The fall never ended — it only changed shape.
Kael opened his eyes to a dim horizon. The void was gone. Air moved again, carrying the faint scent of rust and burnt ozone. He was lying on something solid — a surface that looked like stone, but pulsed faintly like flesh.
> [System Reconnection: Partial.]
[Warning: Core Integrity Compromised.]
He sat up slowly. Around him stretched a wasteland of glass plains, broken monoliths jutting from the earth like teeth. The sky above was a storm of colors that didn't exist — shifting spectrums that tore and healed with every second.
Kael exhaled. "So this is what lies outside the void…"
His voice sounded wrong — deeper, layered with something that wasn't him. He turned toward a shard of broken mirror nearby. The reflection stared back.
And then — it blinked first.
Kael froze.
The reflection smiled.
"You made it back," it whispered, though his lips didn't move. "But not all of you returned."
> [New Directive: Self-Reconstruction Incomplete.]
[Unknown Fragment Detected: "Reflection Entity."]
The air shivered as the mirrored version of Kael pressed its hand against the glass. From the other side, it spoke again — softer, hungrier.
"I remained behind to remember what you wanted to forget. Now, I am free to finish it."
The mirror cracked, and the reflection stepped through.
Kael stumbled back, instinctively summoning his inner void energy. The space twisted, but the reflection mirrored every movement perfectly — every gesture, every pulse of power.
"Stop!" Kael hissed. "What are you?"
The reflection's grin widened. "The consequence."
> [Warning: Dual Existence Detected.]
[Identity Overlap 97%. Collapse Threshold Approaching.]
Kael's knees buckled as pain split through his chest — the kind that came not from body, but from being. The two Kaels pulsed with the same heartbeat, the same hunger, the same fate.
And as reality began to bend, one truth became clear:
Only one Kael could exist.