The first lesson Elenya taught Javier was that power without understanding was a hollow blade.
They traveled together through realms that defied reason: forests of obsidian where trees bled blue sap, rivers that flowed upward into the sky, and mountains that shifted with every dawn. Javier no longer asked how such things existed. Elenya's mere presence suggested that the impossible was normal here.
But at night, when the chaos of the world slept, she sat with him by flickering fires and forced him to confront his potential.
"You are not like the others," she told him, her emerald eyes reflecting the flames. "You do not generate power—you adapt. You absorb. You are a mirror to those around you."
Javier frowned, his jaw tightening. "A mirror? That doesn't sound strong. It sounds like I'm… nothing on my own."
Her smile was cruel and beautiful. "That is precisely why you are dangerous. Mirrors do not choose what they reflect. But you—" she tapped his chest with a slender finger, "—you will choose, and what you choose will reshape entire worlds."
The words sank deep into him. Dangerous. Reshaping worlds. He wanted to believe it, but doubt gnawed at him still.
The true test came weeks later.
They came across a beast known as a Shadowfang. Its body was lean, black as smoke, with six crimson eyes glowing in the dark. It leapt at Javier, jaws wide enough to tear him in half.
"Kill it," Elenya ordered, standing motionless.
Javier barely dodged, rolling across the dirt. He summoned black spikes from the ground, but the creature melted into shadow, reappearing behind him. Its claws raked his back, blood spilling hot down his side.
"Focus!" Elenya's voice cracked like thunder.
He gritted his teeth, forcing his panic down. He could feel something—an echo, a signature, the beast's ability vibrating in the air around him. The same feeling he had sensed when he cut Elenya's palm.
I can copy it.
He reached out with his will, grasping that foreign essence. Unlike with Elenya, this time it stuck. Energy surged into him, dark and cold, threading through his veins like liquid night.
The next time the Shadowfang lunged, Javier vanished into shadow just as it did. They clashed in mid-air, their bodies half-formed smoke, tearing into each other with mirrored ferocity.
Moments later, the beast dissolved into ash, defeated by its own power turned against it.
Javier staggered, panting, his body still humming with the alien energy.
"I… I did it."
Elenya approached, her lips curling into a satisfied smile. "Yes. That is your gift, Javier. You will learn the powers of others, one by one, until none can rival you."
Her words filled him with a fire he had never known. He wasn't weak. He wasn't nothing. He was everything he chose to be.
That night, Javier sat staring at his hands, still trembling from the battle. Elenya watched him quietly, sipping from a silver flask.
"I felt it when I touched the beast's power," Javier said. "Like a… resonance. It's not just stealing. It's like… harmonizing."
She nodded. "You perceive well. Copying is not mere theft. It is aligning your soul with another's. Too many, and you will break. Too few, and you remain fragile."
"Then how do I control it?"
"Discipline." She leaned closer, her voice dropping. "That is why you need me. Without my training, you will burn alive in your own stolen power."
There was no arrogance in her tone—only truth. And Javier believed her.
Days turned to years.
Javier learned to wield fire from a salamander beast, wind from a drake, even healing from a dryad whose grove they defended. Each time, he felt his body grow sharper, faster, stronger. Yet each new power tested his mind. Sometimes the abilities clashed, roaring inside him like wild beasts fighting for dominance.
More than once, he collapsed, writhing in agony, his veins glowing with uncontrolled energy. Each time, Elenya's hand rested on his chest, and reality bent around him, stitching his soul back together.
"Again," she would whisper, never once letting him rest for long.
Through her, he learned patience, balance, and the terrifying cost of power.
And through him, she saw something else—an ember she had not expected.
One evening, centuries into his training, Javier finally asked the question that haunted him.
"You said your ability can't be copied," he said quietly. "Why not?"
Elenya's gaze darkened. For a moment, she looked less like a goddess and more like a weary woman.
"Because Reality Manipulation is not an ability," she said. "It is a burden. To twist reality is to carry its weight. To hold possibility and impossibility in the same hand without breaking. It is… mine alone."
Her smirk returned, masking the heaviness in her voice. "And besides, you'd only embarrass yourself trying."
Javier laughed softly, shaking his head. "I'll take that as a challenge."
She arched a brow. "Then keep trying, little mirror. Perhaps one day the impossible will bend to you as well."
That night, Javier lay awake, staring at the fractured moon. He thought of Jinhyuk, of the life he had left behind. He thought of the boy who had believed in him when no one else had.
"I'll get back to you," he whispered into the alien night. "Stronger than anyone. Strong enough to protect you, no matter what."
Elenya, listening from the shadows, closed her eyes. She did not tell him the truth—that one day, the weight of reality itself might crush him.
But for now, she would forge him into the weapon the world needed.
The Battle of Gods loomed ever closer. And Javier Ricas, the mirror of destiny, was no longer a boy.
He was becoming something far greater.