The Echo of a False Hero

Elias strapped on his clothes and belt. He looked down at the light armor that had been given to him, ordained with the Ashborn Clan symbol. Elias picked it up and slowly began to wear it. It had been tailored for him for today.

Putting the hammer and other small weapons that he had crafted, thanks to the lack of pushback by the blacksmiths, Elias slowly breathed out before he walked out of his door. There, a guard stood who nodded towards him before slowly walking to the outer gate of the city. Elias followed him. The villagers clapped and cheered for him, but Elias only felt a disgusting feeling fill his body.

Today was the day.

A carriage was prepared for him with a coach. Elias climbed into the simple wooden carriage and looked opposite to him.

Nobody there.

"You're here to watch me, then?" Elias spoke out as the veiled woman came out of the shadow. She had her fist resting against her covered face, leaning on the window stand. She looked at him before looking out of the window.

"We'd be a fool not to."

Elias snorted before sitting in silence. The horses began to move as the scenery out of the window slowly began to change.

"Are you scared?" The veiled woman spoke out, and Elias felt his words stuck at his throat.

"I don't know."

The veiled woman tilted her head to him.

"You should be."

==================

The stagecoach stopped.

"If you die here, it was merely Ashurn's will. Your fight with the monster will not be interrupted regardless of what it is. However, based on the rift, the monster inhabiting it is quite low. Perfect for a first Voidshard. I will watch, however, I will give you some advice. Do not hold anything back. If you do, you will die. This type of rift seems to be an internal one, which means that it connects to an alternative reality. It'll be a somewhat small place that takes on the characteristics of the monster. External rifts are the most dangerous," the veiled woman stated. "Go."

Elias looked down at his hands, which were shaking due to the fear of it. Taking a breath in and out, Elias attempted to compose himself, but found he couldn't.

He was a nervous mess as he walked down that hill, as the rift became clearer and clearer in sight.

The rift was black and levitated around a meter from the ground. It was like somebody had painted a black hole onto a canvas. It cracked at the edges of the circle, splintering into cracks similar to when glass breaks. It stretched wide, around three or four people wide. You could not see what was inside of it. Standing in front of it, Elias could not see what was inside. It was like it stretched infinitely on the inside.

He collapsed.

Sweat began to pour out of his face as he bent over next to the gate, memories of the sky being devoured playing in his head. It looked... it looked like that...

Is this the life he wants?

The words of Rook played in his head. Dying a human.

No! He needed the strength! He needed to figure out who his father was and what that thing was!

His sigil began to flare up in white light as Elias got up like a soldier and put his leg through the gate. A massive amount of Void energy washed over him as he slowly entered the rift.

The landscape he was greeted with shook Elias. It was like the world he knew, but was replaced with a golden sky. There was no moon, nor sun. An eerie silence permeated around him, the silence gnawing away at his mind. He observed first. He needed to figure out the "theme."

The ground under him was dirt. The solid ground turned into sand, which then solidified into stone, and later crumbled back into earth and back to dirt.

A cycle? Or an illusion?

Elias observed the change once more. When it shifted to sand, it did not have the texture that sand had. Instead, it was the earthly clumps of dirt. But it had the smell of wet stone.

Walking on the path, Elias encountered some flowers. Looking down at them, he saw that the petals were replaced with sharp metal as he began to get a closer look.

What was that smell?

It smelled... beautiful. It was... warm... in this silent place...

Elias snapped out of it when a bunch of metal petals were shot at him. His sigil flared as he created a crumbled metal shield, as he felt the vibration of the petals of the flower against it. When the petals stopped barraging him, he took a peek as the shield began to crumble into dust. His projections had not gotten any better, but it had just saved his life.

A person would have died there, for sure.

Elias conjured another crumbling shield and got his hammer out from his belt. He continued to walk along the path under the light of the golden sky. The silence was occasionally interrupted by the shifting of terrain under his feet and his surroundings as trees began to fill his sight. They had gnarled branches that curled in an unusual manner, with trunks that seemed like they were alive, flailing.

