"You look good," Kalen said, frowning. "You could at least say hello."
"What's the point? You hate yourself," the double said without getting up. His voice was slightly muffled, as if it had passed through a thick layer of water. "How many times have you thought, 'I'm weaker than everyone else. I'm a stranger in this life'?"
"So what?" Kallen hissed.
"That I am your reflection. I am everything you push inside. All the fear, all the pain, all the anger at the world. At the family, at the Academy. At Reina. At yourself."
He got up from his chair. He took a step closer. Then Kalen realized that his eyes were empty. At all. No spark, no light. Not even a Shadow.
"You shouldn't have survived. Even your tattoo is foreign. Too alive. Too intelligent. Do you know that you're about to be broken?"
Kalen was silent.
— Because you're afraid. Because you...
Hit.
He didn't listen. He just punched the copy in the jaw, hard, like a flash. He pushed him away, stepped forward, and knocked him down with a second punch.
"Fuck you," he breathed. "I know who I am. I'm not perfect. I'm not strong. But if I'm here, I'm going to fuck it up."
He picked it up by the scruff of the neck.
"And I won't even let myself get in the way of my life. Do you understand, you scum?"
He disappeared into thin air. Without a scream. Without a flash. He just vanished, as if he had evaporated.
Kalen was left alone. The hall began to vibrate. One of the mirror walls cracked, and a thin, нарисованный crack appeared. Then it crumbled into dust.
Behind it was a passage. It was dark and narrow, but it led somewhere. Above it was an inscription burned in gold:
The test of will is passed.
Next: The Magic limit.
Kalen wiped his lip.
"Well, damn, if this is just the beginning..." he chuckled, "I hope they'll at least give me some tea."
He stepped into the next corridor. Behind him, where the mirror hall had been, a light flashed on.
The passage was short. When Kalen entered the next chamber, the lanterns came on by themselves. One by one, they lit up—click, click, click—illuminating a circular dome with a towering ceiling. The floor was covered with symbols: circles, signs, and spirals, some whispering familiarly like the runes of Darkness, others completely alien.
In the center, a floating crystal, white
A voice immediately echoed in my head.
"Test of magic. Activate six runes. No overload. Time window: 300 seconds. Exceeding will result in death from mana depletion."
"Great," Kalen muttered. "I'm fifteen, I don't know shit about fiction, my Shadow's dead, and I'm being tested as an Archmage. This is really fun."
He went to the first rune.
The familiar pattern of a dummy activation, in the first week. He stretched out his hand and tried to cast a spell.
Click. The runes blink. One is active.
"Okay... there's the first one.
But with each new one, it became harder. The third rune required precise mana adjustment. The fourth rune required the isolation of temp fluctuations (and he didn't even remember what the hell that was). Sweat dripped down his back, and his heart beat loudly.
The fifth one was particularly annoying: it required a light aspect. He was almost desperate... until he remembered Reyna.
"Light and Darkness… The Devourer… she's not just around."
He closed his eyes. He imagined a void. A sphere. A zone where sound and light disappeared. He didn't create it; he just felt it. It was as if he was pulling it from within and allowing it to come out.
— WHAT THE FUCK!
The fifth rune flared up, but instead of light, it turned into a black and white outline, as if it didn't know which aspect it belonged to.
— Another one… Past…
He approached the sixth one. But instead of activating it normally, it howled. A projection appeared in the air in front of him—a dragon. The same one that had spoken to him earlier.
"Magic is not a flow. It is a will. Without it, you are a vessel without a purpose."
"What do you want?" Kallen breathed.
"Show me who you are, Kalen Lionheart. Not just a survivor. Not just a weakling. Show me what you will do when given the impossible."
The sixth rune required power. Not knowledge. Not spells.
— For that matter…
He stretched out both arms, concentrated, and then let go.
I didn't try to control it. I just let the Shadow come out. There was a painful crunch in my chest, and the marks on my skin flared up, and the tattoo darkened and twisted.
Something dragon-like, made of light and darkness, floated out of her, hovering above the floor. It touched the sixth rune.
Silence.
Flash.
All six runes flared up at once. The crystal in the center was flooded with light, then crumbled to dust. A plaque slowly descended from the ceiling:
The Magic Test is passed. The next stage is "Price."
Kalen fell to his knees
"Bitch," he hissed, breathing heavily. "Who builds shit like this? It's a suicide test."
But one fact was already pounding in his head: he had succeeded.
The shadow was no longer silent. It responded. It listened. It lived.
He stood up, swaying, and stepped into the next corridor.