Darkness.Not silence — just the low hum of something vast and alive.
Kael stood in it, his senses blurred, his body weightless. The air wasn't air at all — it felt thick, fluid, almost electric. Each breath he took shimmered faintly, as if he were inhaling light.
"Where… am I?" he murmured, voice barely a ripple in the void.
The question echoed endlessly, swallowed and returned by something unseen.
And then — memory.The forest. The survivors. The flare of power before everything went white.
He had been here before.
The void began to shift — the hum growing into a rhythm, like a heartbeat pulsing through the air. Then, from the blackness, waves of electric blue light erupted outward, cracking the void open.
Kael staggered as the world around him took form — a horizon drenched in storm clouds, glowing fissures of deep blue plasma snaking through fractured ground. Bolts of lightning forked across the sky, their afterglow painting his reflection in ghostly silver hues.
The air vibrated — alive, unstable, holy.
And then he saw it.
A figure emerging through the storm — tall, composed, wrapped in a shifting mantle of deep electric blue energy laced with silver streaks that danced like living veins of light. Each movement it made sent arcs of plasma rippling through the air.
Its armor mirrored Kael's own — dark, metallic, yet glowing from beneath, illuminated by veins of volatile blue fire.Its eyes burned the same color as the lightning above — radiant and endless.And when it spoke, its voice was Kael's, layered and distorted.
"You've found your way back."
Kael's pulse quickened. "What are you?"
The being tilted its head slightly, as if amused. "You still ask that?"
It took a step closer, and the ground beneath it lit up in a network of glowing blue sigils, pulsing with every word. "I am the part of you you've been running from. The balance you pretend to control."
Kael's throat tightened. "No… you're just another illusion."
The being smiled faintly — a reflection of Kael's own expression, warped by power. "Illusion? No. I'm the truth. The chaos that keeps you pure. The storm that devours corruption before it devours you."
Its blade appeared in its hand — not drawn, but born — forged from liquid lightning, flickering with veins of silver.
Kael stared, breath sharp. The energy was his. The same unstable current that lived beneath his skin, the same force that saved and cursed him.
"You feel it, don't you?" the being said, stepping closer until its light painted Kael's face. "The world fears what you hold. Even you do. But this power isn't meant to destroy. It's meant to purify."
Kael took a step back, his voice low. "If that's true… why does it always hurt?"
The being's expression softened — almost human. "Because balance demands pain."
The storm howled louder. The blue light surged, twisting around them like a maelstrom.
Kael raised his hand instinctively — and the void shattered.
A surge of deep blue plasma burst from his palm, colliding with the figure's energy. The explosion flooded the space with blinding light — then silence.
The figure's final words echoed faintly through the static:
"When you wake… remember who you are."