The sky above the western borderlands was unusually quiet.
No birds. No wind. Just clouds like bruises, swirling slowly above a jagged tear in the world. From a distance, the rift looked like a shattered mirror floating in the air—cracks humming with black and violet energy.
Rizz hovered above it, holy flame keeping him aloft, silver-dark wings spread wide.
This wasn't a standard scout tear.
It was alive.
"Unstable dimensional signature," he murmured. "Low-level—no, wrong. Suppressed."
His mother had taught him to feel the breath of magic. This thing wasn't breathing. It was holding its breath—waiting.
Rizz drew both hands out to his sides. A blade of light flickered to life in his right hand. In his left: a cold, shadow-wrapped dagger. Both weapons hummed in sync.
"Seal pulse is stable… for now."
He descended.
As he neared the rift, the ground below cracked. Purple vines of corrupted energy erupted like tendrils, snapping toward him.
Rizz spun midair, slashing the vines apart. "That's not natural magic—this is tainted."
A growl echoed from the rift.
A creature stepped out.
Not summoned—born.
Its body was skeletal, yet coated in fragmented crystal armor. One eye glowed violet, the other… burned with a flicker of golden flame.
Rizz's breath caught.
"That's angelic energy," he muttered. "How?"
The creature opened its mouth, and instead of a roar, it spoke.
> "Child of Fire and Shadow… We remember you."
> "We remember your seal."
The runes on Rizz's chest ignited. His wings flared. The Soul Seal was reacting—not in pain, but resonance.
"You're not from this world," Rizz said.
The creature nodded—slow, deliberate. "Nor are you… fully."
It lunged.
Rizz met the strike, blades clashing against obsidian claws. Their impact sent shockwaves across the valley. Trees shattered. Earth split. The rift pulsed wider, feeding off their energy.
> "He must awaken."
> "Break the seal."
> "Consume the Balance."
The creature whispered those words over and over, each one striking deeper into Rizz's mind. But he didn't waver. Not now.
"I'm not ready to fall," he said, planting his foot in the air, holy fire gathering around him. "And I'm not breaking."
He activated both elemental cores.
A beam of white-gold light burst from his hand, piercing through the creature's heart. Simultaneously, he wove a spiral of shadow around its limbs, holding it in place. It screamed—then exploded into black mist.
The rift flickered.
Rizz thrust both hands into the air. "Close."
His Soul Seal pulsed, and the magic answered.
The rift cracked—then shattered.
Silence returned.
Rizz dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. His legs trembled, not from exhaustion—but from what he saw inside the rift.
A glimpse.
Of a silver-haired girl reaching toward him.
Of a boy with a mirrored eye standing behind her.
And in the space between them…
A mirror that reflected no one.
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