Lumis and Eili stood frozen before the throne, gazing at the spheres glowing in various colors. The atmosphere of the tower felt suffocating, as if its very essence was pressuring them to make a decision.
— How can we choose? — Lumis whispered, feeling the weight of the moment.
Eili reached for the black throne but stopped.
— If we choose the past, we can understand why this world is the way it is. Maybe it will help us break the illusion.
— And what if we choose the future? — Lumis asked, moving closer to the white throne. — Maybe we will see what our struggle leads to and find a path to victory.
Suddenly, the tower trembled, and their reflections in the spheres began to shift. In the black sphere, Lumis saw himself as a child running through a field, trying to catch a kite. His mother stood nearby, smiling. But then the scene darkened, and her image faded away like smoke.
In the white sphere, an older Eili appeared. She stood atop a mountain, holding something that resembled a key. Behind her loomed a massive tower that no longer bore a clock.
— That’s us, — Eili whispered.
— But is it real? Or just another illusion?
— Lumis questioned, hesitating.
The pillar of light began to flicker, as if the time for decision was running out.
— We must trust ourselves, — Eili said, looking firmly at Lumis. — What does your heart tell you?
Lumis closed his eyes. In the silence, he heard a barely audible sound: the ticking of a clock. It grew louder, morphing into a chime.
— We choose the past, — he declared, opening his eyes.
Eili nodded, although her face remained tense. She reached for the black sphere. The moment her fingers touched its surface, the tower trembled more violently, and the space around them began to dissolve.
— Hold on! — Lumis shouted, grabbing her hand.
The world transformed into a kaleidoscope of colors and sounds. Their bodies seemed to dissolve in a torrent of memories flowing through them.
As everything quieted down, they found themselves standing on the edge of a cliff. Before them lay a world divided into sectors, like a massive mechanism. At the center stood another tower, much larger and darker than the one they had just left.
— This is the truth, — Eili whispered. — We see what we were never meant to see.
— But this is only the beginning, — Lumis replied, gazing at the horizon, where clocks hanging in the sky began to stop.
The air charged with mystery and anticipation, and they realized that they had unlocked something monumental.
What lay ahead was unknown, yet Lumis and Eili stood together, ready to face whatever came next, armed with the memories of the past and the courage to unravel the secrets of the world before them.