Chapter 33. An illusion
The world jolted.
My eyes snapped open.
I wasn't in the training arena anymore. The vast stone coliseum, the blood-slicked walls, the howls of beasts, the roar of the crowd—all gone.
No. I was somewhere else.
Soft silk sheets brushed against my fingers. A faint scent of lavender drifted through the air. Familiar warmth wrapped around me. I blinked slowly, trying to process the contrast.
Sunlight filtered gently through my window curtains, casting golden streaks across the marble floorboards. My ceiling—the same ceiling I had woken up to for weeks—loomed above me.
I was in my room.
Just... my room.
My breath caught. Then the realization struck like a steel gauntlet to the chest.
Everything—the entire trial—was an illusion.
A carefully constructed illusion. A test, orchestrated to the finest detail.