The path ended.
It hadn't been much of a path to begin with—just the suggestion of one, a trampled corridor through the red woods, where the trees thinned and the air grew colder with each step. But now, the ground beneath Kael's boots stopped being dirt. It became glass.
Smooth, black, and cold.
A mirrored plain stretched out ahead, flat as a frozen lake and just as deceptive. Their group stood at its edge, staring down into their own reflections—distorted, delayed, and wrong.
Kael squinted. His reflection didn't move with him. It moved a second late, like it needed time to remember what it was.
"It's bait," Rei said behind him.
Cassiel scowled. "It's a trial. The spire marked this as a core point. The Gate only opens after we reach all of them.
"There's no path," Elias said. "No terrain. We'll be seen from every angle."
"That assumes there's anything left with eyes," Cassiel muttered.
Kael wasn't listening. Not to them.
He crouched near the edge of the glass and placed his fingers against it.
It didn't feel like glass.
It felt like… water pretending to be solid.
Or thought pretending to be matter.
And when he stared deeper, beneath his reflection, he saw others.
Not copies.
Not illusions.
Versions.
One wore armor.
One bled from the eyes.
One smiled without reason.
They didn't mimic his movements. They waited.
Rei crouched beside him. "Are they reflections?
Kael shook his head. "They're invitations."
She didn't ask what he meant. She just stood again, hand resting lightly on the hilt of a curved bone-blade she'd scavenged from a fallen construct.
Cassiel moved first, striding out onto the mirrored plain with confidence that felt increasingly like theater.
The rest followed—scattered, wary, in loose formation. Kael stayed near the middle, Elias at his side, Rei at their rear. Thorn hovered behind Cassiel like a personal shield. Veyra floated just off to the left, her illusions casting hazy duplicates along the edges of the group.
Their reflections followed.
But not precisely.
Kael's illusion drift twitched. A warning. Something out of sync.
And then—
The first one attacked.
Not from above. Not from below. From within.
Cassiel's reflection split from the glass like a blade pulled from water, perfect in shape but not in presence. It smiled too wide. Its blade shimmered with liquid edges.
Cassiel cursed and parried, steel meeting mimicry. The copy hissed, spitting words Kael couldn't hear, and drove forward with impossible speed.
Then another broke free—from behind Elias.
Then two from Rei's side.
[System Alert: Cognitive Echo Breach Detected.]
Warning: Exposure to fractured self-harm triggers instability.]
Kael's fingers twitched. His thoughts warped.
The mirrored version of him rose.
But it didn't move.
It just watched.
Kael met its gaze.
It had no eyes.
Just emptiness, and the illusion of a face drawn from Kael's own memory.
And in that moment, Kael understood.
These weren't mimics.
They were conceptual bleed—raw,
unfinished attempts by the Shard Realm to make sense of the minds invading it.
They didn't copy appearances.
They copied identity.
And they always got it wrong.
Kael reached inward.
Not toward his body. Not toward his Path.
But toward the thing beneath both.
The Veil shimmered.
His reflection faltered.
And then—
He stepped forward.
[Veilcore Reaction Triggered.]
Ability: [Phantom Thread – Level 1]
Effect: Anchor fragments of projected presence into false terrain.]
Secondary Effect: Confusion field – minor reality distortion in a 3-meter radius. Duration: 4s]
The battlefield shifted.
Kael was still there—but not just one of him. Three, four, five—illusions moving with just enough delay, just enough threat. His reflection paused, unsure.
That hesitation cost it.
Rei's blade slid into its back.
It didn't bleed.
It folded, like paper catching fire, and crumbled into sparks.
Kael stood still.
Breathing. Cold sweat down his spine.
His illusions faded.
Rei stepped beside him, panting. "I thought you said you weren't stable yet."
"I'm not," Kael said.
"Good," she muttered. "Let's keep it that way."
When the mirrored plain ended, six more were gone.
None of the fallen were Kael's. But the cost hung heavy in the air.
Anya, the quiet healer, sat beside one of the bodies—a boy named Daren. Not someone Kael had known well. But he'd heard the boy joke during meals. Laugh too loud. Show off tricks with conjured light.
Now his body was split in two, like the world had gotten tired of pretending he fit.
Kael didn't look away.
Elias knelt beside Anya, not speaking.
Cassiel did.
"We move," he said. "The spire's active. That means we're halfway."
"Halfway to what?" Veyra asked coldly.
Cassiel turned. "Survival."
"No," Elias said, standing slowly. "We're halfway to breaking."
That night, Kael didn't sleep.
He stared at the ground, waiting for his reflection to twitch.
It never did.
But something behind his thoughts whispered.
Not words. Not warnings.
Just pressure.
[Veilcore Progress: 58%]
Path Alignment: Unstable. Unique Node forming…]
New Trait: [Flicker] – Reality and illusion occasionally overlap.]
Kael didn't know what Flicker meant.
But when he looked up from the fire, he saw Elias already watching him.
And just for a moment…
Elias' eyes flickered wrong.
Too many irises.
Too many truths.
Then it was gone.