The rain had stopped hours ago, but the echo of its rhythm still clung to the walls of the abandoned research district. Eryon stood beneath a flickering streetlight, breath slow, hands trembling—not from fear, but from the Mind Pressure building behind his eyes.
Ever since the last confrontation with the Manifested Phantom in Chapter 6, something inside him had changed.
A door…
A thin mental veil…
A line that should never be crossed…
It felt cracked.
Lira stepped beside him, her hood soaked, her eyes reflecting worry.
"You're hearing it again, aren't you?"
Eryon didn't answer immediately.
He didn't need to.
The whispers inside him answered for him.
Let me out.
I've waited long enough.
You saw what you can become.
The voice wasn't external.
It wasn't a hallucination.
It was… him.
His Helunsntion Counterpart.
His "Second Self," formed from the disease—
the self that manifested what he feared most.
"I'm fine," Eryon finally lied.
Lira didn't believe him—but she was too exhausted to argue.
Tonight was not just any night.
It was The Whispered Order's Ritual Night, the night they would attempt to tear the mental veil, opening the Rift that separated consciousness from manifestation.
If they succeeded…
Manifestations would no longer need a human mind.
They would walk freely.
---
THE ORDER GATHERS
The abandoned city hall was alive.
Torches burned with cold blue fire.
The cultists—the Whispered Order—stood in perfect formation, black hoods bowing to a towering mural on the wall:
The Symbol of Helunsntion—
an eye enclosed in a spiral of teeth-like concentric rings.
But tonight, something was different.
The room felt… hungry.
A tall man stepped forward.
Kael.
Eryon's closest friend.
His brother figure.
The one who helped him survive Manifestation attacks in Chapter 2.
The one who saved his life in Chapter 4.
And the one whose face now held no emotion.
He placed a hand on the mural.
"I bring the one you want," Kael whispered.
Behind him, dragging a limp body chained with psychic seals—
Dr. Navien.
The only scientist who truly understood Helunsntion.
Kael's voice echoed through the hall:
"The mind of a researcher.
The mind of a heretic.
The mind that once tried to cure the disease.
Tonight, he opens the gate he tried to close."
The cultists cheered silently—
a horrifying coordinated inhale.
The ritual had begun.
---
ERYON'S VISION BREAKS
Back outside, Eryon suddenly staggered.
His vision flashed—
not white, not black—
but the color of shifting consciousness.
Mental Rift Bleed.
His weakness.
The moment he pushed his power too far, manifestations would
slip into reality.
He grabbed his temples, kneeling as Lira panicked.
"Eryon!"
He saw…
Kael.
The ritual.
Dr. Navien screaming.
The mural pulsing like a living organ.
And then—
A beast made of Eryon's own childhood fears, towering, roaring with a mouth that wasn't a mouth.
"What do you see!?" Lira shouted.
"My mind," Eryon whispered. "Breaking."
---
THE MANIFESTATION BEAST APPEARS
The ground cracked.
A hand the size of a man's torso erupted from the concrete.
Then a head—distorted, skin shifting like liquid static.
A creature built from—
Eryon's traumatic memory at age 7
The shadow he thought lived under his bed
The monster his parents swore didn't exist
But in his mind…
it never died.
Now it stood before him.
A Manifestation Beast created directly from Eryon's subconscious.
This was no ordinary phantom.
This was a Tier Breaker—
a creature that emerges only when someone stands on the threshold between Mind Tier and Echo Tier.
Lira unsheathed her blade, Manifestation energy glowing along its edge.
"Eryon, control it!"
"I CAN'T!"
His voice cracked.
"This one… this one was me before I even understood fear."
The beast roared.
And the fight began.
---
ERYON AWAKENS — ECHO TIER
As the monster leaped, Eryon's heartbeat synchronized with the whispers inside him.
Open the door.
Accept me.
We are two halves of the same broken thought.
Lightning-like fissures spread in the air—pure mental force, bending reality around his hands.
Eryon's power surged.
Not physical.
Not magical.
But conceptual.
The air vibrated with his rising frequency.
Mind Tier → Echo Tier (Awakening)
A shimmering after-image appeared behind him—
a shadow figure identical to him in shape, but featureless.
His Echo Self.
Lira gasped.
"You're ascending! Right here!?"
The beast roared again, charging.
Eryon raised his hand.
His voice was calm.
Deep.
Mixed with another voice—the voice inside him.
"You were born from me.
Tonight…
you return to me."
The Echo Self extended its arm.
A pulse of psychic energy exploded outward.
The street shattered.
The beast was thrown back—its body ripping apart into streams of consciousness before reforming.
It was regenerating.
And it was smiling.
---
THE RITUAL INTENSIFIES
Inside the city hall, the Whispered Order began chanting:
Khethur… Veh-Lun… Nashiri… Helunsntion…
Kael raised a ceremonial blade.
Dr. Navien screamed as the blade touched his skin—not cutting flesh, but cutting his memories.
"Your mind will be the key," Kael whispered.
He showed no hesitation.
No guilt.
No remorse.
This was his purpose.
He wasn't corrupted.
He wasn't brainwashed.
He believed in the ritual.
Behind him, the Symbol began to rotate—
the eye opening—
the spiral expanding—
Reality bending as if the wall were breathing.
---
ERYON'S COUNTERPART SPEAKS
Back at the battle—
The manifestation beast pinned Eryon down.
Claws dug into him.
The Echo Self flickered.
Lira shouted his name, trying to break the creature's hold, but the beast swatted her away, sending her crashing into a ruined car.
Eryon felt the breath leave his lungs—
and then the world froze.
