PHASE I
The creature struck first—not with sword, but with a heartbeat.Each blow came with a flicker of broken memory:
A soldier dying before him.A woman screaming from his castle's balcony.A coronation ritual—and a scream of rejection from one of the elders.
Each flash struck his soul like the blades struck his bones.Kalidor blocked the blows, but his spirit wavered.
The faceless creature.The exposed heart.The rhythm... stronger than thought.
Then suddenly, it stopped.
The creature placed its hand upon its own heart, and released a faint tone.
Then pointed to Kalidor's chest—the chest that held no heart.
"You shall not pass… unless you endure pain… to reclaim the flame."
Kalidor understood.
He raised his blade and stabbed it into his own bony foot.There was no pain—yet power surged through him.
He said, in a voice like a dead wind:
"I do not want a heart for me… but a heart that burns for those who died in my name."
In that instant—Everything froze.
The creature went still.
Then burst into a flash of crimson light and dissolved into the air.At the center of the hall, a transparent heart appeared—beating to one rhythm.
His name.
Kalidor approached and placed his hand upon it.
It entered him…And the heartbeat vanished from the hall.
PHASE II
As soon as the heart settled within his chest, Kalidor collapsed to his knees.It wasn't pain that brought him down—It was something deeper.
As if existence itself had decided to drag him back to a moment long lost.
Then—light.
Everything turned white.
And suddenly…
—The throne room, as it was before the ruin.—The banners waved, the walls shone white, and the windows opened to a clear blue sky.—He could hear soldiers. Laughter. Life.—As if nothing had ever been lost.
In the center of that image, stood himself—young, proud.
But staring into a cracked mirror, eyes hiding something unspoken.
Then he heard the voice.It didn't echo.It didn't even sound alive.
It said:
"There is no one left to mourn you… Kalidor."
And the vision ended.
PHASE III
He screamed—But the sound never came out.
It wasn't a scream of voice,but one of soul.
Then, he dropped to his knees.
He whispered only:
"If I bore them once… then let my pain bear me now."
From the darkness behind him,something surged—A flash of light, like marrow turned into flame.
The spinal cord emerged.It glowed white.And it entered his back like a thread of fate.
Kalidor didn't resist.
He accepted it—And then the light faded.
PHASE IV
He awoke… in the same white chamber.The old skeletal form had changed.The stone chair was empty.But now—
He felt whole.The eye.The heart.The hand.The tongue.The lung.And now… the spinal cord.
His body was not complete—But it was now ready to receive the true body when it returned.
From the deep walls around him, he heard the voice again:
"The body shall come…""But the identity still rejects you…"