Nivel “ ? ”: Valour

  Whilst Alan, Virellian, Stefan, and Commander Volkov swam completely oblivious to the colossal serpent shifting beneath them in the depths, guided by Kar’Nix, Nastacia curiously tapped the white tiles of the walls with her staff. She was trying to check if they would break, convinced that everything was an illusion; but after several dry thuds, the gleaming tile remained intact. Not a single crack.

  — Shit... — she muttered, scratching her head in frustration.

  Her abrupt movements caught the attention of Bealuna, who was the only one capable of hearing the racket Nastacia was causing, which echoed in that deathly silence.

  — Can’t you give me a heads-up before making all that noise?! — Bealuna shouted into her watch, her heart in her mouth —. You nearly scared me to death!

  Harold, now fully regenerated after devouring the Lunar Fruit, intervened through the SIEN watch channel:

  "What were you trying to check?"

  "That what we’re seeing isn't what it appears to be," the Commander replied quickly into her watch, looking at the almost non-existent mark her staff had left on the wall. "In this world, matter... isn't exactly matter. Things are there, but our bodies only interpret what our souls are capable of processing. I believe there are structures, entities, or spaces that we simply cannot see because our perception is still too low. We are limited by what our minds can accept as real."

  A heavy silence followed. Then, Bealuna replied:

  "When we faced Respect, the Seventh Terror of Nullaria... Dante told me we weren't on solid ground. That we were all walking on tiles suspended in the void. I saw the floor clearly, unlike them. So, what you’re saying might be true. Although here... I only see water, statues, and these white towers extending into infinity."

  An awkward silence took hold of the atmosphere.

  "Dante, do you see anything else? Perhaps with your heightened perception, you notice an anomaly?" Bealuna finally asked, searching in all directions.

  Dante only shook his head in silence. Frustration and uncertainty began to gnaw at the group's morale.

  It was then that the rest of the team reached the tower. Dante, Luke, and Harold helped the others climb onto the first level protruding from the water, whilst they observed how the circular floors of the structure sank and repeated themselves infinitely into the dark depths. Once on firm ground, the stone stairs connecting the balconies creaked under their footsteps as they ascended towards the third floor, just as a stealthy mist began to rise from the infinite ocean, slowly surrounding them.

  It was Ryan who, whilst standing alone for a moment looking towards the horizon, noticed something strange. The colossal statue, whose hand had served as their platform only minutes ago, had turned its head towards them.

  It was watching them.

  Ryan’s eyes reflected immediate despair. He made clumsy, frantic gestures, trying to communicate without success.

  — Shit...! — Ryan whispered, agitated —. They don't understand me!

  His fingers trembled as he tried to press the buttons on his watch to deploy a warning message, but panic made him slow. At that instant, Kar’Nix landed softly on the ground. With wings still extended and gaze fixed upon him, the raven briefly delved into his mind.

  And then, he knew.

  "Dammit, communicating through these stupid watches is exasperating. I must be brief. That statue's head moved and now it's looking at us," Kar'Nix read from Ryan's thoughts.

  The raven slowly turned its neck towards the statue and confirmed the impossible. Immediately after, he projected the thought mentally to everyone present.

  A general shudder ran through the group and everyone turned to look at the statue. Ryan, seeing that they had finally understood the danger, cast a look laden with relief and disbelief. Before chaos could take hold of their reactions, Kar’Nix’s voice resonated in the minds of the ten with clarity:

  — I have temporarily intertwined your sensory frequencies. From this moment on, you will be able to hear and communicate with each other normally as long as you remain near me. Stop wasting time with those human artefacts — the raven decreed, referring to the base's watches with disdain —. And prepare yourselves, because now that the ten of you are finally together, something must be about to happen — he added, whilst his fixed gaze was lost in the thick mist advancing relentlessly towards them.

  Commander Volkov still observed the Mystic Beast’s actions with deep mistrust. It was Bealuna who broke the ice, without looking away from the stone figure.

  — What does it mean... that that thing has moved?

  It was then that everyone finally saw something shifting beneath the calm waters. A gigantic white serpent crossed just a few metres from the balcony with a spectral, almost unreal glide.

  Virellian turned violently towards Kar’Nix, with his eyes burning with fury.

