Kai's Pov:
Kai closed the grimoire with a steady breath, the weight of its warnings pressing heavily on his mind. But hesitation was a luxury he could no longer afford. The pendant at his chest pulsed brighter, responding to the surge of power he was about to unleash.
He stepped into the center of the dim library chamber, circling a faded sigil etched into the floor. Raising his hands, he began the incantation—words weaving through the air like threads of light, ancient and potent.
The room trembled as time itself seemed to ripple and fold around him. Kai felt the familiar pull of the temporal currents—but stronger, sharper, more unpredictable. The energy surged through his veins, electrifying and overwhelming.
For a moment, his vision blurred—past and future flashing like lightning—faces, places, moments folding over each other.
Then the resistance came, fierce and immediate. The blade's shadow lashed out, a dark force clawing at his very soul, trying to drag him under.
Kai gritted his teeth, pushing back with every ounce of his will. Sweat beaded on his brow, breath ragged as the pressure mounted.
Suddenly, a portal shimmered open before him—a swirling vortex of violet and gold light. Through it, he glimpsed a figure—a woman, frail but determined, reaching out.
"Anna!" he shouted, stepping forward into the unknown.
The air cracked as he surged through the portal, the enhanced magic straining but holding steady.
Kai plunged into the depths of time, ready to find her—and face whatever awaited on the other side.
Kai tumbled out of the shimmering portal into a shadowed realm—an eerie wasteland caught between moments, where time felt heavy and fractured. The air was thick with a sickly-sweet scent, and distant whispers curled like smoke around the cracked stones beneath his feet.
Before he could gather his bearings, a chilling presence coalesced in the gloom.
From the shadows stepped a figure—tall, cloaked in darkness, eyes glowing with cold malice. The very air seemed to warp around it, twisting with a corrupt magic that clawed at Kai's soul.
A voice hissed, low and cruel. "You should not have come, time-walker."
Kai tightened his grip on the pendant, magic sparking at his fingertips. "I'm here for Anna. Step aside."
The figure laughed, a sound like breaking glass. "She belongs to the blade now. And so will you—if you dare to interfere."
With a sudden, violent motion, the dark wraith surged forward, tendrils of shadow lashing out like whips.
Kai leapt back, chanting a shield spell, magic flaring bright as the shadows crashed against it.
The battle had begun—and time itself held its breath.
Kai squared his shoulders, eyes blazing with resolve as the shadowy wraith lunged. The tendrils whipped through the air, seeking to ensnare him, but he dodged with nimble precision, chanting spells that crackled with raw energy.
His pendant glowed fiercely, casting pulses of light that pushed back the darkness. Each strike from the wraith was met with a burst of magic—fiery arcs and shimmering shields—that Kai summoned with desperate focus.
Pain stabbed through his side as a tendril grazed him, but he gritted his teeth and pressed on. He knew this battle was a test—both of his strength and the limits of his time-walking magic.
Summoning every ounce of power, Kai unleashed a blast of concentrated light that struck the wraith squarely, forcing it to recoil with a screech that echoed through the void.
Breathing hard, Kai steadied himself, eyes scanning for another opening. The fight was far from over—but he was determined to hold the line until Anna arrived.
The figure smiled cruelly and laughed. "Hahaha, you're a fool to think a strong love bond will win this fight! No—the truth is, it shows how weak you are without your partner. I believe you're the one who sent her here alone in the first place, draining her of confidence. So why not just surrender to your hatred—and let us become one?"
Kai's eyes narrowed, the sting of the words cutting deep—but his spirit refused to break. Clenching his fists, he took a steadying breath and met the shadow's gaze head-on.
"Maybe you're right about one thing," he said, voice low and fierce. "Love can be a weakness. But it's also my greatest strength. I won't let your lies twist it into fear or doubt."
He stepped forward, the pendant glowing brighter against his chest. "I sent her away to protect her, not to abandon her. And if you think hatred will make us one, you've already lost."
