The old road to the Sanctum border was overgrown, forgotten by all but time and those who had reasons to avoid it. Kael, Sera, Aeris, Darius, and Liora walked silently, every step weighted by the growing tension in the air.
Even the wind seemed uneasy.
"The energy around here's off," Aeris muttered, blades quietly unsheathing from her cuffs. "Like the ground remembers something it shouldn't."
"It does," Liora said. "This was one of the last places the Choir sang freely—before they were silenced the first time."
Kael clenched his fists. His gravity stirred unconsciously, making the pebbles near his boots tremble.
Sera noticed. "You're feeling it again, aren't you?"
Kael nodded. "She's close. And not just her. There's something else… following us. Or waiting ahead."
Ruins of the Border Sanctum
They arrived at dusk.
The ruins were jagged stone bones poking from the earth like broken fingers reaching toward a darkening sky. Once a majestic outpost of song-forged faith, it now reeked of decay, ancient power, and unfinished memories.
Kael stepped forward.
The wind stopped.
Then a voice echoed from the heart of the ruins:
"You shouldn't be here, Kael."
Everyone turned.
A figure stepped out from the shadows of the ruined altar.
And Kael's breath caught in his throat.
Because it was him.
Same eyes. Same build. Same voice.
But different. Wrong.
This version of him stood taller, darker. Shadows swirled around his feet like loyal dogs. A black crown of fractured crystal floated just above his brow.
"What the hell?" Darius whispered.
"Is that…" Sera trailed off.
Liora's voice was grim. "It's not real. Not exactly."
"Then what is it?" Aeris snapped, blades already humming.
"A psychic echo," Liora said. "A memory given form. One of the lives Kael lived before he became… him."
Mirror of the Void
The Echo smiled, tilting its head.
"I remember what you were. A tyrant. A liberator. A god. They feared you because they couldn't control you."
Kael took a step forward, the staff appearing in his hand with a burst of silver-blue light.
"I don't care who I used to be."
"Liar," the Echo laughed. "You feel it, don't you? The call of the void. The weight of your inheritance. It wants you to remember… so you'll repeat it."
"That's not me," Kael growled, gravity beginning to coil around his feet like black flame. "Not anymore."
"But it could be."
The Echo lunged.
Clash of Selves
They moved like mirror images—Kael and his Echo—a blur of light and shadow, gravity vs. distortion, memory vs. will. Every clash cracked the air like thunder, sending shockwaves that split the ground and made even Darius stumble.
Kael struck with precise gravity bursts, each one meant to collapse the Echo inward. But the Echo adapted, warping the rules, bending Kael's own attacks back toward him.
"You can't win," it hissed. "Because I am you. Every violent impulse. Every hunger for power. I am the version of you that never held back."
"Then you're the version that failed," Kael snarled.
With a roar, he dropped his staff and unleashed his core.
For a moment, time paused.
Gravity bled from him in perfect harmony, pulling energy from the ruins, from the sky, from the very ground beneath. Not just pressure — order.
He struck once.
The Echo shattered — not just physically, but conceptually — unraveling into a swirl of memories, screams, and stars.
Silence After the Storm
Kael dropped to his knees, panting. Sera rushed to him. He didn't stop her.
"You alright?"
"Not sure," he said. "But I remember more now."
He looked up at the fading fragments of the Echo.
"I wasn't a monster. I was a weapon someone else pointed."
Liora stepped beside him, expression unreadable.
"Then the question becomes: who forged you… and who's still trying to use you?"