The stone corridor ahead twisted and pulsed, faint traces of astral energy shimmering along the edges like veins of liquid starlight. Verena exhaled, adjusting her collar as the faint heat of the Fire Gate faded behind her, replaced by a colder, quieter tension.

The labyrinth was reconfiguring again. Walls groaned softly, ancient mechanisms shifting in ways that defied logic. As the stone rearranged itself, a wider chamber came into view—vaulted ceilings, glowing runes along the walls, and, most importantly, two familiar figures standing at its center.

Isolde leaned casually against a pillar, arms crossed, expression sharp as ever. Beside her, Vivienne clung nervously to the strap of her bag, eyes lighting up the moment Verena stepped in.

"You made it!" Vivienne beamed, practically bouncing on her heels.

"Unfortunately, yes," Verena replied dryly, though relief threaded through her tone. "Did the trials bully you two as hard as they bullied me?"

"Barely," Isolde answered, flipping a strand of silver hair behind her shoulder. "Earth Gate was tedious, but nothing I couldn't handle. You, on the other hand—" Her eyes swept over Verena's disheveled state. "—look like you went twelve rounds with your inner demons."

"I did," Verena muttered, massaging her temples. "They were rude."

Vivienne giggled softly. "Mine wasn't scary… It was like… a giant fish trying to drown me in my own head. But I think I passed…?"

"Good enough," Verena sighed, glancing around. "Where's the exit?"

Isolde pointed across the chamber. "There. But…"

Of course there was a 'but.' There was always a 'but.'

"…we're not alone," Isolde finished.

The shadows along the far wall rippled, and from them emerged a hulking, serpentine figure—scaled, celestial patterns etched along its length, eyes glinting like twin moons. Its form flickered, semi-transparent, as though it drifted between planes of existence.

A Zodiabeast.

Pisces.

"Oh, for the love of—" Verena groaned. "Didn't we already do emotional trauma? Why do we get the bonus round?"

The Zodiabeast coiled slowly, a low, ethereal hum filling the air. Its long body shimmered with water-like distortions, its movements unnervingly graceful. It wasn't attacking. Yet.

Vivienne shrank back, trembling. "T-That's… my sign…"

"Wonderful," Isolde muttered, drawing her threads of Bind Magic between her fingers. "Let me guess. It's keyed to emotional manipulation, illusions, and general nightmare fuel?"

Verena tilted her head, eyes narrowing. "No… it's not just keyed to Vivienne."

The moment the thought crossed her mind, the Zodiabeast's eyes locked onto her—cold, ancient, knowing.

"This one's personal."

A familiar chill ran down her spine.

The beast lunged.

In an instant, the chamber warped. Reality folded inward like a collapsing star, the floor vanishing beneath her feet, the walls dissolving into a sea of starlight. A moment later, Verena found herself falling—weightless, soundless—through an endless, black expanse.

She landed with a soft thud, the floor beneath her shifting like liquid glass.

Everything was still.

No walls. No sky. Just an infinite horizon of reflective surface stretching in every direction.

"Perfect," Verena muttered to herself. "I'm in the existential void."

She stood, patting her robes down, heart racing despite her sarcasm. Her reflection stared back at her from every angle—uncertain, tense, but stubborn as hell.

A quiet hiss coiled around her ankle.

"Saphira…?" she whispered, glancing down.

The snake familiar materialized beside her, ethereal scales glittering faintly in the void's false light.

"Thisss place… issn't real," Saphira hissed softly, eyes narrowing. "It'sss a trap."

"Yeah, figured." Verena exhaled slowly, scanning the empty expanse. "Dreamscape? Illusion magic? Something to keep me still… like…"

Her chest tightened.

…like her current reality.

The beast wasn't just trying to beat her physically. It wanted her stuck. Frozen. Paralyzed by indecision, self-doubt, and the gnawing fear that no matter how hard she fought, she'd lose everything anyway.

"Of course," Verena muttered. "Cosmic therapy session disguised as a boss fight. How subtle."

The floor rippled.

Her reflection changed.

It wasn't her.

It was Beatrice—surrounded by faceless men, eyes cold with disappointment.

Another ripple. Evelyn—hurt, distant.

Another. Clarina—frowning, walking away.

They kept shifting—every connection, every fragile relationship Verena had clung to, warping into reminders of how easily it could all crumble.

She clenched her fists.

The Zodiabeast's trick was obvious now: stillness wasn't physical. It was fear. Inaction. Letting doubt chain her down until the story—her story—passed her by.

Saphira coiled protectively around her wrist, scales pulsing faintly with borrowed constellations.

"You going to sit there and mope?" the snake asked dryly.

Verena smirked.

"Hell no."

