The Hollow Spire groaned like a wounded beast. Stone trembled underfoot, glyphs flickering as if trying to rewrite themselves before the Door's presence.
Jinryu stared down into the wound in reality. No light, no shadow — only the unmaking silence. His grip on Haeryun tightened.
"Once you step through," the Twelfth warned again, "you will not face Vael first. You will face yourselves. The world you wish to create… will either accept you or destroy you."
Maeryn exhaled sharply. "If this is where he waits, we don't have a choice."
Jinryu looked at her. For a moment, she wasn't the battle-hardened Corebearer. She was still the girl who had once laughed at rainstorms with him, before everything broke.
He nodded.
And they jumped.
The Descent
There was no falling.No rising.Just rewriting.
Their bodies tore apart into words — glyphs dissolving into the un-language of the Door. Jinryu screamed without sound, Maeryn's hand reaching for his, flickering between a child's grasp and a warrior's hold.
Then—impact.
They stood on solid ground.
But the world was wrong.
Jinryu's World
The sky above was endless white. Below stretched plains of glass that reflected not the sky, but possibilities. Thousands of JInryus stared back — some with crown and throne, others with bloodied hands, some broken, some exalted.
Maeryn gasped. "This… is you?"
Jinryu could barely breathe. "No. This is what I could be."
A voice rolled across the horizon, deep and familiar.
"Choose, Jinryu."
A figure stepped out of the mirrored plain.Not Vael.Not an Echo.
Himself.
Crowned in fire, holding the shattered Prime Core in his chest. His eyes blazed with Glyph Thirteen.
"This is the world you dream of. Power unbroken. No division. No weakness."
The crowned Jinryu raised a hand. The plains erupted into fire — whole nations bowing. "Why chase Vael, when you could finish what he began?"
Jinryu staggered back. His Haeryun trembled.
"No… that's not me."
"Not yet," his other self smiled.
Maeryn's World
The fire warped, twisting into wind. The plains cracked, and suddenly they stood in a hall of marble — endless, cold, perfect.
Maeryn's glyph flared without her willing it. She gasped as she saw herself seated on a throne of bone and storm, eyes lifeless, hand clutching a sword that dripped with silence.
"This is your truth, Maeryn," the world whispered. "Leader of the Council. Peace through obedience. No laughter. No love. Only order."
The future Maeryn stood, her blade humming with the voice of countless conquered. "Jinryu is weak. Vael is dangerous. Only I can decide the world's fate."
Her eyes, identical yet empty, locked onto her own. "Step aside. Or I erase you."
The Clash
The two false selves advanced — regal Jinryu with the Prime Core's flame, sovereign Maeryn with the blade of silence.
The ground fractured, splitting their worlds apart — fire and storm colliding.
Jinryu lifted Haeryun, sweat cold on his skin. "They're not real."
"Then why do they bleed like us?" Maeryn shouted, blocking her own sword's swing.
Blood dripped.Her blood.
The Door's test was no illusion.
To pass, they would have to destroy the versions of themselves they feared most…
Or be consumed by them.