The Sentinel lunged.
Hundreds of masks whirled toward Steven like a vortex of haunted porcelain—each bearing a different expression: sorrow, rage, joy, despair. Cal'dor raised his staff, conjuring a ward of celestial chains, but the Sentinel's power shattered it like glass.
"This is your battle, Steven!" Cal'dor shouted as he was hurled back into the air, swallowed by the Veil's illusions. "Only the worthy may reach her!"
Steven gritted his teeth and unleashed a pulse of arcane might, a shockwave of blue and gold spiraling out from his palm. The masks halted—just for a breath. Then they screamed.
"BLEED. REVEAL. REPENT."
One mask latched onto his chest.
Suddenly, Steven was somewhere else.
A field of flame. Screams. A burning sky.
He stood on a battlefield. Bodies everywhere—human, beast, and god. In the center, a version of himself stood victorious, cloak stained red, his hands drenched in blood.
"This... isn't real," Steven growled.
"But it could be," the doppelgänger said. "You have the power to dominate. To crush Pain. To rule."
"That's not who I am."
"Not yet."
The illusion shattered as Steven drove his fist through the mask's eye. The battlefield dissolved into mist.
He landed hard, panting. Five masks left. They circled him now, faster, feeding on his faltering strength.
"You want truth?" Steven shouted. "Here's truth—I'm afraid. I'm lost. I don't even know if I can win. But I will fight."
One mask disintegrated. Then another.
"I will find Velistra. I will rewrite the Codex. And I will stop Pain."
Only one mask remained. A mirror mask—reflecting Steven's own face.
It whispered:
"Then prove it."
He hurled a sphere of condensed stardust into it—magic and will intertwined. The mirror cracked. Then shattered.
Silence.
The Sentinel collapsed into a single fragment of glass... and from it, light emerged.
A woman's voice echoed softly, like a breeze brushing across his soul.
"...You have passed the Trial."
A silhouette stepped from the mists. Long robes of shifting color, eyes like galaxies.
"I am Velistra," she said. "The First of the Forgotten. And I have been waiting for you, Steven Lethal."
(To be continued)