The moment kael stepped through the boundary of the new realm, he knew something was wrong.
The air felt thin, like breathing through gauze soaked in frost. His boots sank slightly into the ground—not soil, not stone, but something in between. Crystallized dust? Shattered memories? It didn't matter. The realm rejected the living.
Elira stumbled beside him, catching herself on his arm. "Where are we?"
Kael scanned the desolate landscape. The world stretched out in soft grays and deep violets, like it had been painted with the remnants of a dream. Towering cliffs curled upward in impossible shapes, folding into themselves, casting no shadows. Above, there was no sky—just a slow swirl of color and light, circling a gaping tear in the center of the heavens.
"We're between realms," he said. "A Rift Nexus."
Elira's brow furrowed. "Is that even possible?"
"Barely. It's where dead realities collapse into one another. Fractured space. This was never meant to exist."
Something shifted to their right. Not a sound—just an impression. Like a memory that hadn't happened yet.
Elira drew her dagger. "What was that?"
Kael raised the gauntlet. The flame didn't ignite fully—it sputtered, twisted. It didn't like it here.
"Something old. Something watching."
---
They moved cautiously, footsteps leaving ripples in the ash-like ground. Ahead, a path appeared—or perhaps it had always been there and they hadn't seen it. It was hard to trust their eyes.
Kael gritted his teeth. "We need to find the anchor. If there's a way out, it'll be drawn to something stable. A memory or a soul strong enough to pull the realm around it."
"Like the Vessel?"
He nodded. "Or worse."
---
After what felt like hours—or maybe only minutes, time refused to behave—they reached the edge of a collapsed temple. It spiraled sideways, defying gravity, built from stone that hummed with mana but crumbled like sand. Faint voices echoed from its walls.
Kael stepped forward. "This place is full of echoes."
Elira touched the stone. Her eyes widened. "I can hear... myself. Years ago. Before I met you. Before everything."
"It remembers," Kael said. "It feeds on what we were. That's how it traps people."
He could feel it too—memories brushing against his mind. The training fields of the old Flame Temple. His mother's voice calling him in the evening. The feel of his brother's hand pulling him away from danger...
He shook his head. "Ignore it. They're ghosts. Not real."
They passed beneath a broken arch. Light bent strangely inside. A shadow stepped into view at the far end.
---
It was him.
Kael.
But older. Scarred. Cloaked in cinders and wrapped in chains that floated like smoke. The gauntlet was still there—but darker. Burnt. Incomplete.
Elira drew her weapon instantly.
The figure didn't attack. It just looked at them.
"You made it further than I did," it said.
Kael tensed. "What are you?"
"A possible end. A version of you that failed."
Kael raised the gauntlet. The air around him shimmered. "Why show yourself?"
"Because this realm reflects echoes. And you brought yours with you."
Elira narrowed her eyes. "What does that mean?"
The Echo-Kael stepped forward. "He doesn't just carry fire. He carries weight. Regret. Power. That becomes its own shadow. If you don't learn to face it, it consumes you."
Kael met his own eyes. "I won't become you."
"You already are," the Echo said. "But you can still turn."
Kael lunged.
Fire erupted from his palm, a torrent of living heat. The echo responded in kind, a mirror of his strike. The flames met, collided, and shattered the ground beneath them.
---
The battle tore through the broken temple. Flames twisted in mid-air, pulled into spirals by the strange laws of the Rift. Elira darted between the blasts, striking where she could, distracting the Echo long enough for Kael to recover each time.
But it wasn't enough.
The Echo knew all his moves. It was him, after all. Stronger. Colder.
Kael gritted his teeth, drawing deep from the flame. Not from anger. Not from fear.
But from memory.
His family. His vow. The friends he still had. Elira.
The flame responded. It changed. Grew brighter. White-hot. Pure.
He unleashed it in a roar.
The Echo tried to match it—but faltered.
Kael's fire consumed the specter, burning away the shadow. Not with violence, but with clarity.
The Echo smiled.
"Good," it whispered. "Remember who you are."
And vanished.
---
Kael collapsed to one knee. Elira rushed to him, catching his shoulder.
"You okay?"
He nodded, breathing hard. "It's gone."
She helped him up. "You beat yourself."
"No. I accepted myself."
The temple shifted again. A hidden door slid open with a soft hum, revealing a staircase leading down.
At the base was a vault. Within, a single glowing crystal hovered above a pedestal, pulsing with raw flame.
Kael approached.
"This is it. The anchor."
Elira looked at him. "Is it safe to take?"
"No. But we don't have a choice."
He reached out. The gauntlet thrummed.
And the Rift began to collapse.
---
The realm screamed.
Towers fell sideways. The sky cracked louder. The rift above widened, sucking the edges of the world inward.
Kael held the crystal tight. Its heat ran through his body like molten lightning. He turned to Elira.
"Now!"
They sprinted toward the closest seam of reality, where a tear hovered like a floating scar.
Behind them, the ground peeled away, revealing endless void.
Kael shouted the words again—the old words.
> "Burn the veil. Break the wheel."
Flame ignited around them, spiraling upward.
They leapt.
---
When they landed, they were in a forest.
Not their own.
The trees here pulsed faintly. The air was still. And ahead, in the distance, was a city made of metal and bone, floating in mid-air.
Kael rose slowly.
Elira stared. "Where are we now?"
Kael didn't speak. His eyes were locked on something in the sky.
Another rift.
But this one was shaped like an eye.
Watching.
Waiting.