After Tessa walked through the giant, wooden door with the rest of the group, she found everyone around her had disappeared. She was completely alone now.
She didn't even flinch at the sight.
Something like this happening eventually was within her expectations.
She knew she didn't have to keep pushing forward anymore, so she just blankly stared at the ceiling.
Even if the others all completed their Trials, if she failed, they probably wouldn't be able to beat the Guardian. Justin and Carl would die, and she felt guilty for having brought them to their demise, but she didn't care. No matter how strong and talented Lumina was, she would also be dead, and that was all that mattered. That was what had always mattered...
Right?
For years, thoughts of revenge clouded her mind. Her hatred started with the Clan, which had betrayed them, then slowly boiled down to Lumina, who had played a direct role in the incident. Her best friend had been directly involved, and she couldn't forgive that, no matter what. She could never fully understand why, as a child and even now. Then again, nobody could fully comprehend what was going on in the heads of those Origin Clan bastards.
It didn't matter.
All she needed was for Lumina to be dead.
She forced herself to believe her life would no longer hold any meaning after Lumina died. Her hatred seared and boiled for years, making her work harder than anyone else so that she could stand a chance against Lumina. During all that time, her feelings were complicated. She despised Lumina from the bottom of her heart, yet couldn't quite fully bring herself to hate her.
Whenever she thought about her, bitter memories of all the times they had spent together as kids bubbled up from the depths of her mind. Playing in the manor, spying on her father, talking for hours about nonsense - why would she do that to her? Why would the kind and caring Lumina she knew do such a thing?
Rage boiled within Tessa as she grit her teeth.
Lumina was her best friend for fucks sake! Why did she have to be the one to do it!? She was only a child, and at the time, there were more people alive in her clan, so why the fuck did it have to be her! Why did she agree!?
Even after obtaining her Class at the young age of 11 and almost having enough Essence to begin coalescing her Core, it still wasn't enough.
She still couldn't compare with Lumina, and despair filled her.
Tessa just wanted to be dead. She didn't feel like dealing with anything anymore.
She was better than everyone else, but not Lumina. She was always moving further and further away. If she was at the summit of a mountain and everyone else was still climbing, then Lumina had already long summited and began soaring into the sky.
She had spent years patiently lying in wait to take revenge, waiting for the Advancement Preliminaries to be announced. She managed to find and secure a Sanctuary of Records for the preliminaries to make sure Lumina would die no matter what, and she began to convince herself that that would be when her life would end as well. She was sure she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she somehow survived.
The rest was history.
Yet, now that she was here at her supposed journey's end, she couldn't bring herself to lie down and die.
It felt...wrong.
A complicated mix of emotions washed over Tessa.
Her hatred didn't feel the same as it did all those years ago. It was different somehow. Something was off, yet she knew Lumina had to die. But the nagging feeling at the back of her mind didn't cease regardless.
Then it hit her.
At some point, as the years passed...
Very quietly and unnoticed...
Right under her nose...
Her hatred had run cold.
Then, slowly and inconspicuously, it inched back into her.
Her will to live had returned at some point as her hatred for Lumina had grown numb.
She wanted to see Lumina dead, sure, but she had long grown numb to the feeling on its own.
'Is this really all my life should amount to?'
She was talented, good-looking and knew she could make it anywhere if she decided to claw her way towards it.
There was still so much she could do.
Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized a simple truth she had evaded for the past years.
'I want to live. I'm sorry, Dad.'
Despite trying her hardest to convince herself otherwise, it was no use. Now that she stood here, she knew she had failed. Her resolve had wavered at some point.
An eternity of void and nothingness still sounded terrifying and pointless after having done naught with her life.
'But Lumina has to die too.'
Tessa wanted to live and exact her revenge, almost as if out of habit. Still, she knew she couldn't have both. Frustration welled up inside her at her own mix of contradictory feelings and emotions.
She wanted both.
'To hell with this. I'll see how things play out.'
She wiped away her tears and began marching down the hallway in front of her.
'I have no idea if I'll be able to survive this, but I'll be damned if I don't at least try. If I can help it, I'll get rid of Lumina too, but if not, then we'll see what happens. Heh, maybe the Fleshseeker already tore her up.'
She was alone in a vast manor, furnished with furniture reminiscent of what she had seen during her childhood while visiting her grandparents' estate. Endless, long, dark hallways scattered the estate, seemingly looping in on themselves.
It felt like a maze.
After wandering around for half an hour, Tessa felt something was off. She had never been in a building this large and with this many hallways. She immediately came up with a theory.
To see if she was right, Tessa conducted a simple test. She carved a line into one of the walls and kept wandering in a different direction for a while, until she ran into her carving again despite not even remotely moving in its direction.
Tessa immediately realized that she was stuck in an illusion and began working on a solution to get out. She quickly came up with an idea.
