real, and everything else has been the dream. The tablet, the system, the fragments, Elyndra... Wouldn't it be simpler? Wouldn't it be more logical that everything was an elaborate construction of your overloaded mind?"
Richard felt a chill. Doubt, planted with surgical precision, began to infiltrate his thoughts. What if everything had been a delusion born of his obsession with the tablet? A hallucination that began with that blow to the head on campus?
The other Richard was now typing on the laptop, and the image on the screen showed not the Sumerian tablet but medical records. Richard could make out words like "psychotic episode" and "delusions of grandeur" before his double turned the screen toward him.
"The simplest explanation is usually correct," his reflection continued. "What's more likely: that you discovered an ancient magic system that chose you as guardian of a bridge between worlds, or that your mind, always prone to finding patterns where there are none, finally crossed a line?"
Richard closed his eyes, trying to center himself. Elyndra's words resonated in his memory: "The temple doesn't create falsehoods; it reveals hidden truths."
"If this is a truth," he finally responded, "then it's only a possibility, not reality. It's the fear I've been repressing."
When he opened his eyes again, the apartment had changed. It was deteriorated, as if years of abandonment had passed. His double now looked older, emaciated, with a lost gaze and mumbling about symbols and guardians while obsessively scribbling on the walls.
Richard recognized the image: it was his deepest fear, becoming one of those obsessed academics who lose their sanity chasing theories impossible to prove.
"I'm not you," he said firmly to his reflection. "And you're not me."
Suddenly, he felt a weight against his chest. The Guardian's Seal. He couldn't see it, but he could feel its presence, its warmth. He touched it through his clothes and noticed how it vibrated slightly, as if responding to his determination.
The apartment began to dissolve around him, the walls becoming translucent, revealing an infinite void beyond. His double looked at him one last time, now with a solemn expression.
"You may be right," he said. "But the line between enlightenment and madness has always been thin. Be careful not to cross it."
And with those words, everything vanished.
---
Richard blinked, now finding himself in a devastated desert landscape under a blood-red sky. The air was heavy and dry, loaded with particles of sand that floated suspended as if time had slowed. Before him stretched the ruins of what appeared to have been a colossal city, its ancient stone structures partially buried by dunes of scarlet sand.
"Where am I now?" he murmured, cautiously advancing toward the ruins.
[**Echo Vision Level 2 automatically activated**]
[**Mana: 21/25**]
[**Warning: Temporal anomaly detected**]
The system message appeared in his vision without him having requested it, as if some aspect of this environment had instinctively activated his abilities.
As he moved among the fallen structures, he began to recognize symbols carved into the stone: the same spiral surrounded by eyes that he had seen on the Sumerian tablet, in the guardian's chest, in his visions. But here they were everywhere, as if the entire city had been a monument to that symbol.
Suddenly, a voice resonated behind him.
"You've arrived too late."
Richard turned to find Elyndra. But not the same one he knew. This Elyndra seemed much older, her skin furrowed with silver lines resembling scars, her white hair longer and wilder, her eyes completely silver, with no visible pupil.
"Elyndra?" he asked cautiously. "What is this place?"
"What remains," she responded, her voice resonating unnaturally. "What will be if we fail. The last day of the last world."
Richard looked around with new understanding. He wasn't seeing a distant place, but a possible future. A devastated future.
"The veil fell," continued future-Elyndra, pointing toward the horizon where enormous cracks seemed to tear the sky itself. "The worlds merged and destroyed each other. The Seekers won, but nothing was left to rule."
As she spoke, figures began to materialize among the ruins. Shadows with humanoid shape but erratic movements, like puppets with tangled strings. Their eyes shone with an unnatural glow, and where their mouths should be, there were only luminescent spirals.
"Those who remained," explained Elyndra. "Neither alive nor dead. Trapped between shattered realities."
One of the figures approached, stretching an ethereal hand toward Richard. Instinctively, he stepped back, activating his Wind Shield as protection. To his surprise, the air barrier materialized with an intensity he had never achieved before, glowing with a vivid blue color.
[**Wind Shield Level 2 activated**]
[**Mana optimization activated**]
[**Mana: 19/25**]
The creature retreated before the barrier, emitting a sound like distorted static.
"They're looking for anchors," said Elyndra. "Fragments of what they once were. Your energy attracts them like moths to a flame."
"Why are you showing me this?" asked Richard. "If this is the temple testing me, what's the lesson?"
Future-Elyndra looked at him fixedly, her silver eyes penetrating to his soul.
"Not all tests have lessons, Richard Wonder. Sometimes they're simply truths you must know. The price of failure."