The rain suspended mid-air.
The creature frozen above him.
Even his heartbeat slowed until it was almost silent.
A figure walked out of the darkness.
Eryon's breath hitched.
It was…
him.
But older.
Sharper.
Eyes glowing with infinite calm.
The Helunsntion Counterpart.
The "Hidden Self."
The one formed entirely from the disease.
The one that whispered to him since Chapter 1.
"Eryon," the counterpart said softly, kneeling.
"You cannot win if you keep fearing what you can become."
Eryon looked away.
"You're not real."
"I am as real as the fear that birthed me."
The counterpart held out his hand.
"Accept me, and you rise.
Reject me, and you die."
Time resumed.
The beast's claws dropped—
Time resumed—
and the beast's claws dropped toward Eryon's skull.
But this time, he didn't flinch.
His counterpart's words echoed inside him:
"Accept me."
Eryon exhaled slowly.
And for the first time, he didn't resist the voice inside him.
He let the fear settle
instead of pushing it away,
let the broken pieces of his mind come together,
let the whispers grow louder—
until they became a single, unified frequency.
The moment he accepted the counterpart's presence…
the world shifted.
---
ERYON + COUNTERPART = DUAL MIND STATE
A blinding ripple rolled through the street.
Lira shielded her eyes.
The Manifestation beast staggered backward in confusion.
Eryon rose—
but not as he was before.
His Echo Self no longer flickered.
It stood solid behind him, seamlessly mirroring his breathing, posture, and aura — as if connected by an invisible mental bloodstream.
The counterpart's voice blended with his own:
"Dual Mind State activated."
This was a rare state only awakened users could enter —
the moment when the real self and the manifested self finally worked in perfect mental harmony.
His eyes glowed with split irises—
one human, one shimmering with mental energy.
The beast snarled, sensing danger.
Eryon raised a single hand.
The air folded.
A shockwave—pure condensed thought—launched the beast back through a building wall.
Lira stared, stunned.
"You… you've never used a technique like that before."
Eryon didn't answer.
His voice carried two tones now—
his own and the counterpart's.
"I wasn't ready before."
He stepped forward, the ground bending under his aura.
"But tonight… the city will tremble with me."
---
MANIFESTED BEAST RETURNS STRONGER
But Manifestations never died easily.
Especially those born from deep childhood fear.
The rubble shook violently.
Shadows thickened.
And then—
A second form crawled out.
The beast had evolved.
Its new body resembled a skeletal serpent fused with human limbs, rows of teeth forming in places teeth should never be.
Its eyes were now identical to Eryon's Echo Self.
Lira's grip tightened on her blade.
"It adapted to your awakening…"
"Yes."
Eryon's tone was calm.
That was exactly why he needed to finish this.
---
FIGHT: DUAL MIND STYLE VS FEAR BEAST
The beast lunged.
Eryon vanished.
A blink later, he appeared above it, descending with a strike that wasn't physical at all—
a Thought Pulse.
The pulse hit the beast directly, flattening a ten-meter radius.
But the creature regenerated again, tendrils lashing out like living memories.
One tendril wrapped around Eryon's wrist—
and suddenly he wasn't on the street anymore.
He was in his childhood room.
Dark.
Silent.
The monster under the bed breathing.
Lira saw his eyes turn empty.
"IT'S TRYING TO TRAP HIM!" she shouted.
She sprinted toward Eryon—
but the beast blocked her path.
---
INSIDE ERYON'S MIND
Eryon stood barefoot in the room where his fear was born.
A small voice echoed.
"Don't turn around… don't look."
Little Eryon, age 7, sat trembling in the corner.
"Do you remember?" the child whispered.
"You created me."
The counterpart stood behind adult Eryon.
"This is where you first broke," it said.
Adult Eryon clenched his fists.
"I'm not afraid of this anymore."
"You are," the child said.
"And that's why I still exist."
The bed creaked.
The original monster—the first version—slid out.
It was smaller than the current one, but somehow more horrifying—
because this was the pure version of the fear, untouched, undiluted.
Its voice sounded like rusted metal scraping.
Stay in the dark with me… forever…
Eryon felt his hands tremble.
His breathing quickened.
The child version smirked.
"See? You're still afraid."
The counterpart spoke behind him softly:
"Fear is not weakness."
Eryon looked up.
"Then what is it?"
"Fear," the counterpart said, "is a direction."
For the first time, Eryon understood.
The beast he was fighting wasn't a monster.
It was a memory begging to be acknowledged.
He approached the little version of himself.
The child backed away.
"No. Don't. Don't touch me. You forgot me. You left me alone."
Eryon knelt.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I didn't know how to help you."
The child stared at him—
confusion replacing fear.
"I'm here now," Eryon said.
"You don't have to fight anymore."
He touched the child's shoulder.
The room shattered.
---
BACK IN REALITY — POWER PEAK
Eryon's body erupted with mental light.
The tentacle holding him disintegrated.
The evolved beast screeched, sensing its death.
Eryon stood tall, aura blazing like pure consciousness made visible.
Lira gasped.
His Echo Self merged partly into his back—
a half-fusion, temporary but insanely powerful.
"Echo Fusion…" she whispered.
"That's… that's a high-tier technique."
Eryon lifted his hand.
His voice was steady.
"No more running from myself."
---
THE FINAL STRIKE
The beast sprinted.
Eryon didn't move.
Instead—
the counterpart within him whispered:
"Thought Sever."
A technique beyond normal Echo Tier.
A conceptual attack that slices the link between a Manifestation and its anchor.
Eryon raised one finger.
A thin, shimmering line extended from his fingertip—
like a crack in reality.