  — That gigantic serpent was there the whole time and you didn't tell us anything?!

  Kar’Nix simply moved his head the other way, ignoring him completely, which infuriated the youth even further.

  — Are you sick, you demented raven?! It's impossible you didn't see it from the heights whilst we were swimming towards here!

  The rest of the group looked at him, bewildered. Kar’Nix tilted his head slowly and transmitted his response to everyone's minds. His voice arrived without mercy, dry, like the edge of a dagger:

  — Think about it, foolish boy... Do you really believe I should have told you before you swam here? That would only have caused you fear. And the more fear... the less perception. Here, fear works against you.

  The silence was total. Not out of respect, but out of pure shock. Everyone looked at him, some with a dread they could not hide.

  — But this is something you already know; it makes no difference if I remind you. Neither you — he said, pointing at Virellian —, nor Stefan, nor Alan, nor the glorious Commander Volkov will get very far if you keep this up. You already have everything Nullaria needs to devour you sooner or later: stupidity, doubt, fear, and mistrust... — he noted, fixing his gaze on each of them in order as he pronounced every word. Then, he cocked his neck —. And I shall stop there, because I do not wish to ramble.

  Kar’Nix, motionless, held everyone's gaze without a shred of guilt.

  Dante glared at him, but the raven simply spread its wings and took an elegant step across the floor, as if he were in a parade, entirely oblivious to the tension he had provoked.

  — We had better go inside... — Dante finally said, sighing and holding his head in frustration at the creature's lack of tact —. Before that serpent sees us.

  Without further words, the group decided to enter the depths of the white tower, leaving behind the ocean, the statue that watched them, and the strange mist that was beginning to appear.

  Upon crossing the threshold, the sound of water was the first thing to greet them. It was not a drip, nor a current... but the absolute weight of a contained ocean. Their steps broke the silence as they made contact with the liquid already covering the floor: ice-cold water, so cold it chilled them to the bone, rising stealthily to their ankles.

  The floor ended abruptly just a few metres away, revealing an imposing circular abyss flooded with water of a blue so deep it bordered on black. A narrow walkway traced the perimeter of the void, bordered by a slightly lighter line of white tiles. Above them, the ceiling was no solid structure, but an infinite grid of white lights shining in perfect alignment, vanishing into a perspective that defied logic.

  Dante looked up, and the breath caught in his throat. It felt as though he were in the centre of a demented amphitheatre: level after level, floor after floor, repeating exactly the same way upwards. The same walkway, the same rhythmic lights, the same watery abyss in the centre. It was an infinite spiral of whiteness and silence, ascending towards the radiance of the ceiling.

  No one spoke. The tower had robbed them of thought. With every step, the water splashed softly and seemed to rise with a calculated slowness… and beneath it, there was something else. It could be felt through the soles of their feet: a vibration that did not belong there.

  — Is it… rising? — Bealuna murmured, not daring to move, watching as the water level already devoured her ankles.

  The answer came not in words, but in a slight, deep rumble. As if something gargantuan were gliding beneath their feet, or as if the entire tower, with its infinite weight, were sinking into the ocean floor. Virellian leaned over the edge, trying to spot the bottom of the circular abyss, but it was impossible. The light seemed to be devoured of its own accord the moment it made contact with the depths of the blue water.

  The walls, which from afar had seemed immaculate, revealed brutal scars as they moved forward. There were engravings of serpents — one massive, followed by a procession of small hatchlings — carved with violence, as if they had been torn by fingernails or improvised cutting weapons. They looked like warnings in tongues that none of them recognised; phrases carved with the strength of despair and crooked lines that betrayed trembling hands. Someone had tried to leave one last message for future souls who might set foot in this place.

  — “Open your eyes beyond… and see…” — Commander Nastacia read in a low voice.

  Struck by the message, she struck the wall with her staff. This time, unlike the exterior walls, the tile shattered with a dry crack, leaving a black wound in the perfect whiteness. Bealuna murmured in amazement that it appeared matter could be damaged inside the tower.

  Ryan turned to Nastacia, his eyes wide.

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  — Commander… can you understand what those scribbles say?

  Nastacia nodded, taking a second to process that, to Ryan, those inscriptions were merely meaningless smudges.

  — I suppose some of you cannot see it… perhaps due to your low perception — she said, like someone revealing a secret she had already suspected.

