Kai collapsed onto all fours, his fingers scraping against the cold marble as his breath came in ragged gasps. The air burned in his lungs like smoke, and his limbs trembled under the weight of exhaustion. A feverish heat pulsed through his skin, as if his blood had been replaced with fire. Every muscle, every tendon, every joint screamed in protest. His vision swam, colors bleeding into one another, the chamber around him a blur of shifting shadows and fractured echoes.
The Senate Chamber, if it could even be called that, was dissolving like ash caught in wind. The towering crystalline spires that once loomed above him melted into vapor, the sharp-faced council members blurring into faceless silhouettes before fading entirely. Their judgmental gazes still lingered in his mind, however, like stains that wouldn't wash out. Then, as if the trial had snapped shut with divine finality, the voices rang out as one.
"THE TRIAL OF WITS HAS CONCLUDED." The words hit him like a bell toll inside his skull: echoing, absolute, unyielding. And then came the warmth.
It wasn't harsh or blinding like a blast of temporal energy. It was gentle, enveloping. A subtle, vibrant mauve glow settled around his body, wrapping around him like the embrace of something ancient and benevolent. It wasn't just light. Kai could feel it. It seeped into his skin, into his bones, into the weariness that clung to the corners of his mind.
The fever began to break. The ache in his joints eased. His blurred vision began to refocus, sharpening like a lens adjusting. The pulse in his ears softened, and the maddening buzz of arcane static dulled to silence. Kai exhaled slowly, a tremor still lacing his breath, and pushed himself up with shaking hands. Sweat clung to his skin. His fingers dug into the smooth floor as he rose to his feet, still unsteady, still dazed. His thoughts drifted, not to relief.....but to the trial itself.
They had called it the Trial of Wits, but it had felt more like psychological warfare. There was no battlefield. No weapons. No spells or sword clashes. Just questions. Questions that came like barbs and hooks, like riddles sewn with poison. Questions that tore at his confidence and buried claws in his psyche.
Each wrong answer had been like stepping into a collapsing star, his body crushed under invisible weight, pain gnawing at every nerve, pressure blooming behind his eyes until he nearly blacked out. But each right answer....each one had felt like a breath after drowning. The agony lessened, the weight eased, and for a moment, the pain became bearable. But what lingered wasn't the pain.
No, it was a voice. One of those spectral....freaks, more apparition than person, had spoken to him in a tone that was eerily calm, disturbingly sure. "You lost the most significant aspect of yourself at birth, do you still believe yourself capable of facing what is to come?"
That sentence had echoed louder than all the others, looping in his head long after the chamber had faded. Lost something? Kai thought. At birth? His brow furrowed, the mauve glow now beginning to fade from his skin, the healing aura retreating like mist at dawn. He had no memory of being born, obviously, but his mother had always assured him he'd been healthy. No complications. No abnormalities. She used to joke that he came out fighting, wailing like a little warrior and kicking the doctor.
So what the hell did that cryptic bastard mean? Kai stood there in silence, arms slack at his sides, brows drawn together in a deep crease. His shadow stretched long against the pale floor, the echo of the chamber now reduced to faint, lingering embers. All was quiet now. Too quiet.
He looked down at his hands, glowing with a faint royal azure aura, still trembling slightly. What did I lose? he wondered again. What was taken from me before I even knew what I was?
For the first time since joining the Time-Keepers, Kai didn't feel strong or brave or determined. He felt.....incomplete. Like a page was missing from the start of his story, and multiple beings had already read it.
Kai's breath came slower now, steadier, though not without effort. The stillness of his surroundings began to press on him like a suffocating silence. But it didn't last. The ground beneath his feet shuddered. A deep rumble pulsed through the floor, reverberating up his legs and into his chest. Instinct kicked in, he widened his stance, balancing against the subtle tremor. The floor cracked beneath him, not violently, but with precision. The world around him began to shift again, like reality itself was being peeled back layer by layer. The silence shattered.
The floor groaned as if alive, fracturing in sweeping arcs around him. The pale chamber dissolved, giving way to burning sunlight and the roar of wind. Kai blinked against the sudden brightness.....then realized he stood at the heart of a massive colosseum. Towering walls of weathered stone surrounded him, etched with ancient runes and symbols that glowed faintly in hues of silver and violet. Pillars circled the arena like silent titans, watching. The voices returned, their harmony thunderous and cold:
"THE FINAL TRIAL SHALL NOW BEGIN."
Directly beneath him, a single fissure split open in the stone. It didn't crack like the rest. It unfolded: precise, symmetrical, intentional. From it rose a glow matching the color of his own Temporal Aura, deep royal azure. The light shimmered and twisted, until something emerged from the rift: a dagger. It floated upward slowly, as if suspended in a current only it could feel, stopping a few inches in front of his face. Kai's eyes widened. It was the dagger from the first trial. His Primus Gradus.