He swung it horizontally.
No sound.
No explosion.
Just silence.
Then—
The beast split apart.
Cleanly.
Effortlessly.
Its body dissolved into black dust, returning to the mental plane from where it came.
Lira collapsed to her knees, overwhelmed.
"You… killed it?"
Eryon turned.
His expression unreadable.
"I released it."
His aura dimmed slightly as the fusion faded.
He helped Lira stand.
"We need to reach the ritual site."
Lira nodded.
Her hands were still shaking.
"What about your counterpart? Is it still—"
"Inside," Eryon said.
"But under control. For now."
He didn't mention the truth:
Every time he used Dual Mind State…
the counterpart grew stronger.
---
AT THE RITUAL SITE — THE WORST REVELATION
They reached the abandoned city hall.
The doors were sealed shut with psychic chains.
Lira stepped back.
"You can cut them, right?"
Eryon nodded.
He focused—
and the chains shattered like glass.
They entered.
And froze.
The Whispered Order stood in a circle.
Hoods lowered.
Eyes glowing.
Kael stood at the center.
The real Kael—
friend, ally, brother—
now wearing the cult's black sigil over his heart.
Dr. Navien knelt before him, nearly unconscious.
Kael's voice was calm.
"You're late, Eryon."
Eryon's fists clenched.
"Why… Kael? Why join them?"
Kael smiled.
"I didn't join them. I formed them."
Lira's heart stopped.
"What…?"
Eryon felt something break inside him.
Kael lifted the ceremonial blade.
"You were the first Helunsntion prototype.
But I… I was the perfect one."
The mural behind him—the Symbol—
opened its eye wider than ever before.
Kael spread his arms.
"And tonight, Eryon…
we open the Rift."
---
KAEL'S TRUE POWER REVEALS
A wave of psychic force blasted outward.
Cultists knelt.
The room distorted.
Kael's aura rose—
not Mind Tier
not Echo Tier
but something far deeper.
Eryon's eyes widened.
"No… that's…"
Lira whispered the unthinkable:
"Rift Tier."
Kael smiled.
"Let's finish what we started, brother."
Eryon's counterpart whispered inside him:
You cannot defeat him alone.
Eryon's eyes hardened.
"I know."
He stepped forward.
The mural shook—
the walls trembled—
and the city lights flickered outside.
The Mind Behind the Wall…
was waking up.
The moment Kael revealed his truth, the air changed.
Not metaphorically — literally.
The torches along the walls burned sideways.
Shadows bent in impossible angles.
The stone floor rippled like it was made of liquid thoughts.
This was the unmistakable pressure of a Rift Tier Awakener.
Lira swallowed hard, frozen between terror and disbelief.
"Kael… you're Rift Tier… already?"
Kael laughed softly, almost pitying.
"'Already'? Lira… I awakened years before either of you even knew this disease existed."
He didn't raise his voice.
He didn't need to.
His presence alone filled the hall like a god descending.
---
ERYON FEELS THE GAP
Eryon tightened his fists.
His Echo Tier awakening had been overwhelming, painful, universe-shaking…
But compared to Kael's aura, it felt like standing in the shadow of a mountain.
The counterpart inside him whispered:
Do not fear the gulf.
Fear what he seeks to cross.
Eryon took a breath.
"We're stopping the ritual.
You know this is madness."
Kael tilted his head slightly, as if analyzing Eryon's very thoughts.
"You still don't understand, brother. The world is already broken. The ritual isn't madness… it's medicine."
He stepped aside, revealing the mural behind him — the Symbol of Helunsntion.
The eye at its center pulsed with a slow, unnatural rhythm.
"One push," Kael said.
"One tear in the barrier… and all of humanity's suppressed thoughts will be freed."
Eryon felt the hall vibrate.
"Freed?" he said. "Or unleashed?"
Kael smiled.
"Is there a difference?"
---
THE MURAL BREATHES
The symbol expanded, each spiral ring rotating independently like the gears of an ancient cosmic machine.
Lira backed away.
"That… that thing is alive…"
Kael spread his arms.
"It's not alive.
It's awake."
Eryon felt the mental pressure increase — not just on the mind, but on memory, on identity, on the concept of self.
Kael walked toward them with calm, steady steps.
"You thought your awakening was special, Eryon.
But you were a prototype.
I was the finished design."
Eryon's breath shook.
A part of him still didn't believe any of this.
This was his best friend — the person he trusted after losing everything.
Lira whispered:
"Be careful.
He's talking like a god now."
Kael smirked.
"Not a god.
A witness."
And with a flick of his fingers —
the entire hall fractured like a mirror.
---
REALITY SPLITS
Eryon reacted instantly.
He shielded Lira.
His Echo Self extended behind him, its arms forming a second barrier.
But Kael's Rift Force was different.
It wasn't an attack on the body.
It was an attack on their perception.
Colors inverted.
Time stuttered.
Shadows detached from their owners.
The floor folded into staircases that led nowhere.
Kael stood at the center, untouched, unbothered.
"This is the threshold of the Rift," he said calmly.
"The place between thought and form."
Lira struggled to stand.
"I… can't… ground myself…"
Eryon held her hand.
"Stay with me."
His counterpart spoke inside him:
He is manipulating conceptual gravity.
You must anchor your mind to a single belief.
Eryon whispered:
"I won't lose her."
Lira blinked, focus snapping back for a moment.
Kael watched them with mild interest.
"Still clinging to attachments?
That's the only reason you haven't ascended further."
Eryon glared.
"If cutting ties is what awakened you… then I'd rather stay weak."
