"When you can't break the warrior's blade… you shatter the hand that holds it."
---
📍 Galthan Hold – Surface Encampment
Kael sat near the fire, his skin pale and marked with faint glowing lines—residue from the chain fusion.
Syl watched him in silence.
Since they returned from the crypt, something in her thoughts felt… wrong.
> [System Alert: Emotional Feedback Distorted – Source Unknown]
[Memory Threads: Slight Desynchronization Detected]
But the system gave no further clarification.
She shook her head and turned away.
From the shadows of a broken pillar, a reflection blinked.
Vel'Zhara smiled.
---
📍 Mirror Nexus – Mindlace Chamber
Vel'Zhara sat before a massive web of crystalized thought—each thread pulsing with memory.
> "Direct battle?" she murmured. "Wasteful."
"But if I change what he loves… if I rewrite her…"
She focused on Syl's thread.
Not to erase her. But to twist her loyalty.
A single fracture in a chain was all it took for the rest to fall.
---
📍 Meanwhile – Southern Border
A covert team from Guild Dragoon moved silently through the hills. Five elite hunters. Orders: Terminate Kael at all costs.
Their leader, Raik Zellan, held a relic compass glowing faintly toward Kael's location.
"He's unstable," Raik growled. "The Arcontes are converging. We end this before he brings them all here."
---
📍 Galthan Encampment – Midnight
Myrla ran diagnostics on Kael's condition.
"His vitals are fine, but the energy signature around him is mutating," she said. "This class… it's not meant to exist."
Kael opened his eyes. "It wasn't meant to… but it will."
Suddenly—
> [Disturbance Detected: Conscious Rift – Target: Syl]
[External Mental Manipulation: Traced to ARCONTE ENTITY – Vel'Zhara]
Kael stood sharply. "Where is she?"
They found Syl outside the camp… staring into a mirror shard buried in stone.
"Syl!" Kael called.
She didn't move.
Her eyes shimmered—distorted. As if her memories were bleeding.
He grabbed her.
> [Override: Shadow Chain – Soul Anchor Activated]
Light flared. The mirror shattered.
Syl gasped, then collapsed into Kael's arms.
"I saw her…" she whispered. "Red hair. Eyes like broken glass. She said… you're the weapon that ends us all."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Vel'Zhara."
---
📍 Guild Dragoon Strike Team – Near Encampment
Raik raised his hand. "I see them. Visual confirmation."
They prepared for assault.
But then—
The trees twisted.
The shadows moved.
And Kael stepped out of them, eyes glowing like twin storms.
> [Skill Activated: Shadow Requiem – Lvl 2]
[Condition: Broken Bonds Detected – Boost Engaged]
Kael didn't speak.
He unleashed his chain.
It didn't wrap… it tore.
One by one, the assassins fell.
Only Raik remained—gasping, blade shaking.
Kael approached.
But didn't strike.
"You were sent by Ezrien?"
Raik nodded.
Kael turned away.
"Then tell her this: if she wants me dead… she'll have to face me herself."
---
📍 Final Scene – Mirror Nexus
Vel'Zhara watched her broken mirror.
She didn't look angry.
She laughed.
"Good," she whispered. "He resists well."
She turned to the growing number of fractured minds in her dominion.
"But let's see what happens… when he starts to doubt himself."
Her eyes glowed with infinite timelines.
And in one of them, Kael knelt in defeat.
She smiled.
---
📌 *Next Chapter: Chapter 29 – A Blade Named Doubt