Verena exhaled slowly, the faint, glass-like floor beneath her rippling with every breath. Around her, the infinite expanse reflected not just her fears, but fragments of the life she'd scraped together inside this ridiculous, cursed academy. Faces of people she cared about. People she didn't want to admit she cared about. And herself—versions of her, uncertain and faltering, caught in loops of hesitation.

But hesitation wasn't an option now.

The Zodiabeast wanted her stuck. It wanted her paralyzed in self-doubt, just like life kept trying to do. Well, too bad for the cosmic snake—Verena was nothing if not aggressively stubborn.

She tightened her grip around Saphira's small, coiled form, and the familiar's scales flared with faint constellations, golden threads of borrowed Zodiac energy weaving through the space between them.

"Alright," Verena muttered, cracking her neck. "You wanna trap me in a giant depressive metaphor? You better make it harder than this."

The void rippled again. This time, it wasn't just reflections. Illusions of her classmates flickered into existence around her like a broken stage play.

Isolde stood across from her, arms crossed, disappointment etched into her face. "You're weak."

Beatrice appeared next, looking away with a bitter frown. "Always hiding behind snark. Coward."

Evelyn, eyes filled with quiet hurt. "I trusted you…"

Even Penelope popped in, sword lazily resting on her shoulder, smirking with mockery. "You're all talk, m'lady."

It was textbook emotional sabotage, the Zodiabeast's specialty—distorting her thoughts, feeding the gnawing insecurities that kept her frozen in place.

Verena chuckled under her breath, her heartbeat steadying. "Cute. You really think I haven't heard worse inside my own head?"

The false illusions circled, their voices overlapping into an overwhelming echo chamber of doubt. But Verena stepped forward, each stride fueled by the stubborn flame of indignation tightening in her chest.

"You forget something," she continued, voice sharper now, cutting through the void. "I'm still here. After everything. The deaths. The resets. The betrayals. You think cheap parlor tricks are gonna undo that?"

Saphira hissed with approval, coiling tighter as the Zodiacal Mimicry around them pulsed stronger, threads of starlight wrapping around Verena's arms like glowing veins.

The illusionary Isolde lunged first—threads of Bind Magic snapping toward her like snares.

Verena moved with trained ease, her mimicry replicating the same threads, weaving them into counter-snaps that unraveled the illusion mid-strike.

The others followed.

Beatrice's shadow lunged with manipulated charm magic—a wave of overwhelming presence meant to crush confidence. Verena's mimicry pulsed again, severing the emotional influence before it could settle.

Penelope's illusion charged, sword gleaming with exaggerated arrogance. Verena sidestepped, grabbing the mimicry thread Saphira produced, twisting it into a shimmering whip of astral light that slammed the false image into fragmented shards.

One by one, they shattered. The false voices, the projections, the crafted doubts—all falling apart like glass under pressure.

Only the Zodiabeast remained now, its serpentine form hovering above, eyes narrowed with ancient frustration.

Verena pointed upward. "Nice try. But you forgot one thing about me."

The floor beneath her feet cracked with radiant energy, the mimicry threads fully converging into a dense weave of constellations. Her training—painful, tedious, endlessly frustrating—had built to this moment.

"I'm not some background character waiting for the story to break me," Verena declared, stepping onto the ascending platform of light forming beneath her. "I break the story."

Saphira's form pulsed, merging with hers in a cascade of glowing scales and cosmic patterns as their mimicry finally stabilized, forming into an astral construct that shimmered with combined resilience and defiance.

The Zodiabeast hissed, its body lunging for a final strike.

Verena didn't flinch. She leapt upward, the mimicry threads launching her into the air like a meteor of golden light, colliding with the beast in a flash of searing brilliance.

The void ruptured.

The illusions collapsed.

She landed—back in the labyrinth's stone corridor, breath short but steady, the air thick with lingering astral energy.

Saphira, now resting comfortably around her shoulders, chuckled softly. "Drama queen."

Verena smirked, rolling her shoulders. "Says the sentient snake."

The labyrinth remained ahead, winding, unpredictable, merciless. But Verena's steps were steady now.

Stuck? Not anymore.

She was done being still.

The path ahead pulsed with soft blue light, twisting into another corridor of shifting stone and whispers. Verena adjusted her cloak, Saphira coiled loosely around her neck, their shared energy humming beneath her skin. The weight of exhaustion still lingered, but determination burned hotter. She wasn't done—not even close. Somewhere beyond these winding halls, her team was waiting. Beatrice, Evelyn, Penelope… and the rest of them, tangled in their own trials. Verena exhaled, steady and sharp, and pressed forward. The labyrinth wouldn't swallow her again. This time, she'd drag herself—and everyone else—straight to the finish line.

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