The haze of the ruined sanctum hung low in the morning air, soft beams of sunlight piercing through the broken arches like lances of truth trying to reach a place long drowned in deception. Liam awoke in a sweat, Elira's voice still clinging to his mind like dew to a blade of grass.
"She called again," he muttered, sitting up and glancing toward the others. Kael was sharpening his blade with slow, methodical strokes. Nyra sat nearby, eyes closed, lips moving in quiet incantations, her summons resting beside her like silent guardians. Aeris stood with her back to them, watching the horizon — always watching.
He moved beside her.
"You don't sleep much, do you?" Liam asked.
"Not when we're this close," Aeris murmured. Her hand rested on the hilt of her dagger, a nervous twitch in her fingers. "I feel it. Something has shifted. The veil here is thin."
"So... what happens now?" he asked. "We've passed the second path. What is the third?"
"Not a place," Aeris said quietly. "A truth. Something that must be faced. And it's not out there. It's in here." She tapped her chest. "And in you."
Before Liam could respond, the ground beneath them trembled slightly. A ripple pulsed through the air. Kael and Nyra stood at once.
"That wasn't an earthquake," Kael said, looking around.
Nyra's eyes flared violet. "A spatial fold. A disturbance in the rift."
"Something's forcing its way through," Aeris warned. "Get ready."
The sky darkened unnaturally as if something immense passed over the sun. Shadows twisted on the ground. From the shattered altar at the center of the ruins, a circular mirror rose — not made of glass, but of still water hovering mid-air. Its surface rippled, reflecting not their world, but a darkened, corrupted version of it.
From the other side, figures stepped forward.
"They look like us," Kael muttered, raising his blade.
They were indeed mirror versions — twisted, corrupted copies. Liam's reflection had pale, glowing eyes and shadow-touched veins. Aeris's copy carried a staff of withered bone, her face expressionless. Nyra's reflection moved like a marionette pulled by unseen strings, her summons grotesque and snarling.
"This is the third path," Aeris said grimly. "Not a place… but ourselves. What we could become. What we might already be becoming."
The first attack came like a whip of energy — Aeris's double struck first, sending a wave of dark fire that Liam barely deflected. Kael rushed forward, clashing blade to blade with his twisted self, the sound of steel against steel echoing like a scream.
Liam faced his own reflection. The corrupted version smiled.
"You think you're strong," it hissed. "But you're only as strong as what you choose to ignore."
Liam summoned the remnants of the spell fragments — their flickers surged around him like coiling ribbons of light. His double matched it with a wave of shadow magic that consumed the air.
They clashed.
Liam's strike cleaved through the energy, but his double reformed from the mist. Each blow was countered. Each spell mirrored. Until Liam, panting, took a step back.
"You're not real!" he shouted.
"Neither are you," it sneered.
Then, a voice cut through the battlefield.
"Liam! The crystal!"
Aeris was bleeding, her hand extended. The same realmwalker crystal she had once used was now pulsing erratically.
Liam grasped it. It felt cold, heavier than before. Then — he remembered Elira's whisper.
"Return to where it all began."
"Everyone! Hold on!"
Kael shoved his mirror-self back with a blast of wind. Nyra banished one of her corrupted summons. Aeris threw a dagger into her reflection's chest — only for it to vanish in smoke.
Liam activated the crystal.
A blinding light surged upward like a pillar. The mirror shattered. The copies screamed and dissolved into sparks.
When the light faded, the ruins were quiet again.
"Is it over?" Kael asked, breathing heavily.
Aeris shook her head. "No. That was just a warning. The real trial is ahead."
Nyra, pale, pointed to the ground. The remains of the mirror left a sigil, still glowing — in it, three symbols shimmered: a tree, an eye, and a broken crown.
"What is that?" Liam asked.
"The next keys," Aeris replied. "To find the third fragment… and the protector… we must follow the map left by our shadows."