Chapter 260: Shattered Illusions

The world around Ochieng blurred, time bending under the weight of the past. The chamber's golden light flickered, swallowed by the encroaching shadows. The whispers in the air thickened, laced with a cruel, taunting familiarity.

Achieng.

She stood before him, her presence impossible yet undeniable. Her dark eyes held his, filled with an unreadable emotion, a whisper of something between sorrow and accusation.

"You were supposed to find me," she repeated, her voice laced with an ache that sank into his bones.

Ochieng's chest tightened.

He had buried this pain. Locked it away where it could never reach him again. But now, she was here. Or at least… something wearing her face.

"Achieng..." His voice was barely above a whisper. "You're—"

"Dead?" She tilted her head, a ghost of a smile playing at her lips. "Then why do I still feel you?"

His fingers curled into fists. This wasn't real. He knew it wasn't real. But his heart betrayed him.

The woman in silver stepped forward, her presence cutting through the suffocating shadows. "Ochieng, this is a trick. Do not fall for it."

Achieng's eyes flickered toward the woman, and for a brief second, something cold passed through them. Then, she smiled again—soft, familiar, devastating.

"She doesn't understand us, Ochieng. She wasn't there."

Ochieng took a step back, his body taut with conflict.

The memories came crashing down, breaking through the barriers he had set up so carefully.

The blood. The betrayal. The promise he never got to keep.

Achieng had been his world once. And now, here she stood—or at least, a version of her crafted by the abyss itself.

"You still remember, don't you?" she asked, stepping closer. "The night we stood under the old willow tree. The way you swore to never leave me."

Ochieng's breath hitched. He did remember. The way her fingers had laced with his. The way she had smiled. The way the stars had burned too brightly that night, as if trying to warn him.

And then...

The way he had lost her.

"Enough!" The woman in silver raised her hand, and a blast of golden energy rippled through the chamber, forcing the shadows to recoil.

Achieng's form flickered, her expression twisting into something unreadable.

"Why do you fight me, Ochieng?" Her voice wavered, as if she were breaking apart. "Don't you love me?"

A sharp pain tore through Ochieng's chest.

Yes. He had loved her. More than anything.

But she was gone.

This—this was not her.

His eyes hardened.

"You're not Achieng."

The illusion shattered.

The air screamed as the false image of Achieng broke apart, the shadows twisting into a monstrous form. What had once been a whisper of the past was now a howling nightmare, its voice distorted and filled with rage.

"You will regret this!"

Ochieng didn't hesitate. With a sharp exhale, he unleashed his power, golden light bursting from his hands, cutting through the darkness with a final, devastating strike.

The shadows shrieked as they were torn apart, the echoes of their deception fading into the void.

Silence.

Then, the chamber stilled, its walls trembling from the aftershock.

Ochieng stood in the center, his chest rising and falling in deep, steady breaths.

A heavy weight settled in his heart.

He had known it wasn't real. He had known.

And yet, it still hurt.

The woman in silver watched him, her gaze unreadable. "You made the right choice."

Ochieng exhaled slowly. "Then why does it feel like I lost her all over again?"