Part 1

It took us a few hours to regain enough composure and strength to carry on with our exploration, and even then, we still wore clearly the signs of the mental battle. Sunken eyes and a complexion slightly paler than the norm seemed as common as it goes while some of us had their eyes reddened with tears or black bags underneath. Not to mention that none spoke a word, each of us busy within our own minds. Dominik seemed to suffer the worst as he cradled himself in a fetal position with his head buried between his knees, muttering some gibberish under his breath.

"Raphael-" Spoke the grown man first with an unsteady voice and even unsteadier eyes "- They were illusions, right? E-everything we saw was fake, right?"

"Yes, Dominik-" I answered as truthfully as I could, hiding the worry seeping into my tone as much as possible "- As I already said, those were illusions to mislead us...nothing more"

Hearing those words, Dominik seemed to calm down but only with Dino's help was he able to snap out of that crazed state he was in. As they seemed busy enough with that, I decided to shift my focus away from the group and towards the golden gate in front of me. Not only because it was the fruit of our hard work and our ticket to the outside of the temple but also because I felt the need to busy myself, to have my mind work on something. As I began brushing my fingers over the runes and carvings of the gate, bathing in the beauty of the artworks, a figure appeared in the corner of my vision. It was Lucas, observing the gate and, mostly, me. He seemed to be slightly nervous, the aftermath of the illusions I thought, but also cautious and on edge.

"Raph-" He said, his voice coarse, unwilling to come out of his throat "- can we talk? Just for a sec"

"Can't it wait, Lucas? I'm busy as you can see. I wanna get us out of this temple as soon as I can"

"*Sigh* I'm sure you are-" He continued without caring for a word I said. He sat down on the side of the gate, roughly a meter or two away from me, and started with this piercing gaze that seemed to try and read my very soul. Then, he spoke again "- Who's Kei?"

My body froze in place. My limbs stiffened, my fingers trembled across the carvings and my eyes popped open. I knew the day when the truth about my identity was revealed would come, but actually hearing such an important name so unexpectedly... it took me off guard, and in the most heart-aching way possible. So I stood there, unable to speak a word or move a muscle.

"I heard you repeating that name while you were sleeping just now. It wasn't the first time though, even at the academy you would sometimes say that name in your dreams, but now... I can't help but think it belongs to someone important. Important enough for you to cry even in your dreams. Who is Kei?" He pressed after waiting for a response that never came.

"It's no one-" I said after many countless seconds spent in choosing the words accordingly and mustering the strength to speak those words "- No one important and no one you should worry over... heh, a thing of the past I guess" I ended with a tinge of sadness mixed in my words.

"*Sigh* Nothing good will come out if you keep hiding every little thing inside-" Lucas replied, his eyes covered lazily by his hand "- but, oh well, I know better than to try and convince you of something, you stubborn asshole... Just know that I'm your big brother. If I'm not there for hearing you out, then what's even my worth? So rely a little more on this brother, ok?"

It hurt. It hurt way more than having my side punctured by Danthe's spear or my body beat to a pulp by Kyvern. Seeing the clearly fake and painful smile twisting my brother's face chilled the blood in my veins and sent piercing ripples through my nerves. I could feel tears creeping up in my eyes, but not quite there. My heart was aching the same way it did the night I had tried to take my life in this world and was saved by father and mother.

"I'm... sorry" I whispered under my breath so that only I could hear it.

Part 2

"So?-" Asked Dino in a somewhat curious, somewhat hasty tone "- Have you figured out how to open this door? It's already been half an hour, it can't be that difficult"

"Geez, I sometimes forget how rude nobles can be-" I answered standing up from observing a small drawing of an elf and a dwarf busy in what looked like a dance "- Just so you know, this is just a normal, big gate. Brute strength ought to be enough to push the doors open"

"What?!-" He shouted in reply, venting his anger by gesturing the act of pulling his hair "- Then you spent thirty minutes doing what? Having fun watching the carvings?"

