It started with a whisper. Not in her ears. In her shadow. Seren froze.
She was walking again down the fractured streets of Nightbound's dead city but her own shadow had stopped. Not glitched. Stared.
Like something within it had turned to face her. She slowly turned, heart thudding. But the shape beneath her flickered stretching again, then snapping back. No mimicry this time. No delay. Just… resistance. Like it was no longer just a reflection.
"Slot Two – Reaction Escalation Detected."
"Entity: [Unnamed | Hostile Synced]."
"Sync Stability: 9%."
"Override Suggested: [Dream Subjugation Protocol]."
Seren took a slow step back. The wind around her dropped into stillness. Even the city seemed to hold its breath. Then her shadow… rose. Not fully. Just the upper torso. A dark skeletal head. Arms ending in bladed claws. It hovered half-out of the ground, twitching and snarling and then it spoke. Not aloud. Not mental. Right from her bones. "You think a throne makes you worthy?"
"You've worn the blood of a Queen for three seconds and already forget what it costs?"
Seren clenched her fists. "I didn't choose this." "Exactly."
It lunged.
Her mark flashed. Not from command from defense. A pulse of violet light burst from her skin, knocking the creature back mid-air. It hit the side of a broken column, shrieking, then reformed mid-fall melting into shadow and slamming toward her again. Seren moved on instinct. Her fingers raised. The Protocol surged.
🩸 [Binding Initiated – Force Level: High]
"Slot Two Recalibration: In Progress..."
"Parasite Personality: Dominant. Resistance: 92%."
"Binding Type: Duel."
"Only one will remain."
Duel? She gasped as her knees buckled. She wasn't fighting a monster. She was fighting a piece of herself. The creature wasn't just a nightmare. It was the cost of her growing power. A fragment of the Queen's echo. And now it wanted to replace her.
The dreamscape twisted. She wasn't on the street anymore. She stood in a circle of white ash. Twelve thrones surrounded her broken, burned, bloodstained. At the center stood the creature now taller, armored in violet-black bone, crown of bent spikes over its skull. And in its voice, she heard her own scream."Submit... or be erased."
⚔️ [Dream Subjugation Duel: Activated]
Win = Permanent Slot Stability
Lose = Slot Collapse + Mental Fracture
Third Bind Locked Until Victory
Seren clenched her jaw. Her body trembled. But she stepped forward. One foot. Then another. And whispered:"Then try me."
The ash beneath her feet trembled. Twelve broken thrones. One circle. No exits. And across from her the creature wearing her own fury like armor. Crowned in shadows.
Eyes like cracked obsidian, glowing faint violet. Its mouth split open in a grin that didn't belong on any living thing.
"You speak like a queen…"
"…but bleed like a girl."
Seren didn't answer. She couldn't. Her heartbeat wasn't steady anymore.
It was… in sync. Every breath the creature took she felt it in her ribs..Every glare it shot echoed behind her own eyes. Because this wasn't some bound beast. This was a piece of her.
[Duel Initiated: Cognitive Mirror Type – Class II Parasite]
Form: Wrath Echo
Origin: Suppressed Memory Cluster
Manifestation: Throne Blood Trigger
Warning: Loss = Identity Collapse
The creature moved first. Not fast instant. It appeared beside her in a blink, claws slashing upward. Seren barely ducked, rolling to the side, her mark glowing fiercely now not in silver, but royal violet. She raised her hand. The Protocol flared. A shadow-bolt launched from her palm raw, unshaped, instinctual. It struck the echo mid-chest. The creature stumbled back, but didn't fall.
"Good."
"You still remember how to claw."
It leapt again. This time Seren didn't dodge.
She stepped into the strike. Let the pain hit.
Let her shoulder split. Let her knees buckle. But she moved with it spinning into the creature, her elbow smashing into its side. They both crashed into the ash together. It hurt. God, it hurt. But in the pain…She found clarity.
"You think I'm scared of you?"
"You're just the part they couldn't break."
She grabbed its face claws slicing her arms and screamed:
"I AM NOT HER."
