Chapter 46 – The Mirror Cracks

"A shadow cannot be destroyed. Only replaced."

It wasn't just a fight.

It was a confrontation with the self.

The thing wearing Yash's face — the Rakshasa-Vira mirror — had returned.

And this time, it didn't come to speak.

It came to break him.

They fought in the underground chamber of the ruined Kali temple — a place soaked in silence and centuries.

Their movements weren't echoes.

They were synchronized.

Too synchronized.

Every punch Yash threw, his mirror dodged.

Every form he summoned, the mirror matched.

Except one.

Yash closed his eyes.

"Bhairavi's Breath."

The scream inside his mind tore through the temple,

a sound made of grief and rage and unbearable stillness.

The mirror version of Yash staggered — just once.

"Ah," it said. "So you've begun to feel."

"That will be your undoing."

But this time, it didn't attack.

It looked at him — truly looked — as if studying the damage.

"You think the gods love you? They only choose you… because you break well."

"Me? I was forgotten. I broke so far they couldn't see me anymore."

A crack formed across the double's cheek — like glass under pressure.

Its eyes flickered.

It was fracturing.

Yash didn't kill him.

He didn't need to.

The mirror was already collapsing — torn between memory and manipulation.

Before it vanished, it spoke once more:

"Three are coming. Stronger than me. And they won't reflect. They will consume."

Then… gone.

Ash settled across the stone floor.

The temple groaned, then stilled.

Outside, the storm had passed.

But inside Yash — something shifted.

Not peace.

Not clarity.

Just a deeper question:

"How much of me was always like him?"