He paused then, his expression changing. The air around him grew still, as if even the flames that always surrounded him had quieted to listen. "But there's a part of me," he said slowly, "a part that became empty. Not because I wanted it to, but because it couldn't take the pain anymore."

His fists clenched faintly at his sides. "Every time I lost someone, every time I trusted and got betrayed, every time I hoped for something only to watch it crumble—I felt something inside me break. It wasn't that I stopped feeling. It was that I couldn't handle feeling it anymore. The pain, the helplessness, the disappointment—it kept piling up until I couldn't bear it. So I stopped expecting anything. I stopped hoping for anything. I thought it would make it easier."

He looked up again, his red and blue eyes glimmering faintly against the mirrored light. "And it did, for a while. But it also made me lose sight of myself. I didn't know what I was doing anymore. I didn't know why I was fighting, or for whom. I was just… moving. Like a machine trying to stay alive."

There was a long pause after that. The reflection said nothing, only watched him with quiet intensity.

Max then continued, his tone firmer now. "But then, I realized something. Power alone isn't meaningless if it gives me the freedom to protect what I still care about. If I'm strong enough, I won't have to lose anyone again. I won't have to rely on anyone. I won't have to watch everything I care about be destroyed."

He lifted his head, his expression sharpening, his aura rising faintly again, though no longer wild. It was calm, balanced. "That's when I understood. I don't need to chase after old dreams or depend on others to give me purpose. I just have to be the strongest. Because if I become strong enough, I can bend the world to my will. I can change the very fate that keeps taking things away from me."

His gaze hardened as he spoke the last words. "So no, I didn't change. I'm still me. I still care. But I refuse to be weak again. I refuse to be the man who watches helplessly while everything he loves is taken away. This is my path now. I will keep moving forward—no matter what I lose, no matter who stands in my way."

The lake was silent after he finished. Even the reflection didn't speak for a while. It only looked at him, its expression no longer mocking or cold. There was something different in its eyes now—something like understanding.

For the first time, it smiled—not the cruel, taunting smile of a mirror meant to break him, but a faint, calm one. "So that's your answer," it said softly. However, it didn't look satisfied with Max's answer.

The reflection's eyes glimmered faintly as its expression suddenly darkened, the surface of the Mirror Lake rippling around them as if reacting to the words Max had spoken. "Tell me," it said, its voice echoing through the still air, "how much of that is truth, and how much is a lie?" The reflection's gaze pierced deep, trying to see past the calm mask that Max wore, searching for even a hint of deceit.

Max did not flinch. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his face, quiet but confident. "You think too much," he said slowly, his tone calm yet sharp. "Those words came from the bottom of my heart. I have no reason to lie about such things."

"You are lying." The reflection said calmly. It looked at Max as if it could see through Max's very soul. "I know you are lying. If you have answered truly, I would have ceased to exist and the lotus would have been yours but that is not the case is it?"

It mocked at Max. "My very existence is proof that whatever yous said just is a pure lie."

For the first time it looked very angry. As if Max's answer had truly angered the reflection.

"You think I care about that?" Max sneered. "What I said is truth and if you don't believe in them then there is nothing I can do. But don't think for a moment that just because I couldn't pass the trial I couldn't take away the lotus."

The instant those words left his mouth, the atmosphere shifted. The stillness of the Mirror Lake shattered like glass under the weight of his rising aura. Max's right arm began to glow, golden light surging through his veins like molten metal coursing through divine channels. His pulse quickened as his body resonated with the dormant power within him.

Then it happened. A brilliant golden vein erupted across his skin, spreading from his chest to his arms, his neck, and then across his entire body like a network of blazing rivers. The air vibrated under the pressure of the Divine energy leaking from him. It was the power of the First Divine Vein — the Vein of Origin — the purest and most primal form of physical might in existence.

The ground beneath Max cracked violently. Tremors ran across the Mirror Lake as ripples turned into crashing waves. The entire world within the trial quaked in protest. The reflection's face twisted in disbelief as it felt the sheer, unrestrained might that Max was now channeling. The golden veins on his body pulsed like the heartbeat of a god.

Max clenched his fist, golden sparks bursting outward as arcs of radiant energy tore through the space around him. "If words cannot move you," he said, his voice carrying over the roaring tremors, "then let strength decide."

He stomped his foot once, and the Mirror Lake shattered beneath him like fragile glass. Cracks spread in every direction, cutting through the reflection's world. The sky trembled, the water split apart, and the protective sphere around the lotus flickered as if the space holding it together was about to collapse.

Max raised his glowing arm, his veins blazing brighter than ever. "Vein of Origin — Full Strength!" he roared. He drove his fist into the ground.

The golden impact exploded like the wrath of creation itself. The Mirror Lake disintegrated under the blow. Waves of divine force radiated outward, flattening everything in their path.

"NOOOO- You LIER!" The reflection screamed as its form fractured like a broken mirror, shards of its body dissolving into golden mist. The lake, the illusion, and even the sky above began to collapse, breaking apart piece by piece until nothing remained.

When the tremors finally ceased, the world was silent once more. The once-pristine Mirror Lake had been reduced to a plain of shattered glass and dust. The protective sphere around the lotus had vanished completely, and the lotus now floated quietly in front of Max, untouched but free.

Max extended his hand and caught it gently. The golden light from his veins dimmed as he drew a deep breath, steadying his heart. "I can only do this if you don't like my answers."

The fractured world continued to crumble behind him, but Max no longer cared. The trial had been broken, and the lotus was now his.

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