Chapter 52 – The Weight of the Past

Cain plummeted through the remnants of the abyss, his Titan Core raging, unstable, barely holding itself together. The third chain had shattered, and now the flood of memories, power, and something far worse crashed into him all at once. He had thought he was prepared.

He was wrong.

Flashes of a forgotten life assaulted his mind—a war that stretched across the sky, entire cities reduced to ruin, Titans standing at the brink of annihilation. He saw himself at the center of it all, not as a survivor, not as the struggling warrior he had become, but as something else.

Something that had stood above the rest.

A ruler. A conqueror. A force of nature that had been both revered and feared in equal measure.

The power that surged through his Titan Core now was not new.

It had always been there, buried beneath the chains he had placed upon himself.

Cain hit the ground, but instead of landing on cold stone or the shifting abyss, he found himself in a vast golden wasteland. He pushed himself up, breath ragged, eyes flickering as he took in his surroundings.

This place wasn't real.

It was a memory.

The air was thick with the scent of scorched earth, the sky above burning with remnants of a battle long past. Craters stretched for miles, the remnants of a battlefield that had once held gods.

And in the distance—the remnants of a throne, shattered, half buried in the ruins.

Cain exhaled sharply, his mind still spinning from what he had seen, from the truth he had glimpsed in the moments before the abyss collapsed.

Then, a voice spoke.

"You never wanted to remember this."

Cain turned sharply.

His other self was there again—not the twisted shadow, not the reflection that had taunted him—but the version that had sat upon the throne.

Cain stared at him, his golden flames still flickering wildly around his arms. "Tell me everything."

The ruler version of him studied him for a moment, golden eyes unreadable. "You already know."

Cain clenched his fists. "Then I want to hear it from you."

The ruler exhaled slowly, stepping forward, hands clasped behind his back.

"You were not just a Titan," he said. "You were the first. The strongest. The one who stood at the apex while the rest trembled beneath your feet."

Cain's breath caught in his throat.

"You led the Titans when the world turned against them," his other self continued, his tone even, almost detached. "You fought against those who feared what we were becoming. You burned the sky, shattered mountains, and broke the laws of existence itself just to prove that no one could decide our fate but us."

Cain shook his head, something inside him rejecting the words. "No. That can't be right. If I had been that powerful, why was I cast down? Why was I locked away?"

His counterpart's golden eyes gleamed. "Because you went too far."

Cain's stomach twisted.

"You weren't just feared by our enemies. You were feared by our own kind." His counterpart gestured to the ruined landscape around them. "Look at this place. This is what you did."

Cain turned, taking in the endless destruction, the ruins of what had once been a battlefield, but not just any battlefield.

This had been a city.

The realization hit him like a hammer.

He had destroyed it.

Not in defense. Not in war.

But in rage.

Cain's hands shook as images flooded his mind—a burning city, bodies of Titans and humans alike lying in the wreckage, fire consuming everything, unstoppable, endless.

He had been at the center of it all, standing atop the ruined throne, golden fire raging uncontrolled, his Titan Core pulsing with power beyond comprehension.

The others had begged him to stop.

And he hadn't.

Cain staggered back, his Titan Core faltering, fire sputtering at his fingertips. "No…"

"You became the very thing you swore to destroy," his counterpart said. "And when you realized it, when the weight of what you had done finally sank in—"

Cain's breath was uneven, heart hammering in his chest.

"You chose to lock yourself away," his counterpart finished. "Not because you were defeated. Not because someone took your power."

Cain swallowed hard, his hands clenching into fists.

"But because you knew you couldn't be trusted with it."

The words cut deep, deeper than any wound Cain had ever suffered.

He had always assumed he had been betrayed, that his power had been taken from him against his will. That he had been cast down by those who feared him.

But the truth was worse.

He had done it to himself.

Cain exhaled shakily, his golden flames dimming slightly. "If I did this… if I sealed myself away to stop this from happening again, why am I back?"

His counterpart smiled slightly.

"Because something is coming."

Cain's Titan Core pulsed erratically, reacting to those words.

The ground beneath them shook violently, as if the very memory itself was breaking apart. The sky above split, golden light pouring through, and Cain felt something pulling at him, dragging him back to the present.

His counterpart met his gaze, stepping back toward the throne.

"You broke the third chain," he said simply. "Now there's nothing stopping you from remembering the rest."

Cain reached out, but the memory collapsed.

He was ripped away, his Titan Core screaming as he was thrown back into reality, back into the moment he had left behind.

The ruins vanished.

The battlefield disappeared.

And when Cain opened his eyes, he was no longer standing in the golden wasteland.

He was back in the real world.

The air was thick with power, but not just his own.

Cain turned, and his breath hitched.

The sky above him was burning.

Something was descending.

Something vast.

Something ancient.

Something that had been waiting for this moment.

And Cain knew—**deep in his bones—**that breaking the third chain had not just awakened his past.

It had awakened something else.

The world shook violently, and Cain finally understood.

He had not been the only thing that had been locked away.

And now, it was free.