With renewed resolve, Kai summoned a surge of magic, ready to strike back against the darkness threatening to consume them both.
Kai's magic flared fiercely as he lunged toward the shadowy figure. The air crackled with energy as light clashed against darkness in a tempest of power. Tendrils of shadow lashed out, but Kai's shields held strong, shimmering like a barrier forged from pure will.
He struck again and again, each blast of magic pushing the creature back, but it retaliated swiftly—swift, vicious strikes that tested every ounce of his strength and skill. Sweat dripped down his brow, heart pounding in rhythm with the furious battle.
The shadow hissed, twisting and contorting, trying to find a weakness in Kai's defenses. But he refused to yield.
With a roar, Kai summoned a brilliant wave of energy that engulfed the shadow, forcing it to shriek in pain and recoil. For a brief moment, the creature faltered, flickering like a dying flame.
Kai pressed the advantage, his hands weaving a complex spell that pulsed with time-bending magic—a desperate gambit to trap the shadow in a temporal loop.
The shadow screamed, caught in the web of magic, its form distorting as time twisted around it.
Panting, Kai steadied himself. The fight was far from over, but he had gained ground—and a sliver of hope.
As Kai pressed his spell, the shadow snarled in rage, its form rippling and darkening like storm clouds gathering.
Suddenly, from the swirling darkness, two flickering figures emerged—distorted and eerie copies, but unmistakably Sarah and Anna. Their eyes glowed with a cold, unnatural light, and their movements were stiff, like puppets controlled by unseen strings.
The shadow's voice echoed cruelly through the void."Let me show you what your precious love truly means."
The copies stepped forward, their faces twisted into haunting mockeries of affection and pain. The Sarah copy whispered, voice hollow and bitter,"You abandoned me, Kai. You left me to suffer."
The Anna copy reached out with trembling hands, eyes full of accusation,"You sent me away. You broke me before I even left."
Kai staggered back, heart clenching at the sight—but he forced himself to stand firm."This isn't them. You're lying."
The shadow laughed, dark and cold."See how easily love can be twisted into doubt and despair? This is the true enemy."
The shadow sent the copies forward, forcing Kai to face not only a physical battle, but the torment of his own fears and guilt made manifest.
The shadow-Anna stepped closer, her voice low and sharp like shattered glass.
"You were never a real lover, Kai." Her eyes, though false, gleamed with something disturbingly close to truth. "You gave up on us the moment the blade started whispering. You chose power over trust, fear over love."
Kai flinched, the words sinking into his chest like daggers.
"You think you sent me away to protect me?" she went on, voice rising. "No—you sent me away because you didn't believe in me. Just like you didn't believe in her."
Beside her, the shadow-Sarah only smiled, silent but watching, her presence a heavy echo of Kai's past.
The real Kai stood frozen for a heartbeat, breath caught in his throat. Was this the blade's doing… or was it his guilt speaking back to him?
"No…" he whispered. "That's not who I am. That's not who we were."
But the shadow-Anna stepped even closer, lifting a hand wreathed in smoke and memory."You don't get to decide what's real, Kai. Not anymore."
The shadow lashed out.
Kai barely raised his shield in time as the blast of corrupted energy struck, sending him skidding back across the cracked earth.
Still, he didn't fall.
His voice, hoarse but unwavering, rose from the dust:"You're not her. And I'll prove it."
Far away—where fractured time barely held shape—Anna gasped, clutching her chest as a sudden, searing ache tore through her.
It wasn't physical.
It was him.
Kai.
His pain flooded her like a tidal wave—grief, guilt, desperation, all bleeding into her soul through the thin silver thread that still bound them. The bond they never severed. The one thing the blade hadn't yet consumed.
Her knees buckled as the force of it hit her, and she pressed a hand to the pendant at her neck. The same one that had opened the portal. It pulsed now—wild and urgent—responding to the raw torment on the other side.
"Kai…" she whispered, eyes burning. "I feel you."
Somewhere, in that tangled battlefield of time and shadow, his magic was cracking under the weight of illusion, the cruel voices meant to break him.
