Date: February 12, 542 years since the Fall of Zanra the Dishonored.
The mirrored hall filled with chaos, devoid of the sounds of heavy footsteps, but full of a thin, piercing ringing. The Shards—faceless beings woven from a dim, silvery haze—attacked from all sides. For Brand, Ulf, and Mark, this fight became a nightmare: wherever they struck, they were met by an identical blade emerging directly from the walls or floor.
Brand, a veteran with the power of a Warrior, roared furiously, trying to cleave his double. But the Shard didn't just block his attacks; it moved with the same strength and speed, completely nullifying the knight's advantage.
"They know every swing!" Mark shouted, dodging his own shadow, which nearly pierced his shoulder. "It's like I'm fighting myself in the worst nightmare!"
Elwin stood in the center of the circle formed by the knights. His gaze was unfocused, and his Spirit of "Tenacious Memory" worked at its limit. The young man felt his inner essence pulse in his temples, trying to process a colossal amount of visual information. The problem was that the Pyramid of Reflections attacked not only their bodies, but also their minds: thousands of false movements in the mirrors created white noise through which it was impossible to discern the real threat.
"It's not just reflections," Elwin thought, blocking a Shard's thrust. "They aren't mimicking us. They're drawing information from our Vessels. They react to the intent to strike before the muscles move."
The young man noticed how his own energy, usually fluid and clear, began to cloud under the influence of this place. The Temple of True Equilibrium seemed to mirror the very structure of his power, creating a perfect counterbalance for each defender.
"Close your eyes!" Elwin suddenly roared, and his voice, amplified by the density of his inner power, made the mirrors tremble finely. "Stop looking at them! Remember the hall as it was before they appeared!"
Elwin himself plunged completely into his Spirit. "Tenacious Memory" allowed him to "erase" the current chaos from his perception. He reconstructed in his mind the ideal layout of the hall—the empty mirrored slabs, the cold floor, the static columns. In this mental space, the Shards did not exist, because they weren't in his original memory.
Now, guided only by sound and the barely perceptible vibrations of the air, Elwin saw the "truth." The Shards weren't independent warriors. They were projections tied to specific points on the mirrored panels—nodes of power that fueled this labyrinth.
"Brand, ten o'clock, third slab from the bottom! Strike with all your might!" Elwin commanded, eyes still closed.
The veteran, accustomed to trusting his comrades, didn't hesitate and brought his sword down on the indicated point. The mirrored panel didn't just shatter—it exploded with a shower of black sparks. In that same second, three Shards tormenting Mark instantly crumbled into grey ash.
"Ulf, above you on the ceiling! Mark, behind you!"
The Order's knights, following Elwin's precise commands, began to methodically destroy the "anchors" of the illusions. With each shattered node, the pressure on their minds eased. Elwin felt his energy return to its familiar rhythm, no longer encountering mirrored resistance.
When the last projection vanished, a heavy silence fell over the hall. The mirrors on the walls became ordinary reflective surfaces again, showing only four exhausted knights covered in small cuts.
"You saved us, lad," Brand lowered his sword heavily, wiping sweat from his brow. "I was about to start smashing everything in sight until I dropped."
"This is only the first barrier," Elwin replied, opening his eyes. His pupils still glowed with a soft blue light, and his face was pale from mental exhaustion.
He looked deeper into the gallery. There, among the endless mirrors, he glimpsed for a moment the silhouette of Liana running across some kind of bridge. It was a fleeting vision—perhaps another trap, perhaps an echo of real events in another part of the Temple.
"We need to move," Elwin adjusted his sword belt. "I feel the energy of this place beginning to concentrate ahead. We need to find a way to the lower levels before the Temple comes up with something more complicated than simple shadows."
The group moved on. Elwin walked first, and now his Memory was his main shield. He knew that in this place, you couldn't even trust your own face in the mirror, and only the cold logic of a Warrior would help them avoid becoming part of this eternal, shining void.