"I'm honestly surprised how you were able to survive for this long inside this labyrinth- eh, guys, do you mind?-" I said gesturing to the two doors of the gate "- I wasn't just looking at the carvings. I was trying to see if whoever created this temple left some kind of hint on what to expect behind these doors... No need to thank me"

"Found anything?" Curiously asked Lucas.

"Not a single thing" I replied, mimicking the tone of a proud man.

With defeated sighs coming from my brother and scoffs from Dino, we began pushing the heavy metallic doors. It took all of our strength, including a little boost by mana, to pry them open enough for two of us to pass at a time. The screeching of metal against stone accompanied the movement of the doors.

A whiff of stale air rushed at us as soon as we stepped foot into the sealed room. For the first few seconds, the sound of countless coughs filled the room. The dust accumulated over the decades rose up to a cloud engulfing our entire bodies. When it finally settled and our breaths became steadier, the room finally appeared in all its beauty in front of us.

A cubic room with its sides more than forty meters each, made completely out of pure white stone, so white that it could be mistaken for blocks of pearl. Gold adorned most of the room, filling the corners and empty spaces between blocks. It wasn't a gold-colored metal but truly gold. The light was unnatural. A bluish-colored crystal as big as a person was hanging from the ceiling, in its very center, and was emitting that strange light, bathing the room in tinges of blue.

None could help but gasp in awe at the magnificent sight. Pillars of gold, some reaching the ceiling some not, adorned the place, sending glimmers of light bouncing around the room. Six gates, seven with the one we had passed through, two on each side, except ours, broke the continuity of the white stone blocks with their arches adorned in gold and carved with runes.

Unable to utter a word, we walked in. All our carefulness washed away by the mesmerizing sight. As if hypnotized we all walked towards the center of the room, right under the crystal, then each looked at something different. There was so much to look at. The columns of gold with high reliefs of indecipherable ancient scenes, the small squarish streams carved all over the place, both in gold and stone, the gates shut by a solid slab of pearl-white stone, or the crystal hanging over our heads.

"It's so... So... I don't know what it is. I just can't make it into words" Uttered Lucas while jutting his head from one side to the other, taking in every single thing that caught his interest.

"Beautiful? Majestic? Straight out of a legend? Fairytale-like?" Answered Dino, poking at my brother's inability to express himself.

"Yeah, all of that and more" He replied, completely ignoring the words of mock from Dino.

Just then, a sound caught my attention. It was a familiar sound, one I had heard countless times both in this and my previous life. It seemed similar to the sound the last drop of water makes when sliding out of the showerhead but slower as if dragged by something heavier.

I looked around in search of that sound, noticing how I was the only one focused enough to worry about it. I looked at the walls but they seemed still, all four of them. The floor was my next target, knowing there was nothing over my head other than the solid crystal. It was then that I noticed for the first time that our group was standing in the place where all the small canals met in what looked like a wide and very flat funnel. Then realization came.

[Is the crystal really solid?!] I thought as I shot my head upwards.

"Dodge!" I shouted as soon as I saw a drop of a watery-like liquid hanging from the very tip of the crystal.

The next second, gravity did its job and pushed the drop, big enough to fill a small bucket, down towards the funnel. Everyone seemed to heed my warning and either dodged or rolled to the side just in time to observe the drop acquire speed and violently splash into the funnel. Not a single speck of it escaped the funnel, rather it seemed as if the liquid was being sucked inside the canals. At an impossible speed, the canals filled with the glowing bluish liquid and, defying gravity, it traveled through walls, floor, and ceiling, creating an intricate web of lights and shades. As the liquid moved around the room it slowed down the further it went from the now empty funnel.

To my surprise, all the liquid seemed to try and gather in a single spot, a small pillar half my height on the side of the gate we had just come through. Another interesting thing I noticed as I followed the movement of the liquid was that it completely ignored the canals near and on the gates even though they were connected. I found it curious because the liquid seemed to have a mind of its own to be able to choose its path.

