Chapter 10: The Winner Takes It All (And the Loser Has to Fall)
The world broke open in light.
The Veil ruptured with a sound like thunder swallowed in reverse – silent, inward, imploding. The air itself twisted. Runes along the Academy walls burst, their glow spilling into the cracks like veins of molten gold. The ground shook beneath their feet, sending dust and shards tumbling from the ceiling as the great spire began to pulse with living energy.
Reika was the first to move. "Down!" she shouted, dragging Taro to the ground as a blast of Riftlight tore through the hall where they had stood seconds before. The beam scorched the air, leaving trails of warped time and flickering shadows that screamed before dissolving.
Kairo stood unmoving in the centre of the chaos, his flames burning white, the aura around him growing heavier by the second. His memories screamed at him – flashes of when he was a Custodian subject, when he was nothing but a weapon in their hands. The smell of antiseptic halls. The sound of chains on tile floors. The voice that whispered, "You were born to burn."
The Custodian guards stepped forward through the distortion, their armour cracked but still glowing. One raised hand, projecting a sigil in the air. "Subject Orin, surrender. You are ordered to return to containment. The Director demands your –"
Before he could finish, the world erupted in fire.
Kairo's eyes blazed gold. The flame that exploded from his body wasn't heat – it was memory made manifest. Every suppressed nightmare, every fragment of his sealed past, burst outward. The walls screamed. The light curved around him like a storm of ash and broken glass.
Reika shielded her face, shouting over the roar, "Kairo! Control it – "
But Taro, of all people, moved toward him first.
He stumbled through the waves of Riftlight, his normal carefree grin gone. "Hey! Firelord Trauma!" he yelled, gripping Kairo's shoulder. "Snap out of it before you turn us into roast dinner!"
Kairo turned, eyes unfocused. His voice was raw. "They made me do this…they made me – "
"Yeah, yeah, bad people, tragic past, we all got issues!" Taro shouted back. "But you're not their weapon anymore! You've got us! And also, I'm too handsome to die today, so maybe calm the apocalypse a bit?"
A laugh – short and bitter – escaped Reika despite herself. Even here, in the heart of chaos, Taro could still crack a joke.
The flames began to recede.
The Custodian guards advanced again, but this time, Kairo was ready. He raised his hands and the fire obeyed him, twisting into a spear of molten light that pierced through the lead soldier's armour, scattering him into shards of ash. Reika moved in a blur beside him, twin blades slashing through another's runic core.
Taro, meanwhile, ducked behind a fallen pillar and fired bolts from his modified crossbow – each one sparking with stolen Rift energy. "Ha! Didn't think archaeology would come in handy during a massacre!" he called.
"Focus, Taro!" Reika barked.
"I am focused! On survival!"
The remaining Custodian raised a sigil sphere, its light pulsating. "Engaging Veil Sequence Two. Manifest the Echoes."
The floor split open.
From the rift rose figures – translucent, human-like shapes flickering like broken reflections. Their faces were distorted versions of Kairo, Reika, and Taro themselves – the shadows of what they could have been.
Reika's double moved with cold precision, striking in silence. Taro's copy was eerily calm, eyes hollow. And Kairo's echo…
It smiled.
"You never left," it whispered. "You just changed the name of your cage."
Kairo's heart lurched. "You're not real," he said through gritted teeth.
"Neither are you," the echo replied, raising a hand. White fire bloomed around its fingers – fire that burned with the same rhythm as his own.
They collided.
The two Kairos – the man and his reflection slammed into each other with a burst that split the corridor in half. Riftlight surged through the Academy like lightning. Reika and her echo clashes blade against blade, each strike throwing sparks that tore small holes in space. Taro, meanwhile, dodged frantically while yelling, "Okay, this is officially the worst therapy session of my life!"
For minutes that felt like hours, the three fought their own shadows, every strike echoing their fears back at them. But slowly, painfully, they began to turn the tide.
Reika drove her sword through her reflection's heart, the illusion shattering like glass. "I am not your failure," she hissed.
Taro tripped over his own reflection, landing on it, and – by sheer luck he caused it to dissolve. "Ha! I knew my clumsiness would save me one day!"
Kairo stood over his echo, breathing hard, both of them flickering in the firelight. The reflection smirked weakly. "You can't burn away what you are."
Kairo raised his hand. "I already did."
The echo vanished in flame.
Then – silence.
The Academy trembled again, but the Veil dimmed, its runes flickering and fading. Smoke curled through the broken hall. Reika lowered her blades, Taro collapsed against a wall, panting, and Kairo stared into the empty corridor, chest rising and falling in slow rhythm.
"Did we win?" Taro finally asked.
Reika shot him a glance. "Barely."
Kairo didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the far end of the hall, where a door of black crystal had appeared – smooth, unmarked and humming faintly.
"The main chamber," he said quietly. "Where they started everything."
Reika followed his gaze. "Then that's where we end it."
Taro groaned, pushing himself to his feet. "You people and your dramatic one-liners… can't we ever end things somewhere with snacks?"
But still, he smiled faintly. And together – fire, steel and sarcasm they walked toward the door.
Behind them, in the ruin of the corridor, the cracked walls whispered softly in voices no one could hear:
The winner takes it all…and the loser has to fall.