Tap. Tap.
I don't know how long I have been walking.
Tap. Tap.
Time didn't exist here. Only motion.
The corridor twisted like a spiraling maze with no ending.
At some point, the stone under my feet turned to glass.
Beneath the glass, a void stretched endlessly.
No stars. No light.
It was just a reflection of me walking above nothing.
But it wasn't quite me.
It was moving differently.
Sometimes faster. Sometimes slower. Sometimes… it just stopped and stared upward, grinning.
I kept walking.
Eventually, the path ended at a chamber shaped like an eye. Wide and long, with no visible ceiling. Just darkness stretching infinitely above.
The Guardian was already there. This time, seated atop a throne carved into the wall itself, bent at an impossible angle.
Its voice was quieter now. Like it had crawled through a tunnel of flesh to reach me.
"Why do you seek the end?"
I froze.
My breath hitched.
That wasn't a small question. That was the kind that stuck a hand in your chest and twisted your very being.
It was the same as asking why I was living.
Why do I seek the end?
I wanted to say power. Or revenge. Or because it's what the story demands. All the usual answers.
The ones that sounded dramatic enough to satisfy whatever thing sat on that throne.
But that wasn't the truth.
Not my truth.
And I couldn't lie here.
I took a breath and closed my eyes.
"Because I need answers," I whispered. "I didn't quite belong in that world. And I don't belong in this one either."
My hand slowly curled into a fist.
"I want to find whoever pulled me out of that alley. Whoever decided I was a piece on their game board. Whoever made me a passenger in their damn plot."
The words spilled from my mouth like venom, slow and precise.
"I need to know why I was chosen. Who wrote the rules. And what happens when I break them."
I looked up at the Guardian, voice steady now.
"That's why I walk. Not for glory. Not for salvation. Just… answers."
The Guardian didn't move.
But the walls did.
The markings all around me, the symbols, the veins, the lines began to writhe like worms under the skin of the world.
And then I felt it.
Burning.
Burning in my whole body.
Like a brand being seared into my soul.
"Arghhh!"
I screamed, dropping down to one knee.
But it wasn't as painful as before.
It wasn't physical.
It was the truth.
Raw, jagged, merciless truth, being carved into me like a second spine.
"Sacrifice accepted," the Guardian announced.
"You have given up the comfort of ignorance."
I felt a third chain snap.
From this point on, any truth I discovered, no matter how ugly, no matter how unbearable, would etch itself into my soul.
I couldn't turn away.
I couldn't forget.
I couldn't lie to myself, even if I wanted to.
And worst of all?
If I ever found out something I wasn't ready for… it wouldn't matter.
It would stay.
Like a parasite.
Forever.
The Guardian's mask split slightly more from the center, a hairline showed deepening into something uglier.
Then the floor beneath me shifted again.
A door opened.
No light.
No sound.
Just a path.
And somewhere beyond it… the fourth vow waited.
But before I stepped through, I looked at my reflection in the glass again.
This time, it wasn't walking.
It was weeping.
And I didn't know why.
The path didn't open so much as it… peeled.
The stone warped like flesh pulled back by invisible hands.
The path ahead narrowed, the ceiling dipping lower with each step. It felt suffocating.
The walls here were no longer etched with symbols.
They were mirrors.
Thousands of them.
Every surface reflected my face. My walk. My hesitation.
Hundreds, no thousands, of fractured fragments all watching me.
Some mimicked perfectly, but others… didn't.
One version lagged half a second behind. Another moved too quickly.
One didn't move at all.
I averted my eyes and kept walking.
But the reflections didn't stop.
They whispered.
Not with voices. With expressions. With emotions, I tried to hide from even myself.
Pride.
Fear.
Loneliness.
Need.
Eventually, the corridor widened into a hollow chamber made entirely of mirrors.
Even the floor. Even the ceiling. I couldn't tell where the space ended and where it began.
In the center stood the Guardian again, but not like before.
This time, it had my face.
Not exactly.
It was… smoother.
Emptier.
Like a wax copy of my worst version, draped in a cloak made of fleeting memories.
Its voice was colder now. Detached and unfeeling.
"What part of yourself will you destroy to walk forward?"
I stared.
"What kind of question is that?" I muttered.
It didn't answer.
It just waited.
What part of myself?
I thought back to the others. The vows I had already made.
Memory. Surrender. Purpose. Each one took something and never gave it back.
But this… this was deeper.
What part of me was I willing to erase?
I looked around the chamber. At the reflections. At the hundred versions of myself I didn't want to admit existed.
The part that craved affection.
The part that wanted to be understood.
That hoped, deep down, that someone would see the real me and stay.
Even if I pushed them away.
Even if I lied.
Even if I was a monster.
"…I know what you want," I said quietly.
My voice trembled. Not with fear. But with the weight of truth.
"I'll destroy it."
My hand touched my chest.
"That part of me… that still wants to be seen. To be understood. To be loved, to be known."
I forced a breath.
"I don't need it. Not anymore."
Silence.
Then the Guardian nodded once, slowly.
"Sacrifice accepted."
The fourth chain snapped.
And then—
Silence took shape.
I looked into the mirror in front of me.
And for the first time in my life…
There was nothing there.
No reflection.
Not faded. Not blurred.
Gone.
I turned and checked the others.
Same thing.
My reflection had vanished.
Not just in the mirror. But in everything.
Water. Polished stone. Even Nyx's eyes, when I summoned him briefly to check, It was all blank.
From now on… no matter how deeply someone loved me…
No matter how close they got…
They would never fully know me.
Not truly.
And I… I had never felt it.
The chamber dimmed.
The mirrors shattered one by one. Each shard vanishing before it could hit the floor.
The path ahead opened, made of jagged glass and black light.
And somewhere beyond it…
The final vow waited.
I didn't look back.
What was the point?
There was nothing left to see.