CHAPTER 17 — ADRIAN VS. THE SILHOUETTE OF RIN
The world exploded.
The silhouette blurred forward in a streak of black lightning—silent, merciless, impossibly fast. Adrian barely had time to raise his arms before the shadow-blade crashed against him. Sparks danced across the concrete. Adrian slid backward, boots screeching against the ground, every muscle straining under the force of the strike.
CLANG!!!
The blade slammed down again—Adrian dodged by inches, feeling the wind of the slash cut across his cheek like ice. This wasn't Rin's fighting style. Rin used sharp, precise movements—calculated steps of a disciplined assassin.
This thing moved like a nightmare with Rin's skeleton.
Unpredictable. Unrestrained. Wrong.
Adrian rolled to the side and sprang up, summoning a burst of red aura around his fists. His heartbeat roared like thunder.
The silhouette straightened, head tilting in its eerie, broken motion. "Your hesitation slows you."
Adrian spat blood. "You're not him."
"Yet you keep seeing him."
Adrian lunged, fist blazing in crimson light. His knuckles connected with the silhouette's jaw, sending the figure spinning. Its body hit the wall and shattered into black mist—
—only to reform instantly behind him.
Adrian felt cold metal graze the back of his neck.
Adriana screamed from across the chamber, still pinned by the shockwave's pressure.
"ADRIAN, MOVE!"
He ducked instinctively—just as the blade sliced through the air where his head had been.
The silhouette's whisper pressed against his ear:
"I know all your openings."
Adrian kicked upward, hitting the silhouette's ribs. For a moment the air rippled, the shadow form flickering. The attack had connected. Hard.
Adrian's instincts flared.
Good. He can be hit. He can be hurt.
The silhouette drifted back, head lowering like a predator reassessing its prey.
"You strike like him," it murmured. "But you fear like a child."
Adrian's teeth ground together. "Say one more thing in his voice. See what happens."
A soft, hollow laugh.
"Very well."
The silhouette's form twisted. The shadow deepened around its face, and for a horrifying second… the illusion sharpened.
The eyes brightened.
The outline of a smile formed.
"Adrian," it whispered in Rin's exact tone, "you still can't save anyone."
Something snapped inside him.
Adrian charged.
His fist smashed into the silhouette's face so hard the entire basement shook. Shadow burst outward in a violent shock of black smoke. Adrian didn't stop—he punched again, and again, driving the thing backward with flaming arcs of red aura trailing each strike.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The silhouette raised its blade, parrying the blows, sparks flying like shattered stars.
Adrian roared, swinging a hook that cracked the blade in half.
The silhouette froze.
Then its voice dropped lower—cold enough to fracture bone:
"You're beginning to awaken."
---
THE ALTERNATE TWINS RISE
Across the room, Blue Adrian slammed his hand against the floor.
"Stabilizing systems—reactivating dimensional shielding—NOW!"
The symbols glowing around him expanded, forming a protective barrier around the twins. The crushing darkness loosened. Crimson Adriana sprang to her feet, her crimson aura blazing violently around her.
"That's it. I'm done watching."
She unleashed a barrage of crimson chains toward the silhouette—but the chains disintegrated midair, sliced apart before they even reached the target.
"What—!?"
Blue Adrian's eyes widened.
"He's cutting through your abilities before they fully manifest. He's predicting them."
Adriana growled, rising next.
"He's using Rin's memory of Adrian's reactions to read all our timing!"
Blue Adrian nodded grimly.
"That means Adrian is the only one he can't predict."
Adrian didn't hear them.
He didn't need to.
Every fiber of his body was locked on the silhouette as they clashed again in a blur of speed that made the air scream.
---
THE FIGHT ASCENDS
The shadow lunged, blade regrown, slicing downward with enough force to split the floor. Adrian leapt backward, flipping off a broken pillar, kicking off the wall to launch himself forward again.
Their auras collided—black vs. crimson.
The explosion sent dust spiraling into storms across the room.
