The air was still humming from what Kael had done to the desert when they crossed into the Fractured Realm.

No footsteps echoed here — because there was no ground, not really. Just shards of time floating like islands of glass in an endless void. One moment you were walking on stone; the next, you were standing on a memory of stone.

Jorah stepped cautiously, poking the air with his sword like a man testing soup temperature. "I don't like this place."

Kael smirked. "You don't like any place."

"Yeah, but this one specifically feels like reality's been run through a blender."

Eira scanned the air. Fragments of her reflection hovered around her, each moving a second slower or faster than the real her. "Paradox built this," she said. "He specialized in impossible spaces. Every rule of time was reversed here."

Kael's grin faded slightly. "Perfect. I could use a little chaos."

They moved carefully from one shimmering platform to another. Each one showed flickers of the past — ghostly projections replaying endless loops: Kael arguing with Paradox, Paradox kneeling before Kael, and then betraying him. Every image whispered fragments of dialogue that twisted mid-sentence, words folding in on themselves.

Jorah shivered. "Okay, I take it back. This isn't a realm. It's your therapy session."

"Careful," Kael said lightly, "the last guy who insulted my trauma is technically still falling through 42 timelines."

Eira shot Kael a sidelong glance. "You're different since the desert."

Kael's tone was dry. "Because I remembered dying?"

"Because you're not afraid anymore," she said. "That scares me more."

He didn't answer. His eyes were fixed ahead — on the faint glow at the heart of the realm. The next blade.

But the closer they got, the more wrong everything felt. The fragments started to move, rotating like orbiting moons. Time itself seemed to buckle under their feet. One platform replayed their steps before they took them; another dissolved the instant they landed.

Jorah yelped as his boot sank halfway through a shimmering surface. "Kael! I'm glitching!"

Kael grabbed him by the collar, yanking him free. "Try existing with a little more commitment."

"Try saving me with a little more respect!"

Eira's voice was tight. "Something's watching us."

"Not something," Kael said softly. "Someone."

The air rippled — and the shards rearranged into a massive mosaic, forming a face.

Paradox.

He was spectral, half-transparent, his eyes spinning like clock hands. His smile was wide and wrong. "Ah… my prodigal catastrophe returns."

Kael exhaled sharply. "Paradox."

"You should've stayed dead," Paradox purred. "It would've saved me the trouble of killing you again."

"Cute," Kael said. "Still rehearsing your villain lines in the mirror?"

"I don't need mirrors anymore," Paradox said. "I'm every reflection you've ever cast."

And then he stepped out of the glass.

The world twisted around him. Gravity flipped, colors inverted. Eira staggered; Jorah fell upward into what could only be described as sideways.

Kael's blade flared. "Still dramatic as ever."

Paradox tilted his head. "Says the man who monologues at sunsets."

The first strike shattered the void. Paradox lunged, his own blade splitting into six versions of itself, each cutting through a different second. Kael blocked one — and got sliced by another that hadn't been swung yet.

Eira tried to anchor the space with her magic, pulling time taut like a string, but every spell unraveled before completion. "Kael! He's folding causality!"

"I noticed!" Kael shouted, flipping backward as two versions of Paradox attacked him simultaneously — one in the present, one in the future.

He swung the Chrono Blade and reality buckled. A pulse of golden energy froze one Paradox in midair. The other laughed, stabbing through his own frozen echo to strike Kael in the ribs.

Blood flickered in and out of existence.

"Still predictable," Paradox whispered.

Kael gritted his teeth. "Still insufferable."

He twisted the blade and split his own timeline — creating a duplicate of himself from one second ahead. The two Kaels attacked in unison, blades singing with distortion. Sparks of broken time flew everywhere, freezing and exploding all at once.

Jorah watched, clinging to a floating shard for dear life. "I swear, if they both die, I'm retiring from this timeline!"

The clash tore through the realm, unraveling chunks of space like paper. Eira raised her hands, binding what she could with runes of stasis. "Kael! You'll destroy the realm!"

"That's the idea!" Kael shouted back.

But Paradox just laughed. "You can't destroy what never existed."

He vanished — and then appeared behind Eira.

Before she could react, his blade was at her throat. "Always saving the wrong ones, aren't you, Master?"

Kael froze mid-swing. The Chrono Blade hummed angrily in his grasp.

"Let her go," Kael said, voice quiet but deadly.

Paradox's grin widened. "Or what? You'll repeat your greatest failure? You couldn't save the last one either."

Eira's eyes flicked toward Kael — confusion, then realization. "What does he mean?"

Paradox's voice dropped. "He doesn't tell you about her, does he? The woman he rewound time for. The one he broke the universe trying to save."

Kael's expression darkened. "Enough."

"She died because of you," Paradox hissed. "And every version of you keeps pretending that wasn't your fault."

Kael raised his blade. "Say her name again."

Paradox smiled faintly. "Lira."

The name hit like thunder.

Kael's fury flared — literally. The Chrono Blade ignited, fracturing the realm in a golden storm. Paradox stumbled back as Kael blurred forward, each step rewriting the moment before it happened. The air screamed as Kael struck — again and again — blades clashing in a dozen timelines at once.

This time, he didn't fight to win. He fought to erase.

When it was over, Paradox was on his knees, light leaking from the cracks in his body. His smirk faltered. "You… haven't changed."

Kael looked down, eyes glowing faint gold. "You're right."

He plunged the Chrono Blade into Paradox's chest.

Reality folded inward.

Paradox laughed even as he disintegrated. "You think killing me fixes you? We were never your enemies, Kael. We were your reflections."

His voice shattered into echoes.

Then silence.

Kael stood there, breathing hard. The blade in his hand pulsed once, absorbing the dying energy of Paradox. The realm around them stabilized, fragments knitting together into solid ground once more.

Eira approached cautiously. "Kael… what did he mean? Who was Lira?"

He didn't answer at first. He just stared at the horizon, where fragments of Paradox's realm drifted away like ash.

Finally, he said quietly, "She was the first person I couldn't save. So I rewound time until I ruined everything."

Eira's voice softened. "And now?"

Kael gave a hollow laugh. "Now I'm just cleaning up the mess."

Jorah, ever the mood killer, stepped forward, brushing dust off his coat. "So… Paradox's dead, time's stable again, and I didn't explode. I'd call that a win."

Kael sheathed the blade. "You're welcome."

Jorah snorted. "You almost killed us twice."

Kael smirked. "Statistically, that's an improvement."

Eira sighed. "You're impossible."

Kael started walking toward the new rift forming in the air — a faint portal shimmering with blue light. "No," he said, voice distant. "I'm inevitable."

He stepped through — and vanished.

Eira and Jorah exchanged a look.

"Every time he says something like that," Jorah muttered, "I lose three years of lifespan."

Eira smiled faintly, following him into the portal. "Then we better make them count."

The rift closed behind them.

But deep in the void, the remnants of Paradox stirred — whispering Kael's name, like a prophecy repeating itself.

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