The void blade surged forward, and Kael’s world slowed to a single, blinding heartbeat. The Broken Blade, still blazing with molten fury, met the reflection’s strike at the last possible instant.Sparks of gold and black scattered into the void like dying stars. Kael’s arms screamed with the force of the clash, bones straining, muscles tearing, yet his grip did not falter.The shadow Kael’s grin widened, teeth gleaming with cruel delight. “You’re breaking. I can feel it. Every fracture in your soul, every scar you’ve hidden, I am them all.”The tether rattled with Mira’s voice, sharp and panicked. “Kael! Don’t listen! That thing is feeding on your fear, stop giving it fuel!”But the shadow pressed harder, and Kael felt it, his fire dimming, leaking into the void, devoured by the reflection’s hunger. For every flame he birthed, the shadow grew darker, stronger, more relentless.His knee slammed into shards as the void blade cut dangerously close, grazing his chest. Pain erupted, molten

The void blade tore downward. For a heartbeat, Kael did not resist. His arms hung limp at his sides, his molten fire reduced to dying embers. The tether was gone.Mira’s voice, her warmth, her laugh, her unyielding presence had been ripped from him. Silence filled the void where she should have been.The reflection’s blade carved through his chest, a line of shadow splitting molten flesh. Kael’s body arched, blood and fire bursting outward in a grotesque spray. He collapsed onto one knee, hands trembling as he tried to breathe through a throat filling with ash.The fused reflection leaned close, its grin vast, abyssal. “Do you feel it now? The hollow where she once was? That emptiness is your truth.”Kael’s eyes flickered weakly. Golden flames danced in them, dim and faltering. His body shook under the weight of despair. For a moment, just a moment, it seemed he would collapse entirely, extinguished like a candle under storm winds.But something stirred. Not fire. Not rage. Something

The world ceased to exist. No sky. No earth. No flame. No sound. Only silence.Kael opened his eyes or perhaps thought he did. It made no difference. He was adrift in an ocean of nothing. There was no light, no dark, no direction, only endless stillness pressing against his skin like a suffocating blanket.“Mira?” His voice cracked, swallowed instantly by the void.A hand slipped into his. Her. He clutched it desperately, anchoring himself in the emptiness. Her touch was faint, trembling, but real. For a heartbeat, that was enough.Then movement. The void stirred. Not wind, not water, but something greater, something ancient. It rippled, bending and twisting like a living ocean of shadows. And from its depths came a pulse.Thud.Kael flinched. A heartbeat. Thud. Thud.Faster now. The void itself beat with a pulse that resonated in his bones, rattling his fire, pulling at his soul. And then he saw it a shape emerging in the blackness. A heart.Colossal. Primordial. Suspended in the voi

The void itself convulsed. Kael’s body was nothing but cracked stone and sputtering embers, yet his gaze did not dim. His fire was gone, his weapon shattered, Mira torn from his grasp. The Abyss loomed above, its colossal form devouring what little light remained.And yet something stirred. It began as a thrum in his chest, faint but steady, like a heartbeat buried beneath centuries of silence. Not flame.Not chain. Not the fire he had clung to his entire existence. This was deeper. Older. Raw. The Abyss paused. Its cavernous jaw froze, Mira still dangling within its skeletal grasp. Its endless eyes narrowed, focusing not on her but on Kael.“What is this?”Kael staggered upright, every movement tearing cracks wider across his molten frame. Lava spilled like blood, his fire flickering toward extinction. Yet he stood.From his chest, beneath the shattered furnace of his flame, something else pushed outward white light, pure and terrible.Not the fire of destruction. Not the chains of i

Kael fell. There was no ground, no sky, only the endless torrent of light and shadow swirling like a storm. His body cracked further, fragments of himself flaring away like burning embers.The Spark of Creation raged inside him, boundless and merciless, a tide of raw existence tearing at his essence.The hand that had dragged him through released him, vanishing into the swirling maelstrom. He floated, suspended, chains of radiant fire coiling outward uncontrollably. Each pulse shattered the formless storm, carving impossible paths through reality itself.Then… stillness.The storm parted. A floor formed beneath him, smooth and blinding. His knees hit the surface, his chest heaving as he struggled to draw breath he no longer truly needed.“Where… am I?” His voice was ragged, broken.The silence answered. Then, slowly, figures emerged from the horizonless glow. They were tall, draped in robes woven of starlight. Their faces were veiled, but their eyes glowed like suns. Each one radiated