The silhouette staggered back, one knee dipping.
Adrian didn't wait.
He rushed in, fists blazing—
The silhouette vanished.
Adrian skidded to a halt.
No sound.
No breath.
No presence.
Just emptiness.
Then—
The shadow reappeared behind him, blade already descending.
Adrian spun. Too slow.
The blade slashed across his side.
Red blood streaked the floor.
Adrian hissed through his teeth, clutching the wound. The pain was real. Deep. Burning. But he kept his stance, raising his fists again.
The silhouette tilted its head, studying the blood dripping from its sword.
"You bleed like him too."
Adrian's voice cracked with fury.
"SHUT. UP."
He lunged.
This time he didn't punch.
He grabbed the silhouette's arm mid-swing, twisting the blade sideways. With raw force, he slammed his forehead into the figure's skull.
The silhouette's head snapped back.
Adrian hooked his arm around its neck, lifting it off the ground before slamming it to the concrete so hard the ground cratered.
Dust blasted outward.
The alternate twins shielded themselves.
Blue Adrian whispered in awe,
"He's matching the Silhouette. That shouldn't be possible."
Crimson Adriana cracked her knuckles.
"He's not matching him. He's surpassing him."
The silhouette rose slowly… its shadow form glitching with jagged distortions.
It placed a hand over its chest.
"You hold more power than the other Adrians. More grief. More rage. More… potential."
Adrian raised his fists. "Then stop talking and fight."
"Oh," the silhouette whispered, smiling wide, "I intend to."
---
THE SILHOUETTE UNLEASHES
The shadow flickered—
—then erupted into a black vortex.
The basement trembled violently. Pipes burst from the ceiling. Darkness swallowed the room like a tidal wave.
Blue Adrian shouted, "HE'S ENTERING PHASE TWO! EVERYONE, SHIELDS UP!"
The alternate Adrians raised their energy barriers while the alternate Adrianas summoned weapons, but the shadow's pressure crushed them back.
Adrian alone remained standing.
The silhouette emerged from the vortex, now towering, its eyes glowing with hollow white fire.
"Adrian," it said,
"This is the beginning of your Awakening… and the end of your resistance."
It raised its blade.
Adrian inhaled—
—then roared, aura exploding around him in a burst of bright crimson flame.
They charged at the same time.
Black and red collided.
CRASH!!!
The shockwave ripped through the entire basement, shattering concrete pillars and sending arcs of dark lightning screaming across the walls.
The fight was no longer a clash.
It was a war.
---
THE SHADOW SPEAKS THE TRUTH
Blow after blow, slash after slash, the room shook as two forces—one made of despair, one made of burning resolve—battled in perfect, terrifying symmetry.
Finally, the silhouette caught Adrian's wrist mid-punch, stopping him dead.
"You are still holding back."
Adrian gasped, struggling to break free. "I'm not—"
"Yes you are."
The silhouette leaned close.
"You still believe Rin is alive."
Adrian froze.
The breath left his lungs.
The silhouette tightened its grip.
"Your heart expects him to walk into the room. To say your name again. To laugh. To fight beside you." Its voice grew softer. "But he won't."
Adrian trembled.
"Stop…"
"Rin Kaito is dead."
Adrian struck suddenly, headbutting the shadow so hard it exploded into mist. He lurched forward, panting, shaking from the inside out.
Adriana screamed from behind him:
"Adrian, don't listen! He's trying to break you!"
The silhouette reformed in front of him.
"No," it said, "I'm revealing you."
It pointed at Adrian's heart.
"The Adrian across dimensions who cannot accept loss. The one who refuses fate. The one who breaks timelines just by existing."
The alternate twins went silent.
The silhouette lifted its blade.
"YOU are the anomaly."
Adrian's eyes widened.
"What…?"
"You are the Adrian who was never meant to survive."
Adrian staggered back.
His pulse stopped.
The silhouette raised its sword high.
"Now—AWAKEN."
It swung...