Kazi knelt there, gasping, too weak to chase after Luma.
Dakarai groaned nearby, trying to sit up, clutching his ribs.
From the swirling shadows around them, a figure stepped forward.
It was Rhazir.
He moved with an eerie calm, untouched by the chaos that had just unfolded. His boots made no sound against the cracked stone as he knelt beside Kazi, placing a steady hand on her shoulder.
"You did well," he said softly, his voice almost fatherly.
Kazi blinked up at him, confusion clouding her battered mind. Relief, suspicion, and pain tangled inside her chest.
Then she noticed it; how Rhazir's shadow rippled strangely across the fractured ground.
A second figure stepped free from that ripple.
There was another Rhazir.
Perfectly identical, moving with the same poise and confidence. The second clone moved to Dakarai's side, extending a hand to help him upright.
Kazi stared, realization dawning like a slow, cold sunrise.
"Shadow clones?" She thought to herself.
He could create copies of himself. Perfect, solid, breathing extensions.
Had he been doing this all along?
Had they ever truly known when they were speaking to the real Rhazir?
Rhazir's calm smile lingered as he turned his gaze toward the mist where Luma had fled. His eyes softened with a pride that sent an unexplainable chill down Kazi's spine.
He wasn't just relieved, he was proud. Proud of what had just happened and of what Luma had become.
Kazi tried to rise fully to her feet, but pain screamed through her side, forcing her to brace herself against the shattered ground. Dakarai struggled similarly, leaning heavily against the second Rhazir for support.
The mist around them churned lazily, hiding the exit Luma had disappeared through.
For a moment, there was only silence between them.
A heavy, suffocating silence.
"You held longer than I expected," Rhazir said as he straightened, his voice devoid of judgment. "That's worth something."
Neither Kazi nor Dakarai answered.
There were too many questions.
Too much broken trust hanging in the air like smoke.
Rhazir looked over the ruined battlefield, his expression neutral, almost bored.
"This place won't hold much longer," he said. "We need to leave before the resonance collapses completely."
Without waiting for a response, he turned and began walking across the cracked platform, his figure merging with the mist ahead.
The second Rhazir faded into shadow behind him, vanishing as easily as smoke on the wind.
Kazi forced herself to follow, her legs trembling under her.
Dakarai followed beside her, wincing with every move.
"We're alive," he muttered. "Barely."
"But at what cost?" Kazi whispered, her voice hollow.
Neither of them had an answer.
They trailed after Rhazir through the mist, each step heavier than the last.
MEANWHILE…
Far beyond the crumbling platform, hidden deeper in the mist where the others could not see, another meeting took place.
Luma waited there, her fractured Mark glowing with sickly violet light, the mist curling protectively around her like a living thing.
Another Rhazir approached her. This version was the real one.
He smiled at her, not with warmth, but with pride and satisfaction.
"You did well," he said again, his tone the same but his intent vastly different.
Luma tilted her head, her cracked lips curling into a faint smirk.
"You lied to them," she said, the mist warping her voice into something both human and not.
"I gave them hope," Rhazir replied, stepping closer. "Hope makes them predictable and keeps them desperate."
He reached out and lightly touched her shoulder, the contact almost reverent.
"And you," he continued, voice low, "are my proof."
The corrupted Mark across Luma's skin pulsed in response, as if acknowledging his words.
"You're living proof that the Mark isn't fate," he said. "It can be broken, rebuilt and made stronger."
Luma said nothing, but her eyes gleamed with cold understanding.
"We're just getting started," Rhazir said, his voice almost tender. "The fractures are widening. Soon, others will feel it. Others will awaken."
His shadow spread outward, slipping into the mist, merging with the fractured world.
"And when they do," he whispered, "we'll be ready."
Kazi stumbled after Rhazir through the thickening mist, her body aching with every breath.
But it wasn't the physical wounds that weighed on her.
It was the gnawing realization that the true battle hadn't begun yet.
The real enemy wasn't the fracture.
It wasn't even Luma.
It was the man walking calmly ahead of them.
The man who had saved their lives.
The man who had planned their downfall from the beginning.
Rhazir.
And Kazi knew deep down, the next time they fought, it wouldn't be to save each other.
It would be to survive.