Kael smiled.
"You won't have a choice."
---
THE FIRST CLASH — ECHO VS RIFT
Kael raised a hand.
The air rippled violently.
"Let's test your new strength, brother."
Eryon braced himself.
The first Rift Pulse hit like a shockwave of pure thought, slamming into him and shattering the ground beneath his feet.
His Echo Self split into two silhouettes, then reforged itself.
Eryon staggered.
Lira was knocked backward into a pillar.
Kael walked forward, amused.
"I didn't even use one percent."
Eryon clenched his jaw.
His counterpart hissed inside him:
Do not meet his force head-on.
Redirect it.
Eryon nodded subtly.
Kael snapped his fingers again.
Another wave of Rift Pressure surged.
This time Eryon moved.
Instead of blocking it, he folded his Echo aura at the moment of impact — not resisting, but bending the pressure around him.
The floor behind Eryon exploded in a crater.
Kael paused.
"Oh?"
A small smile tugged at his lips.
"You learned."
He rushed forward, movements so sharp they left afterimages.
Eryon countered with his Echo Self, striking with synchronized motions — two bodies, one mind.
Their clash rippled the air.
Kael deflected both attacks with a single gesture.
"You've grown," Kael said.
Then he whispered:
"Grow more."
He vanished.
---
THE SECOND CLASH — MEMORY VS MEMORY
Kael appeared behind Eryon.
His hand tapped Eryon's spine.
Eryon's vision blurred —
and suddenly he wasn't in the hall anymore.
He was in his childhood home again.
Fire.
Screams.
His parents' voices.
Kael's hand gripping his younger self's shoulder.
"No…" Eryon whispered. "Not this memory…"
Kael's voice spoke from everywhere and nowhere:
"Do you know why pain strengthens?
Because it anchors growth."
The flames intensified.
Eryon's counterpart materialized beside him, calm as ever.
He's forcing you to confront a sealed memory.
We must break his control, not the memory.
Eryon passed through the burning doorway.
He saw the one thing he had forgotten—
Kael was there.
Inside the memory.
Watching him.
Smiling.
Lira's voice echoed faintly, distant:
"ERYON! WAKE UP!"
Kael appeared beside the burning window, hands folded behind his back.
"You didn't simply find me, Eryon," Kael said gently.
"I was placed with you. I was meant to guide your growth."
Eryon's eyes widened.
"You… were in the program?"
Kael nodded.
"We were both created to host Helunsntion.
But you — you were too emotional.
Too compassionate.
Too human."
His smile faded.
"I embraced the disease.
You denied it.
That's why I surpassed you."
The counterpart inside Eryon spoke:
He is trying to make you break.
Eryon stepped forward.
"I'm not breaking.
I'm remembering."
He clenched his fists.
"This memory… doesn't control me anymore."
The flames froze.
The memory cracked.
And shattered.
---
BACK IN REALITY — ERYON STANDS STRONGER
Eryon gasped as he returned to the hall.
His aura blazed brighter.
Lira rushed to him.
"You're back— I thought he trapped you forever!"
Eryon wiped blood from his lip.
"I'm not falling again."
Kael watched him with genuine surprise.
"You're adapting faster than expected."
Eryon stepped forward.
"No more illusions," he said.
"No more games."
Kael lifted the ceremonial blade.
"Oh, Eryon…
this was all a warm-up."
---
THE RITUAL NEARS COMPLETION
The mural's eye opened fully.
A beam of mental light shot upward into the ceiling, splitting it apart.
Outside, the sky twisted—
clouds bending into spirals, lightning striking in patterns, not lines.
The cultists began chanting in a unified whisper:
He-lun-sntion…
He-lun-sntion…
Open… open… open…
The room vibrated.
Dr. Navien lifted his head weakly.
"Eryon… stop him…
he wants to summon… the Mind Behind the Wall…"
Kael placed a hand on Navien's head.
"Hush."
Eryon's aura surged.
"You're hurting him!"
Kael shrugged.
"He served his purpose."
---
KAEL SHOWS HIS REAL POWER
He turned, raising his blade toward the mural.
"Time to open the Rift."
Eryon moved instantly.
"LIRA! STOP HIM!"
Lira sprinted at full speed.
Kael didn't even glance her way.
He flicked one finger.
Lira was thrown back violently, slamming into a column.
"Lira!" Eryon shouted.
Kael stepped toward the mural.
The counterpart inside Eryon growled:
If he opens that Rift, every suppressed fear in this world will manifest.
Eryon sprinted forward, using Echo Dash, leaving afterimages behind him.
Kael raised the blade.
"Tonight," he said,
"we rewrite reality."
Eryon tackled him—
but the moment they collided, Kael unleashed a shockwave of Rift Frequency so powerful that—
The entire hall exploded outward.
Stone.
Wood.
Metal.
All dissolved into flowing thought-like matter.
Eryon hit the ground, sliding through collapsing debris.
He pushed himself up, coughing.
The mural still glowed.
Kael still stood.
And the sky outside the shattered ceiling was no longer normal.
The Rift was opening.
---
THE FINAL WARNING — COUNTERPART SPEAKS CLEARLY
Inside Eryon's mind, the counterpart spoke with urgency:
Eryon. Listen to me.
If he completes this…
the world will drown in its own subconscious.
Eryon steadied himself.
"Then we stop him."
You cannot, not alone.
Eryon looked around.
Lira was struggling to stand.
Navien was nearly unconscious.
The cultists were chanting louder.
He whispered:
"Then what do I do?"
The counterpart stepped forward inside his mindscape.
Ascend.
Eryon froze.