  Several members of the group nodded with a mix of discomfort and frustration. Nastacia continued, pointing to a particularly deep figure on the wall:

  — That would explain why not everyone can read it… but those drawings of serpents… do you think they have something to do with the one we saw outside?

  The silence that followed was absolute. Terror rendered them mute whilst the echo of the rising water was the only thing filling the tower’s infinite spiral.

  Then, something moved in the water. A small, thin, almost transparent serpent glided through the shadows, barely breaking the reflection of the surface. No one had noticed it, but it was there… stalking the group from behind with a lethal slowness.

  Commander Nastacia’s eyes snapped open. She stopped dead, and her reaction immediately set off alarms. Her Premonition rune tattoo burned on her arm, projecting into her mind the trail of blood that was about to stain the water. Kar’Nix, reading her thoughts, did not wait and barked a direct, desperate order at Alan.

  — Activate your shield now, tubby! Protect them all! — Kar’Nix ordered, with an authority that brooked no argument.

  Alan looked at him, stunned, feeling the weight of responsibility suddenly drop onto his shoulders, but he didn't waste a second. Even though his eyes saw no threat in the aseptic whiteness of the corridor, he trusted the warning blindly. He planted himself in the centre of the group, crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest, and closed his eyes with desperate determination, invoking the power of his rune.

  — Shield rune! — he shouted with every gram of energy his soul could process.

  A barrier of greenish energy deployed just as three creatures emerged from the water with blind violence. They weren't serpents, not exactly. They were lampreys with serpentine, translucent bodies, eyeless, whose circular mouths bristling with razor-sharp teeth slammed against the shield with a wet, heavy thud.

  Their fangs remained anchored to the ethereal protection whilst the creatures writhed in mute rage.

  — I can sense them… — Kar’Nix cried out in desperation —. They’re everywhere… there are too many! You have to get out of the water now!

  Alan, drenched in a cold sweat, swallowed hard. He tried to breathe calmly to stabilise the rune, but terror was consuming him from within. He felt the weight of the creatures battering the barrier.

  — Think of a strategy! — Alan pleaded, with his voice cracking —. I won’t be able to hold this much longer!

  The edges of the shield were trembling; the barrier was beginning to weaken due to the panic consuming Alan. It was then that Commander Volkov stepped forward, imposing his presence.

  — Mystic Beast — he said firmly —. Tell me where the nearest staircase to the next floor is. I’m going to make a break for it by activating my rune of Ice. I’ll make those things follow me; I can unleash a hail of sharp ice shards to finish them all off regardless of their number… but I’ll need two others with me to cover me.

  Kar’Nix narrowed his eyes, surprised. For the first time, the Commander seemed to be assuming a role of leadership and teamwork. Though there was something theatrical in his tone, the strategy was sound. The raven spread his wings quickly, understanding the plan, and flew a few metres above the group, scanning the contours of the corridor with his heightened vision.

  — There! — Kar’Nix shouted, pointing with an extended claw —. At the end of the corridor, just where it curves. There’s the staircase!

  Glances met. No one objected; the plan was their best shot. Dante turned quickly to Nastacia, seeking confirmation.

  — Can your rune of Premonition… tell us if it will work?

  But Commander Nastacia was petrified, still slumped on the floor from the visual impact. Her gaze was fixed on the staggering number of lampreys that she alone could see in their full magnitude. Her lips were parted, but fear had locked her in a loop, blocking her vision. The rune continued to glow, but it did not respond.

  The Commander decided not to wait any longer. With every passing second, Alan was losing ground.

  — Luke, Ryan. With me.

  The two nodded in unison. Ryan prepared himself mentally, concentrating his energy, whilst Luke cracked his neck with a sharp snap, ready for combat.

  Without waiting for a formal command, Ryan was the first to bolt towards the stairs. He was desperate to prove his courage before the group and before the tower itself. With his rune of Spikes activated, his body looked like a metal hedgehog; he fired countless projectiles that hissed through the air, impaling the lampreys that leapt frantically towards him.

  The Commander and Luke were quick to follow, covering his flanks. The lampreys sensed the din of their footsteps in the water instantly; recognising the threat, they propelled themselves with greater force, breaking the surface with violent undulations.