She carved different symbols at different crossroads and began walking down all the hallways, slowly carving different symbols at each turn. Each time she ended up at the previous symbols, she would take a new path until she found a crossroad without carvings.
Eventually, she began running into defromed Fracturebeasts, stitched together from different animals. Tessa could tell these were manmade and most likely controlled by somebody.
Since she was alone, she had to up the level of her Spells, meaning her Essence was continuously running low.
With each Fracturebeast she encountered, more and more wounds marred her body, leaving her miserable. Being a Mage, she wasn't meant for direct combat. Her new robe was bloodied and in rags, with many of her limbs slowly losing function.
Yet, she didn't stop.
Tessa was stuck there for several days, slowly creating a map in her mind while simultaneously fending off Fracturebeasts. All the different symbols and combinations floated in her mind continuously, slowly draining away at her mental energy.
Following her previously left symbols, she eventually carved them at every twist and turn and tried out every combination.
Eventually, she found the exit.
She was exhausted and on the verge of collapsing where she stood, but she held on. She could tell the end was nearing.
After conquering the maze of illusions, she found a door leading to a study. She gazed upon the space.
Most notably, a giant crimson pillar was erected in the room, flourishing twisting branches as it stretched towards the high ceiling. Next to the pillar, a figure with decrepit, wrinkly skin sat in a wheelchair.
Glassy eyes sat on his face, making him seem completely harmless. He already seemed half-dead. Yet, Tessa felt an intense desire to kill the already dying old man for some reason, and she realized this was the true goal of her Trial.
She didn't hesitate. This was the person who had most likely set up the maze of illusion and created the Fracturebeasts. He was, without a doubt, dangerous in some capacity.
Tessa took a seemingly simple blade from her Storage Ring and calmly walked up to the man. His glassy eyes glared at her with hatred, but he remained unmoving. With a swift motion, crimson covered her ragged, sable robe as the final glimmer of light left the man's eyes.
Tessa felt numb and wanted to crash to the floor. All the exhaustion washed over her as the man collapsed into his wheelchair.
Tessa took another glance at the room and spotted a nearby pedestal. Something shiny sat on top of it, yet Tessa's vision was growing cloudy, so she couldn't make out what it was. She would've liked to inspect the crimson pillar some more, but she knew she didn't have the time. She hastily stumbled to the pedestal and snagged the object, placing it in her Storage Ring.
After that, a warm embrace enveloped Tessa, causing her to crash to the floor and fall asleep.
***
Two things stood out from Tessa's story.
For one, she was in a manor where she had to kill a Lord. It sounded awfully similar to what Raxon had hinted at doing in his letter. It almost sounded like Tessa was playing the role of the vengeful writer. And for the other, the giant crimson pillar sold it for me. How could I not recognize the description of my limitless food source!?
I couldn't quite fully piece together how or its significance, but these Record and Trial things were connected.
Mine included.
I looked over to the nearby pair, oblivious to my presence.
A crystal-clear orb the size of a basketball sat in Tessa's hand. A thin, transparent haze drifted within the orb, causing light from Tessa's nearby illuminating orb to diffract at unusual angles. On the side of the haze-filled orb sat a small, inconspicuous hole lined with a thin silver membrane.
Tessa silently held out the object as Lumina carefully inspected it from all angles. After scrutinizing the see-through orb for a couple of minutes, Lumina stepped away and nodded.
"It really is condensed Essence."
Tessa merely nodded in turn and didn't say anything else. She had been somewhat cold after Lumina's earlier comment.
Honestly, this whole situation was very messy. Tessa was apparently leading everyone to their untimely deaths, Lumina having set up the narrative of a Fleshseeker infiltrating their group, and the pair's relationship, which seems to run deeper than I had initially guessed. Usually, soap operas don't get this complex, but I'm all for it.
This orb was the thing Tessa grabbed off the pedestal in the manor. It was special, somehow, apparently. She said it was necessary to kill the Guardian, but had no idea how.
"Are you sure you didn't find anything from your Record?" Tessa questioned, a hint of doubt in her tone.
"Yes. There was nothing."
Tessa stared at Lumina for a while before averting her gaze. The haze-filled orb disappeared from her hands.
"I see. Maybe we'll figure out more from Justin's and Carl's Records. If we're lucky, they may have even gotten a Storage Ring. Now, start moving. We have to find a way to get this Debilitator working."
Lumina calmly nodded and continued marching into the depths of the battered hallway with Tessa in tow.
I was left rooted on the spot, however. Something caught my ear in Tessa's words.
Why was a Storage Ring so significant? I had found one after all.
I pondered for a moment.
That's when it hit me.
What do Storage Rings do?
They store stuff, right?
And I wasn't the original owner of this ring.
So, maybe there was something already inside when I got it?
I felt my excitement soar. Free goodies were always welcome!
I cautiously began to will the Storage Ring to hand me something and detected an object I hadn't placed in there.
So it was true.
Raxon had left me an additional present!