"That… that would push me beyond Echo Tier—"
Into Rift Tier.
Eryon shook his head.
"No. I just awakened Echo Tier. My body… my mind… they won't handle it."
You don't have a choice.
The counterpart looked him directly in the eyes.
Become what you fear… or watch him become what the world cannot survive.
Eryon's heartbeat thundered.
He looked at Kael —
his brother,
his friend,
his greatest threat.
He took a breath.
"Fine."
He closed his eyes.
"I'm ready."
The counterpart smiled.
Then let us break the wall.
Eryon's aura erupted.
Kael turned.
For the first time —
for a tiny moment —
his expression shifted.
Surprise.
"The Breath Under the Earth"**
The tunnel twisted downward like a dying serpent, its stone ribs tightening with every step. Eryon pressed a hand against the wall — it pulsed faintly, as if breathing. That wasn't natural. That wasn't human.
That was Helunsntion resonance.
Kael walked behind him, silent, tense, carrying the unconscious wounded boy they had rescued moments earlier. The Whispered Order symbol etched into the child's skin still glowed faintly, like an ember refusing to die.
Navira remained ahead, blades drawn, eyes scanning the dark.
Her voice was low.
"Something's following us."
Eryon didn't need to ask who.
The Manifested One.
It had taken shape from the panic, fear, and unresolved visions inside the dying cultists' minds. A creature born from the memory they refused to face — a walking Helunsntion shadow.
Eryon exhaled slowly, activating Mind Thread Vision.
Lines of unseen thought spiraled across the stone, weaving a web of anxiety-heavy echoes.
"Left," Eryon whispered.
Navira didn't question him anymore. She cut sharply left, dragging the group into a collapsed altar chamber. Broken statues lay like dead gods, their eyeless faces cracked open.
Kael laid the injured boy on the floor, checking his pulse.
"He's fading."
Eryon knelt beside the boy.
The child's eyelids shivered violently.
Helunsntion Overload.
"Hold him," Eryon ordered.
Kael pinned the boy's arms gently. Navira pressed her hands onto his legs. The boy's back arched.
And then—
His eyes snapped open.
Black.
Entirely black.
Like pits into another dimension.
Whispers spilled from his mouth.
"—it's coming back… it's coming back… it's inside the walls—"
Eryon placed both palms onto the boy's temples.
Manifestation Extraction – Tier 2.
A technique that even trained Whispered Order Priests feared.
He closed his eyes.
The world folded into a swirl of thoughts, hallucinations, fear fragments, and memory shards.
He pushed deeper.
Behind the boy's mind, a door appeared.
Carved with the same Helunsntion sigil.
The sigil from Kael's nightmares.
The sigil from Eryon's visions.
The sigil from the missing villagers' bodies.
He touched the door.
The chamber shook in reality.
Kael tensed. "He's triggering a reaction!"
Navira raised a blade. "Something is waking up."
Eryon didn't pull back.
He pushed further—
And the door exploded open.
Dark smoke spilled out, forming a writhing outline of a creature — not fully shaped, not fully real, but terrifyingly aware.
It spoke without a mouth:
"You shouldn't have touched the forgotten mind."
The boy screamed in both worlds.
Eryon grabbed the smoke-creature's essence with raw willpower and ripped it out of the boy like a parasite being dragged from a vein.
The moment the creature left the boy's consciousness, the entire cavern groaned.
The stone veins pulsed faster.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
The walls trembled like a heartbeat.
The Manifested One had sensed it.
Navira's tone sharpened. "Eryon! Pull back!"
The smoke-creature twisted, slipping from his grasp — but Eryon tightened his will, channeling the Helunsntion Counterwave.
"There is no fear here," Eryon growled.
"There is only memory."
He slammed the creature into the ground.
The smoke shuddered.
Squealed.
Cracked into thousands of shards.
Then dissolved.
The injured boy went limp, breathing normally for the first time.
Eryon staggered back, sweat dripping from his chin. The extraction had cost him more than he admitted. His sight blurred. His ears rang.
Kael caught him. "You okay?"
"No," Eryon whispered truthfully.
"But we don't have time."
Because the walls had stopped trembling.
And the silence that followed was worse.
Navira's eyes widened.
"That thing… the real one… it stopped moving."
Eryon nodded.
"It isn't searching…"
Kael swallowed. "Then what is it doing?"
Eryon looked toward the long, black tunnel behind them.
"It's waiting," he said.
"For us."
---
THE TUNNEL BEGINS TO CHANGE
The darkness behind them thickened, taking shape — almost like the tunnel was closing, rearranging itself, shifting the stone into a single enormous throat.
The air grew heavy.
Wet.
Metallic.
Navira stepped back. "This place is alive."
Kael raised his dagger. "Then we cut our way out."
"No." Eryon lowered his voice. "This isn't a creature."
He looked at the breathing walls.
"This is a mind."
The Helunsntion energy pulsing through the stone wasn't physical.
It was psychological.
A memory given shape.
And someone — or something — had built an entire underground labyrinth inside their own subconscious manifestation.
Kael clenched his fist.
"The Order's doing?"
"No," Eryon said softly.
He pointed at the sigils on the wall, glowing faintly.
"These markings are older. Much older.
Older than the Whispered Order.
Older than the First Manifestation."
Navira murmured, "Then who made them?"
Eryon placed his hand on the wall.
The pulse matched his heartbeat.
He froze.
Kael saw his reaction. "What?"
"This place…"
Eryon swallowed hard.
"It's connected to me."
The air dropped in temperature.
Navira turned sharply.
"How?"
Eryon exhaled shakily.
