"He was not my reflection.
He was the part of me the world refused to carry.And now, he demands I carry his war."
—Amine Toku
The clouds over the Eastern Sea were torn like paper.
A wound in the sky, bleeding stormlight into the sea.
Amine stood on a floating platform conjured by Seluin—a sphere of hardened memory and mana that hovered just above the boiling ocean.
Below, the waves frothed unnaturally. Magic had curdled the water. Lightning bent sideways. The wind whispered his name.
"A—mi—ne…"
He wasn't alone.
He never would be again.
Earlier That Day: Elyth Seran
Seluin's breath trembled as she chanted in the Old Tongue, scrying the Gate-lines for a path that wouldn't unravel Amine's soul.
Mira stood watch, sword half-drawn. She had seen dragons tear through villages. She had seen corrupted mages whisper madness into stone. But nothing had prepared her for this presence.
A hybrid.
Not born. Not summoned. Forged—out of betrayal, silence, and fire.
"He's not just another enemy," Seluin finally said. "He's the world's punishment."
"And I'm what?" Amine asked. "The apology?"
"No." She looked at him, old pain glimmering in her eyes. "You're the reason it still hopes."
Now: At the Breach Point
He appeared from the sky—not flying, but falling, slowly, as if gravity itself feared to bind him.
The Hybrid.
Black wings that didn't flap—they dripped darkness.
Hair the color of ash.
A cloak woven from what looked like... scales? No, memories. Broken ones.
And his face—half human, half something else. Not dragon. Not demon. Just wrong.
But his eyes...
They were silver.
Just like Amine's.
Amine stepped forward, summoned a faint aura of blue flame around his feet.
"I know what you are," he said.
The Hybrid hovered, silent.
"I know what they did to you," Amine continued. "To your mother. Your father. And I'm—"
"Don't you dare say you're sorry."
His voice shattered the sea beneath them.
Tsunami waves stilled. Thunder cracked wide enough to split the horizon.
"You weren't buried beneath memory," the Hybrid snarled. "You were chosen."
Amine said nothing.
The Hybrid descended slowly, touching the sea as if it were solid.
"I was born in silence.You were born in story.Now let's see which one survives."
The Fight: Memory vs. Fury
The Hybrid moved like hunger given shape.
He didn't cast spells.
He unmade them.
Each strike broke mana in the air, ripping apart Amine's summoning circles before they could take form.
Amine ducked, slid under a blast of violet fire, and pushed forward with a single word:
"Kyres!"
From behind, a golem of volcanic stone erupted from the sea—a titan from his arsenal.
But the Hybrid smiled.
He whispered, "Begone."
And Kyres collapsed into sand.
Amine's breath caught.
He'd summoned gods.
But this was something else.
This was vengeance.
The fight dragged across water, into storm clouds, back down onto a shattered reef.
Amine fought with memory—each spell a fragment of who he was, who he had been.
But the Hybrid fought with absence. With what had been denied to him.
And absence was stronger.
For a moment, Amine faltered—blood on his lips, vision blurred.
The Hybrid hovered over him.
"Do you know what it's like," he whispered, "to remember being born only to be buried alive?"
Amine coughed, smiled faintly. "Do you know what it's like to die and wake up in a world that wants you dead, just for being?"
Their eyes locked.
Then—an explosion of soundless light.
Aftermath: The Spiral of Understanding
Both collapsed onto the floating stones.
Breathing.
Not talking.
Just existing.
The fight had paused—not ended.
The Hybrid looked to the sky.
"They made me into this."
Amine didn't answer.
He looked down at his shaking hands. "I didn't ask for any of this either."
"But here we are."
"Yes."
The Hybrid stood. "The Third Gate will open fully in seven days. I will burn the Tower. I will burn the dragons. I will burn every truth until only silence remains."
He turned.
"I don't need your forgiveness, Amine. Just don't stand in my way."
Amine watched him vanish into the mist.
Then whispered to the wind:
"I will stand where silence becomes memory."