The storm inside Kael had not yet quieted.
He sat cross-legged in the stillness of his soul domain, surrounded by the remains of the shattered Mirror Forge. Faint trails of golden light still lingered in the air, twisting into the shape of his second body — its outline now fully formed, solid, breathing the same mana as his own.
But that scar on its chest — a perfect circle of blackened flesh threaded with jagged silver veins — pulsed with a rhythm that didn't match his own.
Something else had touched it.
"Two bodies… but one scar."
He clenched his fists. The Forge was supposed to be sacred, sealed to outside influence. Only a being of enormous power could have interfered at that level — one who understood the path of echoes. And only one name lingered at the edge of that possibility.
The One.
Kael rose.
His second body mirrored him. Perfectly. Unnervingly. But not for long.
They shared a core. Shared mana. Shared instincts. But Kael now felt a second pulse — a thought that wasn't quite his own. A flicker of curiosity. A whisper of rebellion. As though the second Echo was… watching him back.
"You're me," Kael said. "But you weren't made just by me."
The Echo didn't speak. But it smiled.
Not a cruel smile.
Not mocking.
Understanding.
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Do you know who touched you?"
The smile faded. The Echo turned its gaze away.
And suddenly, Kael saw something else.
A dream.
A swirl of memory, not his own, began to bleed into his mind.
The Dream of the Second
Kael stood in a vision that wasn't his. The walls were glass and fire, the skies a dull grey. He stood on a ruined battlefield where black banners fluttered in dead wind. And there — in the distance — his second self stood among the corpses, wearing a cloak of ash.
A voice whispered from nowhere.
"This is where the second will lead you. If left unchecked."
Kael turned to face the source — but there was nothing. Only cold wind and the heavy pressure of inevitability.
"Why show me this?" Kael growled. "Is this the future?
Another whisper, this one almost gentle:
"It's one of them."
Return to Flesh
Kael jolted awake in the material world, sweat glistening on his skin. The village night was quiet — too quiet.
His second body hovered beside him, still anchored by mana threads. It no longer mirrored him perfectly. Its eyes stayed closed, but its hands twitched slightly, as if dreaming.
The scar on its chest pulsed once.
Kael reached toward it, but hesitated.
What if it really was dreaming? What if it was becoming… different?
What if the second Echo… was being guided by someone else?
He pulled back his hand.
"I'll watch you," he whispered. "And if you stray… I'll end you."
The wind picked up, rustling leaves and distant chimes.
But Kael knew it wasn't just wind.
It was someone listening.
Far away, across the veil of stars, the scarred hand returned to its side, folding back into shadow.
And a faint voice murmured:
"The fracture deepens. One dream is never enough."