"Because these memories…"
His voice trembled for the first time.
"They aren't from the boy.
They aren't from Kael.
They aren't from the cult."
He stepped backwards.
"They're mine."
The entire cavern roared as if confirming the truth.
And from the darkness of the tunnel, something finally moved.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Intelligent.
The sound scraped against the stone like claws pulling themselves forward.
Kael drew his weapon.
Navira raised both blades.
Eryon stood frozen, staring into the black void.
The creature that stepped out wore Eryon's face.
Its skin cracked with glowing Helunsntion lines.
Its eyes pitch black.
Its smile too wide.
Too human.
Too familiar.
It whispered:
"You opened the door, Eryon."
And then it lunged.
Self Against Self"**
The creature wearing Eryon's face moved with a fluid grace that felt impossibly wrong — like watching your reflection move before you moved.
Its footsteps echoed across the stone floor, each tap a reminder that this was not a hallucination.
This was a Manifested Self — the rarest, most dangerous form of Helunsntion.
Born not from fear…
Not from trauma…
But from a memory the mind refuses to remember.
Eryon's pulse hammered.
Navira took stance.
Kael raised his dagger.
The creature smiled — Eryon's exact smile — but twisted into something sharper.
"You finally found me."
Eryon whispered, "Back. Both of you."
Navira didn't move.
Kael didn't breathe.
The creature tilted its head.
"Your friends are loyal.
But loyalty won't save them from you."
Eryon clenched his fists.
"Why do you exist?"
The Manifested Self stepped forward.
"I am what you forgot."
Another step.
"What you buried."
Another step.
"What you abandoned."
Another step.
"And what you must face."
Eryon inhaled sharply, activating Mind-Thread Vision.
Threads of thought burst into the world — Navira's vigilance, Kael's instinctive fear, the unconscious boy's fading panic…
And then—
A fourth cluster of threads, tangled, burning white-hot.
Eryon's own.
But he saw something else:
A fifth cluster behind him.
Chaotic. Broken.
Like someone tore memories apart and stitched them back incorrectly.
The creature.
Its mind wasn't a mirror.
It was a fractured version of his psyche.
Kael whispered, "Eryon… what are we fighting?"
Eryon's voice broke.
"…Me."
---
THE FIGHT BEGINS
The creature blurred.
Navira barely blocked the first strike. Metal screeched. She was thrown back, slamming into a cracked statue and rolling to her feet.
Kael lunged with his dagger —
The creature caught his wrist effortlessly
and slammed him into the stone floor.
Eryon's breath caught.
It was too fast.
Too precise.
His powers — but amplified.
A Manifested Self always pushes the mind's limits beyond its owner.
Eryon focused.
Mind-Thread Pulse.
Blue ripples shot from his palms, striking the creature.
It staggered, body flickering like a glitching shadow.
But then it grinned.
"You still hold back."
Eryon's stomach dropped.
The creature used his own technique:
Memory Sever.
A wave of psychic force tore through the air.
Eryon had half a second to react.
He slammed his palms into the floor—
Counterwave Release!
The chamber exploded with mental and physical shockwaves colliding like two storms.
Kael shielded the unconscious boy.
Navira dug her blade into the ground to anchor herself.
The walls cracked.
Stone shattered.
Sigils flickered wildly.
When the dust settled—
Eryon was gone.
"Eryon!" Navira shouted, coughing.
Kael scanned the fractured chamber—
A gaping hole had opened in the floor.
Leading into a deeper black abyss.
From below…
A voice.
A whisper.
"Kael… don't look down."
Kael froze.
He did look down.
And immediately regretted it.
---
ERYON VS. THE SHADOW
Eryon slid down a sloped tunnel of breaking stone until he landed in a cavern lit by a pulsating red glow.
The creature landed opposite him.
They were alone.
The creature's voice echoed inside Eryon's skull rather than his ears.
"You locked away something you were never meant to forget."
Eryon's fists shook.
"What memory?"
The creature tapped its temple.
"You lost it when the first Helunsntion wave hit your village."
Its smile widened.
"You lost more than you think."
A sharp pain stabbed behind Eryon's eyes.
A flash—
A burning house—
A child screaming—
A symbol carved on a door—
Someone pulling him away—
A voice—
"…don't let him see—"
The memory shattered like glass.
Eryon dropped to one knee, gasping.
The creature crouched in front of him, mocking.
"You sealed your own trauma.
You created me.
And now you chase answers you already know."
Eryon snarled. "If you were truly me—"
The creature's eyes turned pitch black.
"I'm what's left of the boy who survived."
It leaned in.
"You're what grew from his fear."
Eryon's heartbeat stopped.
He whispered:
"…No."
The cavern shook.
The creature rose.
"You don't understand your power because you refuse to understand your pain."
It extended its hands.
"Let me remind you."
It unleashed a blast of raw psychic force.
Eryon threw up both arms—
Mind-Thread Shield!
But the force was overwhelming.
He was hurled backwards into stone, his back cracking against the wall.
Blood filled his mouth.
The creature approached slowly.
"You aren't strong enough."
"You aren't ready."
"You aren't complete."
Eryon forced himself to stand.
He spit blood and raised his fists again.
"I don't need to be complete…"
His eyes glowed blue.
"…I just need to finish you."
The creature's smile sharpened.
"Then show me, Eryon."
Its body dissolved into pure black smoke—
"Show me what you truly fear."
And it charged.
---
SURFACE – KAEL AND NAVIRA
Above the cavern, Kael and Navira rushed toward the hole.
Navira peered into the darkness.
"Eryon's fighting it alone."
Kael gritted his teeth.
