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[System Alert: Remaining Stability – 41%]
[Trait Awakening progressing: Adaptive Reversal Lv. 2]
[Location: Hollow Depths – Core Zone]
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The ash in the air burned hotter than before.
Kael staggered forward, boots crunching over scorched stone, each step a test of will. The Hollow Path was no longer just a trial—it was a crucible. And whatever lay beyond the next sigil gate would either forge him into something more…
Or leave nothing of him behind.
> "This system… it was never designed to protect us. Only to test us."
The flickering blue light of his sigil pulsed erratically, echoing the chaos within. The once-elegant glyphs now spiraled like flames, distorted and hungry. Adaptive Reversal was evolving—twisting in ways he hadn't expected. Sometimes when he blinked, he swore the sigil moved on its own.
He passed the remains of another trial chamber—walls still stained with blood not his own. A shattered crown lay in the rubble, still smoldering. It wasn't real, just another illusion from the Depths—but its message was.
Break your pride, or the Depths will break it for you.
---
A sudden vibration in the ground snapped him back.
From the broken corridor ahead, a shadow rose—no, it slithered. A beast made of burnt bone and corrupted glyphs, its limbs stitched with system failure lines. Its "eyes" were fragments of broken sigils—glowing, unreadable, wrong.
[Encounter: Depthbound Construct – Grade: Unknown]
[System Classification: Rejected Warden]
> "Another warden that was cast aside," Kael muttered.
The construct lunged with a snarl, its jagged limbs tearing through stone like parchment. Kael didn't hesitate.
With a flick of his wrist, his sigil expanded, burning blue lines tracing the air in reverse motion—mirroring the creature's attack before it even landed.
[Adaptive Reversal – Intercepting hostile trajectory...]
The counterstrike came not with a blade, but a backlash of pure system-coded energy. A storm of refracted sigil-light exploded outward, sending the creature skidding into a support column.
> "I'm not like the others you broke," Kael whispered. "I break back."
But the creature wasn't down. Its body spasmed, twisting, as if rebooting. A red core flared deep within its chest.
[System Override: Emergency Evolution Triggered]
Kael gritted his teeth. "Of course you evolve too."
---
The second clash was faster—deadlier. Sparks of corrupted data and pure system light burst with every strike. Kael's breath came in ragged gasps, his movements fueled by instinct and desperation. Adaptive Reversal wasn't enough to overpower it—but it was learning.
> Each block refined. Each dodge remembered. Each mistake corrected mid-battle.
In one final movement, Kael ducked low, slid beneath a sweeping claw, and with a burst of sigil-light from his palm, struck the creature's exposed core.
A pulse. Then silence.
The construct's limbs fell limp. Its form collapsed into crumbling dust, and its core flickered once… then dimmed.
---
[System Notification: Core Absorbed]
[Unique Evolution Path Fragment: Obtained]
[Trait Path Unlocked: Mirrorborn Vanguard (Locked)]
Kael didn't move. Not right away.
The dust settled around him, glowing faintly, like fireflies returning to ash. He glanced down at his hand—the sigil still burned there. Different now. Sharper. More… self-aware.
> "The system is watching me. But now… I'm watching it back."
He turned toward the next gate, flames dancing in the distance.
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To be continued in Chapter 12: "The Mirrorborn Path"
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