It started with the world spinning.
One mont, I was staring at Pixie...my Pixie on her knees beside Venus grandpa, her silver hair stained with blood, horns cutting out of her skull like blades of obsidian.
And then, everything started to blur.
The trees and shrubs around started to bend, and the figures of everyone around started turning blurry.
My stomach dropped as if the ground had tilted beneath .
"Pixie…" I whispered, but my voice sounded far away, echoing back at through thick fog.
I wanted to run to her, to hold her, to protect her from Venus, from whatever this curse was, but my legs felt heavy.
Each drag of breath inside my lungs felt like a big task, and the ringing inside my head grew louder and louder.
That's when it happened.
A sharp gust of mana tore through the air.
My instincts scread at even before my eyes caught the shadow.
One of the elders was speeding at my figure.
A man covered in red and black robes, his face scarred, eyes gleaming with hatred.
He had always despised the Kalki bloodline, cursed them, spat on their na. And now, seeing Pixie like this, broken skin, horns splitting her head, he didn't hesitate.
He broke through Venus's aura suppression like it was nothing more than mist.
And he ca for .
His palm glowed with ao blackish energy, a deadly strike aid straight at my chest.
I barely managed to raise my arms in ti and the collision was like thunder. My body slid back a few ters again.
"NOAH!" Pixie's scream pierced through the haze.
The elder sneered, his voice dripping with venom. "The girl's already a monster. But you? You're worse."
Before I could reply, he lunged at again.
I t him head-on, fists clashing with his claws of mana. The shockwave blasted through the hall, breaking apart the stone pathways beneath us.
But I didn't stop.
I couldn't.
Because behind , Pixie was trembling, broken, and I would never let them touch her.
Venus's voice bood across the hall, sharp and commanding.
"ENOUGH!" His aura swelled, heavier than mountains.
"Stop this at once!"
But it was too late.
More figures appeared, shadows flickering from the corner of my vision as they resisted Venus's suppression and rushed towards my figure.
Other elders.
Other heirs.
Their eyes burned with confusion, fear, and hatred.
So looked at Pixie like she was a nightmare co to life.
Their voices overlapped.
"She's a Hollow!"
"She's cursed!"
"Kill him so there's no one left to protect her!"
"He's a traitor as well!"
And suddenly, it wasn't just one elder.
It was many.
Blades of mana cut through the air.
Bolts of fla and ice spiralled toward .
My body moved on instinct, shield first, then strike, arms screaming with pain as I deflected a spear of light, then twisted to kick another elder back before he could reach .
But my body, I realised.
It wasn't keeping up.
Every second, the fog in my mind thickened.
Every move felt delayed, like I was underwater.
My chest heaved, my vision flickering.
It was happening again.
That sa feeling, the one I hated, the one I feared. The tis when I lost pieces of myself, when I woke up not rembering what I had done. Broken mories of violence, of screams, of blood.
And Damien.
His blue blob of a face flashed in my mind.
The way he always looked at strangely after those blackouts. The way he never explained, never answered, only muttered sothing like, "You really don't rember, do you?"
I never understood.
Until now.
Because deep inside , past the fog, past the panic…a voice stirred.
A voice that wasn't mine.
"Pathetic."
I froze mid-strike, my fist hovering against an elder's jaw.
The voice slithered through like poison, familiar, but sharp and grating.
"Look at you, breaking apart so easily. All this power around you, and you're still nothing.
You can't even protect her."
My chest tightened, fury boiling in my veins.
"Shut up," I muttered under my breath, blocking another slash of mana.
The voice laughed, cold and cruel.
"Don't pretend like you don't need .
Every ti you've survived, every ti you've co out of those fights alive, it wasn't you.
It was ."
"No." My jaw clenched.
I drove my knee into an elder's stomach, sending him crashing into the wall.
"It was . Not you."
The fog pulsed, and suddenly I wasn't just fighting them, I was fighting myself.
Inside my mind, I saw him.
A reflection of . Sa eyes, sa face, but darker. His grin was sharper, his posture dripping with a kind of confidence I didn't have.
He leaned against the broken walls of my mind like this was all a ga.
"Keep lying to yourself," he taunted. "But when you fall…when your body gives out…I'll be the one standing.
Not you."
"Stay out of my way!" I roared, my voice cracking out loud, startling even the elders closest to .
They thought I was shouting at them.
But I wasn't.
I was shouting at him.
The other .
Blood ran down my arm as I caught another strike, redirecting it just enough to keep it from hitting my chest.
My vision distorted again, the world tilting sideways, but I forced myself up, teeth gritted.
I couldn't lose here.
Not in front of her.
I rembered the way Pixie had looked at before. The way her voice shook when she said my na. She didn't run. Even when she turned into, whatever this was…she still ran to .
That ant sothing.
That had to an sothing.
And if I let myself fall now, if I let him take over completely, then what would be left of ?
But the elders weren't slowing.
Their blades grew sharper, their fury louder.
"Kill them both!" one shouted.
"They're hiding the truth!" another spat.
Mana clashed all around , storms of fire and lightning tearing apart the hall. My body scread for rest, my lungs barely working, but I kept moving, fists and kicks landing where they could.
Her sobs cut through the chaos. "Noah… "
I gritted my teeth harder.
My heart beating too fast because of all the action, not from fear, but from sothing deeper.
Sothing breaking.
Inside, the darker version of laughed again.
"You're going to lose, Noah." His grin stretched wide, his eyes glinting.
"And when you do, I'll take everything. Including her."
The thought burned alive.
"No," I hissed, voice low, raw.
His smirk widened. "Then prove it."
The world around shattered into chaos, elders striking from every angle, Venus's voice booming orders no one listened to, Pixie's cries echoing in my chest, and all I could think was:
If I don't hold on now, if I don't fight both them and myself…then everything ends here.
Everything.
And that was when I realised, I couldn't fight this forever.
The fog was swallowing whole.
The question was, when it all ca down it…who would open their eyes in my body?
...or him?
***
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