"No. He won't survive that thing alone."
Navira nodded.
"Then we go down."
She tightened her grip on her blades.
Kael lifted the boy over his shoulder.
Together—
They jumped into the abyss.
Not knowing what waited below.
Not knowing if Eryon would still be alive.
But knowing one thing:
They would not abandon him.
Three Against the Shadow"**
Dust rained from the collapsing ceiling as Kael and Navira slid down the jagged tunnel, boots scraping stone. The deeper they went, the hotter the air grew — thick, metallic, humming with Helunsntion energy.
A crimson glow pulsed below.
Something was bleeding light.
Navira landed first, rolling smoothly onto the cavern floor. Kael jumped down after, still carrying the unconscious boy on his back.
And there—
At the center of the vast underground chamber—
Eryon fought himself.
Two figures clashed like mirrored storms:
One Eryon glowing blue with Mind-Thread power,
the other a dark, fractured mockery, body flickering like corrupted flame.
Blades of thought collided with blades of fear.
Shockwaves rattled the cavern supports.
Every strike echoed like two versions of a destiny colliding.
Kael whispered, stunned—
"…That thing is him."
Navira's eyes narrowed.
"No. That thing is his buried truth."
She drew both blades.
Kael tightened his grip on the dagger.
And they ran.
---
ERYON IS LOSING
The Manifested Self moved with impossible precision — finishing strikes before Eryon even finished blinking. Every feint was a memory Eryon didn't know he had. Every counter was a trauma he hadn't faced.
The creature slammed Eryon into a stone pillar.
Eryon gasped, blood spraying from his lips.
The creature lifted him by the throat.
"You can't win against yourself, Eryon."
Eryon clawed at its arm, feet kicking helplessly.
The creature leaned in.
"Especially when you don't know who you really are."
A blade sliced the creature's arm clean off.
The creature hissed, stumbling back.
Navira landed between them, blades crossed.
"Get away from him."
The severed arm dissolved into black smoke and reformed instantly.
The creature tilted its head.
"You bring help? How worthless."
Kael rushed forward with a roar, stabbing his dagger toward the creature's heart.
It caught the blade between two fingers.
"You think you matter?"
It flicked its wrist —
Kael was thrown across the cavern like a rag doll.
Eryon reached out—
"KAEL!"
Kael crashed into the wall, coughing blood but alive.
Navira lunged at the creature, blades flashing in a frenzy of precision strikes, slicing its torso, neck, shoulders—
But the creature flowed like smoke, dodging, countering, retaliating with brutal efficiency.
It whispered while fighting:
"You think you can protect him?
You can't even protect yourself."
Navira snarled, pushing harder.
The creature slipped behind her, gripping her hair, slamming her face into the stone.
Eryon's scream echoed:
"STOP!"
The creature stepped back, admiring the cracks in the floor.
"You can't stop me."
---
THE MOMENT OF REVELATION
Eryon crawled to his knees, shaking.
He looked at Kael bleeding.
He looked at Navira barely standing.
He looked at the unconscious boy trembling.
And something inside Eryon snapped.
Not from fear.
Not from pain.
From rage.
The creature immediately sensed it —
And smiled.
"Ah. There it is.
The emotion you buried."
Eryon's breath froze.
"What emotion…?"
The creature stepped closer, its smile widening beyond human limits.
"Hate."
Eryon's body trembled violently.
"You don't remember the night your mind broke.
But I do."
The cavern walls rippled like liquid, projecting flashes of broken memory — a burning village, distorted screams, silhouettes dragging Eryon through smoke, a voice shouting:
"Don't let him SEE!"
Eryon's head pounded so hard he thought his skull would split.
"STOP—" he gasped.
But the Manifested Self pressed its forehead against Eryon's.
"Remember it."
The world cracked.
---
ERYON'S LOST MEMORY
Eryon saw himself as a child, crying, coughing from smoke.
And then—
A figure stood over him.
Tall. Black-cloaked. Eyes glowing with Helunsntion.
A Whispered Order symbol burned on its chest.
It smiled and whispered:
"You were supposed to die with the others."
Eryon's heart froze.
His breath vanished.
The creature whispered in sync with the memory:
"You survived…
because someone saved you…
and someone else wanted you dead."
Navira's eyes widened.
Kael's fist clenched.
Eryon shook violently.
"But you erased the memory," the creature whispered.
"You were too young… too afraid.
So you locked it away."
The creature placed a hand on Eryon's chest.
"And when you sealed that truth…
you created me."
Eryon's mind twisted.
His vision blurred red.
His heartbeat roared in his skull.
"I'm your guilt," the creature hissed.
"I'm your fear."
Its eyes burned black.
"I'm the night you survived when everyone else died."
Eryon screamed.
The cavern cracked.
Dust exploded from the ceiling.
The creature lifted Eryon by the throat again.
"You can't kill me, Eryon.
I am you."
---
THE TURNING POINT
Navira stood, blood running down her forehead.
"No," she spat.
"He's not you."
The creature didn't look back.
Kael rose too, limping but glaring with fire.
"He's more than what he survived."
Eryon choked, barely conscious.
The creature's voice was final:
"He is nothing without me."
Kael shouted—
"ERYON! LOOK AT US!"
Eryon forced his eyes open.
Kael pointed a shaking finger at him.
"You have a future because people stand with you — not behind you."
Navira raised her blades again.
"And you're stronger than any nightmare."
Eryon's breath shuddered.
Something filled his chest.
Warm.
Steady.
Like a thread pulling him back together.
The creature's grip loosened.
"No…"
It stepped back, startled.
"What are you—?"
