Raen felt it the moment he stepped into Layer Eleven—an ache, not in his body, but somewhere deeper. Like a thread inside his soul had been tugged too hard.
The ground here was solid obsidian, veined with veins of silver light that pulsed like a heartbeat. No wind. No noise. Just the stillness of something waiting.
Hollowfang sniffed the air but didn't growl.
Even Jester Wyrm stopped his usual nonsense, hovering silently near Raen's shoulder.
Despair Maw moved closer, shadows bristling.
Ember Vow walked just behind him, hand on her hilt, but her flame didn't flicker. It bowed to the silence, too.
The gateway behind them vanished.
"Let me guess," Raen murmured, voice barely above a breath. "This layer wants to break me again."
[System Alert: Identity Core Stabilized. Warning—Emotional Echo Detected.]
A shimmer formed ahead, rising from the silver-lit stone.
Raen's eyes narrowed.
At first, it was just light. Then shape. Then flesh.
A boy.
His face.
But not him.
Not quite.
Same bone structure. Same black hair. But the eyes—those weren't his. They were gentler, rounder. Hopeful in a way Raen hadn't been since the wars began.
Raen's breath caught in his throat.
"Kael?" he said, the name ripping itself from somewhere old and wounded.
The boy smiled.
And that smile—that was Kael.
The twin brother Raen had buried over a decade ago. The one he'd sworn to protect. The one who had died screaming in a fire started by men who wanted Raen's loyalty.
Raen took a step forward before his mind caught up.
"No," he whispered. "This isn't real."
But it looked so real. Kael's shoulders still tilted to the left. His tunic was the same sky-blue Raen had gifted him on their twelfth birthday.
Even the scar at his jaw—tiny, from when he'd tried to sneak bread and cut himself on the pantry latch—was there.
"You've changed," Kael said gently.
Raen's hands clenched. "You're not him."
"I didn't say I was."
"But you're wearing his face."
Kael tilted his head. "Would it be easier if I didn't?"
Raen wanted to scream. Instead, he turned to the System.
[Analyzing Entity…]
[Entity: ???]
[Designation: Echo Construct]
[Emotional Tag: Grief / Guilt / Yearning]
[Threat Level: Adaptive]
"An illusion," Raen muttered.
"Not just that," came a soft whisper—Ember Vow.
He looked at her. She was pale beneath the glow of her armor. "This place isn't lying. It's reflecting. Pulling what you miss most. Feeding it form."
"Then it's worse than lying."
The false Kael didn't move.
"You always blame yourself," it said, tone like balm over broken skin. "Even when it wasn't your fault."
"Don't," Raen growled. "Don't speak in his voice."
"He wouldn't want you to carry it forever."
"And yet I do," Raen snapped. "Because I lived. And he didn't."
Jester Wyrm hovered closer. "Should I bite him to test if he's soft or spectral?"
Raen didn't answer.
Despair Maw let out a low hum. Mourning, echoing. Even beasts knew the weight of death.
Kael's form stepped forward.
And suddenly, it changed.
His hair bleached white. His clothes darkened. His smile turned sharp.
Raen staggered back.
Now it was still Kael—but older. Colder. Like the version that could've been had he lived through the fire.
"You think I'd stay a boy forever?" the image said. "You think death froze me in time? I would've grown. I would've surpassed you."
Raen clenched his jaw.
"You would've become anything," he said. "But I'll never know. Because I wasn't fast enough to save you."
Silence.
Then the image dissolved into ash.
And from that ash, a creature rose.
Its face changed with every breath—Kael's, then Raen's, then their mother's, then no face at all.
Limbs too long. Hands too human. Eyes filled with memories that didn't belong to it.
[New Entity: Ashmirror Revenant]
[Class: Memory Parasite]
[Battle Protocol: Emotional Anchor Required]
The beast charged.
Raen didn't summon a weapon.
He closed his eyes.
And whispered, "Kael… if you're listening, I never stopped being your brother."
Flames exploded around him—not from Ember Vow, but from within.
His body pulsed with power. Not rage. Not vengeance.
Love.
A golden brand spread over his arm—a symbol of twin blades crossing over a broken sun.
[Unlocked: Twin Soul Sigil – Passive Defense / Emotional Clarity]
Raen dodged the Revenant's blow and struck back with nothing but a burst of light.
The creature screeched and twisted into a thousand fractured faces.
Then silence.
It crumbled.
And the obsidian floor rippled like a pond disturbed by truth.
Raen knelt.
He didn't cry.
He simply bowed his head.
And said the name he hadn't spoken aloud in ten years.
"Kael."
Behind him, the beasts waited quietly.
Even Jester Wyrm said nothing.
Ember Vow touched his shoulder.
He stood.
"I don't want to forget," Raen said. "Not him. Not what I've lost."
"You don't have to," she said. "You just can't live only in the losing."
The gateway ahead cracked open.
Raen walked forward.
The past behind him.
The Abyss still ahead.