Part 2 of 3 – The Battle Between What Was and What Must Be
Day 3 – The Beast with No Heart
The sky bled sparks.
Grim staggered across molten earth, his breath shallow, his hands cracked with flame. Each breath strained his core—both of them.
The new one pulsed wild beneath his ribs, stormraw and unstable.
The old one? Still fractured. Still bleeding memory.
"Well, you look like something I'd never date," Sparks' voice echoed dryly across the void. "Unless I suddenly get a kink for burnt toast."
"Still not helpful."
"Just saying what everyone's thinking."
The first true test came not from flame—but from thought.
A creature formed from ash and lightning loomed before him—twenty feet tall, head like a furnace, voice like thunder.
"What burns within you?" it boomed.
Grim gritted his teeth.
"Pain."
"Not enough."
The beast struck.
Day 6 – The Mirror of Memory
Grim fell through layers of flame into silence.
He awoke in his childhood room.
Velthar before the war.
His mother humming. A forgotten melody.
But it was wrong.
His mother turned. Her eyes were hollow. Her body flickered—burnt like a dream on fire.
"Why did you let us burn?" she asked, reaching out with hands of ash.
Grim screamed.
The illusion shattered.
Sparks stood on a cliff nearby, watching.
"This realm feeds on regrets," she said. "But also... on hope. Try some."
"That supposed to be encouragement?"
"I'm trying something new."
Day 12 – Twin Core Rejection
Both cores were now active.
The storm core burned brighter with every battle. But the old one rejected it—like oil and water. Like two souls in one body.
Grim fell to his knees.
Lightning cracked from his chest. Flame tore down his spine. His body jerked violently as if two gods were fighting inside him.
"This'll either be epic… or we'll be collecting your bones with chopsticks," Sparks said, sounding worried for the first time.
Grim's eyes glowed—one stormblue, one embergold.
He rose again.
Day 19 – The Trial of Will
A final beast appeared—shaped like him.
It was him.
But whole.
Confident. Goldeneyed. With both cores fused and singing in harmony.
"I am what you could be," the echo said. "But only if you let go."
"Of what?"
"Fear. Guilt. The idea that you're not enough."
They clashed.
Storm against fire. Self against self.
Sparks screamed from the sidelines as reality fractured.
Grim struck last.
He did not kill the echo.
He merged with it.