The figure of blue light did not move.
It simply waited—tall, still, watching—as Aarav stepped cautiously across the endless glass plain.
The closer he walked, the more the air changed.
It grew heavier.
Thicker.
Charged with something ancient and electric.
By the time he stood a few meters away, his breath came in shallow gasps.
The figure finally spoke.
**"You survived the echoes."**
Aarav swallowed. "I didn't survive. I barely made it."
The figure tilted its head.
**"Barely is still alive."**
The light around it crackled, revealing a faint outline—a body shaped like a human but sharper, carved from fractured energy and broken light.
Its face was blurred, shifting like a glitch in reality.
Aarav asked, "Who are you?"
The figure's voice deepened.
**"I am the Guardian. The first being created by the Core."**
"Created…?"
**"To protect this world. And to judge those who enter it."**
Aarav stiffened. "Judge me for what?"
The Guardian lifted a hand.
The glass plain beneath them trembled.
The sky darkened.
A cold wind spiraled around Aarav.
**"For carrying light strong enough to save this world."**
Its voice sharpened.
**"Or destroy it."**
Aarav's heart thudded painfully.
"Destroy it? Why would I—?"
The Guardian stepped forward.
Every reflective shard in the glass below flickered, showing not Aarav—but his fears.
Him yelling at his mother in anger once.
Him wishing he could run away from responsibilities.
Him crying in secret where no one could see.
Him imagining what it would feel like if he didn't have to fight anymore.
The Guardian spoke softly:
**"Darkness and light grew side by side inside you."**
A pause.
**"Just like the first Chosen."**
Aarav's breath froze.
"You mean Aakash."
The Guardian nodded.
**"He, too, carried power the fracture desired."**
**"But his heart collapsed under its weight."**
Aarav felt a stab of pain for the man who had tried to save him.
"What happened to him?" Aarav whispered.
The Guardian turned slightly, looking toward the distant fog where the monstrous shape hid.
**"He did not become the fracture."**
**"He became what the fracture *does* to those who lose themselves."**
Aarav trembled. "Can he be saved?"
Silence answered first.
Then the Guardian whispered:
**"Only if the Core accepts your light."**
Aarav's stomach twisted.
"So that's why I'm here. To be tested."
The Guardian nodded once.
**"Three trials."**
**"Three truths."**
**"Survive them, and you will reach the Core."**
Aarav stepped forward. "Tell me the first trial."
The Guardian lifted its arm.
The glass beneath Aarav dissolved, turning into swirling shadows.
Aarav fell.
The Guardian's voice echoed after him:
**"Trial One: Face the weight you carry."**
**"Face the guilt you hide."**
**"Face the part of you that believed the world would be better… without you."**
Aarav's scream was swallowed by darkness.
He plummeted into nothing.
And somewhere far below, a voice—his own voice—was sobbing.
Aarav hit the ground hard.
Or at least—it felt like ground.
It was soft, like ash.
Cold, like forgotten memories.
He pushed himself up, coughing.
The darkness here wasn't empty.
It was thick, sticky… alive.
Shapes moved inside it.
Breathing with him.
Matching his heartbeat.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Aarav whispered, "Where am I?"
A voice answered—his voice.
**"Inside the part of you that hurts the most."**
Aarav spun around.
There, a few meters away, stood… himself.
But not as he was now.
This Aarav was smaller.
Thinner.
Eyes swollen from nights of crying when no one heard.
Clothes too small, too worn.
A boy who tried too hard to be strong.
Aarav felt his chest tighten. "No… not this."
The younger Aarav spoke again, sounding far older than he looked.
**"You buried me."**
Aarav took a step back. "I tried to forget. That's different."
The boy tilted his head.
**"You forgot the night you blamed yourself for everything."**
Aarav froze.
The darkness around them shifted.
Suddenly—
They were inside his old home.
Not as it was.
As *he remembered it at its worst.*
The walls cracked.
The lights flickered.
Rain dripped from a broken ceiling.
His mother stood in the kitchen—tired, shaking, unaware of what was happening behind her.
His brothers whispered in the corner, scared and hungry.
And there, in the center of the room—
Young Aarav stood crying silently into his small hands.
Current Aarav shook his head violently. "Stop this. Take me back."
The younger version looked up with hollow eyes.
**"Why should I? You never took me back."**
Aarav's throat closed.
The boy stepped closer.
**"Do you remember what you said that night?"**
Aarav shut his eyes. "Don't…"
But the boy answered for him.
**"I wish I wasn't here."**
**"I wish everything didn't depend on me."**
**"I wish… I didn't exist."**
Aarav staggered backward as if struck.
The room cracked like glass.
The shadows beneath the floor crawled upward like hands reaching for him.
Young Aarav's voice grew colder.
**"You hated yourself long before this world chose you."**
**"You thought you failed your family."**
**"You thought you were the problem."**
Aarav fell to his knees.
"I was a kid," he whispered. "I didn't know how to handle anything."
The boy knelt in front of him.
**"You still don't."**
Aarav trembled.
The younger version touched his chest—right where the blue light lived.
**"This power didn't come because you're strong."**
**"It came because you break the same way this world breaks."**
Aarav looked up, eyes burning with tears.
"Then tell me what I'm supposed to do!"
The boy leaned close, voice becoming sharp, almost vicious.
**"Forgive yourself."**
The shadows froze.
Even the broken room seemed to hold its breath.
Aarav whispered, "I… I don't know how."
The boy smiled for the first time—sad, honest, human.
**"Start by not running from me anymore."**
Aarav reached out.
His fingers touched the boy's hand—
And the child dissolved into blue light.
Warm.
Soft.
Painful.
Aarav gasped as the light entered his chest, merging with him like a piece returning to where it belonged.
The broken room shattered completely—
And he stood again on the glass plain, breathless, trembling but lighter than before.
The Guardian appeared before him.
**"You faced your guilt."**
**"You accepted your pain."**
**"You passed the first trial."**
Aarav wiped his eyes. "What's next?"
The Guardian's expression darkened.
**"Trial Two."**
The ground trembled beneath them.
**"Face the fear you hide."**
The sky split open.
Something screamed—a sound that made the fracture itself tremble.
Aarav's legs nearly gave out.
The Guardian whispered:
**"Prepare yourself, Aarav. Fear has a shape here."**
And from the sky—
Something began to descend.