Nysha watched him with a sinking realization, this wasn't as simple as rejecting a threat. Lindarion saw himself in the echo. And the echo knew it.
The being lifted its cracked face. "You would condemn me to oblivion again? Without choice? Without justice?"
Lindarion's aura pulsed once, and the sigils faltered.
Not from weakness.
From hesitation.
The echo-being saw it—and spoke with almost human softness. "I am not your enemy. I am your shadow. Your potential. Your lost future. If you kill me now, you kill a part of yourself."
Lindarion didn't step back. But the air shifted around him.
Ashwing whispered, "Oh no… he's thinking. That's the BAD SIGN. Thinking means emotion. Emotion means doom—"
Nysha elbowed him to shut up.
The echo-being rose slowly.
Its form stabilized just enough to stand, but its limbs flickered like glitching light.
"You said you wanted freedom," it murmured. "Then why chain me again? Why repeat the sin committed against me?"
Lindarion lowered his hand.