When all the liquid finally gathered inside the small pillar full of holes, a small crystal, previously white, began to light up, generating heat and throwing its light around the room like strobe lights. Then, when it seemed to reach its apex, the white light suddenly vanished and the crystal turned a blood-red color. Six holes opened on the top of the pillar and from them, all the liquid gathered inside it shot up towards the ceiling where a wide canal gathered it and led it towards the big crystal where it was absorbed.

"What did we just watch?" I asked several seconds after the whole room quieted down.

"I was hoping you'd tell us, you know, being a mage and all" Replied Dino with his head still fixed on the crystal on the ceiling.

"Sorry to disappoint-" I said shaking my head in an attempt to clear it and walking with purpose and curiosity towards the small pillar "- but I haven't the faintest idea of whatever just happened"

"You, didn't you feel it?-" Asked Dominik with a face a clear expression of surprise "- The mana I mean, didn't you feel it?"

"What!?-" I asked, turning my head so fast that a faint pain began tingling at the base of my neck "- I- Damn I got distracted by the liquid! Tell me everything!"

"Hey, hey calm down-" He replied, motioning with his hands to stop as he saw me approaching a little too aggressively "- I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I just smelled the scent of mana as soon as the liquid began pouring. I can't tell you more than that...sorry"

My eyes shot open and without speaking further, I turned around and began pacing myself from one side of the room to another, muttering the various theories that lit up my mind. I examined the pillars, the canals, the small pillar, the funnel and, finally the gates. Curiously, each of them had a figure carved in gold over white stone. Each figure representing a race: human, dwarf, demon, elf, beastkin, merfolk and - on top of the one we came through- dragons, something I wouldn't expect to appear in the middle of all the known races. Curiosity almost got the better of me as I began approaching the gate but I soon discarded that thought when another drop of liquid fell from the crystal.

The entire process repeated itself, from splashing in the funnel, coursing through the canals, reaching the small pillar and shooting up to the ceiling only to disappear into the crystal. This time, though, my focus wasn't on the process itself but rather on what remained unseen. I had observed the whole process under the spotlight of my ability to sense mana.

The things I discovered at the end of the process forced my lips to curl up into a triumphant smile. Not only was the golden room- as I decided to call that place- separated from the storm of mana of the temple but the mana inside it was one of the clearest I had ever felt. The more I basked into it, the more it felt like mana itself was singing me a lullaby. The crystal was the source of that. A beacon, in other words. While each gate felt as empty as a hollow well.

"Raph-" Said Lucas in a tone of voice that expressed some kind of worry, probably stressing about saying something out of place. I thought it was strange hearing that tone knowing my brother's personality, but I quickly kicked that thought out of my head "- Isn't that blue liquid strangely familiar? I mean, I'm not the only one that thought about it, right?"

"No-" I said, the smirk on my face widening to the point it almost seemed a mix between maniacal and evil "- you are not the only one. I've been thinking about it too... and it seems that luck is on our side, brother...hehe, I still got the liquid safe in my backpack! Now, I just need to study this place a bit more"

Without further ado, I began rustling through my backpack in search of the bottle containing the liquid that I gathered from a room we discovered in the first tunnels we walked through. I took it out and observed the bluish liquid stored inside it. It was the same as the crystal's. A laugh escaped my lips.

"Oh no!" Exclaimed exasperatedly my brother as he covered his face with both hands and moaned in displeasure.

"What? What happened?" Asked Dino worried, followed rapidly by Dominik.

"There are three things you should know about my brother. He's the very epitome of antisocial to the point that we sometimes had to drag him out of our room in order to stop him from studying to interact with our friends. His prowess in magic is mostly due to the fact that he, very often, obsesses over it. Sometimes even holing himself in the library until he figures something out. And lastly, the only thing that can dwarf his obsession for magic is his curiosity for anything, and I mean literally anything, remotely related to mana...I'm afraid we'll now be stuck here until this maniac figures out how this whole place works!"

The displeased moans and angry cries and shouts of my three companions barely reached my ears as my own excited and satisfied chuckles filled the area around me. With the bottle in hand, various pieces of paper on the ground and a pen dipped in ink hanging from my mouth, I eagerly awaited the moment a new drop would form on the crystal.

Everything else was unimportant.