The Cave of Illusions
The wind had no place in the cave.
Yuji Kazehaya entered the mouth of the stone labyrinth as if stepping through a breathless portal. Behind him, the searing winds of the desert howled like angry spirits, but within these ancient walls, there was only silence—a suffocating, unnatural silence.
The air felt heavy, thick with moisture and something darker—like the cave itself had swallowed pain over centuries and never exhaled. The stone walls shimmered faintly with a greenish glow, moss clinging to the cracks like veins through flesh. It wasn't just a cave. It was a wound carved into the world.
Yuji tightened his grip on the black orb now sealed inside his satchel. His footsteps echoed with quiet resolve, but his breathing was labored. He was still reeling from the fight in the desert, his body bruised, blood crusted at his temple, ribs sore from the last encounter. His ADM Ring blinked weakly.
> EB: 8 remaining.
"Damn," he whispered. "That last Dark Arrow took more than I expected."
He paused as the corridor widened. Before him, a chamber opened up, ceiling high as a palace dome, glowing crystals blooming from the walls like frozen fire. But his eyes didn't catch on the beauty—they locked on the presence coiled within.
A massive serpent.
Emerald green, easily thirty meters long. Its scales glistened like polished jade. It lay in a coiled slumber, breathing softly—if such a beast could be said to sleep. But what chilled Yuji was its head: broad as a table, with fangs the size of swords and, in the center of its scaled brow, a single vertical eye. Closed. Unmoving.
But it saw him.
The instant Yuji stepped inside, that eye snapped open.
A piercing green iris surrounded by concentric rings of light—a third eye that pulsed with sentient malice.
Yuji froze.
The snake uncoiled with a speed that belied its size. It moved like water, like fire, like death wrapped in scales. Its body smashed into a wall of the cave, shattering stone as it twisted and lunged.
Yuji bolted.
"Can't fight it head-on. No choice."
His Wind Element activated instantly—not on himself, but around his body. The air bent with a subtle pulse, forming wind rings beneath his boots that enhanced his movement.
> Wind Aura: Support Boost active (Speed +5%)
He ducked beneath a falling stalactite. The serpent lashed out. Its tail missed him by inches, smashing a crystal pillar into glittering shards. The cave trembled.
Flames burst from the beast's mouth. Green fire—a rare, corrupted elemental type. It rolled through the corridor like a burning tide. Yuji vaulted over a ridge of broken stone, shielding his face with his cloak. The flames grazed his arm.
Pain exploded.
He hit the ground hard, rolling to absorb impact. His sleeve was in cinders, the flesh beneath scorched. Blood mixed with ash. He gritted his teeth, eyes watering.
> EB: 7.5
Still running. Still alive.
The snake didn't slow. It surged through the chamber like a possessed god. The third eye glowed brighter now, locking onto Yuji's essence.
He reached a dead end. A spiraled chamber of broken rocks. No exits.
Yuji spun around, panting, vision blurring.
The serpent filled the entrance.
He had seconds.
His hand hovered over his ADM Ring.
"If I use the Dark Element now... I might lose myself again..."
He clenched his fist.
> "I don't want to lose control again... but I don't want to die either."
He raised his palm. The ring flared dark.
> "Shadow Arrow!"
A pulse of black energy formed. He fired.
The arrow struck the serpent's snout.
Nothing.
The arrow shattered like dust on impact.
"Its scales... too thick."
The snake hissed, mouth opening wide, ready to unleash another wave of flames. Yuji threw himself sideways, heart racing.
> EB: 6.9
He coughed blood.
Desperation. No time for doubt.
He extended both arms.
> "Dark Storm!"
The cave screamed.
Wind warped. Shadows burst from his core, forming a vortex of black lightning and spiraling tendrils. Rocks cracked. The serpent reeled—but not in pain. In irritation.
The storm crashed against its scales, but the third eye glowed ever brighter. The snake struck again, plowing through the storm like a juggernaut.
Yuji collapsed to one knee.
Pain. Weakness. His vision went gray.
> EB: 6.1
He was about to fall—when a voice echoed in his mind.
Low. Familiar.
His own voice. But twisted. Shadowed.
> "Every beast core sits in the chest. But not this one. No core... only the eye. That eye isn't natural. It's the control point. This isn't a beast. It's a puppet. Someone's watching you. Find them."
Yuji clenched his teeth.
He looked around.
Closed his eyes.
Breathed deep.
He let his senses go—the same way he had during meditation training back in Sector 454. Through the chaos of wind and darkness, he reached for spiritual energy. Not beast essence.
But a human's.
And there it was.
Faint.
Behind a crumbled wall of rock. Hidden behind elemental distortion. Watching.
Yuji stood. Blood trailing from his lips.
He raised one hand.
> "Shadow Arrow."
He didn't aim at the serpent.
He fired at the cave wall.
BOOM.
Stone exploded. A figure tumbled forward.
A woman in jade armor, her forehead marked by a glowing green third eye—identical to the serpent's.
She hissed.
The snake froze.
Then began to crumble.
Like dust. Like an illusion.
The cave fell silent again—except for Yuji's exhausted breath.
