Smoke clung to the ruined forest like a heavy breath, curling around broken trunks and smoldering roots. The battlefield was still, eerily so, as if the earth itself held its breath in mourning. Crushed leaves and blood-marked dirt whispered of a war that wasn't supposed to happen—a war against themselves.
Liam sat on a moss-covered stone, his head bowed and fists clenched tightly at his sides. The sting of his wounds was nothing compared to the weight pressing on his chest.
Kael limped past him, dragging his blade through the dirt, the once-sharp edge now dulled and notched. Nyra sat near the edge of the small clearing, cradling her injured arm. Her expression was blank, as if lost in something only she could see.
Aeris stood alone, staring into the flickering remnants of their campfire. Her cloak swayed with the wind, but she didn't move.
Silence reigned.
Then Liam spoke, voice low and rasped. "That wasn't just an illusion."
"No," Aeris answered without turning. "They were drawn from us. From the deepest recesses of who we are, or who we could be."
"Dark versions," Kael muttered. "Twisted but familiar."
"Fragments of our soul… bent, but not false," Nyra added bitterly. "I saw in mine something I never wanted to admit existed."
Liam looked toward the ashes, the memory of his double's words still echoing.
"You're not strong enough to lead them. You're barely strong enough to carry yourself."
He was right…
"Why did it happen now?" he asked.
Aeris finally turned. "Because we're near."
"Near what?" Kael asked.
"The threshold. The third fragment lies beyond the Blackened Vale," she said, gesturing toward the wall of darkness in the distance, beyond the trees. "And it is guarded by not a creature, but a consequence — one born of our decisions and fears."
Nyra slowly rose to her feet, her eyes narrowing. "So… what we fought wasn't just some trial. It was a warning."
"Or a test," Aeris said softly. "One we had to pass to even approach the next protector."
A sudden gust of wind swept through the trees, carrying with it a chill unnatural for the season. The flames died completely.
Kael looked up. "Time to move."
They traveled deeper into the Vale, through lands untouched by sunlight. Each step sank into damp earth, and the trees hung heavy with frost that hadn't melted in decades. Shadows slithered at the corners of their vision, but no creature approached.
Hours passed.
Then — a whisper.
Soft. Feminine. Familiar.
Liam froze.
"Elira?" he breathed.
The others stopped.
"Did you hear that?" he asked.
Aeris nodded, brow furrowed. "It wasn't just you."
From the mist ahead, a figure emerged — not monstrous, but radiant. Draped in robes of pearl and silver, she looked every bit a spirit. Her features shimmered, as if remembered rather than seen.
"Elira," Liam whispered again, this time stepping forward.
But it wasn't her.
"Wait—" Aeris grabbed his arm. "That's not her."
Too late.
The figure raised her hand, and the mist thickened, warping reality around them. The ground shifted. Trees grew and withered in seconds. The sky cracked into fragments of crimson and violet.
They were no longer in the Vale.
They were inside a memory.
Liam looked down — he was barefoot, smaller.
His childhood home.
He turned and saw his mother, standing in the kitchen, humming softly.
"Liam! Come here, love."
He stepped forward automatically, heart racing.
But Aeris's voice cut through like thunder. "It's not real!"
He blinked — the house began to melt, walls bleeding ink. His mother's face twisted into something monstrous.
Kael's blade ripped through the air, and the illusion shattered like glass.
They all stood in a circle again, panting.
"That was your memory," Nyra said to Liam. "It's using them against us."
Aeris grimaced. "It's the guardian. The third protector. It doesn't guard with strength — it guards with truth."
Liam clenched his jaw. "Then we show it we're not afraid."
Another figure appeared in the fog — this time, a man cloaked in black and silver, his eyes glowing with frost-blue light.
"I am Vareth," he said. "Guardian of the Threshold of the Forgotten Flame. You may pass, but not without revealing what you fear most… and still choosing to continue."
He held out his hand — and the world exploded in light.
Each of them was cast into their own fear.
Kael stood before a battlefield strewn with the corpses of his comrades — those he failed to protect.
He saw a younger version of himself, standing proudly in silver armor. The pride turned to horror as one by one, they fell because of a decision he made — a reckless charge, a misread tactic. Kael fell to his knees, weeping in the snow. Then… he stood again, blood on his hands.
"I will bear it," he said, voice shaking. "But I won't stop fighting."
The illusion faded.
Nyra stood in a grand summoning circle, her arms marked with runes. In front of her, a twisted beast formed — not from another realm, but her own hate.
Her fear wasn't losing control — it was wanting to.
The creature lunged, a mirror of her worst self. She fell to her knees — but instead of surrendering, she whispered the true name of peace, the word taught by her mother. The beast dissolved.
She opened her eyes — free again.
Liam stood before a broken mirror, pieces reflecting every wrong choice he had made — staying silent when he should've spoken, abandoning people when they needed him.
But one shard showed a future — not yet real — of him standing beside his allies, protecting a realm with hope.
He reached for that shard — and the mirror reformed.
As the illusions fell away, Vareth lowered his arm.
"You have faced yourselves and did not turn away. The flame is yours."
A pedestal of obsidian rose from the ground. Upon it — the third fragment, glowing with a deep golden light. Etched in it was a symbol of duality — flame and frost, light and shadow.
Liam stepped forward and lifted it.
At once, warmth surged through him — and something else.
A vision.