Elias woke to the sound of fire. Not the wild crackle of destruction, but a steady, deliberate burn like a forge being stoked. The cavern was dark, the air heavy with ash and earth, but ahead of him glowed a pit of embers, carved into a perfect circle.The Keeper stood at its edge, bare-chested, his skin lined with scars like maps of war. His voice, when it came, was not loud but it carried the weight of command. “Stand.”Elias pushed himself up, every muscle screaming. His wounds still ached from the storm, his veins still pulsed with the lingering burn of the Mark. But he obeyed. The Keeper’s eyes, glowing faintly gold in the firelight, swept over him like judgment.“You carry death in your blood,” the Keeper said. “Power stolen from the storm. Left unchecked, it will consume you. So we will break you. Then remake you.”Trial by FireWithout warning, the Keeper thrust his hand into the pit of embers. Flesh sizzled, the smell of char rising in the cavern yet the old man did not flin

The cavern air was damp, cold enough to sting the lungs. Elias awoke with every joint aflame, his hands swollen from the chain’s merciless bite. The Keeper stood waiting, a silhouette against the cavern’s glow, his arms folded.“On your feet,” the old warrior barked.Elias staggered upright, body screaming in protest. He expected another lecture, another trial of words. Instead, the Keeper motioned, and the second chain descended from the darkness above, its runes glowing like molten veins.“Today,” the Keeper said, his voice like iron striking stone, “you carry both.”The Crushing TestElias barely managed the first chain yesterday. The thought of bearing two was madness. His chest tightened. The Mark stirred immediately, hungry, offering strength for surrender.Call on me, it whispered, oily and insistent, Shatter his trial, Burn the weight Why resist?Elias clenched his teeth. “No,” he hissed aloud.The Keeper tossed him the first chain. The weight nearly broke him, his knees slamm

The cavern had gone quiet again. The corpse of the husk lay still, but Elias couldn’t take comfort in his victory. The chains still clung to his body, heavy and biting. Every breath burned.The Keeper broke the silence. “You fought with fury. But fury alone cannot keep you alive. It blinds. It makes you predictable.”Elias spat blood to the stone. “And what you want me to fight like you?”The Keeper’s lips curved. “Not like me,Like him.”The New ChallengerFrom the shadows came a figure unlike the brute from before. This one was lean, clad in dark armor etched with runes. His eyes were sharp, calculating, every step deliberate. A curved blade rested in his hand, its edge glinting faintly with poison.“Meet Marrow,” the Keeper said. “Once a general who never lost a campaign. He thrives on patience, on traps. He does not overpower he dismantles.”Elias straightened, his body trembling. “So you’re throwing me to a tactician now?”The Keeper’s gaze was cold. “A storm that cannot be contro

The darkness was not empty it was thick, suffocating, alive. Elias staggered in it, chains dragging behind him though he no longer felt the ground beneath his feet. It was like falling endlessly, but still somehow standing.Then came the whisper you thought you won, you thought strategy made you strong, but you know the truth, Elias. The voice was his own and when the black mist shifted, he saw it.The DoubleAcross from him stood himself, but not as he was now, battered and chained, poisoned and scarred. No this other Elias was whole, radiant. His chains were gone, his fists unmarked, his eyes burned with the full fire of the Mark, unrestrained and unmerciful.The double smirked. “I am what you fear. What you keep caged power without hesitation, rage without limit. Do you know what that makes you?”Elias steadied his stance, fists clenched. “It makes me human not a monster.”The double laughed, harsh and sharp. “No, It makes you weak.”And with that, the other Elias lunged.The Clas

The light faded.Elias staggered forward as the void crumbled around him. The chains that had bound him moments ago now hung loose from his wrists, fused with faint traces of the double’s energy, still pulsing with an alien rhythm.They felt heavier than before, yet they no longer dragged him down. Instead, they coiled around his arms like serpents waiting for his command. He fell to his knees, coughing blood, his entire body screaming with agony.Every bone felt fractured, every muscle shredded, yet beneath the ruin there was something new something that pulsed in sync with his heartbeat. The double’s voice whispered inside him "Not destroyed, never destroyed, only waiting.Elias clenched his jaw. His reflection was gone, but its essence hadn’t vanished. It lived inside him now a reservoir of raw violence, sealed but restless. He pressed a hand to the floor as the void finally shattered.The world reassembled itself with violent speed.The black emptiness peeled back like paper burni