He wiped his mouth and faced the woman as she rose, brushing rubble from her shoulder.
She smiled, cold and amused.
> "Interesting. Without any help... no one has ever detected me. You... are definitely hiding something."
Yuji said nothing.
But his body was shaking. His ring flickered low.
He wasn't ready for a new battle.
But it had already begun.
---
– Possession: THE DARK AWAKENS
Yuji staggered back, breath ragged, as the dust settled from his Shadow Arrow's detonation. The cave quaked slightly, a light tremor echoing through its jagged walls. The explosion had blasted apart a portion of the stone outcrop—and there, amid the crumbled rocks, stood the woman.
Her cloak fluttered in the cave's hot wind, revealing a lean frame wrapped in dark green robes lined with veins of glowing jade. Her long black hair whipped around her shoulders, but what drew Yuji's eyes was the center of her forehead.
A third eye—glowing, pulsating, and eerily similar to the serpent's.
She didn't flinch. Instead, a slow, pleased smirk crossed her lips.
"So," she said, voice like smoke, "without any help… you managed to find me. You were not supposed to pass this trial others won't be kind as me"
Yuji's body was already failing him. His ribs ached, scorched from the serpent's earlier flame strike. Blood trickled down his arm. Every step was a test of will.
The woman tilted her head. "You're definitely hiding something. That eye of yours… and that aura. Interesting."
She lifted her hand. A ripple of green flame coiled around her fingers and leapt forward in a tight spiral, aimed at Yuji's chest.
He dodged—but just barely. The green flame nicked his side, burning through fabric and searing skin. He bit back a cry of pain.
"Damn it…" Yuji hissed, rolling to his feet, blade shaking in his hand. "She's fast. Strong. I won't last long like this."
His ADM Ring blinked.
> EB: 7
The woman circled him, slow and unhurried, like a predator savoring the final steps before a kill.
Yuji's hands trembled. The pain, the exhaustion, the pressure—it was becoming too much. The shadows under his skin began to stir again.
"I don't want to lose control again," he whispered to himself, teeth clenched. "But I don't want to die either."
His eyes closed for a split second.
And then… the Dark Element took over.
It wasn't like the first time.
This time, it welcomed him.
A shiver of black lightning cracked through the cave. Yuji's body convulsed, then straightened. Smoke—dark, liquid-like, alive—poured from his back, swirling around him in chaotic ribbons. His eyes turned fully black, and his skin paled.
He stood up straight, unblinking.
A monstrous aura engulfed the cave.
The woman's eyes widened. "What are you—?"
Yuji moved.
One second, he stood across from her. The next, he was in front of her, faster than her eyes could track. His hand, blackened with coiling shadows, seized her by the forehead.
Right over her third eye.
"No!" she screamed, thrashing. "You can't—!"
Yuji's mouth opened. Dark smoke erupted outward and wrapped around her head like a cyclone.
And then… he began to absorb.
The energy flowed from her third eye, sucked out in waves. Her body trembled violently. Her arms clawed at his grip, but he didn't budge. Her scream filled the cave, long and agonized.
"Stop! Please! I'll tell you everything!" she shrieked. "Just—stop this—!"
But the Dark Element wasn't listening.
Yuji's consciousness floated somewhere behind the storm. He could feel the pain, the horror, the cruelty—but he couldn't stop it. The possession had taken over.
The woman fell to her knees. Her skin withered. Her strength evaporated. Her beautiful face twisted in pain, and tears of blood poured from her third eye as it dimmed—then shattered.
The last sound she made was a whisper.
"…no… more…"
And then—
Silence.
Her body collapsed.
Only bones remained.
The smoke spiraled back into Yuji's chest. His eyes slowly began to clear, returning from pitch black to their normal green hue. His legs buckled. He dropped to one knee.
"What… what did I just…?"
His body trembled violently.
The cave pulsed once, then stilled.
The air was quiet again.
But Yuji's mind… was anything but calm.
The dark energy still swirled inside him—he could feel it. Not angry. Not wild.
Hungry.
And satisfied.
He pressed his hand to his chest, right where the shadow tattoo now glowed faintly. It pulsed once… then faded.
Then the whisper came.
> "You took a step forward. Now the others will follow."
Yuji's hands clenched the ground.
> "What the hell… am I becoming?"
And deep in the back of his mind… something stirred.
A clash. A storm.
And it had only just begun.
---
"Flame of the Mind: When Elements Collide"
Yuji Kazehaya's body collapsed to his knees in the shattered cave. His hands trembled violently, the stone beneath him scorched black and smeared with ashes—the remains of Xiao Yi. Her skeleton had already crumbled, swallowed by wind and silence, but the storm inside Yuji had only just begun.
His vision blurred.
Not from blood.
But from something deeper.
From within.
The 3rd Eye on his forehead pulsed—once… then again—rhythmic and powerful, like a heartbeat disconnected from time. A whisper echoed in his skull, not in any language known to man. The green light flared—brighter than the desert sun—then everything around him shattered.
Not the world.
His mind.
Yuji's consciousness was sucked inward.
