Chapter 5: The Shattered Mirror
Lina stepped through the threshold, her heartbeat echoing in the silence. Kai followed closely, his hand hovering near the sword at his side, but the air was still. Too still.
This place felt ancient. The walls were covered in shifting, iridescent patterns, like the skin of some long-forgotten creature. There were no doors here, no windows—just an endless stretch of glowing, ethereal light that cast no shadows.
"It's… beautiful," Lina whispered, her voice strange in the oppressive quiet.
Kai didn't answer. He was staring ahead, his eyes narrowing as if sensing something just beyond their reach.
Lina turned to look, following his gaze, and gasped.
In the distance, a figure stood, cloaked in shadow, facing away from them. It wasn't moving, but Lina could feel its presence, like an old wound reopening.
"Who is that?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Kai stepped forward cautiously, his eyes never leaving the figure.
"That's not someone we want to meet," he said, his tone grim. "We should go back. Now."
But Lina didn't move. Something in her heart told her that the answer to everything she had been searching for was just beyond that figure. She had to know what it was, who it was.
"I can't," she murmured, her voice thick with resolve. "I have to face it."
The figure turned slowly, and Lina froze.
It was her.
Or at least, it looked like her. The same eyes. The same face. But the expression was colder. Older. The figure stepped forward, each movement slow and deliberate.
"You came," the figure said, its voice like a low, hollow echo. "You always come."
Lina's heart thudded painfully in her chest as she took a step forward. "What do you want from me?"
The figure tilted its head, its smile widening unnervingly. "I am what you've forgotten. The part of you that made the deal. The one who didn't care about the cost."
Lina shook her head. "I don't remember."
"You will," the figure said softly. "When you open the last door. The one that has no key."
Lina felt a shiver run down her spine as the figure reached out, a hand made of dark energy extending toward her.
"No," she whispered, but it was too late.
The figure's hand touched her chest, and the world around her shattered.
---
Lina gasped as the scene dissolved into a void of endless blackness. She was falling, her body weightless, but the feeling of dread never left.
Before she could process what was happening, the void shifted. She was no longer falling. Instead, she was standing on the edge of a vast, broken world—a place filled with fragmented skies and torn landscapes. The remnants of what had once been whole, now shattered and scattered across the stars.
"Where am I?" she whispered, but the wind carried her words away.
A figure appeared beside her—Kai. He looked different here. Older, like a reflection of something that had been torn apart.
"We're in the heart of it," Kai said, his voice strained. "The place where everything began. The first deal."
Lina's eyes widened. "The first deal… is this where it all started?"
Kai nodded. "This is where the worlds first began to fracture. And it's where you'll find the truth."
Before she could ask more, the ground beneath them trembled. A crack appeared in the sky, and from it, a dark shadow began to spill out, crawling across the broken landscape.
"It's coming," Kai said, urgency in his voice. "We have to move. Now."
Lina looked ahead. A massive, monstrous figure was emerging from the crack in the sky, its form flickering like a bad memory. The air grew thick, suffocating, as the world began to fold in on itself.
Lina reached for the shard, but it was gone.
"We can't fight this," Kai said, his hand gripping her wrist. "We need to get out of here."
Lina's heart pounded. This wasn't just some monster—it was a manifestation of everything she had forgotten. Everything she had failed to face.
"I'm not running," she said, her voice steady despite the rising fear.
Kai looked at her, then at the dark figure. "Lina, please. This isn't just some enemy. It's a part of you."
She turned to face him, her eyes filled with determination. "Then I'll face it."
Lina stepped forward, her breath steady but her pulse hammering in her chest. The monstrous figure—twisted and dark—loomed in front of her, its presence suffocating the air around them. It was a shadow of something once whole, a fractured mirror reflecting the part of her she had locked away.
"You think you can face me?" the figure growled, its voice like the creak of a thousand broken worlds. "You think you can overcome what you've forgotten?"
Lina clenched her fists, a fire kindling in her chest. "I have no choice."
Kai stood beside her, his expression torn between concern and admiration. "Lina, listen to me. This isn't just some enemy. It's... it's a part of you. The part that made the deal—the part that chose to let everything fall apart. This is your guilt, your regret, your mistakes made flesh."
Lina didn't look at him. Her eyes were locked on the shadow before them, the twisted version of herself that had come alive from the cracks in the world.
"I didn't choose this," she whispered, more to herself than to anyone else. "I didn't choose to hurt anyone. But I've been running from it. From me."
The shadow let out a low, guttural laugh. "You've been running from yourself, Lina. Hiding behind doors, behind lies. But now, there's nowhere left to run."
A surge of power pulsed through the air, and Lina felt it—the weight of all the things she had buried, all the choices she had made, all the pieces of herself that she had lost. She had been terrified to face it, terrified to remember. But now, she could feel it all, raw and uncontained.
"I am not you," Lina said, her voice shaking but firm. "I'm not the person who made that deal. I am me—the person who's here now. The one who will fix it."
The figure's form flickered, as if unsure, and then it lunged at her, a mass of shifting darkness. But just before it reached her, Lina did something unexpected—she stepped forward, meeting the darkness head-on.
"No," she said, her voice steady. "I am facing it."
The air around her crackled, and the dark figure recoiled. It screamed, a sound that seemed to shake the very ground beneath them. "You can't erase me," it hissed. "You can't erase what you've done."
"I'm not trying to erase anything," Lina replied, her eyes glowing with newfound strength. "I'm learning from it. I'm owning it."
A pulse of light erupted from her chest, and the shadow screeched, recoiling as the light expanded. It surrounded them, enveloping them in a halo of energy.
"You'll never be rid of me," the figure spat, fading into the light.
"I don't need to be rid of you," Lina said, her voice clearer than ever. "I just need to remember you. All of you."
With a final scream, the shadow dissolved, leaving behind only the flicker of the fractured world.
---
The world around them began to shift again, the broken landscape falling away like sand in the wind. Lina felt the pull of something deeper, something that had been holding her in place for too long.
She turned to Kai, who was watching her with a mixture of awe and relief. "You did it," he said, his voice soft but filled with conviction. "You faced it. The darkness, the guilt... You faced it all."
Lina shook her head, her gaze distant. "I didn't face everything. Not yet. There's still so much I don't remember. And so much I have to fix."
Kai stepped closer, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We'll do it together. No matter what's next."
She nodded, her gaze hardening with resolve. "We don't have much time. I can feel it—the last door is close. And when it opens… I have to be ready."