The forest did not return to normal after the boy—Eiryn's fragment—stepped out of the vortex. The air grew thicker, like invisible liquid. Each breath felt heavy. Riven's blade trembled in his hand, not from fear, but from the distortion around them warping space itself.
The boy stood silently, staring at Eiryn with eyes that weren't just glowing—they were alive with shifting symbols. Like someone had carved an entire language inside his pupils.
Eiryn took a weak step back.
The fragment smiled gently, almost sadly.
"You're afraid of me," he whispered.
Riven moved between them. "You take one step closer, and I'll—"
The boy blinked.
Riven was thrown backward by an unseen force, slamming into a tree so hard that bark exploded. He dropped to one knee, coughing.
Eiryn shouted, "Riven!"
"I… I'm fine," Riven growled, forcing himself up. But the tremble in his hand betrayed his lie.
The boy didn't even look at Riven. His attention was glued to Eiryn alone.
"You think he can protect you?"
The forest trembled at the softness of his voice.
"No one can protect you from yourself."
Eiryn's heartbeat thundered. "Who are you? What do you want?"
The boy tilted his head.
"You already know who I am. As for what I want…"
He raised his right hand.
A line of pure Helunsntion light cut open the air like a blade.
"…I want you to remember."
The light tore into Eiryn's mind.
Suddenly—
He was falling.
Not physically.
Inside his own consciousness.
Dark water swallowed him whole, dragging him through memories he had buried so deep he forgot they existed.
He saw his childhood home, but cracked and distorted as if viewed through broken glass. Hallways stretching for miles. His mother's voice calling his name but reversed, like a tape rewinding. His father's shadow standing in the corner, tall, unmoving, watching.
He saw a boy on the floor drawing symbols—
the same boy he saw earlier.
Except now, Eiryn realized something horrifying:
Those symbols weren't random.
They were Helunsntion marks.
Marks Eiryn had never been taught.
Marks he should have never known.
Marks a child should never have drawn.
The scene shifted.
Eiryn saw himself, age ten, staring at the wall. Whispers crawled like insects inside the room, circling him. His younger self mumbled:
"They said if I draw it… it will come."
"What will come?" Eiryn whispered to the memory, even though he knew it couldn't hear him.
The boy turned.
He looked directly into Eiryn's eyes.
"You."
Eiryn stumbled back.
A new whisper echoed across the memory-space—
the voice of the First Manifested.
"The mind remembers everything. Even the things it hides from itself."
The memory shattered.
Eiryn fell back into the forest, gasping for breath, his head pounding like someone was drilling through his skull.
Riven rushed to him, grabbing his arm. "Eiryn! What happened? Talk to me."
But before Eiryn could answer, the fragment-boy stepped closer.
"You were always meant to become me."
His voice was calm but carried a storm beneath it.
"But something… interrupted the process."
Eiryn forced himself to stand. "Interrupted?"
"Yes."
The boy pointed at Riven.
"Him."
Riven froze.
The boy continued, "He interfered with your awakening. He altered your path. He broke the timeline of your disease. And because of him… you are incomplete."
Eiryn stared at Riven. "Riven… is this true?"
Riven didn't deny it.
He clenched his jaw. "Yes."
The silence cracked something inside Eiryn's chest.
"Why… why would you do that?"
Riven stepped toward him slowly.
"Because the full awakening of the disease would have killed you. You weren't ready. You were too young. Too unstable. I… I saved you."
The boy laughed softly.
"Saved him? You delayed him. You kept him broken. You kept him weak."
Eiryn's breath hitched.
Riven grabbed Eiryn's shoulder. "Listen to me. He's manipulating you. It's what fragments do—they twist truth with lies."
But the boy didn't look like a liar.
He looked like pain carved into a human shape.
He stepped closer, his glow intensifying.
"Eiryn… do you know what you are?"
"I…"
Eiryn swallowed.
"I'm a Manifested. But incomplete."
The boy nodded. "Not incomplete."
He extended his hand.
"Interrupted."
The ground cracked beneath them.
Blue roots burst from the soil, wrapping around trees, pulsing like arteries. The glyph on the broken platform lit with blinding intensity.
The forest whispered around them—
"JOIN."
"BECOME."
"REMEMBER."
The boy's hand trembled.
He was not just a fragment—
he was suffering.
"Eiryn… please…"
His voice cracked.
"I have waited years for you."
Eiryn's heart ached. "Why me?"
The boy's eyes softened.
"Because I am you."
Riven shouted, "EIRYN! DON'T TOUCH HIM!"
The boy turned his head slowly toward Riven, and for the first time, anger rippled across his face.
"You took him from me once."
His voice deepened, echoing like multiple voices overlapping.
"I will not let you take him again."
The forest darkened instantly.
Branches stretched like claws.
Roots rose like serpents.
Thousands of Helunsntion symbols lit up across the ground.
Riven pulled Eiryn back, shielding him. "Stay behind me!"
But the boy raised his hand.
The entire forest bent toward him.
Eiryn felt his brain burning, his vision splitting.
The boy whispered,
"Eiryn… join with me. If we merge, we become whole. If we merge… you will be complete."
Riven shook his head violently. "NO! If you merge, you'll lose yourself! You'll become a Manifested shell—an echo—just like HIM!"
The boy screamed.
The trees caught fire with blue flame.
The sky cracked like glass.
A pillar of dark light shot upward.
Eiryn covered his ears. "STOP! STOP BOTH OF YOU!"
But the boy did not stop.
He stepped forward, trembling, desperate.
"Eiryn… please… I don't want to hurt anyone… I just want to exist."
Eiryn felt tears burning his eyes.
The fragment looked so human.
So broken.
So much like the child Eiryn once was.
But Riven grabbed Eiryn's wrist.
"Eiryn… look at me.
If you take his hand… we lose you."
Eiryn stared at the boy.
The boy stared back.
Both broken.
Both hurting.
Both incomplete.
Eiryn whispered,
"What are you?"
The boy smiled faintly.
"I am the part of you that died."
The world stopped.
Riven's eyes widened.
Eiryn's knees weakened.
The boy extended his hand once more.
"Let me live."
The chapter ends here
on the moment Eiryn must decide
between his past
and his future
between becoming whole
or remaining himself.