The void cracked.
Nkosana stood face-to-face with the boy that bore his face — younger, leaner, and completely engulfed in a dark aura. His crimson eyes flickered like dying embers, but behind them was a blazing inferno of pain, power… and memory.
"You sealed me away," the younger version said, voice like thunder trapped in a child's throat. "Because you were afraid of what we are. Of what we did."
"I was a child," Nkosana replied, chest tightening. "And I made a choice. One I couldn't live with."
"Then let me remind you."
—
Images exploded around them, swirling like ash in a hurricane. Nkosana saw flashes of the past — *a village in flames*, *people screaming*, and *himself*, standing at the center of it all… *laughing*.
He staggered backward. "No… that's not me."
The younger self walked closer, shadows peeling from his skin like smoke. "It was. Before you were reborn. Before the curse was sealed inside your soul. You weren't just a vessel — you were the executioner."
A flame erupted beneath their feet. From the fire, a figure emerged — a girl with silver eyes and a broken smile.
"Do you remember her?" the shadow-Nkosana asked. "She begged you to stop."
The vision showed him holding her hand… and then tearing it away.
[07/28, 00:59] ChatGPT: Nkosana collapsed to his knees. "I didn't mean to… I didn't want this."
"But you did it," his other self whispered. "And that truth… is what fuels your power."
—
Suddenly, a voice pierced the void. Lwandle's voice.
"Nkosana! Come back! We need you!"
Light broke through the darkness — just a sliver — but it was enough. Nkosana stood, jaw clenched, eyes filled with storm and sorrow.
"I'll carry the past," he said. "But I won't be ruled by it."
The younger self smirked. "Then take me back. And don't hesitate next time."
The two forms collided — and the void erupted in flame.
—
Nkosana gasped, eyes flying open as he returned to the real world. The ground around him scorched, his aura now pulsing with both *light and shadow*.
The Harbinger of Ruin still hovered in the sky — but this time, it looked uncertain.
"You remember," it said.
"I do," Nkosana replied. "And now I choose *who I become*."
—