The air thickened until it was almost liquid, the weight of two Kaels straining the fragile fabric of the city. The fractured skyline bent inward like a collapsing stage. The hum rattled every surface, waiting, eager.
The other Kael raised his scarred hand, letters crawling beneath his skin. His voice cut through the silence like a blade:
"Break."
The street in front of me split instantly, exploding upward in a storm of glass and asphalt. A shockwave hurled me back. The fragments shrieked, feeding on his word, their shapes sharpening into weapons—claws, teeth, jagged spines.
I gasped, scrambling to my feet, my own scar burning hot. The white letter above me pulsed, demanding a response. My chest tightened. I didn't know what word would save me—didn't have the mastery he did. But I couldn't freeze. Not now.
I thrust my palm forward.
"Hold!"
The word ripped from my throat. The letters burst outward, solidifying into chains of light that lashed across the broken street. The debris froze midair, suspended. The fragments convulsed, trapped in invisible bindings.
The other Kael sneered. "Still clinging to hesitation. To defense." He raised both hands. Dozens of scars glowed at once, each word coiling around him like living serpents.
"Burn."
"Collapse."
"Erase."
Reality obeyed. Flames roared from nothing, the ground twisted into spirals, and half the buildings dissolved into blankness, leaving holes that revealed only raw light beneath.
I stumbled back, terror flooding me. He wasn't fighting me—he was rewriting the world itself.
The white letter trembled violently, its glow flickering. For a moment, I thought it would abandon me. Then I remembered what the mirror-Kael had said: "You're not running this time. You're waking up."
I forced the fear down, raised my scar, and shouted the only word that came to me:
"Unveil!"
Light erupted. Not chains. Not fire. But clarity. The collapsing streets, the burning air, the unraveling world—all peeled back like paper. Behind the destruction, I saw the scaffolding of symbols that held everything together.
And I saw his words too—the ones he had unleashed—twisting like parasites into that scaffolding, devouring it.
The hum roared, louder than ever. The cycle was straining, close to breaking.
The other Kael's smile widened. "Good. At least this time you'll die fighting."
The fragments tore free of the chains, shrieking as they lunged.
And the white letter flared one last time, brighter than the sun.
It was ready to give me another word. But this one—I sensed—would cost me more than I could ever imagine.