Eryon stood straight, eyes blazing blue with a new intensity.
His voice was low.
"You're wrong."
The creature froze.
Eryon's power surged, shaking the air.
"I'm not what survived."
Blue light wrapped around his arms.
"I'm what continues."
The creature screamed, the first sound of fear it had ever shown.
Eryon's Mind-Thread energy ignited like a flame.
He stepped forward.
"Now…"
His voice thundered.
"…face me."
Awakening of the Forgotten Mind"**
The cavern vibrated like a living heart as Eryon stepped forward.
Blue light blazed from his veins, brighter than it had ever been — not wild, not chaotic, but steady, controlled, alive.
Kael staggered to his feet, stunned.
Navira lowered her blades, whispering:
"…He's awakening."
The Manifested Self recoiled, its shadow-flesh flickering as if something had torn through its stability.
"You… shouldn't have this strength," it hissed.
"You sealed the memory. You sealed me."
Eryon's gaze was ice-cold.
"I'm not sealing anything anymore."
The creature roared, lunging forward in a blur of black smoke and fractured emotion —
but Eryon didn't dodge.
He caught the creature's strike with one hand.
A shockwave exploded outward, cracking the ground beneath them.
Navira shielded her eyes.
Kael covered the unconscious boy.
The creature stared at Eryon in disbelief.
"What—!? That power was MINE!"
Eryon tightened his grip until the creature's arm cracked like glass.
"It was never yours," Eryon said.
"It was never separate from me."
His voice echoed with an authority he had never possessed.
"You're not my fear."
He stepped closer.
"You're not my guilt."
His eyes glowed brighter.
"You're the memory I refused to face."
The creature snarled and dissolved into smoke, reforming behind Eryon — its claws slashing toward his spine—
Eryon vanished.
Reappeared behind it.
Mind-Thread Step — a technique he had never learned.
Now it came to him naturally, as if it had always been part of him.
He whispered beside the creature's ear:
"I'm done running."
And slammed his palm into its chest.
Mind-Thread Pulse — True Form.
Blue lightning spiraled across the creature's body, ripping through every illusion-like tendon of shadow.
The creature screamed.
Not just in pain — but in fear.
"No—no—NO—
Without me, you are nothing!
You are a broken child who lived through death!"
Eryon did not flinch.
"You're wrong."
The cavern filled with deafening blue light.
Kael shielded the boy.
Navira crouched low, blades planted in the ground.
Eryon's voice rang like a verdict:
"I am not what I lost.
I am not what happened that night.
I am what I chose to become."
The creature's body cracked —
shattered —
exploded into a storm of black shards—
But instead of scattering, the shards began swirling around Eryon, orbiting him like fragments of fate.
Kael gasped.
Navira froze.
The creature's voice whispered from the dissolving pieces:
"…If you absorb me…
you will remember everything."
Eryon's heart trembled.
Silence filled the cavern.
Navira spoke softly, "Eryon… you don't have to—"
But Eryon shook his head.
"I do."
He opened his hands.
The black shards dissolved into pure memory-light and surged into his chest.
Eryon screamed — not in pain, but in release—
Images flooded him:
The burning village.
His mother pushing him into a cellar.
A man in Whispered Order robes trying to kill him.
Another man fighting that assassin, dragging Eryon to safety.
The sigil carved on his childhood door.
His own terrified eyes reflected in a broken mirror.
His small trembling hands.
The night of the First Mass Manifestation.
And finally…
His mother's face.
Her voice.
"Eryon… don't forget who you are."
The memories settled.
The pain eased.
The cavern fell silent.
---
THE AFTERMATH
Eryon collapsed.
Kael caught him before he hit the ground.
"Hey—hey! Eryon! Stay with me!"
Eryon opened his eyes slowly.
No blue glow now — just exhaustion…
and clarity.
Navira knelt beside them.
"You… absorbed a Manifested Self," she whispered.
"That shouldn't be possible."
Eryon nodded weakly.
"It shouldn't."
He exhaled shakily.
"But it means something."
Kael looked at him.
"What?"
Eryon stared at his hands — steady, no tremble, no fear.
"It means my power doesn't come from losing control."
He looked up.
"It comes from understanding what I buried."
Navira nodded slowly.
"You faced your past."
Eryon nodded.
"And now… I can face what's coming next."
Kael swallowed. "What is coming?"
Eryon turned toward the tunnel where the creature first appeared.
His voice was measured but heavy:
"The Whispered Order didn't try to kill me by accident.
They knew what I was.
They knew what my mind could become."
He rose shakily, supported by Kael.
"And if they tried once…"
Navira finished the sentence with a cold whisper:
"…they'll try again."
Eryon nodded.
"And next time, they won't send a single assassin."
He glanced at the glowing sigils carved into the cavern walls — the same symbols from his childhood home.
Kael shivered.
"Then what is this place?"
Eryon studied the walls.
"This isn't just a cavern."
He touched the stone.
"This is a memory chamber."
Navira blinked. "Meaning…?"
Eryon looked upward, eyes dark and certain.
"This entire place is built from someone's mind."
Kael stiffened.
"Yours?"
"No."
Eryon's gaze hardened.
"It belongs to the person who saved me that night."
A silent chill spread across the air.
Navira asked the only question left:
"And who was that?"
Eryon whispered:
"I don't know their face.
But I know their power."
He closed his eyes.
A final memory resurfaced — a shadowed figure carrying him through fire, whispering:
"One day… you'll awaken.
And when you do, the world will tremble."
Eryon opened his eyes again.
And the cavern trembled beneath their feet—
As if the memory itself responded to his awakening.