What was his best chance? Try to get rid of the trees, or attempt to run past them?

Elias remained vigilant as he slowly got in position and began to run down the path. The trees stopped flailing as they observed the running Elias. The first couple lost interest. But the last ones he could see sent their roots flying towards him as the boy jumped over the first one attempting to sweep him. The second branch was at head level as Elias barely managed to duck downwards just in time.

Yes! He had done it!

But as he recovered himself, he looked down at his right foot and saw that the ground had morphed into quicksand. Fear began to fill the body of Elias as he looked up towards the tree branch flying towards him.

The shield clashed with the branch, managing to block most of the blow as the shield imploded on him. Metal and wood cut his chest as his arm felt numb from the vibration. Luckily, seconds later, the ground returned to normal.

The theme... the theme...

Changing, but everything is false. The monster controlling it seemed to be able to make specific changes in a localized space based on its power to accurately turn the space around him into quicksand. The path in the distance was not included. Monsters seemed to have the theme of deception.

Deception monsters usually are not that strong physically, relying on tricks, so he had been told.

Elias breathed in as he managed to sprint the distance away from the trees.

The road seemed to lead to a hut in the distance. There, it seemed like the monster would be there. No... he can't trust that. Maybe it wanted him to think that.

Elias kept walking while having his senses as high as he could have them with his lack of combat training.

His path was obstructed. A human-length mirror appeared in front of him as Elias attempted to avert his eyes, glancing back behind him.

In the brief second that he looked back, he noticed that the trees behind him looked normal and the ground did not shift states. But his eyes were returned to the mirror as his head was forcibly turned. The sigil did not react.

Elias felt his body go cold as he looked into the mirror.

In the mirror, a young boy and a middle-aged man looked back at him. The man had his hand on the small child's shoulder as they both looked at him with pure, unadulterated joy. Elias' eyes flickered to the small boy as he felt the urge to collapse on his knees again.

It was him.

Him as a child.

Elias gritted his teeth as the old man began to speak out.

Elias had forgotten what his father sounded like, except for him saying "Zhukov" in his dream. When Elias was sent flying, the sound from his voice was muffled.

"My son... I'm so proud of you. You have managed to come this far..." The middle-aged man looked down at the small boy, who did a thumbs up.

"Wow! This is who I become when I grow up? Cool! I can't wait to grow up!" Elias knew it was an illusion. But tears began to flow down his eyes as the mirror changed scenes. This time, it was Rook. He was considerably younger and was sitting down on a chair, a young girl on his lap as he playfully ruffled her hair.

"Look, isn't she beautiful? She took my traits over yours, hah!" Rook seemed to be happy as well, as he looked towards Elias through the mirror. "I wonder what is in store for our beautiful daughter. Aren't you excited as well?"

The scene changed once more. Elias did not know what to say or do as he stood there in silence, tears flowing down his eyes.He wanted to be part... of that joy... a world where nothing bad happened...

Rook... Father... they looked so happy.

Elias reached his hand to the mirror, and the mirror began to reach back, the glass forming an illusionary hand that slowly reached towards him.

The sigil began to flare up as Elias began to remember.

The left hand of Elias suddenly formed an illusionary shadow dagger as it stabbed into the hand. His face went cold and hate began to flood his body. His fear was suppressed as adrenaline started to kick in.

"You dare... you dare imitate them? Mock me?" Elias looked towards as the glass hand desperately retreated. The whole world began to flutter as the ground rumbled. The scene began to change around him as Elias watched the glass shatter and fall on the floor, the mirror no longer working. The scenery around him began to crack. The trees, sand, and earth began to distort around him.

The flaw of this dungeon is that the creature can not hold muitple instances of deception at once. When the mirror was conjured , the ground and the tree's stopped moving. When it was injured just now , the sky turned hollow purple before returning after a brief second. That was good to know.

Elias began to walk and walk. The cabin in the distance began to demateralise as it collapsed , instead being replaced with a transparent pool of water. The path was cleared of trails as Elias took the opportunity to sprint to the newly formed lake.

He was going to kill this fucking thing.

And make it his power.