Far away from the war of the Moving Planet, far from the burning blue horizon of Earth, Elias drifted. His body was entirely limp, suspended in the silent vacuum.
The terrifying force of Malkor's "Zone Out" strike had not just shattered his ribs; it had completely forcefully severed his consciousness from his physical form.
But as his physical body shut down, retreating to the absolute edge of death to preserve whatever spark of life remained, his mind violently snapped awake.
Elias gasped, his eyes flying open.
He wasn't in space anymore.
He was standing on a perfectly still, endless expanse of dark, shallow water. It stretched out in every direction, reflecting a sky that possessed no stars, no sun, and no clouds—just an abyss of suffocating, suffocating black.
The water lapped gently against the soles of his boots, cold and heavy.
"Where am I?" Elias whispered, his voice echoing endlessly across the dark horizon. He looked down at his hands. "What happened to me? The fight... Malkor..."
"Welcome, me."
The voice came from directly behind him. It was a voice he knew intimately.
It was the voice he heard every time he spoke, every time he screamed, every time he cried. But there was a venomous, jagged edge to it now—a sound completely devoid of warmth or hesitation.
Elias spun around, the water splashing violently around his ankles.
Standing ten feet away was a perfect mirror image of himself. He had the same ashen skin, the same dynamic, flame-like hair, and the same lean, battle-hardened physique.
But the moment Elias looked at the figure's face, a cold spike of dread drove itself through his stomach.
Instead of the piercing, bright silver eyes that marked his core existence, the figure staring back at him possessed eyes that burned with a deep, liquid, blood-red intensity.
"Who are you?" Elias demanded, shifting instinctively into a defensive martial stance, his fists raised.
The figure tilted his head, a dark, cynical smirk spreading across his face.
"Well, I'm you, dummy," the red-eyed Elias replied, his voice dripping with condescension. He took a slow, deliberate step forward, the water parting smoothly around his boots. "Well, point of correction... you *were* me."
Elias's chest heaved as panic began to set in.
His mind raced, desperately trying to apply logic to an impossible situation.
He remembered Malkor's hand. He remembered the concept of his consciousness being blasted out of reality.
"What is going on?" Elias said, shaking his head rapidly. "No. No, this is a trick. Malkor is trying to trick me. He's trying to trap me in some kind of mental loop. I have to wake up. I have to go!"
Elias turned away, closing his eyes and trying to wake up.
"A trick?"
The red-eyed shadow laughed—a dry, humorless sound that sent a shiver down Elias's spine.
"No, it's no trick," Elias's darker half said, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet growl. "Look at yourself. You're a disappointment. You transformed, you screamed your lungs out, you charged in like a hero... and you got knocked out with a single punch. A complete, utter failure."
Elias froze, his back still turned. The words hit him harder than physical blows.
The red-eyed Elias closed the distance in the blink of an eye, grabbing Elias roughly by the shoulder and forcing him to turn around.
"The one—the monster who murdered the people we love—is standing right there, alive and well," the shadow spat, his grip tightening like a steel vice on Elias's shoulder. "And you couldn't do anything. You are just as weak as you were on that night. You watched our mum die. You watched our little sister die. You just stood there paralyzed, staring at the blood on the ground."
"Stop..." Elias whispered, his voice trembling.
"And now?" the shadow continued, ignoring him entirely. "You're doing the exact same thing again. While you float out here, the 10th Division is being slaughtered."
Elias's eyes widened, the horrific memories of his childhood home violently flashing behind his eyelids.
The sound of the wooden spoon dropping onto the kitchen table. The crimson stain blooming across his mother's dress. Malkor's cold, unblinking golden eyes turning to look at him as he stood frozen in the doorway.
"Shut up!" Elias screamed, slapping the shadow's hand away and stumbling backward, clutching his head. "Shut up! This is just another illusion! You're not me!."
*BANG!*
The red-eyed Elias didn't even blink. He lunged forward with terrifying speed, driving a brutal, merciless right hook directly into Elias's jaw.
The impact was devastating. Elias was lifted off his feet, crashing violently into the dark water.
The liquid splashed high into the air, feeling thick and warm—like blood—against his skin.
Before Elias could even process the pain, his shadow was on top of him, grabbing him by the collar of his uniform and violently dragging him halfway out of the water.
"I am you, and you are me!" the shadow roared, shaking Elias so hard his teeth rattled. "You know the truth deep down! You are weak! You are pathetic!"
"Let me go...!" Elias gasped, raising his arms to try and pry the shadow's fingers off his throat, but his strength was completely gone.
"Fool," the red-eyed Elias snarled, his face inches from Elias's, the burning red light reflecting in the dark water below. "You've gotten soft. Look at what you've become."
The shadow threw Elias backward. Elias tumbled through the water, coughing and gasping for air as he dragged himself up onto his hands and knees.
"The sole reason we are alive... the *only* reason we survived that night while Mom and our sister rotted in the ground... is to have revenge," the shadow said, his voice lowering into a haunting, rhythmic cadence, pacing slowly around Elias like a predator circling a wounded animal. "We vowed in the mud. We promised in the rain. We swore to the heavens that we would avenge them. We swore that we would become the ultimate weapon, a force of nature designed for one single purpose: to have revenge".
Elias stared at his own reflection in the rippling water below, his silver eyes wide and terrified.
"But you forgot," the shadow hissed, stopping right beside Elias and leaning down to whisper into his ear. "You got comfortable. You joined the 10th Division and started playing soldier. You made friends. You started going on dates. You laughed. You started looking forward to tomorrow, didn't you? You slowly, deliberately tried to erase me. You tried to bury the hatred because it hurt too much to carry."
The shadow reached out, grabbing a handful of Elias's golden, flame-like hair, forcing his head up to look at the pitch-black sky.
"You know it deep down, Elias. You tried to be human. But a human can't kill a god. Only a monster can kill a god. And you locked the monster away so you could pretend to be normal."
The words cut through the last remaining barriers of Elias's mind.
He remembered the absolute powerlessness he felt as a child. He remembered the feeling of Malkor's palm hitting his chest just moments ago, blasting him into the void as if he were nothing more than an insect.
He had tried to evolve through adaptation, through martial skill, through protecting others. But evolution fueled by defense was fundamentally limited. Evolution fueled by pure, unadulterated hatred had no ceiling.
Tears began to spill from Elias's eyes, mixing with the dark, heavy water beneath him. His shoulders shook violently as years of repressed agony, guilt, and rage finally clawed their way out of his chest.
"I..." Elias choked out, his voice cracking.
"Say it," the shadow demanded, his grip on Elias's hair tightening.
Elias slammed his fists into the water, his knuckles bleeding as the golden aura around his body began to violently shift, tinged with a dark, terrifying crimson hue.
"I want revenge," Elias sobbed, his voice raw and broken, carrying the weight of a shattered soul. He looked up, his tears glowing in the dark. "I want vengeance! I want to tear him apart! I want him to feel what we felt! I want to kill him!"
The red-eyed shadow stared down at him for a long, silent moment. Slowly, the cynical sneer faded from his face, replaced by a look of profound, solemn understanding. He let go of Elias's hair and took a step back.
The dark water around them began to boil. The pitch-black sky above them began to crack like fragile glass, revealing a violent, burning crimson light bleeding through the fractures.
"Good," Elias B said softly, his form beginning to dissolve into red ash that swirled around them like a violent storm. He looked into Elias's tear-streaked face, his blood-red eyes glowing
with the promise of absolute destruction.
"Now... switch."