But Anna knew the truth.
Her heart called to his—not with power, but with memory.
She gripped the pendant tighter and closed her eyes.
You are more than your fear… more than what the blade made you believe. Come back to me. Remember who we are.
The words weren't spoken aloud—they vibrated through the bond, through the fragile thread between timelines and souls. Her magic flared around her like a warm breeze, seeking, reaching.
Meanwhile, in the battlefield—
Kai staggered, the shadow-Anna preparing another strike, her words still echoing in his mind—
"You were never a real lover…"
Then—a spark.
A warmth through the storm. Anna.
Her presence bloomed like light through a crack in the dark. Familiar. Grounding.
"Anna?" he whispered, voice trembling.
The shadows recoiled as the bond shimmered between them, growing stronger by the heartbeat.
Kai's spine straightened, the pain still present—but no longer consuming.
She hadn't abandoned him.
He held onto her voice, her truth, her strength. The blade had twisted love into guilt, but Anna was fighting back—with hope.
And now, so would he.
Kai stood taller, breath steadying as Anna's presence wrapped around him like sunlight cutting through storm clouds. The twisted voices of the shadow-Anna and shadow-Sarah still hissed and mocked, circling him like vultures hungry for weakness.
But now, they couldn't reach him.
Not truly.
Her voice—Anna's real voice—echoed through his mind, not as a memory but as a living force:
"You are not your past. You are not your guilt. You are loved—fully, fiercely, freely."
His grip tightened on the pendant glowing at his chest, now synced in rhythm with Anna's magic. Power surged through him—not the raw force of time or battle, but the bond they shared, forged through heartbreak, sacrifice, and trust.
Kai raised his hand, and a brilliant sphere of golden light formed in his palm. His voice rang out clear, resolute:
"You are not real. You are not her."
The light pulsed outward in a blinding wave, hitting the illusions with righteous force. The shadow-Anna and shadow-Sarah screamed—not in pain, but in rage—as their forms began to unravel.
"You think love is weakness?" Kai shouted, eyes locked on the disintegrating figures. "You've never known what it means to fight for someone."
The wave of magic shattered them completely, reducing the cruel mimicry to smoke and ash. The shadow creature at their core shrieked, recoiling, weakened by the collapse of its illusion.
Kai dropped to one knee, breathing hard, still glowing with the energy of their connection.
Through the smoke and the fading darkness, a whisper came—Anna again, through the bond:
"I'm coming for you, Kai. Hold on."
He smiled faintly, rising again. "I'm not going anywhere."
The moment their bond flared with power, Anna felt the world around her shift.
The fragmented dimension she stood in began to bend, time flowing in unnatural currents—some rushing forward like rivers, others looping back on themselves like broken memories. The pendant in her hand pulsed brighter with every step she took, pulling her toward him.
Each footfall felt heavier as if time itself was testing her resolve.
Ghosts of the past flickered beside her—her younger self running through the meadows with Nick, her mother's final warning, Sarah's plea echoing like a haunting wind. At every turn, the path tried to confuse her, trap her in echoes.
But Anna pressed on.
"You don't control me," she whispered into the swirling haze. "Not the blade. Not the past. Not even fate."
The air shimmered before her, revealing a split in the path—one leading into a golden field lit by a false sun, the other into a storm-dark tunnel where thunder cracked like war drums.
Her hand tightened around the pendant, and the bond with Kai hummed in response—guiding her toward the storm.
He's there. Hurt—but alive. And waiting.
She stepped into the chaos.
Time howled around her, slashing through her skin like cold wind, ripping pieces of memory from her as if demanding tribute. But she gritted her teeth, calling on her own magic—born from the bloodline of Anaria, shaped by fire, refined by love.
She whispered his name again."Kai… I'm coming."
And then, just ahead, she saw it—
A flicker of gold. A break in the storm. The thread of their bond stretched thin but unbroken, reaching toward her like a hand in the dark.
She ran, heart pounding, everything in her screaming to move faster.