The Echo Duel – Devourer vs Devourer

The Court of Echoes was unlike anything Raghav had seen.

No walls. No boundaries. Just a sky made of fractals and ground woven from shattered reflections. Every step he took rippled across reality, like he was walking on the memory of a court that once existed… and was never meant to again.

Across from him stood his opponent.

Himself.

But not quite.

This version of Raghav looked sharper. Taller, maybe. His stance was predatory. Calm. Cold. His eyes burned the color of the fifth rune—lit and fully alive.

The Mirror Monk watched from the shadows, silent, still, as if the duel had already begun.

> "So what are you?" Raghav asked. "A test? An illusion?"

His double smiled. It was a thin, dangerous smile.

> "I'm what you could be," the Mirror said. "If you stopped pretending you're different from the rest."

---

The duel began without a serve.

The Shadow Devourer launched forward in a blur, no warning, no formality. The first shot wasn't even a proper swing—it was a slash.

A wave of devouring force flew toward Raghav.

He raised his racket just in time. The impact sent him sliding back ten feet, soles grinding sparks from the mirrored floor.

> He's faster than me. Stronger than me.

Because he was him. Unrestrained. Unburdened.

---

Raghav swung back, focusing, keeping his power coiled tight.

The ball flashed silver, then vanished midair—teleporting.

A trick he'd only barely begun to grasp.

But the Shadow caught it effortlessly, and returned it with a double-helix spin—two balls overlapped into one, separating midflight like DNA unwinding.

Raghav blocked the first.

The second hit him square in the ribs.

He gasped and dropped to one knee.

The pain wasn't just physical. The rune pulsed inside his mind—urging him to let go, to match the darkness with darkness.

He refused.

---

FLASHBACK –

Age 9. His father watching him from the fence of a crumbling court.

> "Control isn't weakness, Raghav. It's how you stop power from devouring what matters."

Back then, he didn't understand.

Now, he did.

---

He stood, breathing ragged.

The mirror version didn't wait.

Next rally: faster, tighter, vicious.

Every shot aimed at a memory.

One slammed the ground—and Raghav saw Zern's screaming face, chained in flame and mist.

Another whipped past his ear—and he heard Mira's voice, warning: "They'll use you if you let them."

Each strike was a scar.

Each return was resistance.

---

By the sixth rally, the entire court had changed.

Now they stood on the first court Raghav ever played on—a dusty lot behind a crumbling school, where rackets were plastic and balls barely bounced.

The Mirror sneered. "This is what holds you back?"

Raghav smiled, despite the blood on his lip.

> "No. This is what built me."

And he served.

This time, the shot was clean. True. Human.

The Shadow hesitated.

And that hesitation was all he needed.

---

The next rally was Raghav's.

Controlled. Intentional. Not devouring—but flowing.

He didn't lash out. He guided.

The fifth rune hummed—not with hunger, but with understanding.

---

Then the court cracked.

Literally.

The reflection beneath them shattered, and the Mirror Devourer lunged.

Not a shot.

A grab.

He roared, eyes glowing, trying to pull the Devourer to him.

> "Give it to me!"

Raghav gripped his racket tighter. The fifth rune lit—

But he refused.

"I'm not your echo," he said. "You're mine."

And he swung.

One last serve.

Point-blank.

The ball struck the shadow's chest—no explosion, no drama.

Just light.

The Shadow shattered into black mist, leaving only a whisper:

> "You think you've won. But the Devourer doesn't forget. It just waits."

---

The Mirror Monk approached, his robes flickering between realities.

"You passed."

"What was I fighting?" Raghav asked, breathless.

"A future. Or a warning," the monk said. "You faced the Devourer… without being devoured."

He paused.

"But it's not done with you."

---

Later, back in the waking world, Raghav sat alone on the edge of a rooftop, overlooking the Rebellion towers.

The fifth rune was dim again. Not gone. Not silent. Just… sleeping.

> "You devoured a future," he thought, "but what did it cost me in the now?"

Behind him, someone approached. Footsteps light. Controlled.

Mira.

She sat beside him without a word.

"You were watching?"

"Every shot," she said. "And one thing's clear."

He looked at her.

"You're not just surviving this place anymore," she said. "You're changing it."

He didn't know if that was good or bad.

But the wind felt different.

So did he.

---