  Ryan smirked with self-satisfaction as he ran. He felt proud to have snatched the initiative from the Commander; in his mind, he was the martyr, the saviour of the group. But pride is a dangerous frequency within tower.

  Suddenly, a massive silhouette surged from the water directly in front of him. A gargantuan circular mouth, filled with rows of teeth, opened to devour him. Ryan froze; fear blocked his reflexes.

  CRACK!

  A frigid snap stopped the creature mid-air. The lamprey transformed into a solid block of ice and fell into the water with a dull thud that splashed Ryan. Commander Volkov lowered his right arm, which was covered in a thick layer of frost.

  — Keep running, you moron — Volkov growled without stopping.

  Luke was not far behind. He activated his rune of Open Wounds; deep gashes appeared out of nowhere on the translucent bodies of the lampreys. The creatures, bleeding out in seconds, fell dead into the water. The plan was working: the noise and the blood were drawing the mass of predators away from the rest of the group.

  But Ryan... he wavered. His feet grew heavy.

  "Why hasn't it finished?" he thought desperately. "Why hasn't the trial stopped? Have I not shown true courage by throwing myself in first?"

  He cursed under his breath, feeling the cold of the water rising up his legs.

  — Why isn’t it enough?! I’m taking the risk! That ought to count for something! — he shouted into the tower's void.

  What Ryan did not grasp was that he was offering the wrong kind of courage. He sought to validate it through spectacle, with the heroic act brandished like a banner, as if Nullaria were an audience to be impressed. But in this world, reality does not bend to appearances.

  True courage is silent. Raw. Instinctive. It needs no witnesses nor demands applause. Ryan had almost achieved it, but his need for recognition corrupted his intent at the very crucial moment.

  It was still not enough. Not for Valour.

  The water continued to ascend with a silent voracity. The first sign of disaster was the sound of flesh being torn beneath the surface. Two lampreys clamped onto Luke’s leg; a second later, another three leapt upon him, sinking their teeth into his torso and dragging him with inhuman brutality towards the depths of the abyss. His scream of agony was stifled by a burst of bubbles and blood that dissolved into the dark blue.

  Ryan was next. As he tried to retreat with panic clouding his judgement, a swarm of translucent bodies and circular jaws surrounded him. There was no possible struggle; tentacles and teeth clamped onto him like shackles, sucking him down into the aquatic vacuum.

  Commander Volkov, seeing the massacre, unleashed his rune of Ice with suicidal fury. With a roar that made the tiled walls tremble, he raised a titanic wall of frost that divided the walkway from the central abyss. The impact momentarily halted the onslaught, leaving the others in a shallow pool that reached their knees. But it was a respite with an expiry date.

  Dante, without breaking his desperate dash towards the stairs, turned his head and horror turned his blood to ice. Harold, Stefan, Virellian, and Commander Nastacia were gone. No screams remained, nor any trace of resistance. Only an oppressive void where his comrades had stood moments before. Despite the knot in his stomach, Dante did not stop; he knew that in Nullaria, to hesitate is to die.

  Bealuna was the first to reach the steps of the marble staircase. Dante followed closely, but Alan, panting heavily, was falling behind. His body, exhausted and not designed for trials of extreme endurance, was beginning to fail, though his will forced him to take one more step.

  Then, Volkov’s wall collapsed.

  The ominous cracking gave way to an explosion of ice crystals and freezing water. The torrent, now waist-high, engulfed Alan. The young man stumbled, his hands searching desperately for a grip on the slippery tiles, but it was futile. A cluster of lampreys surrounded him instantly, swallowing him in a mass of teeth and translucent scales. Dante closed his eyes tight as he continued to climb; a bitter question burned in his mind: was this truly how things were meant to happen in this regression?

  Commander Volkov was the last to touch the staircase. From his position, he watched with impotent rage as the water reclaimed its dominion. He saw Kar’Nix descend elegantly and perch upon the shoulder of Dante, who looked on with a silent, heavy sadness.

  — This is all your fault! — Volkov roared, pointing at the bird with a finger trembling from the effort —. This was your plan from the start! You wanted to be rid of us!

  — Do not blame me for your human incompetence, Commander. Attempting to deceive the Fifth Terror with that sort of "performative courage" that both you and Ryan tried to display was a fatal error. Your own arrogance caused the fall of seven team members. Not I.

