Chapter 30 – Echoes of the Forgotten
The clash of steel and shadow rang through the mirror realm like a dying heartbeat. Glass cracked underfoot with every step, each footfall splitting the reflective world further. For every beast Chris and Grey struck down, two more seemed to emerge, born from the fragmented memories Wale had corrupted.
Chris's arms ached, her staff now pulsing erratically in her grip, absorbing too much of the mirror's ambient energy. Grey bled from several shallow cuts, his breath coming ragged between parries. Yet despite the chaos, their eyes remained locked on one figure.
Wale.
He stood untouched in the center of the storm, a still shadow amid the fury. He didn't command the mirror realm — he was it. Every flicker of light, every twist in gravity, every echo that darted between their ears and whispered lies — all of it bore his essence.
"You can't win here," Wale called out, voice both distant and close. "This place is mine. Every doubt you've ever had, every lie you've ever told yourself — I hold them now."
Grey slashed through another beast, gritting his teeth. "You don't hold us."
Wale smiled faintly. "Then why do you still question yourself, Grey?"
Chris raised her staff, its crystal tip crackling with burning sigils. "Enough riddles. If you have something to say — say it."
The mirror-world bent again, and the battlefield fell away.
Suddenly, Chris and Grey were no longer fighting.
They were standing inside a memory.
A narrow stone corridor stretched ahead, lit only by flickering torchlight. Books lined the walls — ancient, brittle, and half-burned. A library. But not one Chris or Grey recognized.
"This..." Chris said slowly, her voice echoing strangely, "isn't real."
"It was," Wale's voice whispered. "Once."
They turned to see a younger Wale — no older than fifteen — standing at the end of the corridor. He was dressed in rags, his face pale, eyes sunken. But the expression he wore was one they recognized even now.
Emptiness.
Chris took a step forward. "What is this?"
"A memory," Wale said from behind them — the older version now manifesting beside the younger. "One you never saw. One I never told."
The boy-Wale reached out toward a locked door at the corridor's end.
"The Mirrorheart wasn't discovered by scholars," Wale said coldly. "It was buried. Hidden. Sealed behind fear and superstition. I was the first to open its chamber — not out of curiosity, but desperation."
The door opened.
Inside, a cold silver light poured out. Shards of mirror floated midair. At the center, a small sliver of the Mirrorheart pulsed.
Chris and Grey both shielded their eyes.
"It offered truth," Wale said, voice softening. "But truth is not a gift. It's a blade."
The younger version stepped forward and touched the Mirrorheart.
Instantly, the memory shattered like a stone through glass.
Back in the mirror realm, the beasts were gone. The sky above shimmered with distant flashes of memory-light.
Chris lowered her staff. "You could've told us."
"And what would you have done?" Wale replied. "Feared me? Pitied me? I didn't need your pity. I needed power."
Grey stepped forward. "You could've asked for help."
Wale's face darkened. "I did — once. And your Council buried me for it. Literally. I spent years beneath the Cathedral Archives, locked in a prison made of silence. All because I touched something they were too afraid to understand."
Chris's breath caught. "That's where you disappeared... Before the rift wars."
"You thought I died," Wale said. "But I was reborn. In the dark. With only echoes for company."
The mirror floor shimmered — now displaying images from that time. Wale, alone, bleeding. Speaking to himself. Speaking to reflections.
Until the Mirrorheart began speaking back.
Chris's heart trembled, but not with sympathy. With sorrow.
"You still had a choice," she whispered.
"And I made it," Wale snapped. "I chose truth. You chose comfort. You can't win this fight because you still believe it's about saving me."
Grey raised his sword. "We're here to stop you. Nothing else."
Wale's smile returned. Cold. Final.
"Then try."
The world twisted again.
Now, the trio stood atop a vast mirror bridge, suspended in darkness. Below was endless reflection — of everything they'd done, everything they feared, everything they might become.
Wale rose above them, his armor now glowing, fractured pieces of mirror orbiting his shoulders like a crown.
From the mirrored sky, figures began to descend.
Not beasts this time.
Reflections of themselves.
A second Chris stepped forward — eyes burning with unchecked wrath. A second Grey followed, twisted by guilt and pain, his blade dripping with darkness.
"The worst enemy," Wale said, "is the one who knows your heart."
The fight resumed.
But this time, it wasn't brute force. Every blow their mirrored selves landed carried an emotional weight — pain from old regrets, half-healed wounds, spoken words that still echoed in guilt.
Chris fought her reflection in silence, each strike against it forcing her to confront her doubts about Wale — how she might've missed the signs, how she might've helped him once.
Grey fought his reflection with grim fury, deflecting accusations whispered between every clash — how he let the Council hide the truth, how he turned away when Wale first cried out.
Above them, Wale watched. Unmoving.
Unbeatable.
Finally, Chris struck her reflection down, staff crackling with blue fire. Grey followed, cleaving through his echo with a roar.
Both dropped to one knee, panting.
Wale's boots echoed as he stepped forward onto the bridge.
He clapped.
"Well done. You've conquered your doubts."
He leaned closer.
"But that only means you've lost your purpose."
Chris forced herself to stand. "We're not here for purpose. We're here to stop you."
"You still don't understand," Wale said. "You fight to preserve a world built on lies. I fight to burn it down and rebuild it in truth."
Grey raised his sword again, even as his hands trembled. "You think that makes you right?"
Wale's eyes flashed silver. "I don't need to be right. I just need to win."
And in a final burst of mirrored energy, he vanished — leaving behind a shattering world.
The bridge collapsed.
The mirror realm cracked apart.
Chris grabbed Grey's hand as they fell, and with one final burst of power, she opened a gate.
They plunged through it — into darkness.
They landed hard on stone.
Back in the physical world.
The marsh was silent.
But the sky above glowed with silver threads — the Mirrorheart's energy now fully unleashed.
Wale had succeeded.