The hollow copy stepped out of the river.
Water clung to its skin like a second layer—reflective, too smooth, too perfect, like polished memory given shape. Its face was Manraj's, but empty. Hollow white light pooled behind its eye sockets, pulsing in slow, unnatural rhythm.
It didn't blink.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't exist the way a person existed.
It simply stood.
Waiting.
Zoya instinctively stepped backward, pulling Manraj with her.
Azhar swore, shadows curling upward like bristling fur.
"What the hell is that?"
Manraj's voice came out hoarse, cracked:
"…A root-shell."
The entity turned its triple-layered head toward him.
"YOUR TRUE FORM," it corrected.
Manraj shook his head hard—staggering.
"No. That's not me."
The hollow—Root-Shell—tilted its head to mirror him.
Perfectly.
Zoya felt her stomach twist.
It was like watching a reflection of a reflection—wrong in ways her mind couldn't hold for long.
The entity lifted its crystallized arm.
"YOU WERE MEANT TO BE THIS—
OBEDIENT. PURE. UNBROKEN."
Manraj clenched his jaw, chest pulsing uncontrollably.
"No," he repeated. "I was meant to be alive."
The Root-Shell blinked.
A pure white slit of light opened vertically in its forehead.
Zoya gasped.
"Manraj—your chest—it's responding—!"
Because the same slit opened across the symbols on his chest—lined up perfectly with the one on the Root-Shell.
Azhar froze.
"Oh no.
Zoya—MOVE HIM BACK—NOW—!"
Zoya dragged Manraj backward—
Manraj screamed.
Light tore between them like a tether, connecting his core to the hollow copy's forehead.
The entity hissed in satisfaction.
"HE IS ROOT-LINKED.
THE SHELL WILL DRAIN WHAT YOU REFUSE TO SURRENDER."
The Root-Shell stepped forward—
—and Manraj staggered with it, dragged like a puppet pulled by invisible string.
Zoya grabbed him tightly.
"NO—NO—STAY WITH ME—!"
Manraj's voice broke:
"I—I can't—Zoya—this is how they… bound me—before—this is how I was made—"
His knees buckled.
Azhar snapped into action.
Shadows lashed out in spirals, wrapping around the Root-Shell's wrists, ankles, chest. He gritted his teeth, veins bulging as he dragged it backward.
"THEN I'LL HOLD THE DAMN THING!"
But the Root-Shell didn't resist.
It simply absorbed the shadows.
Azhar choked, collapsing to one knee as the hollow stole his strength through the tether.
"Zoya—cut it—your Silence—use your Silence—!"
Zoya cupped Manraj's face, breath shaking.
"Manraj—look at me—LOOK AT ME—stay with me—"
His eyes rolled back.
"No—no—NO—DON'T YOU DARE—" she screamed—
—and she pressed both palms to his glowing chest-symbols.
Her Silence erupted.
Not a wave— a scream.
It tore down the tether like a blade.
The connection shattered.
Azhar gasped for breath, collapsing.
The Root-Shell froze—head jerking, light flickering like a glitching hologram.
Zoya trembled, holding Manraj upright.
His breathing slowed.
Then steadied.
The entity shrieked—
a sound like ripping metal submerged underwater.
"YOU DEFY THE ROOT-LINK!"
Zoya rose to her feet, fury overtaking fear.
"YES.
AND I'LL DO IT AGAIN."
The entity drove a crystallized arm into the ground, sending shockwaves through the riverbank.
Azhar shielded them with what little shadow he could conjure.
The Root-Shell recovered, standing again—this time forming a blade from its forearm.
It raised the blade toward Manraj.
Toward the one it was meant to replace.
Manraj lifted his head, breath ragged.
"I won't… let you take… my life."
The Root-Shell moved—
silent, fast, perfect.
Blade arcing toward Manraj's chest.
Zoya didn't think.
She moved.
Azhar didn't hesitate.
He blurred forward, shadows exploding off him.
But Manraj—
Manraj stepped in front of them both.
His tri-light flared—
and for the first time—
the Root-Shell faltered mid-strike.
Manraj's voice boomed with something deep inside him:
"You can't become me."
He grabbed the blade bare-handed.
Light blazed across his palm.
Zoya screamed.
Azhar stared in shock.
The Root-Shell trembled—its perfect form glitching violently.
Manraj's voice dropped to a whisper:
"Because I'm not a memory."
His tri-light surged—
and the Root-Shell split down the middle in a single blast of white-amber-silver.
The hollow shattered into water.
The entity roared a scream that shook the river itself.
Zoya grabbed Manraj before he collapsed.
Azhar caught her before she fell with him.
The guardian stepped back—its mask cracking further.
The entity pulled the dark river toward itself, forming weapons.
A spear.
A whip.
A crown.
And in a voice layered with grief and fury:
"YOU DESTROYED YOUR OWN ROOT."
Manraj exhaled, barely conscious.
Zoya held him tighter.
Azhar stepped in front of them.
Their final battle wasn't coming.
It had already started.