The shattered mask hit the floor with a hollow clang, spinning across the cracked tiles. Kael stared at the face underneath — his own, but wrong.
The clone smiled like it had waited for this moment. "You didn't just build the Core. You filled it… with yourself."
Kael's hands shook, not from fear — from recognition.
> This isn't just me. This is what I could've become.
What I might still be.
Behind him, Lira struggled with the second Executor, her sigils glowing hot across her arms as she fought to contain the space-warping magic. Her shield flickered under the pressure.
Kael charged the clone, energy crackling around him. Fists met fists. Memories collided mid-swing — both Kaels pulling from past lives they shouldn't remember.
For a second, their minds synced — and Kael saw the truth.
This version of him had been grown, not born. Artificially accelerated, memories implanted from old memory vaults — twisted Echo fragments turned into fuel.
A fake Kael.
But still… him.
"You're the fallback," Kael whispered. "If I failed, they'd use you instead."
The clone grinned wider. "Wrong. I'm the success."
Kael didn't wait for more.
He let the darkness inside him rise — just enough.
The clone faltered as Kael's power surged and twisted, momentarily unshaped by rules or structure. Kael's fist broke through his defense and shattered his chestplate in a burst of black flame.
The clone fell, disintegrating slowly, bleeding light and silence.
Behind him, Lira collapsed beside her defeated foe, barely breathing.
Kael knelt next to her, shaking. "Lira…"
She gripped his sleeve. "You can't become like him."
He looked at his hands. They weren't shaking anymore.
That scared him more than anything.