And for a second the creature blinked. A glitch.
The thrones around them cracked lglitch System data poured into her mind like static:
"Emotional Override Spike: Detected."
"Identity Stabilization: At 61%."
"Wrath Echo weakening…"
But the fight wasn't done. It snarled and twisted, breaking her grip, slamming her back with a blast of dreamforce. Seren rolled across the ash pain blooming across her ribs, lungs burning. But her smile returned. "You bleed too," she whispered.
The creature charged again, voice rising into a screech: "You'll never be her!"
Seren didn't flinch this time. She stood tall. Raised her arms. And shouted:
"I DON'T WANT TO BE HER. I'M ME."
The mark on her chest exploded in light. Violet threads shot out like veins across the ground, locking the arena in a sacred circle. Chains burst from the broken thrones wrapping around the creature's arms and legs mid-air pinning it, binding it, dragging it down. The creature screamed, warping, glitching, its crown cracking.
And then
Silence.
🩸 [Duel Complete – Dominance Achieved]
Slot Two: Bound
Parasite Form: Wrath Echo
Status: Semi-Stable
Sync Level: 43%
Mental Corruption: 23.6%
Emotional Override: Suppressed (✔️)
Seren knelt in the center, chest heaving, skin torn, shadow trembling.But alive. Victorious. She looked up and saw one throne still glowing faintly. The one that didn't break.
It whispered: "Two kneel. The third watches."
And above her, high in the dreamsky…One of the Dreamlords turned its face toward her. And smiled. She didn't stand right away. Seren remained kneeling in the ashes, head bowed, hands trembling. Not from weakness. From recognition. The thing she had just fought had just chained wasn't only a monster. It was her anger. Her silence. Her shattered trust. And now it was inside her. Bound. But breathing.
🩸 [System Notice: Slot Two – Sync Stable at 47%]
Parasite Type: Wrath Echo
Primary Trait: Adaptive Ferocity
Emotional Anchor: Self-Violence (Converted)
Behavior: Quiet | Watchful | Protective (Unwillingly)
"...You're lucky I hate weakness more than I hate you."
The voice echoed in her mind cold, raspy, sharp..Not screaming anymore. Just… settled. Like a feral dog choosing to stay by the fire, not because it was tamed but because it had decided. Seren nodded slightly. "You don't have to like me." "Good. I won't."
"But I'll kill anything that tries to break us again."
The words sat like iron in her chest. Not warmth. Not loyalty. Just a kind of brutal, mutual survival. And that was enough.
She stood, breath shaky. The world had shifted again. The ash was gone. The arena vanished. She was back in the ruined street of Nightbound, but it felt smaller now. Not because it had changed. Because she had.
Her spine straighter. Her steps firmer.
Her eyes still silver, but now streaked with violet flickers.
"Slot Two: Integrated."
"Royal Protocol Update: 32.9% Active."
"Throne Signal Detected."
"Trigger Pathway Opened: Slot Three Now Eligible."
"Warning: Unnamed Presence Approaching Intent: Unknown.
Seren's head snapped up. The system's voice didn't lie. Far down the road, where shadow met silence something stirred.
A figure. Not running. Not hiding. Just watching. She couldn't make out its face. It didn't have one. Only a glowing mark on its chest a twisting flame-like spiral, pulsing red.
"You don't belong here," it said, voice like sand and wind.
"And yet, here you stand."
Seren narrowed her eyes."Who are you?"
"One who kneels to no throne."
"Let's see if you do."
And then it vanished not fled.
Absorbed into the ground. A ripple pulsed through the air. Like something ancient had just set a marker on her soul.
"Slot Three: Trial Entity Marked."
"Duel Type: External Manifest – Will Engage Upon Dreamfall Phase Shift."
"Caution: Unknown Parameters. Risk: Extreme."
Seren stared at the empty space. Her hand closed into a fist. She had bled. Fought. Broken. And yet the world kept throwing her further. But something inside her no longer trembled.
Now...it burned.