Luna Felix

45 | The First Challenge

ALPHA ORIEF REI'S POV

Someone was knocking. Knocking? Why knocking? What?

I force open my eyes to refocus on my surroundings. I was in a small room somewhere in the castle. The furniture was the bare minimum, the chair I was sitting in, a table and some bottles of water. By the looks of the scenery outside the window, it was dead of the night and somewhere near the throne room of the castle. 

Incessant knocking brings back the noise that interrupted my sleep. I say 'come in'  to that person, because for some reason I couldn't sense them. 

Minister Conti entered the room and said, "Orief you better be ready, the judges have come. Behave yourself."

Pissed at the complete disrespect from one of my ministers, I expressed my anger at him, "Maynard Conti it seems you have gotten tired of living. How dare you talk to your King like that?" 

Minister Conti looked at me wide-eyed for a second and then burst out laughing in disbelief, "So they were right, you have gone crazy. I am not surprised you haven't been sane since then anyway."

Before I could call the guards to drag Maynard Conti away he started walking towards me, "You have failed your country. You are hours away from your last public trial. Orief you are no longer a King, you are nothing more than a prisoner. Wake up to your new reality.  Now please, I have begged to give you one last chance, don't mess up in front of the judges."

It was when Maynard said 'wake up' that I realised I was not in reality, I was in the maze with Felix. We had just discovered the second artefact and were planning to attempt it. When we touched the object we both were thrown away from it with an overwhelming force. We realised that only one of us can touch it at a given time. So, I volunteered to go first while Felix looked after my body which would be defenceless. But for the love of the goddess I can't remember the artefact. I was trying my hardest to remember but it was like something was blocking me from remembering it. 

I figured it must be the part of the test. For the challenge, I decided to go along with the act of an insane defeated king to gather more information. "Mayanard Conti, you better explain yourself clearly. What is this nonsense?" 

"This isn't nonsense. It's your failure looking right into your eyes. Forget it. Let us go it is getting late. "

So I did, I kept shut and followed down to what I assumed would be my trial. All the while my mind tries to understand how this happened and how I will get out of here. As I follow Maynard downstairs to the training grounds I see the horrendous site of my castle, it was in shambles.

Every ornament, vase, and furniture was broken like someone took their anger out on them. The walls had splatters of blood on them and I don't even want to imagine who was attacked so brutally that the blood splattered so high up the wall. There were multiple dead bodies which were covered with white sheets. 

And the most chilling aspect of this illusion was the dead silence. You don't hear anything, not the animals, the insects, the people, the breathing, the heartbeats. Nothing. That's how I knew this was an illusion. But it was causing me distress like no other. I have always been hyperaware of everyone. I always felt the existence of life more than anyone. And it's jarring not to feel it anymore. 

The entire atmosphere was driving me crazy. My mind was running faster than it ever had to figure out what happened. Why was I dubbed crazy? What is this test about? One thing was for sure it was messing with my brain and inducing me in perpetual sadness. But I refuse to spiral down, refuse to give up, refuse to let this sadness get to me. 

When we reached the training grounds I was shocked to see rows upon rows of people, all protesting against me but I couldn't hear them. I wanted to feel what they were experiencing so I decided to use some of my energy for that but unfortunately for me, this test had put some kind of block over it. So here I was standing in front of my people, looking at them in distress and unable to understand them.