The Battle That Never Ended
The Fractured Victory
Kalen's breath caught in his throat.
The Harbinger stood before him. Alive.
Untouched.
Smiling.
But… that was impossible.
Kalen had felt the shadows consume him. He had seen his essence unravel into nothingness.
Hadn't he?
His heart pounded.
He turned to Varik, to Renna, to Darian—but their faces told him nothing.
They looked at him, their expressions unreadable.
Why aren't they reacting? Why aren't they shocked?
And then, realization struck like a blade to his chest.
They weren't shocked because they had never seen the Harbinger fall.
To them, he had never won.
A Victory That Never Existed
Kalen tried to remember.
The exact moment of victory. The final blow.
But again, there was nothing.
A blank space in his mind.
An empty void where certainty should have been.
It was like someone had taken that moment—that final second of triumph—and ripped it out of existence.
And in its place…
There was only this.
The same battlefield.
The same enemy.
Like time had looped back.
Like he had never fought at all.
Am I trapped?
The thought made his blood run cold.
Am I still inside the Harbinger's game?
But no—he had seen through the illusions before.
Hadn't he?
The shadows at his feet shifted.
He wasn't sure if they were reacting to his emotions—or whispering something he couldn't yet hear.
The Harbinger Speaks
The Harbinger took a step forward.
Slow. Deliberate.
Kalen wanted to move—**to fight, to react—**but his body didn't obey.
The abyss itself felt like it was holding him still.
Then, the Harbinger spoke.
"Tell me, Kalen."
His voice was calm. Too calm.
"Are you sure you ever fought me at all?"
Kalen's breath hitched.
Because for the first time… he wasn't sure anymore.
No. No, that's a trick. That's a lie.
He clenched his fists.
I fought you. I took your power. I saw you fall.
Didn't I?
The Harbinger's smile widened, as if he could hear his thoughts.
"You think you won, but you don't even remember how."
"You stand here, believing the battle is over—but have you ever stopped to ask… when did it actually end?"
"Tell me, Kalen. If I truly fell… why am I still here?"
Kalen staggered back.
Because he didn't have an answer.
The First Crack in Reality
The world around him shuddered.
It was subtle—like a ripple across the surface of water.
Like the fabric of reality itself had twitched.
And suddenly, Kalen wasn't standing on the battlefield anymore.
He was somewhere else.
Somewhere familiar.
A different moment. A different time.
A memory.
A scene from the past.
The moment he had first set foot in the Abyss.
What…?
The battlefield had vanished.
The war. His allies. The Harbinger.
Gone.
Replaced by a younger version of himself—standing at the entrance of the Abyss for the first time.
Is this real?
Or was it just another trick?
What Was the Truth?
A thousand questions swirled in Kalen's mind.
Had he ever fought the Harbinger?
Had he ever escaped the Abyss?
Had everything—the battle, the victory, the power—just been part of the Harbinger's game all along?
Or worse…
Had Kalen become the very thing he fought?
The shadows twisted around him, whispering things he couldn't yet understand.
No. This isn't over.
I will find the truth.
Even if it meant tearing reality apart to do it.
End of Chapter 20