  Infuriated, the Commander raised his hand to invoke one last attack against the raven, but the tower gave him no chance. Four lampreys surged violently from the water like invisible claws. They snatched him with hydraulic force and dragged him down to the bottom of the dark aquatic abyss. The Commander vanished, leaving barely a violent whirlpool on the surface.

  The water regained its false calm, leaving Dante, Bealuna, and Kar’Nix alone in the immensity of the staircase, surrounded by the silence of those who were no longer there.

  Bealuna covered her mouth with both hands, horrified by the speed with which the water had swallowed her companions. Then she looked at Dante, searching for an answer he did not seem to have. Only the two of them remained. Dante watched her in silence for a few seconds, his gaze laden with an ancient weight, and without a word, he turned to begin climbing the marble stairs towards the next level. Bealuna followed shortly after, with her legs still shaking.

  As they ascended, they noticed the water was also rising, slowly but steadily, like a predator refusing to let its prey escape. Dante, in a curt tone, suggested they hurry to find the next staircase. Bealuna stopped abruptly, confused and on the verge of an emotional collapse.

  — I don’t understand… what exactly must we do to pass this trial? It was supposed to be a group effort… and now only the two of us are left. Does that mean we’ve failed? — she pleaded, searching for a trace of hope.

  Dante did not answer. He lowered his gaze to the water for a moment, letting the silence speak for him, until Kar’Nix intervened from his shoulder:

  — The trial is for the group, yes… but that does not mean all ten must remain present until the end. The Fifth Terror never said that. The group has ten opportunities to demonstrate an act of pure courage… If none of those opportunities are true, then all shall be erased from existence.

  Bealuna opened her mouth to protest, but the raven’s voice grew even deeper, almost somber:

  — However… strangely, I still sense the life force of the other eight. They are not dead, nor frozen in time. Our mental link has not yet been severed, but through their eyes, I see only darkness. I feel that everything we saw, what happened a moment ago, is merely a preliminary phase of the trial. It would seem as though the Fifth Terror has captured them to be processed, not exterminated.

  Dante spat through gritted teeth, feeling a mixture of frustration and bewilderment gnawing at him from within. This was not something he had experienced in any of the previous timelines.

  — Is Valour playing with us? — he remarked irritably, trying to process what was happening.

  But he had no time to dwell on the thought. A violent splash interrupted the tension, followed by a thundering crash that made the marble walls tremble. The gigantic serpent they had seen in the outer ocean had fully entered the tower. Its immense body undulated in the central lake with jerky movements, churning the waters and revealing its ghostly white, scaly skin.

  Bealuna blinked, incredulous.

  They had no time to think. From the water churned by the serpent, a monstrous mouth emerged: a gargantuan lamprey, a nightmare of flesh and teeth that leapt towards them with impossible speed, making even Kar’Nix squawk in fright.

  Colossal lamprey in the aquatic well of tiles.

  And then… darkness. And silence. They were swallowed whole by the abyss.

  The ten bodies were cast into a deep chasm of absolute blackness, as if the tower itself had spat them out with violent loathing. Their screams tore through the void as they fell headlong; some cried out in pure horror, others in the utter despair of feeling no ground beneath their feet.

  Commander Volkov and Luke were the first to be devoured by the blackness. Then, Stefan and Ryan vanished from sight. Shortly after, Commander Nastacia and Bealuna were sucked into the vacuum. Later, Harold and Alan were lost to the depths. Finally, Virellian and Dante, the last in that human chain, were engulfed by the darkness.

  And so began the next stage of the trial, whilst the sinister, vibrant cackle of the Fifth Terror resonated from every side, mocking their fragility.

  End of Chapter Twenty-Four.

  Chapter Twenty-Four marks a turning point in the nature of the trials. Valour is not interested in spectacle, nor in sacrifice performed for an audience. Throughout this sequence, many characters act with strength and speed, yet Nullaria does not reward noise. It observes. It waits.

  perceptive attrition: using fear, confusion, and inflated egos to wear down the group's mental defenses.

  Valour isn't just testing their bravery; it is measuring their cracks. It is identifying exactly where they are most fragile, be it through doubt or arrogance, to determine how to break them later.