Everyone looked at Lin, wondering what was wrong with him.
Suddenly, he lunged madly toward Yumi, striking her with a powerful blow that shattered the ground beneath her and sent her flying away.
He didn't give her a moment to absorb the shock, but instead dashed after her at incredible speed, his eyes glowing with unnatural energy.
Rin moved quickly to intercept him, using his sword to block the attack, but Lin's power was like a destructive tornado.
Seizing the opportunity, Maru unleashed his robotic tentacles that wrapped around Lin's body tightly, trying to restrain him, but to no avail.
Lin simply destroyed the tentacles with shocking force, as if they were just fragile toys in his hands.
The ground began to shake beneath Lin's feet, his body pulsing with energy, a strange aura began to rise around him, like a dark flame surrounding his body.
His eyes became even more glowing, his deep voice turned into a frightening roar, and the air around him became saturated with a violent energy that threatened to crush everything.
He rushed toward Rin with unimaginable speed, delivering ferocious blows with his sword, forcing Rin to defend with difficulty.
Each time his blows pierced the air, shockwaves rippled through the air, uprooting trees.
Maru shouted as he tried to intervene: "Yumi, we have to stop him now, this isn't the Lin we know!"
But Yume, who was still suffering from the impact of the first blow, was unable to move immediately.
The color of the aura began to change, as if the initial rage had become more concentrated and more destructive.
His movements became more precise, but he lost any human expression on his face, as if his fighting instincts had taken over completely.
Rin screamed as he blocked his attacks: "He doesn't feel anything now! This is insane!"
Maru took advantage of that moment and activated an energy field to try to slow Lin down, but the latter passed through it like dust in the air.
At that moment, Yumi unleashed her power, freezing the entire ground, trying to trap him, but Lin pressed down with his foot, releasing an energy wave that shattered the ice like brittle glass.
The aura around Lin grew lighter and more violent, as if his body was undergoing a complete transformation.
Every movement released firestorms around him, causing the ground to burst into flames and the atmosphere to become suffocatingly hot.
He lunged at Ren with unbelievable force, striking him squarely in the chest, sending him flying away to fall hard into the rocks, trying to regain his strength.
Maru launches an explosive-laden drone to try to distract him, but Lin raises his hand and unleashes an energy wave that breaks the drone into pieces before it can reach him.
In the final moments of the confrontation, the ground shook continuously, and dust rose from beneath them as if the world itself was collapsing.
Lin stood in front of Yume, Rin, and Maru, his eyes empty of any emotion, and prepared to deliver the final blow that would end everything.
Suddenly, the mysterious girl intervened, her hands filled with mysterious energy, and hit Lin directly on the head, causing him to pause for a moment, and then his body began to retreat violently.
His eyes were glowing again, but he seemed to be stumbling amidst the strange energy trying to bring him back to consciousness.
"Enough!" The girl screamed, releasing a powerful wave of energy, causing Lin to fall unconscious to the ground.
As everyone regained their breath, the ground suddenly shook terrifyingly, as if the world itself was changing.
From the center of the four lakes, something gigantic began to form, rocks flew, water receded, and a tower rose, larger and more massive than all previous towers, surrounded by a dense black aura, as if darkness itself had materialized in it.
Everyone looked at it in horror, while the mysterious girl began to advance slowly, her eyes fixed on the new tower.
"It is time for the real confrontation: "The time has come for the true confrontation."
While Yumi and her companions were regaining their strength and receiving treatment, Celestia stood in front of the new tower, her eyes fixed on it as if trying to grasp something that others cannot see.
Maru looked at her, then asked seriously: "Who exactly are you? Not only are you strong, but you seem to have a deep knowledge of what's going on."
Celestia turned to him slowly, before saying in a voice that was quiet but held the weight of secrets: "My name is Celestia, I am that person you met in the first tower... I am the daughter of the king of the island."
Maru froze for a moment before exclaiming in surprise: "What?! Wait a minute, didn't you say in that tower that you were betrayed and that they left you there?"
Celestia nodded and said in a hushed voice: "That's right... My father, the king of the island, betrayed me and left me in that tower as part of his vain experiment."
Ren looked at her suspiciously, then said, "A test? What kind of test would make a father abandon his daughter like that?"
Celestia took a deep breath, then looked at the new tower that rose from the center of the four lakes.
"This island is not part of your usual world. It belongs to the **Reflection Realm**, a place where body and soul overlap, where laws are not subject to the usual human logic. Everything here, from the towers to the land and even time itself, is bound by the will of the king who rules the island. The Reflection Realm is an aspect of the **Dark Realm**, just like the **Shadow Realm** you came from. My father told me that a true heir must go through a series of harsh tests, but I didn't know he would sacrifice me for it."
There was silence for a moment before Yumi, who was listening intently, said: "If this tower represents the heart of the island, does that mean that the king of the island is still there?"
Celestia replied in a somber tone: "Not only present... He's waiting for us."
At that moment, Lin gradually began to regain consciousness.
The first thing that came out of his lips was a barely audible whisper: "This... It's like what happened with the village..."
Maru quickly picked up on his words, and asked with concern: "Lin, what do you mean? What village?"
Lin sat on his hands, his face full of fatigue, but his eyes held a strange look, the look of someone who had seen this scenario before.
"The village we were in... where Eden and I and others were, was part of the Shadow World. That place was not normal. The symbols we saw there, the mysterious aura, even the people who disappeared... Everything pointed to a force controlling the place, just like here. But the difference is that the village was stagnant, while this island... It's vibrant, changing and reshaping itself according to the will of one person."
Maru looked at him intently, then said, "If I'm right, it means that the island is not just a place, but an entity itself... That makes everything even more complicated."
But before they had time to digest everything, the ground suddenly shook, as if the entire island was reacting to the appearance of the giant tower.
Pillars of black energy rose from the top of the tower, and a low, eerie sound echoed on the horizon, like the roar of an ancient being awakened from its slumber.
Celestia whispered in a barely audible voice: "It's all started already..."
At that moment, the tower began to change, its walls blazing with bloody light, its massive doors slowly opening as if inviting them into its dark depths.
Everyone stood in front of the tower, knowing that the coming battle would not be just an ordinary fight, but a struggle against the will of the island itself.