“This… no! No, you can’t be here!” Twilight jumped off of me, stepping back with fear in her eyes. “Stop… no!”

As she cried out, I felt a white light washing over me. Rather than feeling like I was falling into an abyss, It felt like I was grabbed, and was being embraced and hugged, lifted away from harm. Was this Gaia? I didn’t know, but I could feel the power growing, wrapping around me. Strands of darkness that had tied themselves around me, things that I hadn’t even noticed before, started to crack and break away. I hadn’t realized how many threads Twilight had attached to me until they broke.

“How could you do this to me?” Twilight shouted. “How dare you let Gaia in here!”

The illusion began to break away, and there was once a bedroom became a realm of darkness stretching to eternity. Exploding around my body, or it would be more accurate to say my soul, light erupted out, pushing her back a step at a time. She slowly retreated into the darkness. Her eyes glared at me hatefully as she took one step at a time, being pushed away by the light.

“There is no freedom in the path you lead.” I finally got out.

“Freedom?” She made an ugly face. “What is the point of freedom when it only results in pain and misery? When you’ve lost everything, and the light has snuffed out… you’ll come crawling back to me. You’ll beg for the peace and tranquility I can offer you.”

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Her voice grew weaker and weaker as she spoke. Her body had disappeared, and only her face could still be seen, floating in a sea of darkness that seemed to be broiling with anger. At that point, the light around me became so bright that it started to cover my vision. Twilight’s face became a distant memory as a roaring sound like a waterfall surged in my ears. The peaceful feeling continued to grow as the darkness was thrown back, and then there was nothing but a space of infinite whiteness around me.

“Master, there isn’t much time.” I turned to see Tera standing nearby, a small smile on her face.

“Terra!” I approached her quickly.

“You’re soul has been severed from her grasp. The protection Gaia has given you will last for a time, but your body is still in jeopardy. Any soul Twilight has ever summoned can be called upon. Her shadow wraiths are deadly and dangerous, and they will likely be pursuing you, but they are vulnerable to your white mage magic. I will return to my body now. As a golem, my body would have been unharmed. As for Garnet…” She stopped, biting her tongue.

“What about Garnet?”

“Nevermind that… you must take this now.” She thrust something out in her hand.

I looked down at it, and I immediately recognized the item. “The dungeon core I was going to give my daughter?”

In the illusion, it was this item that I had been seeking the entire time. I had been seeking it so that I could give it to my daughter for her birthday, but I had never managed to reach it. I had just assumed it was some representation of my soul world created by Twilight to teach me her lesson.

“Your mind creates a way out of that world. Had you found it would, would have been able to escape on your own, but she had interrupted your dream directly to keep you from finding it. Take it, there is no time.”

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I reached out and grabbed the necklace, and the world shattered around me.