The air was thick with static - a silence that felt alive.
Kairo stood in what seemed like a field of glass. The horizon was endless painted in fractured mirrors reflecting countless versions of himself - some broken, some whole, others monstrous. Every reflection moved a heartbeat late, as though mocking his every motion. His hand trembled as he touched one of the mirrored surfaces, and it rippled like water. Beneath the glass, he saw flashes of his team - Reika's laughter, Taro's grin, Elia's quiet strength - and then their faces twisted into still corpses.
"Do you understand yet?"
The voice was his own - but deeper, regal, and cold. The Tyrant King stepped through the mirror, adorned in black armour veined with molten red. His crown burned like dying embers. His eyes, molten gold, were both familiar and terrifying.
Kairo's breath hitched. "You're not real."
"Neither are you." The Tyrant's smile was venomous. "You are my echo, boy. My dream made flesh. And you've been running in circles inside my mind."
The mirrors around them began to shimmer, showing scenes from before: the explosion at the Rift-factory, Taro's screams, the collapsing world. Then, time itself rewound, the blast reversing - the team reappearing, alive again - only for it all to burn away in reverse. Again. And again.
Kairo fell to his knees. "It's all… a loop."
The Tyrant King crouched before him, his tone soft but cruel. "Every victory, every tear, every love you've clung to - it was all within my dream. You've been chasing ghosts inside the ashes I left behind."
Kairo's fists clenched. The ground beneath him cracked, his reflection shattering into thousands of pieces. "No…I remember them. They were real. They are real!"
The Tyrant King tilted his head. "Then find them. But remember - the moment you do, you'll awaken to what truly happened."
The world dissolved around Kairo - mirrors melting into darkness.
He woke in a dimly lit chamber, his lungs burning as though he'd been underwater. The sound of dripping echoed through the stone hall. His wrists were bound, faint traces of energy seals glowing across his skin. He looked down - his once-human hands were veined with Riftlight, faintly glowing silver.
"Kairo…"
He blinked rapidly. "Reika - where are we? What -"
She shook her head, tears welling. "We never left the Rift. The explosion didn't kill us. It…trapped us."
Kairo's breath caught. He remembered the light, the final moment - and then nothing but that endless illusion. "Then everything I saw…"
"Was the King's illusion," Reika whispered.
"He's been feeding on your mind - keeping us suspended in time. We've been in here for… I don't know how long."
Kairo stood, his chains tightening, resisting.
"Then we break it."
Reika managed a weak smile. "You sound like your old self again."
Kairo looked at her - truly looked - and for a moment, the haze of illusion still clung to her eyes. He knew now: he wasn't just fighting the King. He was fighting reality itself.
The Tyrant's voice echoed faintly across the stone.
"You can't kill what's already part of you."