As she spoke, more creatures approached, surrounding them in an increasingly tight circle. Richard maintained his shield, but he could feel his mana decreasing with each second.
"What must I do to avoid this future?" he asked, instinctively knowing that was the right question.
Elyndra smiled, a sad and knowing expression.
"What you must do, you already know. The real question is: what will you be willing to sacrifice to achieve it?"
Before Richard could respond, one of the creatures passed through his shield, as if it had found a breach in his defense. He felt a supernatural cold when the entity touched him, and suddenly everything around him began to fade again.
"Remember," were the last words he heard from Elyndra as the red world dissolved. "Sometimes, to save everything, you must be willing to lose everything."
---
Darkness slowly gave way to a new scene. Richard found himself standing in an immense temple, much larger and more majestic than the one he had entered. The columns rose toward a vaulted ceiling that seemed to reflect an impossible night sky, with constellations that didn't correspond to any known stellar pattern.
In the center of the hall was a circular altar on which rested a crystalline object emitting a faint bluish light. Richard instinctively knew it was another fragment of the Core, similar to the one he already possessed but with a slightly different configuration.
He approached cautiously, expecting another disconcerting illusion, another test. But this time, everything seemed strangely direct, almost anticlimactic after the previous visions.
As he approached the altar, he noticed inscriptions on its base. He activated his Arcane Reading and the symbols began to reorganize, forming comprehensible words:
"What you seek is not the object, but the knowledge it contains. The true test is to discern between what is and what could be."
Richard extended his hand toward the fragment, but before he could touch it, a familiar voice stopped him.
"I wouldn't do that."
He turned to find Jake's figure, casually leaning against a column, with his camera hanging around his neck as always.
"It's not what it seems, Richard," Jake continued, approaching with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "None of this is."
Richard took a step back, evaluating the situation. This couldn't be the real Jake; it must be another manifestation of the temple.
"What am I supposed to understand from this?" he asked directly.
Jake—or what appeared to be Jake—shrugged.
"That not all your friends are what they seem. Some have their own agendas. Some work for interests you don't even suspect."
From the shadows emerged the figures of Emily and Elliot, flanking Jake with disturbingly neutral expressions.
"Do you really believe it was coincidence?" asked Emily, her voice lacking the warmth Richard knew. "The amulet, the tablet, our friendship?"
Elliot methodically adjusted his glasses.
"The probability that all these events occurred by chance is infinitesimally small. You were selected, Richard. Monitored. Directed."
Richard felt his heart accelerate. This was another test, another manipulation of the temple. And yet... that doubt had always existed, that small voice that wondered why Emily's amulet had resonated with the system, why Jake always seemed to be recording at critical moments.
"If this is true," he finally said, "if my friends have been manipulating me all this time... why would you show me this now?"
Jake smiled, a cold and calculating expression he had never seen on his friend's face.
"Because you must choose, Richard. Trust blindly or question everything. Both paths have their dangers."
Emily stepped forward, her image briefly fluctuating, as if it were a transmission with interference.
"The true power of the veil is not in the fragments," she said. "It's in those who seek them. In the connections between them. In the sacrifices they're willing to make."
Richard closed his eyes, focusing. The temple was playing with his insecurities, with his deepest fears. First his fear of madness, then his fear of failure, and now his uncertainty about whom to trust.
When he opened his eyes again, he looked directly at the three figures.
"I don't know if my friends are exactly who I think they are," he said firmly. "But I know who I am. And I know what I must do."
He turned toward the altar and, without further hesitation, took the crystalline fragment. The moment his fingers touched the surface, all the figures and the temple itself began to dissolve around him.
---
Richard gasped, suddenly finding himself in a small circular chamber within the real temple. Elyndra was beside him, watching him with a mixture of concern and pride.
"You did it," she said, her voice normal again, familiar. "You passed the tests."
Richard looked at his hand and saw that he was holding a crystal fragment identical to the one he had taken in the vision. The second fragment of the Core.
"Was all of that an illusion?" he asked, feeling as if he had lived years in what had probably been minutes.
"Not exactly," Elyndra replied, helping him to his feet. "As I told you, the temple doesn't create falsehoods. It showed you truths, but not necessarily truths of the present."
Richard contemplated the fragment, which emitted a soft pulse of energy similar to the first one he had obtained.
"I saw a desolate future. I saw you, much older, in a world where the veil had fallen."
Elyndra nodded, her expression becoming somber.
"It's one of the possible futures. The one we're trying to prevent."
