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Chapter 3 - Chapter 3: The One Who Forgets and the One Forgotten

İşte metninin İngilizce çevirisi, istediğin gibi akıcı, etkileyici ve okuyucuyu bir sonraki adımı merak ettirecek şekilde hazırlandı:

With Isira's arrival, even the winds changed their course.

Her steps did not tread the earth—they walked across memories.

And with every step, a piece of Kael's past began to wither.

Altheron met her gaze.

The flame within his heart trembled.

This… he could not fight this.

This was Isira, the girl he once dreamt with under the stars until morning.

But now... her eyes belonged to someone else.

Solun Akir.

"Isira... I never forgot you," Altheron said.

"I whispered your name with every decision I made. But remembering you... it weakened me."

Isira's face shifted like a restless lake.

It was as if another Isira stirred inside her—one part still recognized Kael.

Yet a dark hand within her sought to drown that part.

"You are not Kael anymore," she said, her voice colder than steel.

"And I am no longer Isira. Your memories of me... killed who I was."

The battle began.

Not a clash of swords—

but a collision of memories.

With each strike, pieces of Kael's memories shattered:

The cliff they climbed together,

The night they named the stars,

The storm where fear drove them into each other's arms...

All crumbling into dust.

But Altheron did not falter.

"Remembering hurts.

But it wasn't you I forgot.

I forgot myself."

Isira hesitated for a heartbeat.

Amidst the battle, her shadow blade trembled.

Kael's voice... was cracking something open inside her.

Arenya watched silently, tears streaming down her face.

She knew—

If Kael returned...

Altheron would die.

At that moment, Isira raised her blade for the final blow.

But Altheron did something no one expected.

He dropped his sword.

He placed his hand over his heart.

And from there, he pulled a delicate light—

A fragment of a star,

A memory,

And reached out to her.

"Take this. It's yours.

Not to remember me—

But to remember yourself.

I don't know who I am anymore...

But I remember that I love you."

Isira's eyes filled with the light.

The darkness in her cracked.

She screamed—a voice not hers, but Akir's.

And she fell to her knees.

"Kael... you're still there."

Altheron collapsed.

And the wind whispered his name:

"Kael..."

Arenya rushed to him, cradling his head in her hands.

"Kael, listen to me... If you return, I will vanish.

But it's your choice.

If I am your light...

Then you are my darkness."

Kael opened his eyes.

For the first time, he was both Kael...

And Altheron.

Thus, the spirits awaken.

And if the stars have fallen silent—

Then it is the dead who shall now speak.

When Kael opened his eyes in the darkness, the storm within him only grew fiercer.

Now he carried two names within one body:

Kael, the wounded child of the past.

Altheron, the star-born warrior of destiny.

His inner voice was no longer singular, but a chorus of echoes.

And the strangest part...

Both voices sang of the same thing: Loss.

Isira stayed close.

Tears streaked her face as memories flowed from her fingertips like strands of light.

She was no longer a weapon—she was a bearer of memories.

But every memory... was agony.

"Kael," she whispered, "remembering me won't make you strong.

But it will make you human."

Kael stood silent for a moment, then lifted his gaze skyward.

And there...

The stars were gone.

Their voices had been silenced.

And that could only mean one thing:

Death was echoing.

Far away, beneath the deepest vaults of Nythralor,

Solun Akir stood in the center of a circle drawn in blood.

There was a light in his eyes—one utterly devoid of stars.

In his hand, he held an ancient stone:

The Vorsellan Stone—the key to the Gate of Spirits.

The ground beneath him cracked, and whispers rose from the earth.

"Altheron and Kael, united in one body.

If they have become whole...

Then I must become divided.

It is time to awaken the broken pieces."

He dropped the stone.

The earth tore open.

And from the chasm...

The language of the dead arose.

The first spirit to emerge had once fought beside Altheron:

General Rythos.

But now, his eyes no longer held loyalty—

only betrayal.

"My king," he said, bowing low, "we shall fight once more.

But not for you...

To destroy you."

Beyond the Rift Mountains, Kael fell to his knees.

His chest burned—not from pain, but from something worse:

A warning.

Arenya ran to him.

"Kael? What do you see?"

Kael spoke, his voice hollow and distant:

"Rythos... he was dead.

But now... he marches against me."

Arenya's eyes widened.

"That's impossible. The Broken Gate was sealed."

Kael lifted his gaze.

"The seal is broken.

Akir... has awakened the dead."

Isira drew her sword.

"Then we must learn... how to rise too."

Kael, Arenya, and Isira were no longer merely three companions.