He hadn't seen it since that moment, when everything first began. But it had changed. He could feel it, its weight, its density. The energy within it was heavier, more concentrated. More alive. Without thinking, Kai reached forward and snatched it from the air. The moment his fingers closed around the hilt, a pulse of familiar energy surged into him like a second heartbeat.
And yet....when he reached out through that energy, trying to connect to the presence he knew so well...nothing. He whispered, "Umbra?" Silence. No playful voice. No warmth. His lips thinned. "Of course," he muttered, shaking his head. He gripped the dagger tighter. A sharp whoosh cleaved through the air behind him. Kai whirled.
Thirty feet away, reality itself was unraveling. Deep violet temporal energy erupted from the air like a tear in the fabric of space. The vortex spun furiously, energy spiraling in tight, chaotic rings, pulling inward, folding in on itself, condensing into something.....human-shaped.
A miniature temporal storm molded itself into a figure, pieces of raw time snapping into place like fractured glass healing in reverse. As the glow dimmed, Kai's eyes widened. He was staring at himself.
The being that stood across from him was a perfect mirror: same hair, same build, same facial structure. But it was more than just resemblance. The stance it took.... the aura it radiated.... it was identical. A living reflection. A doppelgänger forged from the very fabric of his existence. Then the clone raised its arm.
Azure temporal energy surged into its palm, condensing with a low hum. The air shimmered with heat. Then, the broadsword appeared.....his broadsword, his Hex Umbra. The blade glowed with the same vibrant energy he'd come to know so well, pulsing like a beating heart. The clone took a stance. His stance. A perfect mimicry.
Kai gritted his teeth. His fingers flexed around the hilt of the dagger. Every fiber in his being screamed at him to act, to move, to strike first.....but he forced himself to hold. Then the voices returned one last time, no longer cold but absolute:
"TO PROVE YOURSELF WORTHY OF POWER, YOU MUST SURPASS YOUR CURRENT SELF."
A pause, heavy with finality.
"LET THE TRIAL OF COMBAT COMMENCE."
The clone moved first. A blur of motion. A flash of azure light. Kai's instincts screamed, and he barely had time to raise his dagger. Steel met steel in a deafening clash as the clone's broadsword arced toward his skull. Sparks burst from the impact, and Kai stumbled back, arm throbbing from the force of the blow. He didn't get the luxury of distance, he lunged forward instead, his dagger slicing toward the clone's ribs in a desperate jab.
But the mirror of himself was faster. It sidestepped gracefully, boots whispering across the stone, and slammed its foot into Kai's side. The world flipped. His breath tore from his lungs as he was hurled like a ragdoll, crashing through a fractured section of the arena floor. Dust exploded around him in a choking plume. Cracks spiderwebbed across the stone from the point of impact.
Kai groaned, clutching his ribs, vision swimming. He pushed off the ground with a grunt, chest heaving, and tried to reorient himself. But the moment his gaze lifted....he froze.
The clone was already there. Right in front of him. Eyes identical to his own....but burning with ruthless precision, locked onto him. No emotion. No hesitation. Just inevitability. Kai barely had time to react. The clone's arm pulled back, gathering energy, a move Kai was all too familiar with. A Temporal Fracture. His pupils shrank. The air warped around the clone's fist, vibrating with destructive force. DAMMIT!
Kai didn't think. He flooded his legs with raw temporal energy, the veins in his legs flaring azure as he launched himself sideways with a burst of supernatural speed. A heartbeat later, the clone's punch landed with apocalyptic force, detonating the air where Kai had just been. The ground ruptured. A concussive shockwave blasted outward, sending shattered stone in all directions. The thunder of the impact roared across the arena, drowning out everything. Kai's body spun through the aftermath, momentum carrying him across the floor as he dug his dagger into the stone to slow himself.
Sparks erupted along the edge of the blade as it carved a gouge through the marble. He finally skidded to a stop, crouched and gasping, his muscles burning. Dust and smoke curled around him, and a high-pitched ringing filled his ears. Too fast… too strong…
He lifted his head slowly. The clone was emerging from the crater it had made, calm and upright, the Hex Umbra resting lazily against its shoulder. Its expression was unreadable. Alien, despite being his own face. The broadsword shimmered with that familiar hue, Kai's own hue, and yet, in the clone's hands, it felt foreign. It felt wrong.
Kai's chest rose and fell in sharp, uneven bursts. Panic flickered at the edges of his mind: raw, creeping panic. His fingers trembled around the hilt of the dagger. The realization was settling like lead in his gut. This wasn't just a copy. It was everything he was....minus the fear. Minus the hesitation. It was the embodiment of his potential, if it had been sharpened into a weapon without mercy. The clone took a single step forward.
Kai flinched, then growled, pushing himself upright with defiance. He couldn't afford to think like that. Not now. Not here. This wasn't just a battle. This was judgment. A reckoning. A chance to prove himself worthy of power. He spat to the side, wiping the trail of blood from the edge of his mouth, and raised the dagger again.
"Alright then," he muttered, voice hoarse but steady. "Let's see which one of us deserves to carry the blade." The wind stirred between them. And then they moved.