The thing standing in front of him wasn't made of shadow.
It wasn't made of anything, really.
It looked like a silhouette pulled from memory, hazy at the edges, not smoke but static — as if the room itself was trying to remember him incorrectly.
Elian froze.
The figure had his height. His shape. His stance. But the proportions were wrong, like someone had rebuilt him using guesswork and noise.
Its face was featureless. A blur.
But its presence? Crushing.
He felt a pressure in his lungs, as if this version of him stole the right to breathe.
Shardthread pulsed in his hand.
"What are you?" he asked.
The echo tilted its head. The blur of its face rippled like glass struck by sound.
"You."
The voice wasn't his.
Not exactly.
It was… stretched. Like an echo bouncing off old trauma.
"You're not real."
The echo stepped forward.
Not walking.
Just arriving.
"Neither are you. Not fully."
Elian raised Shardthread.
The blade pulsed — not with power, but uncertainty.
The echo lunged.
No wind. No sound.
Just movement.
Elian ducked, slashing upward. The blade passed through something, but there was no resistance. Just a ripple.
The echo turned. Shifted again.
Now it stood where Elian had stood when he entered the room.
Watching him.
[Cognitive Convergence Detected]
[Anomaly: Identity Fragment]
[Status: Incomplete. Integration Optional.]
"You're a piece of me," Elian whispered. "But not mine."
The system replied.
[Incorrect.]
[It is a version of you that might have been.]
The echo raised its hand.
And this time — Elian recognized the motion.
A trembling gesture. One he'd made when he was twelve, hiding in a burned-out building after escaping a raid. That moment when he almost gave up.
This thing was built from his almosts.
The pieces that nearly broke.
"No," he said, breath shaking. "You don't get to wear that."
The echo twitched.
"I am what you abandoned. What you silenced."
Elian stepped forward, slowly.
"No," he said again. "You're what I outgrew."
He reached out — not with his weapon, but with his hand.
The moment his fingers touched the echo, it convulsed.
Then shattered.
No scream.
No flash.
Just the soft hum of integration.
Like thought being remembered.
[Identity Fragment Reclaimed]
[Trait Unlocked: Soul Kernel – I]
[Effect: Internal resistance against identity corruption increased. Enables self-binding abilities in future.]
Elian dropped to one knee, heart pounding.
Not from fear.
From something else.
Relief.
The chamber grew quiet again.
And for the first time in this realm, Elian felt like something had been returned to him.
Not given.
Not earned.
Returned.