Kairo tightened his grip on his blade, the air around him rippling with raw energy as he faced the mirror version of himself—the shadowed figure born of memory, fear, and doubt.
The clone stood tall, its aura jagged and unstable, flickering with the twisted reflection of Kairo's own essence. Same armor. Same eyes. But something in the smile was… wrong.
> "You fight to become stronger," the doppelgänger said coldly. "But you're still that scared little boy who was told he'd never be anything. Weak. Powerless. Forgotten."
Kairo narrowed his eyes. "I don't need to prove myself to you."
> "But I'm all that you are," the double replied. "Everything you've buried. Every failure you've tried to forget. Every fear you've tried to outrun."
And then it attacked.
The shadow-Kairo moved faster than expected, striking with precision. Kairo barely blocked the blow, the force sending him skidding backward across the glowing arena floor.
> Clang!
Another strike. Another parry.
But Kairo was on the defensive.
He gasped for breath, sweat trailing down his face as he stared into the eyes of the version of himself that didn't care—about people, about pain, about purpose.
> "You hesitate because you still care what others think," the shadow mocked. "That's why you'll always be weak."
> "No," Kairo growled. "That's why I'm strong."
The words lit something inside him.
Memories.
Not of greatness.
But of endurance.
Of falling, again and again… and rising.
Of the day his father left.
Of the mockery from his peers when he failed the Awakening.
Of watching others rise while he remained stuck.
He hadn't survived because he was powerful.
He had survived because he refused to give up.
Kairo stood straight, eyes burning with defiance.
> "I'm not afraid of you anymore."
He charged forward, essence crackling around his blade. The shadow met him with equal force, their swords clashing in a dazzling explosion of light and darkness.
> Boom!
Their fight became a blur—memory versus present, fear versus purpose.
Every swing Kairo made now had clarity.
He wasn't fighting to win.
He was fighting to understand.
And with every clash, the shadow began to waver.
Its form glitched, like a fading nightmare.
> "You're only strong… because I exist," it whispered in its final moment.
Kairo raised his blade, glowing with purified energy.
> "Then I'll carry you forward—not as fear. But as truth."
He struck.
Light burst from the impact, enveloping the arena in radiant brilliance.
When it faded, the shadow was gone.
---
Kairo dropped to his knees, gasping, overwhelmed—but not broken.
A quiet voice echoed through the chamber.
> "Trial complete."
The world around him returned to the stone-walled dungeon.
Zevrin was there, waiting, sword at his side and eyes wide. "You… did it."
Kairo looked down at his hand. In his palm, a shard of glowing crystal pulsed with warmth.
> The Fragment of Truth.
Another piece of the forgotten self—recovered.
But as the light of the fragment sank into his skin, more visions returned.
A battlefield.
A broken sky.
A name he hadn't heard in lifetimes—
> "Thalor…"
The whisper trembled in his soul like a warning.
Zevrin helped him to his feet.
> "You alright?"
Kairo nodded slowly. "One step closer."
As they exited the sunken dungeon, the Rift Valley began to shake. The Warden's chamber crumbled behind them, as though the past was sealing itself once more.
But Kairo had taken a piece of it with him.
He wasn't just ascending ranks anymore.
He was reclaiming who he used to be—and unlocking a power that could shake the foundations of the world.