2025-11-03 05:44:02
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Chapter 158: The Mountain of Whispers
The mountains loomed before them like an ancient wall against the world.Their peaks were shrouded in shifting mist — not the kind born from weather, but something older, alive. Each wisp of fog carried faint murmurs, as if the stones themselves whispered in a language that predated thought. The higher Mira climbed, the louder the whispers became.They were not voices she recognized, yet they called her by name.Mira… the echo returns… the flame remembers…She tried to ignore it, focusing on her steps, but the weight inside her chest pulsed with every breath — the mingling of light and shadow that had become part of her. It was no longer pain. It was presence. Constant. Watchful.Riven followed close behind, his breath steady despite the altitude. He kept one hand near his sword, though no creature dared approach them. The air was too still, too reverent, as though all life understood what climbed its path.“How much farther?” he asked, voice muffled by the wind.Mira didn’t answer at
Chapter 157: The Call Beyond the Horizon
The morning after the storm broke with a silence so thick it felt sacred.No birds sang. No wind stirred the trees. The valley lay beneath a pale light that was neither dawn nor day — a muted glow, as if the world itself had forgotten how to breathe.Mira stood at the edge of the riverbank, her reflection rippling in the unnaturally still water. The silver in her eyes had dulled overnight, and the mark on her wrist flickered faintly like a dying flame.Behind her, Riven watched in silence. He had not slept. He couldn’t. Every hour since her scream still echoed in his mind — the sound of something ancient, wounded, and infinite.“You haven’t eaten,” he said quietly.“I don’t need to,” Mira murmured, her voice distant. “The light sustains me.”He frowned. “That’s what worries me.”She finally turned, her expression unreadable. “It’s not the light you should fear, Riven. It’s what’s beneath it.”The villagers had begun to notice.They whispered of strange shifts in the air, of walls that
Chapter 156: The Shadow Beneath The Light
The dreams began three nights after the omen at the river.At first, they were nothing more than flickers of light — visions of stars collapsing inward, of silver rivers running red. But by the fourth night, the dreams turned heavy. The world in them was not the one Mira knew. It was silent, without air, without warmth. A hollow world where fire burned black.She stood in that world, barefoot on cracked ground, her reflection stretching endlessly beneath her.And somewhere beyond the horizon, a voice called her name.“Mira…”She turned — but there was no one there, only the echo of her own breath.Then the ground shifted, splitting apart like a wound.From the darkness beneath rose hands — not flesh, not shadow, but something in between. They reached upward, trembling, and a whisper rippled through the air.“You took what was never yours to bear.”Mira’s pulse quickened. “Who are you?”The voice answered like thunder behind her ribs.“I am the one who kept the flame before there was l
Chapter 155: The Breath of the World
When dawn came, it was softer than any in living memory.The clouds above the valley glowed faintly pink, silver light spilling across the dew-wet grass. The air itself felt new — clean, charged, as though the world had drawn its first full breath after centuries of holding it in.Riven stood at the edge of the Flame Tree’s roots, watching the sunlight filter through the leaves. The once-fiery branches now shimmered between silver and black, a reflection of what Mira had become.She stood just beyond the trunk, facing the horizon. Her bare feet sank slightly into the soft soil. Her hair moved with the wind — dark strands threaded with faint luminescence.“You’ve been standing there all night,” Riven said quietly.“I don’t sleep the same way anymore,” Mira replied, her voice soft, steady.Riven walked closer. “Are you in pain?”She turned toward him, and for a moment he forgot to breathe. Her eyes were still twin mirrors — one burning silver, the other a deep black that held faint spar
Chapter 154: The Mirror Labyrinth
The first thing Mira noticed was silence.Not the kind that comforted — the kind that devoured sound itself. No wind. No heartbeat. No echo. Just stillness, thick and endless.She opened her eyes slowly. The world around her shimmered like glass — not quite solid, not quite liquid. It was a valley, but wrong. The trees were translucent, bending as though made of smoke. Rivers ran uphill. The moon hung shattered in the sky, its fragments suspended midair like shards of ice.Her breath clouded faintly before her. “Where…?”“You’re home,” whispered the Echo’s voice.Mira turned. Behind her stood her reflection again — identical in every detail except for the eyes: black fire swirling where silver once was.“I told you,” the Echo said softly. “You cannot destroy me. You can only become me.”Mira’s jaw tightened. “I’m not your vessel.”The Echo smiled faintly. “Then what are you now? You burned the link between realms. Your body is scattered across the veil. This place is all that’s left —
Chapter 153: The Fracture Within
Mira didn’t remember falling asleep.One moment she was standing at the ridge, Riven’s voice still echoing in her mind — the next, the world had folded inward, dissolving into a dark sea of mirrors.Each surface reflected her face — countless versions of it — some with eyes of light, others of shadow, and a few with nothing at all.She stood in the middle of it, barefoot, breath visible in the cold air. “Where am I?”“Inside the boundary you built,” the Echo whispered. “You made a prison out of your own mind.”Her reflection stepped forward, the silver of her eyes deepening until it looked like molten metal. “You can’t keep me hidden forever, Mira. You know that.”Mira steadied her voice. “You’re a shadow, a side effect of rebirth. You’ll fade.”“Fade?” The Echo laughed softly. “No, I grow. With every lie you tell yourself, with every moment you pretend the power doesn’t tempt you.”The mirrors around them cracked — thin lines spreading like veins through the glass.From each fracture