They were a past, a future, and a path—

And all paths led to Solun Akir.

But first, they had to cross the Forest of the Dead:

Skaeth Forest.

Once alive with song and color,

Now every tree cradled a slumbering soul.

And all of them... sensed Kael's approach.

So we move beyond the mist.

With each step, the echoes of the past will clash with the shadows of the future.

And now, Kael must face not only the living—

But the memories of the dead.

As they entered Skaeth Forest, the sky itself seemed to flee from them.

The clouds hung motionless,

No birds sang,

No wind stirred.

And the trees...

The trees had eyes.

And they watched Kael.

Arenya sighed.

"This place was not meant for the living."

Kael nodded.

"I'm not even sure I am alive anymore."

Isira stepped forward, laying her hand against the gnarled bark of an ancient oak.

The tree... whispered:

"He... has returned."

Beneath Kael's feet, no leaves crunched.

It was as if the earth itself wanted to swallow him whole.

Because this forest...

It remembered him.

As night fell, they reached a clearing shrouded in thicker mist.

And then—

Time unraveled.

Before their eyes, a vision emerged:

Kael's childhood.

But this was no memory—

It was a trap.

In the heart of the vision stood a man:

His face was stern, his gaze colder than winter.

His armor was the color of dust, but his sword was made of shadow.

Kael's father.

"You were born weak.

Your mother's mistake.

And now... my burden."

Kael staggered back.

Isira lifted her sword, but Arenya stopped her.

"No. This battle is his."

Kael drew a deep breath.

"I forgave you when you died.

But now... I'm here to bury your shadow, not your soul."

The ghost of his father roared,

And lunged at him like a thunderclap.

The battle began.

But it was no battle of steel.

Every strike echoed with cruel words:

"You were never enough."

"You were only a burden."

"You think you are a star—but you are only ash."

But Kael was different now.

With a single blow, he knocked the shadow-sword from his father's hand.

Looking into his eyes, he whispered:

"I grew in your shadow.

But now, my own light is enough."

And with those words—

The spirit cracked,

The darkness shattered,

And his father's image dissolved into the forest wind.

Kael fell to his knees.

But this time—not from defeat.

From freedom.

Arenya knelt beside him.

"You faced him.

He wasn't real...

But you are."

Isira stepped closer.

"Kael... you are no longer just one.

You are the rebirth of everything that tried to break you."

The forest fell silent.

The whispers ceased.

And the path cleared.

Skaeth Forest had accepted him.

But the road ahead was still long.

Because at the forest's end lay a lake.

And within that lake was hidden the greatest fear of every soul:

"Forgetting oneself."

So then...

In this chapter, it is not only bodies, but pasts and futures that will be reflected.

And Kael... will finally face himself.

At the end of Skaeth Forest, silence reigned.

The whispers were gone, the winds had stilled.

And there, among the shadows of the trees,

Lay a still, black lake.

Isira's voice trembled:

"This is... the Lake of Spirits.

Those who gaze into it either find themselves...

Or lose everything."

Arenya turned to Kael.

"Only one may enter.

And when they return... they are never the same."

Kael nodded.

He placed his hand over his chest, feeling Altheron's echo within—

That presence once foreign, now inseparable.

"I am no longer one name.

But if I am to walk this path...

I must first know who I am."

He removed his shoes.

And stepped into the water.

At the first step, the water did not bite—

Nor did it warm.

It was neither hot nor cold—

It was uncertain.

By the second step, the sky vanished.

And by the third...

The echoes began.

"Kael..."

"Altheron..."

"Kaeltheron..."

Reaching the center, Kael closed his eyes.

And the lake... reflected.

Standing before him was a figure—

Familiar, yet different.

Darker hair, fiercer eyes.

A cloak woven from stardust on his shoulders,

And a crown of shadows in his hand.

Altheron's pure form.

The infinite possibility within Kael.

"Why did you abandon me?" the reflection asked.

"I came to protect you.

But you chose feelings over the blade."

Kael shivered.

But this time—he did not bow.

"Because without my heart, a sword is just a burden.

I don't want to abandon you—

I want us to be one."

The reflection paused.

Then the shadows of the crown shimmered with light.

Light and darkness intertwined.

And the reflection whispered:

"Then carry me.

But control me."

The lake shuddered.

And the two Kaels became one.

Light and shadow,

Heart and blade—

Kaeltheron was born.

When Kael emerged from the lake,

His eyes shone.

But not with starlight.

They gleamed with the light of one who had touched both death and life.

Arenya stepped back.

Isira held her breath.

For before them now stood not just Kael.

Not just Altheron.

But the dawn of a new age.

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