"I also saw..." Richard hesitated. "I saw my friends, suggesting they had been manipulating me from the beginning."
A shadow seemed to cross Elyndra's face, too quickly to be sure.
"The temple shows what could be, what was, what you fear," she answered carefully. "It's up to you to discern the nature of each vision."
Richard stored the fragment in his backpack, next to the first one, feeling how both objects seemed to recognize each other, subtly resonating with each other.
"Now what?" he asked.
"We must get out of here," said Elyndra, looking toward the chamber walls, which had begun to vibrate slightly. "The temple has fulfilled its purpose for now. Soon it will change form, or disappear completely."
As they headed toward the exit, Richard activated his Echo Vision, seeking the safest path. To his surprise, the temple's energy lines were now visible with much greater clarity than before, as if his experience in the tests had refined his abilities.
[**Echo Vision enhanced**]
[**Perception level increased**]
[**New capability detected: Arcane pattern tracking**]
"Something changed in me," he commented as they followed a corridor that gradually narrowed. "I can see the energy flows in more detail."
"Each test overcome transforms us," explained Elyndra. "The temples not only guard knowledge, they also confer it on those who prove worthy."
They reached a chamber that Richard recognized as the entrance through which they had arrived. But something was wrong; the door that should lead outside was no longer there.
"Where is the exit?" he asked, feeling his pulse quicken.
"The temple is changing faster than I expected," replied Elyndra, her voice tense. "Someone is interfering with its natural patterns."
The floor beneath their feet began to tremble. Small fragments of stone fell from the ceiling, and the luminous veins in the walls blinked erratically.
"Who could do something like that?" asked Richard as he frantically searched for an alternative exit.
"Only someone with deep knowledge of the temples and access to forbidden technology," answered Elyndra. "The Veil Society has been experimenting with dimensional manipulation for decades."
Richard remembered the dying agent's words: "They changed the rules... the wind lies..."
"What do we do now?"
Elyndra closed her eyes, as if listening to something Richard couldn't perceive.
"There is an exit," she finally said. "But we'll have to create it ourselves."
She approached a section of wall that seemed identical to the others and traced a complex symbol with her fingers. The stone began to glow faintly.
"I need your help, Richard. Your affinity with air can open a path for us."
Richard nodded, positioning himself beside her.
"What should I do?"
"Channel your energy through the Seal," she instructed. "Visualize the air pushing against the very structure of reality itself, creating a breach between this space and the outside."
Richard took out the Guardian's Seal and held it in front of him, concentrating on the sensation of the wind, on its power to pass through barriers, to find the subtlest path between obstacles.
[**Combined ability: Wind Shield + Arcane Channeling**]
[**Synergy detected with the Guardian's Seal**]
[**Mana: 15/25**]
The air around his hands began to swirl, forming increasingly complex patterns that followed the contour of the symbol Elyndra had traced. The wall began to vibrate, and then, as if an invisible curtain had torn, an opening appeared in the solid stone, revealing the mountainous landscape outside.
"Now!" exclaimed Elyndra. "It won't last long!"
They passed through the breach just as the entire temple emitted a sound like a giant sigh. Looking back, Richard saw how the structure began to fold in on itself, as if it were being absorbed by an invisible point in space.
In a matter of seconds, the Temple of the Whispering Peaks had completely disappeared, leaving only an expanse of empty rock where the ancient structure had once stood.
Richard and Elyndra collapsed onto the ground, gasping from the effort and tension. The sun was beginning to set behind the mountains, tinting the sky with reddish and purple hues.
"We did it," murmured Richard, feeling the weight of the two fragments in his backpack. "Two fragments out of seven."
Elyndra nodded, her gaze lost on the horizon.
"Each step brings us closer to restoring the balance. But it also makes us more visible to those who seek the fragments for their own ends."
Richard thought about the visions he had experienced in the temple. The devastated future. The suggested betrayal. The sacrifices mentioned.
"Elyndra," he finally said. "How much of what I saw in the temple was real?"
She looked at him, her silver eyes reflecting the last rays of the sun.
"Everything was real, Richard. But not everything is true. Not yet."
Before he could ask more, the system projected a message:
[**Mission completed: Second Core fragment obtained**]
[**Reward: +1 level in Wind Shield**]
[**New ability unlocked: Elemental Sense (Air)**]
[**Description: Allows perception of alterations and patterns in the air within a determined radius**]
[**Warning: Multiple energy signals approaching detected**]
Richard immediately stood up, alert.
"We're not alone," he said, scanning the surroundings. "The system detects approaching energies."
Elyndra also rose, her posture subtly changing to a more defensive one.
