CHAPTER 20
THE FIRST ELITE: THE MASK OF BROKEN TRUTHS
Adrian and Adriana stepped through the collapsing veil of the illusion realm, boots crunching against a floor of cracked stone and dripping moss. The air changed instantly—heavier, colder, older. The hallway that greeted them didn't belong to their school anymore. It was a twisted remnant of something buried far beneath reality, walls carved with ancient demon runes that pulsed like veins.
Adriana tightened her grip on her crimson-charged whip.
"This place…" she whispered. "It's suffocating."
Adrian said nothing. His ice katana was already drawn, steam curling around it in the cold air. His eyes glowed faintly blue—still shaken, still exhausted from the battle with the illusion of Rin, but burning with a new determination.
Ahead of them lay a single rusted door, massive and circular like a vault hatch, marked with the sigil of a broken crown.
Adrian reached for it—
And the whole structure vibrated.
BOOOOOOOM.
The door exploded outward in a cyclone of shadows. Both twins leapt back as a tidal wave of corrupted energy surged down the hall—screaming, clawing, tearing. It wasn't just magic. It was hatred made into a storm.
Adriana cracked her whip, carving through the darkness.
"Adrian! Something's here!"
"I know—brace!"
The shadows gathered, swirling, compressing into a shape. Into a body.
Emerging from the vortex was a tall figure dressed in ceremonial bone armor, face hidden behind a cracked porcelain mask shaped like a mournful smile. His presence warped the air; the ground beneath him blackened just by touch.
A whisper echoed around them—not in sound but in their minds:
"FIRST OF THE ELITES… VARNYX, THE MASK OF BROKEN TRUTHS."
Adrian's stance tightened.
Adriana stepped closer to him.
And Varnyx finally spoke—voice like a choir of distorted children:
"You should not have walked this far, little vessels."
Adriana sneered.
"Too late to turn back now."
The masked Elite tilted his head.
"You misunderstand… I am not here to stop you. I am here to reveal you."
Before either twin could react, Varnyx tapped his own mask.
Crack.
Reality shattered.
---
THE MIND-SPLITTING ILLUSION
The world dissolved into a flood of memories—violent, tangled, painful. Adrian staggered, grabbing his head as flashes burned into him: his mother smiling, bleeding, dying. The moment she fell. The moment he screamed. The moment he changed.
Adriana reached for him—
And her world cracked too.
She saw herself alone in a cold cell. She saw alternate versions of herself—dying, failing, screaming, corrupted. She saw her brother slaughtered by demons. She saw herself turning into something monstrous.
Varnyx's voice slithered through the illusions.
"You twins were never chosen… you were constructed."
Adrian gasped—
"Shut… up…"
"Your school was not a school, but a nest. Your classmates were not bullies, but watchers. The trainers did not pick you; they bred you."
Adriana stumbled forward, swinging her whip to slice the illusions apart—but they only multiplied.
"STOP IT!"
Varnyx did not stop.
"Your mother… she was not human either."
Adrian froze.
The illusions paused with him.
A single memory rose—one he had never seen. His mother standing in the woods, speaking softly to a figure hidden in the shadows. A horned silhouette. A demon.
Varnyx walked closer, hissing:
"…she was a runaway guardian—one who betrayed her realm to hide you."
Adrian's heart cracked in two.
He screamed—a roar that shook the illusion.
The ice katana flared.
The illusion shattered like glass.
---
BACK TO REALITY — AND INTO THE FIGHT
Adrian's eyes were glowing bright cyan.
Adriana's whip burned crimson.
Varnyx stepped back, cracking his neck.
"Now you know."
Adrian bared his teeth.
"I know enough to kill you."
Varnyx raised his hand, unleashing an avalanche of shadow blades.
Adrian darted forward, slicing through them at lightspeed.
Adriana leapt into the air, her whip spinning like a blazing crimson halo.
"ADRIAN! LEFT!"
Adrian spun, blocking a spear of darkness aimed at his heart.
"I got it!"
Varnyx teleported behind them—
Adriana turned, cracking her whip across his mask.
CRRRRRAAACK.
A fragment broke off.
Varnyx shrieked.
The air shook violently.
The walls split open as shadow-beasts poured out—dog-like, winged, screaming.
Adrian charged first.
His ice katana froze the beasts mid-lunge, shattering them like crystal.
Adriana spun through the chaos, her whip erupting into bursts of red energy with every strike, tearing through demonic flesh.
But Varnyx grew stronger.
He spread his arms wide.
The hallway stretched, twisting into a labyrinth of nightmares.
"You cannot win in my realm…"
Adrian's aura exploded.
Frost crawled up the walls.
His voice echoed with fury:
"Then we'll break the realm!"
---
THE DECISIVE MOMENT
Varnyx lunged.
The twins moved as one.
Adriana's whip lashed around Varnyx's arm, yanking him off balance.
Adrian slid under him, katana glowing—
"FREEZE—AND SHATTER!"
He sliced upward, ice erupting like a geyser.
SLAAAAASH!
The mask broke in half.
Varnyx screamed as his body dissolved into ash and shadow.
But his final whisper echoed:
"Twelve more… stronger… watching…"
Then he vanished.
---
AFTERMATH
Silence fell.
Adriana leaned on a wall, trembling.
"He… showed us things."
Adrian lowered his sword, eyes dimming.
"He lied. He had to be lying."
Adriana looked at him—sadly, gently.
"Did he?"
Adrian shook his head violently.
"We focus on surviving. Then we find the truth ourselves."
The floor ahead cracked open, revealing a downward staircase bathed in crimson light.
Adriana straightened, lifting her whip.
"Chapter two of hell… here we go."
Adrian nodded, gripping his ice katana.
"Come on. We're not stopping now."
They stepped forward—
Toward the heart of the demon labyrinth.
Toward the remaining eleven Elites.
Toward the real Queen.
The shadows waited.
---