CHAPTER 1211: MIRAGE.

The creature mirrored the step—perfectly. Same angle, same posture. It was studying him, adapting to him, learning him.

Lira realized it faster than Yuri did. "It’s copying your movements."

Yuri tensed. "Then let’s see what it does with this."

He sprinted at the creature.

It sprinted back.

Their collision sent a shockwave through the corridor. Lira shielded her face as splinters of broken stone blasted outward. The two silhouettes slammed into each other, grappling in the center of the hall.

Yuri grabbed the creature’s wrist.

The creature grabbed his.

They were identical in speed now. Identical in leverage. Identical in movement.

Perfect mirrors.

That meant only one thing would break the deadlock: something unpredictable.

Lira sprinted in.

The creature reacted instantly—mirroring Yuri’s instinct to defend her—but that reaction created an opening.

Yuri twisted. Hard.

He hooked his foot behind the creature’s leg and shoved all his weight forward. The creature stumbled for the first time since appearing.

"Lira!" Yuri shouted. "Cut the link!"

She didn’t know what link he meant.

But she did know the only point of stability the creature had left: the pulsing knot of shadow at its center.

She went straight for it.

Her blade drove into its chest—not deeply, but enough to disrupt. The knot inside flickered violently. The creature convulsed, its form unraveling in jagged streaks.

The tear reacted instantly.

It pulled.

Hard.

The creature shrieked—its voice splitting between layers, one Yuri’s, one something old and furious. Its body deformed, stretched toward the tear, dragged inch by inch.

Yuri tried to pull back, but the suction caught him too. His boots slid across the floor.

Lira grabbed his arm, anchoring herself on a cracked pillar.

The pull intensified.

The creature’s body elongated, stretched into a thin black thread, still clinging to the floor with its last intact arm. That arm began to crack, shadow-metal bones fracturing.

The tear widened again.

The creature slammed its gaze into Yuri’s.

Last attempt.

Last command.

"Return."

Yuri snarled back, "No."

The creature lost its grip.

It was ripped upward into the tear.

The tear snapped shut behind it—like a door slamming after swallowing a scream.

The corridor fell silent.

Stone dust drifted in the air. Frost covered the floor. Lira’s heartbeat hammered in her ears.

Yuri didn’t move.

He stared at the empty air where the creature had vanished.

His expression was unreadable.

But Lira felt one thing immediately:

This wasn’t over.

Not even close.

The corridor spat Cain out like a stone flung from a sling, hurling him into a floor of black iron that rang on impact. He rolled once, shoulder screaming, ribs grinding, breath punched clean from his lungs. His vision stuttered—white, then red, then a trembling blur of shapes that refused to settle.

He dragged in one breath. Then another.

Alive.

"Cain."

The voice was not human. Not close. Not even trying to pretend.

He pushed himself up on one elbow. The world around him resolved into a vast chamber, roof lost in shadow, walls shaped like ribs curving inward as if he stood inside the carcass of something ancient. Dim firelight bled from braziers suspended by chains.

And high above, in a throne carved from obsidian veins, sat the thing that had dragged him through the tear.

It was tall. Not broad—tall. As if height itself was its identity. Filaments of light wove around a silhouette shaped vaguely like a man but elongated, stretched, sharpened. Wings—six of them—hung behind it like tattered banners. No feathers. Only shimmering plates of fractured brilliance.

A Watcher. Fallen. Wounded.

"You survived the passage," the being said. "Good."

Cain’s jaw tightened. "Say what you want. I’m not kneeling."

"I didn’t bring you here to kneel."

Cain staggered to his feet. "Then why the hell did you bring me at all?"

The throne cracked. A single shard slipped off and crashed to the ground, leaving a smear of luminous dust.

The Watcher leaned forward. "Because the tear is widening. And if it opens fully, everything in your world is going to die screaming."

Cain blinked once. "That feels like something you should’ve mentioned before throwing me into it."

A ripple passed through the chamber—light, then sound, then vibration in his bones.

"I did not throw you," the Watcher said. "I pulled you out."

Cain’s stomach dropped. "Out of what?"

"The jaws of something hungry."

The torches dimmed. The chains holding them groaned as if tugged by invisible hands.

The Watcher rose.

The wings unfurled with a metallic hiss. Not grand. Not beautiful. Wrong. Wrong in a way that made Cain’s skin crawl and spine throb as if something inside him wanted to escape.

"You’ve felt it."

The Watcher’s voice threaded through him like a hook.

"The pressure. The nausea. The pull behind your eyes."

Cain clenched his teeth. "It’s nothing I can’t handle."

"It is your Awakening."

That landed like a boulder.

Cain didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Didn’t show how those words sank into him and twisted.

"No," he said. "I told you before. I’m not one of you."

"You were never meant to be one of us." The Watcher stepped closer, shadows bending around its form. "But you were meant to stand between worlds."

"Like hell I was."

"You cannot refuse purpose."

Cain walked forward anyway. "Watch me."

Another ripple tore through the chamber—this one jagged, violent. The iron floor trembled. Dust rained from the unseen ceiling. One of the chains snapped and a brazier crashed to the ground, spilling fire like blood.

The Watcher stopped. Its head tilted. Listening.

Cain didn’t hear anything.

Until he did.

A scraping. A dragging. A slow, pulsing throb of something enormous and patient beyond the walls.

The Watcher breathed out, a flicker of light rippling along its limbs.

"They found us."

"Who?" Cain asked.

The answer came in the form of a fist-sized dent appearing in the rib-like wall to his right. The iron buckled inward, shrieking. Another impact followed. Then another. The wall began to crack open, glowing veins of heat spidering across the metal.

Cain stepped back. "Tell me that’s not—"

"It is."

The Watcher raised its hand.

"A Devourer."

The wall tore open.