Verena didn’t rember falling.
One mont, she was in the middle of Trial Two, sword out, her mimicry threads pulsating at the edge of control, Vivienne gasping behind her—then sothing tore open beneath her feet. Not the ground, no—it was the air itself, unraveling like a scroll, reality folding into itself in a silent, seamless rupture. And from it erged a Zodiac Beast.
Not just any beast. This one bore no solid form. It moved like water yet shimred like glass, its shape constantly shifting, impossible to pin down—a creature of mirrors and weightless silence.
ZODIAC BEAST IDENTIFIED: PISCES – THE REFLECTED ABYSS
It didn’t roar. It didn’t strike. It simply opened its yawning mouth, and Verena was devoured by it.
No scream. No struggle. Just stillness.
---
When she opened her eyes, there was no ground beneath her. No sky. No Vivienne. No trial. Nothing.
She stood in a pale expanse of fog, the kind of silence that didn’t just surround you, but emptied you. She tried to move. She could, technically, but it felt like walking through molasses.
The place wasn’t a prison.
It was a pause button.
A haunting still-fra between one breath and the next.
"What... is this?" she asked aloud, her voice sounding strange—like it belonged to soone distant.
Saphira didn’t answer. She wasn’t here.
For the first ti in what felt like forever, Verena was alone.
Truly, bone-deep alone.
She paced. Or tried to. Her feet left no prints, her steps made no sound. She wasn’t sure if minutes passed, or hours, or centuries.
A gentle ripple shimred in the fog ahead. Then another. Until images began to form, like reflections on water—scenes from her past. The ti she lashed out at Evelyn for being too soft. The mont she turned away from Beatrice when the girl needed comfort. The brief, bitter look Clarina gave her when she made light of duty. Isolde’s gaze—hurt masked behind fury.
She tried to look away.
The fog followed her. Carried them all.
Verena dropped to her knees.
"What’s the point of all this?" she muttered, pressing her hands to her face. "Is this another damn illusion? So kind of psychological boss fight? Is that it?"
The fog responded. A soft ripple again.
And this ti, she stepped out.
Herself.
But not as she was now. It was her from before—the first day she arrived at the academy. Sharp-eyed. Aloof. Armor of sarcasm bolted tight. The Verena who still thought she could keep everything under control if she just outwitted the story.
"Look at you now," the doppelgänger said with a smile too sharp to be kind. "So sentintal. So... tired."
Verena didn’t answer.
"You really thought if you just played along long enough, it’d all fix itself, didn’t you? That surviving the trials would be enough."
"I—" Verena started.
"You’re still trying to fix the story," her mirror said. "Trying to make it all make sense. Trying to save everyone. But no one asked you to. Not the system. Not the heroines. Not even yourself."
Verena’s fists clenched.
"I had to."
"Why?" her double asked. "Because you’re the villainess?"
"I’m not the villainess anymore."
A long silence.
Then, her mirror stepped closer, bending slightly so their eyes locked. "Then stop acting like you’re dood to lose everything, and fight like you have sothing to protect."
It reached out, touched her chest—and from that touch, a flicker of light.
Zodiacal energy surged within her, rippling through her weave like an old string finally restrung. The fog trembled.
SYSTEM UPDATE: Dreamtide Influence Detected. Emotional resonance triggering release protocol.
A crack opened in the sky above.
And through it—a voice.
"VERENA?!"
Vivienne.
Verena looked up, half-laughing, half-crying. "I’m coming!"
She leapt.
Back into the trial.
Back into herself.
Back into the story.
Verena landed hard, coughing as dust kicked up around her. Real, solid, ground. Her knees stung, her palms scraped, but the ache grounded her—it was proof that she was back.
"VERENA!"
Vivienne nearly tackled her with a hug, nearly sobbing, nearly laughing all at once. The girl had tears running down her cheeks and looked like she hadn’t taken a single step away since Verena disappeared.
"You—You vanished!" Vivienne cried. "There was a monster—and then—then I—! I thought you died!"
"I—was... trapped. In a very inconvenient therapy session." Verena wheezed, staggering to her feet. "Thanks for the emotional rescue ping, by the way."
Vivienne blinked, sniffling. "I... I did sothing?"
Verena blinked too. Then frowned. Oh. Of course.
Dreamtide Magic. Vivienne must have unconsciously synced with her emotional distress. The subtle tug of emotional resonance must’ve linked them long enough for the labyrinth to force an exit clause.
She gave the girl a look.
"...You’re terrifying," Verena muttered, brushing dust off her coat.
Vivienne wiped her eyes. "That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said to all trial."
