chapter 44: The Mirror of Truth
Amid rampant ruin and fractured twilight, Xiao stood before the entity that emerged from the black gate— *Antigra*.
The falling shadow didn't move like a living creature, but like an echo… as if time itself flowed through it.
And Xiao… wasn't afraid, but alert.
Eye to eye.
Stillness against the storm.
---
*Antigra's First Words*
> *Antigra* (in a deep voice that reverberates like a headache in the bones):
> "What you see before you is not your enemy… but what you would have become had the curse not been broken."
Xiao didn't answer.
But his expression shifted, as if his soul brushed against something long lost.
---
*The Mirrors*
With a gesture from Antigra, mirrors hung in the air, surrounding them—
Each one showing a different version of Xiao:
- Xiao, servant of the overlords.
- Xiao, brother's murderer.
- Xiao, the exile.
- Xiao… a king, but without a heart.
The mirrors shattered one after another, and with every flying shard, Xiao's heart pulsed with greater force.
> *Antigra*: "Your past choices carved this path—but nothing stops you from diverging now."
---
*The Court of Self*
The stone beneath Xiao's feet cracked open, revealing a throne beneath—
Not a throne for ruling, but for judgment.
Three judges emerged from it:
1. *Child Xiao* – representing slaughtered innocence.
2. *Warrior Xiao* – representing burning hatred.
3. *Man Xiao* – representing who he is now.
They delivered a single verdict:
> "You will not survive… unless you kill the truth."
Xiao cried out, "The truth is not my enemy! You're the ones who turned it into a blade!"
Before he could finish his cry, a woman appeared, clothed in flame and frost.
It was… his mother.
But not as he remembered her.
---
*The Untold Truth*
She approached and said:
> "We erred in hiding you from your fate. We erred in loving you as a human… when you were a blood-seal of the gods."
> *Xiao*: "…Mother?"
She smiled:
> "I am what remains of her image within you… nothing more than a memory."
And then, she vanished.
---
Xiao bowed, then rose with strength.
Something new had taken shape upon his face—
Clarity.
He said to Antigra:
> "I will cross the gate—not because I fear my destiny… but because I will shape it with my own hands."
---
*Crossing the Gate*
The earth cracked around them, as though the world itself collapsed at his decision.
But before stepping into the shadows, Xiao touched the wall and said:
> "I do not carry the curse… I'm the one rewriting it."
And stepped inside.
---
*Inside the Gate*
What greeted him was neither hell nor light—
But a desert of bones.
And in its center, one thing alone.
*"The Original Mirror"*… where all worlds begin, and all lies end.
He knelt before it and looked into its eyes—his own…
But he didn't see himself.
He saw… another child.
Crying.
> *Xiao whispered*:
> "You won't cry forever…"
> "I will build you a world… even if this one burns a thousand times."
---
*End of Chapter*
A muffled sound echoed in the distance—not from gods, nor humans…
But the voice of the story itself, being rewritten.
> "In the moment a person truly knows who they are, all chains break… except those of the heart."