Moonlight fractures across Otoku's vision as he steps before the shattered mirror and the pale lantern's dying glow. Noctis growls low, but Otoku raises a steady hand. "Enter with me," he whispers, voice echoing strangely in the starlit chamber.
He closes his eyes—and the world tilts. The obsidian walls dissolve into ribbons of smoke and light. Beneath his boots, runes pulse in shifting patterns. Somewhere behind him, Noctis's form flickers.
"When you're ready," Otoku murmurs.
A figure emerges from the haze: himself, yet wrong. His shadow-self stands tall, hair white as Otoku's but eyes a void-black well of regret. Its lips curl in a mockery of his own calm smile.
Shadow-Otoku
"You think you mastered the loop?" it snarls, voice layered with every doubt he's ever felt. "You chained yourself to purpose, but you forgot fear."
Otoku's heart hammers. "Fear doesn't own me," he says softly. Still, the runes beneath his feet turn blood-red in warning.
The duel begins not with blades, but with a clash of memories. Otoku reaches into his mind—and the corridor behind him morphs into the Wailing Wastes. Scarlet sands swirl around them as phantom winds whisper of his mother's last breaths.
Shadow-Otoku
"Lirael's blood was spilled for naught," it hisses. "Each loop you broke… only damned more souls."
Otoku steels himself against the tide of guilt. He forces his gaze forward. "No. Every life I've touched I've tried to save." He thrusts out a hand, and void-light ripples like black silk across the sand.
The shadow recoils, then lashes out—striking the ground with a flaming fist that turns dunes to ash. Otoku vaults back, summoning the Companion. Its pages flip open to the True Sigil, glowing gold and violet. Words form on the air:
> "By mercy earned and courage proven, I forge my soul anew."
He speaks the incantation, and a surge of combined flame and void sweeps toward the shadow. The figure wavers, flickering between friend and foe.
**
The chamber shifts again—now a frozen courtyard under winter's hush. Iseri's voice calls out, ringing with concern and warmth. Otoku sees her, Maeve, and Korrin beyond a sea of ice. They hold out their hands, tethering him to reality.
Otoku (softly to himself)
"I am not alone."
He draws strength from their solidarity. With a roar that blends flame's heat and void's gravity, he charges. His blade arcs in a comet's trail, striking the shadow-self's chest. Instead of shattering, the figure freezes—tears of ice forming where its heart should be.
A voice trembles through the mirror-world: "Choose now: let the mirror crack your soul, or let your will heal it."
Otoku lifts his blade, but does not strike again. Instead, he presses its flat against the shadow's frozen tear. He closes his eyes and speaks with unwavering resolve:
> "By light embraced and shadow faced, I claim both in unity."
A brilliant flash. Ice fractures, ash dissipates, sands dissolve—until only Otoku remains, kneeling on living stone. The mirror-world dissolves into moonlight once more, the Obsidian Chamber restored. Noctis's purr echoes in his mind, and Arthelia's gentle hand rests on his shoulder.
Maeve steps from the archway, mask discarded, tears of relief glinting. "You've healed the fracture," she whispers. "The loop bends to your will—not your fear."
Otoku rises, offering her a small, weary smile. "We walk forward together."
On the floor, the cracked mirror awaits, but its shards now glow with gold and violet runes—the loop's true seal, forged by heart and mind alike.