"Don’t get used to it," Verena grumbled—but she was smiling.
They were still within the second trial. The air was heavier now, drenched in astral pressure. The stonework around them had changed—less dreamlike and more ancient temple, adorned with faded runes and tangled roots threading between cracks. A faded mural on one wall depicted constellations interwoven with twisting vines.
A deep rumble echoed through the chamber, and ahead, the sealed gate leading to the next section began to glow with shifting elental runes.
Trial Two wasn’t over.
"Alright," Verena straightened, brushing off the remnants of existential trauma. "We’re behind schedule. I’ve had my coma. You’ve had your therapy tears. Ti to move."
Vivienne gave a little salute, trying to hold in another sniffle. "Captain Verena!"
"Don’t ever say that again."
As they stepped forward, the gate shimred and parted. Inside, the chamber warped. A floating stone bridge spiraled in impossible geotry, suspended above what looked like a void of shifting stars. Every step required intuition over logic—the floor shifted depending on intent, not direction.
Verena hated these types of puzzles. They were less about skill and more about whether the story liked you that day.
"Just follow and—don’t think too hard," she instructed.
"That’s easy for !" Vivienne bead.
"Of course it is," Verena muttered.
They carefully stepped forward, platform by platform. Each incorrect step made the bridge twist beneath them, sending loose fragnts tumbling into starlit darkness. But with Vivienne quietly humming behind her—so dreamy tune that inexplicably cald Verena’s fraying nerves—they finally made it across.
The next room waited, bathed in blue mist.
A beast roared.
ZODIACAL ENTITY APPROACHING...
The mist coalesced.
A massive, crystalline serpent uncoiled from the fog, scales shimring like shattered glass and eyes glowing with pale starlight. Its body looped around the room like a celestial ouroboros.
ZODIAC BEAST IDENTIFIED: OPHIUCHUS – THE FORGOTTEN FANG
Verena’s stomach dropped.
That wasn’t supposed to appear this early.
She stepped in front of Vivienne, summoning her mimicry threads.
"Stay behind . This thing isn’t from your volu. It’s from mine."
Vivienne trembled but nodded. "Okay... Just—be careful."
The serpent lunged.
Verena moved.
Fla mimicry lit her hands. She dodged, twisted, countered with a bolt of fire from Saphira’s Zodiacal signature—but the serpent devoured it midair, energy dissipating into nothingness.
"Oookay. No mimic spam," she hissed. "Ti for Plan B."
"What’s Plan B?"
"I’m improvising Plan B!"
She dove left as a lash of the serpent’s tail slamd into the stone, cracking it like an eggshell. Its roar sent tremors down her spine—this was more than just a beast. It was a placeholder. A glitch in the weave.
"Vivienne!" Verena shouted. "Try using your magic! Disorient it!"
Vivienne nodded, summoning her Dreamtide aura. The air shimred. Illusions sprang up like petals: flickering Verenas, broken paths, flashes of mirrored mazes.
The serpent paused, confused—then split its focus.
"Nice!"
Verena struck.
Thread-blade in hand, she slashed upward, aiming not at its body—but at the reflection cast in its crystalline skin.
The beast shrieked.
WEAKNESS FOUND: INTERNAL PROJECTION POINTS
Verena’s eyes lit up. "Gotcha now."
This was her kind of fight—trickery, timing, understanding the rules behind the rules.
And this ti, she wasn’t alone.
The beast thrashed in fury, shattering its own mirrored scales in confusion as the illusions multiplied. Vivienne’s Dreamtide grew stronger the more afraid she was—and right now, the girl was terrified. The air shimred with flickering possibilities: endless Verenas, traps, dead ends, decoys.
Verena dashed between them, each step weaving her mimicry into the fabric of the illusion itself. Her blade didn’t strike the serpent’s body—it struck the image within its reflection.
Cracks spiderwebbed along its glassy surface. It reeled back, roaring.
"Vivienne, more pressure!" Verena called out.
"I’m running out of emotional trauma!" she squeaked.
"Then borrow mine!"
With one final lunge, Verena thrust her mimic blade into the center of the serpent’s fractured eye. The explosion was instant—light, energy, a cascade of shattered illusion.
When the dust cleared, the serpent was gone.
Verena collapsed to one knee, panting. Vivienne ran to her, flinging herself into a hug that nearly knocked them both over.
"You’re amazing!" Vivienne bead, tears in her eyes.
"I’m dying," Verena wheezed.
But despite everything, she laughed. Because for the first ti in a while, she didn’t feel like she was failing. Not at the trials. Not at life.
They were still in this together.
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