"Walk with me."
Her voice was calm. Too calm.
"You want answers, don't you?" she continued. "So do we."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "So… you're not any different after all."
She laughed softly, but there was no warmth in it."Believe me—what you're chasing isn't the same thing I am. And it's not what anyone else wants either."
"Hm." Kael exhaled. "Then what now?"
Sera stopped and turned to face him.
For a moment, she simply stared. Her eyes carried something heavy. Something close to grief.
"You must step to the other side," she said. "But before you confront the unknown… you must first know yourself."
The world collapsed.
No warning. No transition.
Kael was there.
A place he had never seen—yet felt as though he had always known.
"What… is this place?" he whispered.
There was no sky. No ground. Only an endless expanse, stretching farther than thought itself. The space felt too vast, too wrong, as if reality itself had been hollowed out.
Then—
A crack split the void.
From it emerged two faces.
His parents.
They were younger. Much younger. Their expressions unfamiliar, yet unmistakable.
"…That's impossible," Kael muttered.
The scene shifted.
A classroom. Tiny chairs. Crude drawings on the walls.
His first day of preschool.
Then another shift.
Middle school. A different uniform. Different faces.
Memory after memory surged forward, stitched together without mercy.
"Ah…" Kael breathed. "So this is it."
"My life. From the very beginning."
The memories rushed faster, skipping years, leaping through moments—until they reached the instant Sera brought him here.
"But why am I seeing this?" Kael asked. "Isn't this something you only see when you're about to di—"
BOOM.
The explosion detonated beside him.
Fire swallowed his right side.
Pain exploded through every nerve in his body.
"AAAGH—!" Kael screamed. "It burns—! My body—!"
He stumbled, half-blind, half-mad, fleeing from the flames. Panic drowned out thought.
He turned—
And crashed into someone.
"Seriously," a voice said coldly. "Watch where you're going."
Kael froze.
The man standing before him was identical to him.
Same face. Same eyes. Same presence.
"…Who are you?" Kael asked, his voice shaking.
The stranger tilted his head.
"I am you."
Kael staggered back. "That's—no. That's impossible!"
"How long," the other Kael interrupted calmly, "do you plan on burning?"
"Huh?"
Only then did the pain return in full force.
Teeth clenched, Kael gasped, "Then tell me—how do I make it stop?!"
The other Kael studied him. "How was your body before the explosion?"
The question made no sense.
Still, Kael thought back.
He remembered being whole.
Unbroken.
The pain vanished.
Kael looked down.
No burns. No wounds. His body was untouched—as if the fire had never existed.
He opened his mouth—
"Enough," his other self said. "It's time for you to go back."
The man began to fade into the void.
"Wait—!" Kael shouted.
Just before he disappeared completely, Kael saw something sprinting toward them at terrifying speed.
Something wrong.
It was stopped instantly.
Blocked by his other self.
Then everything shattered into white.
—
A beam of light descended upon Kael's body in the real world.
Brilliant. Blinding.
Seconds passed.
The light faded.
Kael's eyes snapped open—now glowing faintly gold.
"So," Sera said, smiling, "you made it."
Kael exhaled slowly. "What… was that?"
"Don't worry," she replied. "I'll explain everything once we reach Nerith."
—
Far away—
In a white space identical to the one Kael had left, a lone silhouette stood motionless.
No ground.No sky.Only endless light.
Its hands were clasped behind its back, posture calm—almost respectful.
"I see," it said.
The light around it trembled.
For the briefest moment, something else flickered beneath the silhouette's outline—jagged, distorted, as though its shape struggled to remain human.
"So the fragment has awakened," it continued. "Earlier than expected."
A ripple spread through the void, as if reality itself reacted to its words.
"Interesting."
The figure turned its head slightly, gazing toward a point that did not exist—yet somehow did.
"Meeting yourself and surviving… few ever do."
Its lips curved faintly.
"Fewer still realize what they've lost in the process."
The white space darkened, shadows bleeding into the light like ink in water.
"Your memories are intact," the silhouette murmured. "Your will remains unbroken."
A pause.
"But your ignorance is no longer complete."
Something massive stirred beyond the edge of perception.
The silhouette straightened.
"The one who stopped it…" it said quietly. "That was not mercy."
A low hum echoed through the void—deep, ancient, and hungry.
"When the seal weakens again," the figure continued, voice devoid of emotion, "you will understand."
It raised one hand.
Across its palm, a symbol ignited—twisting, fractured, familiar.
"The other you cannot protect you forever."
The light collapsed inward.
Darkness swallowed the white space whole.
And somewhere—far away—
Kael's golden eyes flickered.
For just a moment…
They reflected something watching him back