Chapter 5: The Fire Beneath Her Skin
The mimic-wraith's blades came down like guillotines.
Jason blocked instinctively—he didn't know how—but his arms crossed just in time.
A shockwave of pressure cracked the stone beneath his feet as the creature's strength met his newfound Weight of Will.
He gritted his teeth. His muscles screamed.
But he held.
Kassandra didn't hesitate.
She raised one shaking hand—and the bandages along her arm split open. A surge of silver fire ignited across her skin, forming into threads of burning sigils. She screamed again, but this time it wasn't fear.
It was fury.
She hurled the fire like a spear, and it pierced straight through the mimic's shoulder. It shrieked, twisting unnaturally, before leaping back into the shadows.
---
Jason looked at her, panting.
"You... what was that?"
Kassandra's eyes flickered, silvery and wild.
> "I don't know. It just happened."
Jason stared at the mark glowing over her collarbone—it burned in tandem with the one on his chest.
But hers wasn't like his eclipse. Hers was shaped like a coiled serpent of flame.
He didn't know what it meant.
But something in his bones did.
> "You're marked too."
> "Marked?" she said. "What does that mean?"
Before he could answer, the mimic screamed again—and changed.
Its skin split. Its face shifted—from Jason's mother's features to someone else's.
Kassandra's mother.
Jason saw it in her eyes before she said a word. The pain. The terror.
> "You were in the fire," he whispered.
"You lost her."
> "No," Kassandra said, voice cold now. "Black took her."
The mimic lunged again.
This time, they didn't retreat.
---
Jason slammed the ground with both fists. A gravitational pulse erupted from his body, anchoring the mimic's leap midair. The creature flailed as its momentum crashed into invisible pressure.
> Anchor Pulse: Triggered
Opponents in close range have movement impaired based on user's resolve.
"Hit it!" Jason shouted.
Kassandra screamed and ignited fully—her entire body wrapped in soulflame. She spun, flinging white-hot fire in a spiral. It seared into the mimic's chest.
The creature shrieked, convulsed—
—and then split open like paper, erupting into black vapor that vanished into the void.
Silence.
The Trial Plane trembled... and shattered like glass.
---
They landed back in the Whispering Lot.
The night air was still. The stars were back. The void was gone.
Jason collapsed to one knee, gasping. Kassandra stumbled, then leaned against a rusted pole, her arms still steaming with silver heat.
They didn't speak for a moment.
Then she looked at him and asked:
> "Do you think we passed?"
Before Jason could answer, the ground beneath them pulsed. From the cracked pavement rose two glowing fragments—one black, one white. They hovered briefly, then shot into their respective marks.
Jason's mind was filled with a voice—not Black's.
Older. Warmer. Crueler.
> "Child of Ash... Child of Weight..."
"You are not the first to bear our echoes. But perhaps... the last to matter."
> Trial Complete: Echo Sparks Awakened.
Jason: Mark of Black – Aspect: Dominion.
Kassandra: Mark of Veyra – Aspect: Rebirth.
Kassandra clutched her chest.
> "Did you hear that?" she whispered.
Jason nodded, breathing hard.
> "Yeah. And I think... that was one of Black's siblings."
---
From the shadows beyond the fence, a tall figure watched them. Cloaked in flowing robes of smoke, its face masked in porcelain, cracked with lines of glowing red.
> "Two awakened. This early," it murmured.
"Black moves faster than expected."
The figure turned and vanished into mist.
---