The Academy's arena was sweltering. Heat shimmered off the molten pathways, casting distorted reflections on Kaelith's armor. His hands ached from channeling his Heart, beads of sweat tracing along his jawline. Lyra, beside him, held her ward steady, her own aura pulsing softly to stabilize the chamber.
"Kaelith! Focus!" she shouted over the roar of the molten portal, the test supervisor's voice lost in the feedback of the negative-energy conduits.
Kaelith wiped blood and sweat from his temple. "I am focusing!" he barked, though his teeth clenched. The portal before them was twisting, cracking in ways no training simulation should. Energy readings spiked, NP counters rising dangerously fast.
> [NEGATIVE POINTS: +142]
[SYSTEM WARNING: EMOTIONAL OVERLOAD DETECTED]
Holy shit, he thought. This isn't just an exam. The portal's trying to eat my head.
Lyra's voice cut through his panic: "Kaelith, you need to balance your power! Don't let it spiral!"
He inhaled sharply. Focus. Heart steady. But then the floor shivered like the world was hiccupping. Sparks shot from the edges of the molten pathways.
"Shit… what the hell now?" Kaelith muttered, scanning the arena. The molten portal flickered violently, throwing distorted images of reality across the walls.
Then it happened.
A tear in the ceiling. A ripple that bent space. And through it — someone fell.
Brian.
He slammed into the arena mid-air, skidding across the molten metal like a bullet of chaos. Sparks flew. Heat seared his skin, but he scrambled upright immediately, eyes wide, hair sticking to his damp forehead.
"Holy Shit… where the hell am I?" he shouted, kicking molten slag aside. "Did I just… fall into a hell-school?"
Kaelith's eyes narrowed. "Who… who are you?"
Brian blinked, scanning the arena. "Uh… I'm Brian. Just dropped in. Literally. Not part of your exam, I swear to god, no no not god gods!"
Lyra bristled, ward trembling. "He… he's not from here."
> [NEGATIVE POINTS: +27]
[HEART FLUX DETECTED]
Brian noticed the monitors around the arena lighting up — his energy signature bleeding across their NP system. "Shit," he muttered. "Looks like I'm triggering your… system thingy?"
Kaelith clenched his fists. "That's not just a system!" he said. "You're… interfering with the portal's Heart!"
Brian scratched his head. "Portal Heart? Dude, I don't even know what a portal Heart is. I'm just… existing, okay?"
Lyra stepped forward, aura pulsing, stabilizing the edge of the portal. "Something about you… it resonates." Her voice trembled. "It's like… like you belong here."
Brian raised an eyebrow. "Belong here? I can barely belong in my own reality half the time."
Kaelith frowned. Something inside him twisted uncomfortably. "Resonates…?" He took a step closer. "Wait a second… your energy… it's… familiar."
Brian laughed nervously. "Familiar? Buddy, I'm a whole walking mess of familiarity. You might want to narrow that down a bit."
Lyra's wards flickered as the portal shuddered violently. Then the truth slammed into them all at once: a cascade of visions — fragments, flashes, memories that weren't their own, memories of lives they'd never lived.
Faces. Voices. Emotions. Pain. Joy. Loss.
And then it clicked.
Kaelith's eyes went wide. "Holy… shit… Lyra… do you see this?"
Lyra swallowed hard. "I… I see it. The fragments… the flashes… us… all of you guys…"
Brian blinked rapidly. "Okay… stop talking in riddles! What's fuc..ng going on?!"
Kaelith's voice dropped. "We… were once… a single being. A whole soul… before… the multiverse or something split us."
Brian staggered back. "Wait… wait… what? Hold up. You're saying… we're… soul pieces? That's… that's… insane! That's literally insane!"
Lyra's hand trembled as she gripped Kaelith's shoulder. "I feel it… a connection. Across worlds… across time… across… reality itself."
Brian ran a hand through his hair. "Holy moly… so… you're basically me? Or I'm you? Or… damn, my brain hurts."
> [SYSTEM ALERT: DIMENSIONAL RESONANCE DETECTED]
The portal behind them flared, molten energy crackling like lightning. Shadows of themselves flickered inside — not exact duplicates, more like echoes of what they could have been if the soul had never split.
Kaelith raised his fists, NP counters climbing. "If we're fragments… maybe our powers aren't meant to just exist separately!"
Brian smirked, adrenaline kicking in. "You mean… team-up time?"
"Holy shit, that could work," Lyra muttered. "But… the portal is unstable. If we combine wrong… we could—"
Brian cut her off: "Yeah, yeah, don't worry about the cosmic doomsday stuff. We got this. Probably."
The portal pulsed violently again, and before anyone could react, molten spires erupted from the arena floor, twisting upward like the fingers of a giant. Shadows writhed within them — distorted beasts that shouldn't exist in any reality.
"Shit! Combat-ready, people!" Brian yelled. "I don't care if you're taking an exam, we fight now!"
Kaelith's fists flared, molten energy dancing over his skin. "Negative Points… heart-synch… now!"
Lyra reinforced his aura, linking with him, her own Heart glowing. "We can do this… together!"
Brian grinned. "That's the spirit! Shadow Step, baby!"
He vanished, reappearing behind a massive molten beast, landing a crushing blow. Sparks flew, NP readings spiked, portal energy warping the air around them.
The three of them — Brian, Kaelith, and Lyra — fought side by side, each instinctively syncing with the other. The arena became a blur of molten light, shadow strikes, and raw power, the very air buzzing with their combined resonance.
Then, in the chaos, a voice — not Kaelith, not Lyra, not Brian — echoed inside their minds:
> "Finally… the whole begins to awaken."
They froze. Their hearts hammered.
The molten portal above them rippled violently, revealing a figure shrouded in silver light — not fully corporeal, yet impossibly present.
Brian whispered, "No freaking way… that's… the… prime soul?"
Kaelith's fists went white. "It… it knows us. All of us."
Lyra's aura flared violently, stabilizing the portal's edge. "It wants… reunion… consolidation…"
Brian gulped. "Holy shit. So… we're not just fighting beasts or exams… we're being… called back… to… the whole."
The molten spires around them screamed, energy ripping the arena apart, and the echoes of their shared past coalesced into a pulse of blinding white light.
Everything stopped. For a heartbeat, the world hung suspended.
Then the pulse hit.
And everything changed.