Their swords met with a soundless clash, not steel against steel, but soul against soul.
Seraphina's breath caught. Kaelith's blade wasn't just shadow—it carried the weight of memories he wasn't supposed to have. Lives he hadn't lived. The blade curved with grief, cracked with betrayal.
He slashed at her, and she parried—barely.
"I don't want to hurt you!" she shouted.
Kaelith's eyes were stormfire and sorrow.
"Then you'll lose me."
The words hit harder than the blow he landed against her side, sending her skidding backward across the glassy ground of the Soul Abyss.
She groaned, coughing as her body trembled. Her palm smeared red across the mirror-surface. But the reflection she left behind wasn't her.
It was the girl she used to be—the one who believed love alone could change destiny.
---
Scene Break – The Breaking Point
Kaelith stepped closer, voice torn between himself and the entity within.
> "You bound yourself to me. Now unbind, or be consumed."
"No," Seraphina said, rising. "That's not how this ends."
"You don't get to decide," the other voice boomed from his mouth.
She stared at him.
Then, softly—"Kaelith. I'm not afraid of what you've become. But I am terrified of losing what we could be."
A pause.
For a moment, just a flicker, his hand trembled.
He was still in there.
She could reach him.
Seraphina dropped her sword.
Kaelith froze.
"What are you doing?" he rasped.
"I'm choosing you. Not the fight. Not the prophecy. You."
---
Scene Break – A Choice of Hearts
The entity raged within Kaelith's body, forcing him to raise the blade again.
Seraphina didn't move.
If she could love him through death, she could love him through this too.
"I see you," she whispered. "Even now. And I won't stop."
Her words crackled in the Abyss.
The mirror beneath them shattered.
Kaelith screamed—not in pain, but as if the war inside him reached its final strike.
The shadows pulsed out from his back like wings.
He dropped to his knees, clutching his head.
And then—a blinding light burst from his chest.
Seraphina covered her face.
When the light dimmed, Kaelith stood there—his body bleeding shadow and flame, but his eyes…
His eyes were his again.
"Seraphina," he whispered. "I remember."
She rushed forward, arms wrapping around him, just before he collapsed into her.
But the moment her fingers touched his skin—
His body began to fade.