The door opened not with a creak, but a breath - as though it had been waiting to exhale. A rush of cold air greeted them, carrying the faint smell of chalk, blood, and something sterile - like a hospital that forgot it was once a school.
Kairo stepped through first. The air shimmered around him, distorting the corridor ahead. It wasn't the St. Kareth's Academy he remembered. The hallways were longer, twisting impossibly like veins, lined with flickering fluorescent lights that hummed in an uneven rhythm.
Reika followed, her footsteps echoing. She glanced up at a faded poster peeling off the wall: "Excellence through Obedience."
Beneath it, the paper was splattered with something dark - old blood, maybe.
"This can't be real," she whispered.
Kairo's expression hardened. "It's real enough to bleed."
They passed through classroom after classroom, each one warped by time and memory. Desks melted into the floor. Textbooks whispered when touched. On one board, written again and again in desperate handwriting: "We never left."
Reika shuddered. "I don't like this place."
Kairo paused before a half-open door labeled 'Custodial Division - Restricted' - the very room he remembered being dragged into as a child, back when he still thought St. Kareth's was just another strict academy. He placed his hand on the doorknob, hesitating.
"Whatever's behind this door," he said quietly, "is where it all started."
The lights flickered once, twice - then the world changed.
They were no longer in a corridor.
Now, they stood in a vast, sterile chamber. Glass pods lined the walls, each filled with glowing blue fluid. Inside them floated children - dozens, maybe hundreds all connected by wires to a central machine pulsing with Riftlight.
Reika's voice broke. "Oh god…they were using kids."
Kairo stared in silence. His chest ached with a terrible recognition. The hum of the machine sounded exactly like the one that used to echo in his nightmares.
One of the pods cracked open with a hiss, spilling liquid across the floor. A boy stepped out - pale,trembling, eyes glowing faintly. His voice was small but steady.
"You shouldn't be here."
Reika moved closer. "Who are you?"
The boy looked at Kairo. "I'm Subject 12. Or I was. Before they erased my name." He pointed toward the machine. "That thing feeds on memories. It copies us, erases us, and replaces us in the real world. Everyone you think you met at this school…might not have been the original."
Reika's hand flew to her mouth. "They…cloned people?"
Kairo's gaze darkened. "No. Worse. They rewrote souls."
Subject 12 nodded. "You're the one who escaped. The one they called Kairo Orin. The prototype."
The word hit like a blade.
Reika turned toward Kairo. "Prototype? What does he mean?"
Kairo didn't answer immediately. His breathing grew shallow. Fragments of memories - flashes of metal tables, faceless doctors, and a name he once tried to forget - tore through his mind.
He whispered, "I wasn't born. I was made."
Reika's eyes widened.
He continued, voice breaking. "St. Kareth's wasn't just a school. It was a Rift observation lab. They took children - the gifted, the orphaned - and exposed them to fragments of Rift energy to create hybrids. The Custodians' perfect soldiers."
Subject 12 lowered his gaze. "Most of us didn't survive. But you…you bonded with it."
Kairo's hands trembled. "And they called me the Tyrant King."
The ground shook violently. The pods began to shatter one by one. Alarms screamed through the hall.
Reika grabbed his arm. "We need to move!"
But Kairo didn't move. His eyes were locked on the machine. Inside its core - floating in a swirl of energy was something horrific. A mirror image of himself.
It smiled.
And spoke.
"Welcome back, Subject One."
Reika froze. "That's -"
Kairo's voice was a whisper. "Me. The real one."
The reflection laughed - a low, echoing sound that filled the chamber. "You think you escaped, didn't you? But every loop, every fight, every death…I watched it all. You were never free. You're just the backup."
Reika stepped in front of Kairo, defiant. "Shut up! He's not your puppet anymore!"
The reflection tilted its head. "Then why does he still see what I see?"
Kairo staggered, gripping his temple as memories not his own flooded in - cities burning, worlds collapsing, faces screaming his name.
Reika grabbed his shoulders. "Kairo! Focus!"
He gasped, eyes glowing gold and crimson. "He's…trying to take control."
Subject 12 backed away in horror. "It's merging! The Rift is collapsing both of you into one!"
The reflection grinned, its form breaking apart into shards of light. "You can't kill your creator, Kairo. Because I am you."
The chamber exploded into chaos. Riftlight burst from every wall, consuming the room in spirals of raw energy. Reika was thrown back, crashing into a row of shattered pods.
Kairo stood alone in the centre - facing his other self.
The Tyrant King.
They circled each other, light and shadow flickering across their faces like broken mirrors.
Kairo drew his sword. "I'm not your shadow anymore."
The Tyrant smiled. "No. You're my reflection - my final experiment."
The two lunged.
Steel clashed. Sparks tore through the air. Each strike echoed with a lifetime of rage and sorrow.
Reika struggled to her feet, watching helplessly as the two Kairo's blurred together - every swing splitting reality itself. The machine cracked, lightning bursting from its heart.
She screamed his name, but he couldn't hear her.
Then, as the Tyrant's blade pierced his shoulder, Kairo's eyes flashed. He grabbed the Tyrant's wrist, pulling him close.
"You made me to end you."
And he smiled.
For the first time in his life, it wasn't one of pain - but peace.
He plunged his sword into the machine.
The world went white.
The Riftlight dimmed.
And when the silence finally settled, Reika stood alone among the ruins of the Academy.
The pods were gone. The reflection was gone. The hum of the Rift - gone.
Only Kairo's sword remained, buried in the floor, glowing faintly.
She knelt beside it, whispering through tears. "You did it…You really did it."
But from the corner of the room, a faint laugh echoed - gentle, familiar.
Taro's voice.
"Told you he'd fix everything."