"The Veil Society, no doubt," she murmured. "They must have felt the temple's disappearance."
As the last ray of sun hid behind the mountains, Richard activated his new ability, extending his consciousness through the surrounding air. He immediately felt the disturbances caused by several vehicles approaching along the main path, and something else... a subtle presence moving through the shadows of the nearby rocks, quick and stealthy.
"It's not just them," he whispered. "There's something else. Something... different."
Elyndra tensed her body, scrutinizing the growing darkness.
"The Seekers," she said gravely. "They've sent one of their own."
Richard remembered what Elyndra had told him about the Seekers, the elite of the Veil Society. Magic users with powers that made the common agents he had faced before pale in comparison.
Night was falling quickly over the mountains, bringing with it a penetrating cold and shadows that seemed to move with their own will. Richard adjusted his backpack, feeling the comforting weight of the fragments and the warmth of the Seal against his chest.
Two fragments out of seven. A long way to go. And the enemy approaching from all directions.
"Are you ready?" asked Elyndra, her silhouette outlined against the night sky.
Richard invoked his Wind Shield, now stronger and more stable than before, and nodded.
"Let's do this."
---
[**SYSTEM STATUS**]
[**User:** Richard Wonder]
[**Level:** Veil Apprentice (level 2)]
[**Guardian Lineage:** 48% awakened]
[**Mana:** 15/25]
[**ACTIVE ABILITIES:**]
* **[Wind Steps (Level 2)]**: Allows the user to move at increased speeds, improve agility, and perform enhanced jumps. Consumes mana per second of activation (0.8/second). *Note: Control and efficiency have improved with practice.*
* **[Echo Vision (Level 2+)]**: Allows perception of energy traces, recent past events, and detection of hidden or invisible presences. Consumes 2 mana points when activated. *Note: Energy Tracking aspect unlocked. Arcane Pattern Tracking capability added after temple trials.*
* **[Wind Shield (Level 2)]**: Creates a personal shield of compressed and swirling air that deflects or absorbs physical and magical attacks. Variable consumption according to size and intensity. *Note: Greater density and stability after level improvement. Can be formed more quickly.*
* **[Enhanced Arcane Reading]**: Allows deciphering and understanding complex arcane inscriptions and extracting meaning from magically encoded texts. Consumes 1 mana point. *Note: Evolution of Inscription Analysis, more accurate and efficient.*
* **[Arcane Synchronization (Level 2)]**: Allows briefly synchronizing the user's energy with external arcane patterns, enabling manipulation of foreign magical energies. Variable consumption according to complexity.
* **[Elemental Sense (Air)]**: *NEW* Allows perception of alterations and patterns in the air within a determined radius. Detects movements, presences, and subtle atmospheric changes. Minimal consumption (0.5/minute).
* **[Arcane Channeling]**: Allows directing and concentrating mana with greater precision, increasing the power of specific abilities. Variable consumption. *Note: Synergy detected with the Guardian's Seal for amplified effects.*
[**PASSIVE ABILITIES:**]
* **[Inscription Comprehension (Level 0)]**: Grants a rudimentary intuitive understanding of glyphs and ancient or magical symbols. Does not actively consume mana. *Note: Significant development potential.*
* **[Arcane Bond (Level 1)]**: Allows establishing a temporary energetic connection with other mana users, sharing and amplifying abilities. Requires lineage compatibility.
* **[Mana Shield (Passive)]**: Provides slight passive resistance to magical and physical attacks. Does not actively consume mana, but its effectiveness increases with greater mana reserve.
* **[Meditation]**: Technique that allows recovering mana at an accelerated rate while in a state of deep concentration.
[**LINKED OBJECTS:**]
* **Guardian's Seal**: Equippable. Grants +15% mana efficiency when active. Allows access to places hidden from common people.
* **Scroll of Vision**: Unique object. Content hidden until the user is prepared to receive its knowledge.
* **Core Fragments**: 2/7 collected. Contain ancestral knowledge about the balance between worlds.
* **Emily's Amulet**: Functions as a conduit and amplifier of arcane energy. Compatible with guardian lineage.
* **Harmonization Disc**: Amplifies energy channeling when used in conjunction with other arcane artifacts.
[**ACTIVE MISSIONS:**]
* **Find the remaining Core fragments (2/7 completed)**
* **Escape from the Seekers and the Veil Society**
* **Discover the truth about the Book of Ur-Kigal**
[**SYSTEM WARNING:**] Presence of a Seeker detected. Extreme caution recommended. Seekers possess arcane capabilities superior to those of standard agents.