The next morning came with no sun—only light.
It filtered through thick clouds like bruised gold, painting everything in a sickly glow. The Rift-tinged Vault pulsed faintly beyond the edge of the horizon, jagged and skeletal, like it had grown out of the earth against its will. Arix stood at the edge of the camp, already armored, already awake.
He hadn't slept.
The shard inside him didn't rest anymore. It stirred with the same urgency that burned in his bones—a pressure, a gravity. The Vault didn't just call to him; it *recognized* him. And that terrified him more than anything.
Behind him, the camp stirred. Selis moved first, checking vitals, calibrating her gear. Kael emerged silently, pulling his cloak tight and scanning the dark horizon with sharp, bloodshot eyes. Thorne groaned as he pushed himself upright, breath catching, but his hammer never left his grip.
Calyx came last.
She stepped into the light with her rifle slung and her leg brace tightened down, dark hair drawn back and face unreadable. She didn't speak until she reached Arix.
"Ready?"
"No," he said honestly. "But I will be."
She gave him a look that wasn't quite sympathy. "You're not the only one going in."
Arix glanced toward the Vault. "I know."
---
The approach to the Vault was like walking across a frozen heartbeat.
The land trembled with a pulse that wasn't sound—just pressure. The closer they got, the more the terrain broke apart. Ground plates cracked and floated inches above the surface. Ash curled upward like reversed snowfall. Static sparked from the tips of long-dead trees.
> [System Alert: Echo Signature Saturation – 71%]
> [Warning: Fragment Synchronization Limit Approaching]
Selis's voice cut in. "Arix, your readings are spiking again."
"I feel it," he said. "I can handle it."
"You said that before the last Vault. You collapsed."
He didn't answer.
The entrance was unlike the others. There were no doors. No defenses. Just a slit in the ground wide enough for them to descend single-file into black.
Thorne went first.
Then Kael.
Then Selis.
Calyx looked at Arix and nodded once. He followed her down.
The tunnel swallowed them.
---
The interior wasn't like the others. This Vault was older. Sharper. It pulsed with glass veins and humming black stone. Every surface reflected distorted versions of the team—twisted, fragmented, flickering with emotion.
The moment Arix stepped into the core corridor, the walls reacted.
> [Echo Sync: 77% — Memory Projection Triggered]
The corridor warped. Arix saw flashes—visions. He saw himself, younger, screaming. He saw his mother. Her eyes. The knife. The blood. He staggered.
Calyx grabbed his shoulder.
"You with me?"
He nodded. "It's showing me something."
"Push through it."
They moved on. Behind them, Thorne growled. "I don't like this place."
"No one does," Kael muttered.
The chamber ahead opened like a wound. At its center was no core—only a platform, and above it, a mirror of pure Rift crystal. Floating. Pulsing.
And staring back at them.
> [Echo Field: Active. Primary Host Recognition Confirmed. Test Commencing.]
The mirror fractured.
And from it stepped six shapes.
Copies.
Dark versions of the team, rendered in Riftlight and shadow. Each one moved like the original—but colder. Crueler. They struck without hesitation.
The battle was chaos. Calyx's doppelgänger pinned her instantly, brutal and fast. Thorne clashed with his mirror image, blow for blow shaking the Vault. Selis's double moved like a phantom, lashing with energy tendrils. Kael faced his with bitter precision, gun to gun.
Arix fought himself.
His reflection moved smoother, faster. Each motion was sharper, guided by instincts he hadn't mastered. He was being outpaced by his own shadow.
"You are not ready," the double said.
"I never was," Arix replied, and lunged.
They collided in an explosion of violet energy.
The Vault screamed.
---
The force of the impact sent both of them skidding across the reflective floor. Arix rolled to his feet, breathing hard. His double mirrored him, blade spinning in a flawless arc.
Every move was a lesson in failure.
Arix struck high—his shadow blocked low. He spun left—it countered right. They were the same, but the shadow didn't hesitate. It didn't doubt. It didn't *feel.*
"You hold back," the shadow said.
"I think. That's not weakness."
"It is here."
They clashed again. Sparks flew where blades met, warping the walls into ripples of echo energy. Arix's arms ached. The shard in his chest throbbed with every impact.
Then he remembered something.
> [Sync Overdrive – Locked Behind Anchor Surge]
He looked across the room.
Calyx, fighting hard, bleeding from her lip. Thorne, roaring as he broke his double's shoulder. Kael, half-collapsed but still firing. Selis surrounded by Riftlight, shielding them all.
Arix opened himself.
He let the fear in. The rage. The guilt.
And the shard *responded.*
> [Override Authorized – Sync Overdrive: ENGAGED]
The Vault lit up.
Violet energy flared from his limbs, cracking the floor beneath his feet. His reflection paused—too late. Arix blurred forward and struck.
Once.
Twice.
The third time, the blade shattered his double's core. Light spilled from the wound. It gasped, and for a moment, it looked almost… *human.*
Then it dissolved.
Across the chamber, the other shadows fell, unraveling like smoke.
Silence returned.
The mirror above cracked.
Then shattered.
And from the center of the room, a new shard rose—smaller than the last, but wrapped in threads of dark and light. A balance.
Arix reached for it.
> [Fragment Acquired – Dual Polarity: Integration Pending]
Behind him, Calyx walked up, limping slightly. She looked at the shard, then at him.
"You keep doing this," she said.
"Doing what?"
"Jumping ahead. Taking it all in like you were built for it."
He met her eyes. "Maybe I was."
She studied him for a long moment. "Just don't forget the rest of us are still catching up."
He nodded.
They turned toward the tunnel. The Vault behind them dimmed.
But it was far from silent.
Because something else had seen them win.
And it was watching.