He wasn't in the cave anymore. He stood in an infinite black void where stars cracked and wind howled across an invisible horizon. An ocean of shadows stretched beneath his feet, but he didn't sink. He floated—his body stripped of mass, time, and form.
And ahead…
Two forces.
Two versions of himself.
No—two elements.
His Wind Element, on one side—sharp, fast, cloaked in silver-blue gusts that slashed through the air like a thousand blades. It shimmered, ever-flowing, ever-adapting. Its eyes were sky-colored and alive with motion, dressed in a swirling storm of clouds and wings.
Opposite it—his Dark Element. A walking nightmare, cloaked in shadows so thick they swallowed light. It pulsed with menace, its form ever-shifting between shadow limbs and twisted masks. Its eyes burned purple, deep and endless, like twin voids daring the universe to blink.
And between them…
The 3rd Eye.
Hovering in midair—green, glowing, ancient. Alive.
It had no eyelid, no lashes, no face—just that singular, divine iris, staring through all things, judging all things.
The moment the two elements saw it, they surged forward.
> "The Eye is mine!" roared the Wind.
> "I was born from darkness, forged in death—I deserve it!" screamed the Dark.
They collided like titans.
The Wind lashed first—arcs of bladed gusts cutting through shadow, forming a cyclone of chaos. But the Dark swallowed them, reforming its limbs through mist and corruption, retaliating with tendrils of pure fear. They coiled, snapped, tore at each other, unleashing storms that cracked the fabric of Yuji's mental world.
He screamed.
His real body arched in pain back in the cave, eyes wide open, mouth agape—but nothing came out. His muscles twitched violently. Veins bulged. His ADM Ring glitched and sparked.
> EB: 7 → 6 → 5…
Yuji's body was devouring energy trying to survive the elemental war inside him.
Inside the mind realm, he staggered forward, helpless.
He reached for the Eye—desperate to calm it—but the green flame pulsed with divine fury.
It didn't accept his touch.
It judged.
The Wind Element, desperate, created blades of sound—slicing toward the Eye in an attempt to claim dominance.
The Dark Element screamed, forming black spears that shattered even time. Both forces crashed against the Eye—
And were thrown back.
Hard.
Like ants before a god.
The 3rd Eye opened further.
And flames erupted from it.
Not wind. Not shadow. Not anything Yuji had ever known.
It was Green Flame.
But this fire didn't burn.
It didn't sear or consume.
It judged.
The void stilled.
And from the green fire, she appeared.
At first, a silhouette. A walking flame. Then the fire took shape.
A woman.
Tall. Elegant. Her body shimmered like glass refracting emerald light. Hair like falling vines glowed with flowing energy, each strand alive with ethereal motion. Her eyes—impossible to look away from—were green as life itself, burning with neither love nor cruelty, but purpose.
Her skin was flawless—smooth like polished jade, untouched by imperfection or emotion. She didn't breathe. She simply existed—outside the rules of man, beyond elemental origin.
A myth come alive.
Yuji fell to his knees again.
Wind Element froze. The gales around it faltered.
Dark Element stepped back, trembling, its body flickering as if doused in sacred water.
Even shadows can feel fear.
The woman's voice entered the space like a whisper across creation:
> "You are not worthy to own me. Neither of you."
She stepped forward.
> "You, child of air…" she turned to the Wind, "...you flow, you flee, you race—but you do not command."
The Wind Element flickered.
> "And you," she faced the Dark Element, "you destroy, you consume, you rage—but you do not create."
She walked between them, flames trailing behind her in graceful arcs.
> "The 3rd Eye is a gift… and a curse. Not of wind. Not of dark. Not of flame."
She placed her hand upon the Eye.
> "But of truth."
The Eye glowed brighter.
Inside Yuji, something shifted.
The flames didn't burn him. They calmed him.
They began knitting his mind back together.
He felt his body slowly stop spasming. His breath returned. The veins stopped bursting. The blood stopped boiling.
The woman raised both arms.
> "Stabilize," she whispered.
Green light surged outward like a heartbeat across space.
The Wind Element dropped to one knee.
The Dark Element collapsed, groaning, as tendrils pulled back into its core.
Both were forced to kneel—submitting to something beyond their comprehension.
Yuji's body stopped shaking. His mouth closed. His fists clenched.
The divine woman looked at him. Her eyes met his.
> "You will not die here," she said, her voice both ancient and new.
> "But the time is near… when you must choose between them. And when you do…" Her hand hovered before his chest, over the shadow tattoo.
> "...you will lose one forever."
Before Yuji could respond, the flames ignited again—consuming the entire mental space in blinding green fire.
The last thing Yuji saw was her smile. Not soft. Not warm.
But proud.
And then—
Darkness.
He gasped awake.
His chest lifted violently off the stone. The 3rd Eye on his forehead had closed.
The shadow tattoo had vanished.
His limbs felt like glass. His mouth tasted of ash. But his heart—
His heart beat with a rhythm unlike before.
> Not wind. Not dark.
> Something… else.
He didn't know what he had gained.
But he knew what he had survived.
And in this world, that was rare enough.
---
far above the sky someone else was watching and they whispered the 3rd eye has awaken
END OF CHAPTER 19.